In a comic run that was published in the mid and late 2010s, writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Stefano Landini took the character of Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, away from his crime roots and put him deep into the Marvel Universe on a mission of revenge.
Revenge is still on the Rosenberg and Landini’s mind, but in a very non-Marvel way, as the duo reunite for a creator-owned comic titled We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us. The all-new, six issue miniseries will kick off in March 2025 from Image Comics with an extra-length first issue.
The story follows a 13-year-old girl named Annalise who’s left all alone in the world after her mad-scientist father is killed by the world’s greatest spy. Now, alongside her dead dad’s robot bodyguard, Annalise has a choice: try to lead a normal life for the first time ever or seek revenge and maybe overthrow the world order in the process.
“There’s only so many great motivating factors in stories and the most powerful ones are love and revenge, so when you can have a story that has both…,” said Rosenberg, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter from Dublin, Ireland, where another one of his creator-owned comics, 4 Kids Walks Into a Bank, is filming as an adaptation starring Liam Neeson and Jack Dylan Grazer. “We wanted to do a pretty brutal revenge story that has a lot of love and compassion and see how those ideas touch each other.”
The impetus for the comic sprang from a failed Marvel book. Rosenberg and Landini were due to reunite on a title for the publisher several years ago but then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The ensuing turmoil at the publisher led the book to fall apart in 2021. “(Stefano) called and said, ‘Why don’t we do our own book?’ And he said I wanted to do something with a robot,” Rosenberg recalled. “Then he sent me a robot design.”
“The story is an adventure that in some ways recalls the James Bond of the ’70s, a Tokusatsu, but which is set in an imaginary world in which humanity coexists with robots, exoskeletons and futuristic weapons,” said Landini in a statement.
Rosenberg spent many years writing for Marvel then moved to DC, where he worked on, among other titles, DC vs. Vampires, a hit cross-genre franchise that will wind down next year. That will coincide with a slate of independent comics he is authoring.
“The itch to create my own stuff became overwhelming,” he said. “I have a bunch of new books coming out next yearm and this one will be the first of that wave.”
We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us No. 1 will be available March 26 in several covers, including ones from Landini, Mattia De Lulis, Josh Hood, Chip Zdarsky, and Martin Simmonds, among other.
Check out a preview of the comic and cover below.
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