Jigsaw (Marvel Comics)

• 1. Introduction

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  Jigsaw made his first full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #162, published in November 1976. Writer Len Wein and artist Ross Andru created the character for Marvel Comics. The name fits the man. His face was shattered into pieces, and the pieces never quite fit back together. Over the decades he has fought Spider-Man and returned again and again to bother Daredevil. His truest obsession, though, is the Punisher. Who was he before the scars? Why does a man with no superpowers keep coming back after every defeat? And how did a comic-book gangster end up on television, in feature films, in video games and on toy shelves?

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• 2. The Beaut

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  William Russo was ten years old when his abusive father threw him out and left him to survive as an orphan. He came from a poor Italian-American family, and nothing in that childhood pointed toward glamour.

  Yet Russo grew up to work as a hitman for New York's Italian criminal underworld. His good looks won him the nickname Billy the Beaut, and he was known as the Beaut before his disfigurement.

  At home, his wife Susan and their son Henry lived with a very different man. Russo beat them both. On one occasion he threatened to shoot Susan unless Henry drowned the kittens of the boy's pet cat.

  A botched gangland execution set off the massacre of the Castle family, and a man named Frank Costa wanted every trace of it buried. He hired Russo to cover up the deaths by killing all of the family's friends and loved ones. Russo finished every target on his list except one. Frank Castle survived a bomb that Russo had planted for him.

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• 3. A Face Like a Puzzle

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  Castle, now the vigilante called the Punisher, tracked Russo to a nightclub run by the Maggia. He gunned down every one of Russo's men. Russo himself he knocked through a pane of glass and left alive, so that he could carry a warning to organized crime. The glass cut his face into a patchwork of scars that resembled the pieces of a puzzle.

  Russo took the name Jigsaw and used his hideous appearance as a weapon. His first plan was to frame the Punisher for murder. Spider-Man and Nightcrawler wrecked it. Spider-Man witnessed one of the killings, and one of the victims turned out to be an old friend of Nightcrawler's. Jigsaw would fight Spider-Man again later.

  Jigsaw has no superhuman powers at all. During his time in prison he built up his body until his strength matched the Punisher's. He knows street-fighting techniques and a range of weapons and criminal methods, and he carries handguns as needed. Some of his outfits hide a special exo-skeleton.

  Before the disfigurement, Russo was a highly charismatic leader who also knew how to organize criminals. After the accident, the charisma was gone and only the organizing skill remained. That skill would pull him into one scheme after another.

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• 4. Vendetta Against Castle

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  The first Punisher miniseries shows Jigsaw trying to turn the Punisher into a menace. He arranged for the vigilante to be drugged, which made him erratic and ready to attack anyone he took for a criminal, even someone who had merely dropped litter. Jigsaw also tried to kill him while the Punisher sat in jail. The Punisher beat him and later stopped him from escaping under cover of a prison riot.

  A group called the Trust later brainwashed Jigsaw into joining an assassination squad modeled on the Punisher. Meeting Castle again brought his memory back. He turned on the Punisher and lost once more.

  The Rev broke Jigsaw out of Ryker's Island and put him in charge of importing a Venezuelan drug that causes sterility. It was meant for testing on the people of New York City. The Punisher destroyed the shipment. Jigsaw set a street gang on him and fled to Venezuela with the Rev.

  There the Rev's powers healed Jigsaw's face. The Punisher shot him anyway, and the Rev, helped by a figure named Belasco, brought him back to life. A later battle wrecked the restored face, and Jigsaw was left for dead in the jungle. He recovered and tried to sneak back into the United States. He was arrested and returned to Ryker's Island. When the Punisher was captured and sent to the same prison, Jigsaw tried to kill him. The Punisher survived and escaped.

  Authorities later sentenced the Punisher to death for countless murders. Jigsaw put on a stylized copy of the Punisher's costume and went on a homicidal rampage against everyone connected to the execution. Then the Punisher turned out to be alive. An overjoyed Jigsaw tried to kill him, but the Punisher overpowered him with help from Daredevil.

  The estate of the Geraci crime family came under siege when Jigsaw learned that the Punisher had been forced to become their new underboss. Jigsaw partnered with various syndicates and abducted the Geracis. The Punisher rescued them and shot Jigsaw in the head. Jigsaw's next venture would put him in the path of Daredevil and Black Widow.

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• 5. Across the Marvel Underworld

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  Daredevil and Black Widow broke up the gunrunning operation Jigsaw set up next. He tried to negotiate with Daredevil, who had declared himself the new Kingpin, and the talks failed. Seeking revenge, Jigsaw broke into Daredevil's home, where Black Widow subdued him.

  He was sent to the Raft, an island prison for supervillains. When Electro attacked the facility, Jigsaw escaped and broke Spider-Man's arm along the way. He tried to rob a bank and was beaten by Tigra. That humiliation pushed him into an alliance with the Hood, a self-proclaimed super-villain Kingpin. Together they filmed themselves threatening and torturing Tigra. Later, during the Hood's attack on the Sanctum Sanctorum, Jigsaw tried to snipe Jessica Jones and Danielle Cage. Spider-Man foiled him.

  In the pages of Punisher: War Journal, Jigsaw returned to his old vendetta. He wore a copy of the Punisher costume with its colors reversed. He arranged the brainwashing of a young auxiliary police officer in the NYPD, exploiting the young man's pathological hero-worship. With his new girlfriend, a psychiatrist, he molded the officer into a new version of the Punisher.

  The fight ended on the Brooklyn Bridge, where the Punisher once again spared Jigsaw's life. S.H.I.E.L.D. took him into custody. His girlfriend was really an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Lynn Michaels. While Jigsaw was imprisoned, the man he and she had brainwashed seemingly shot him dead. Jigsaw survived, and H.A.M.M.E.R. moved him to a "reprogramming asylum." He then rejoined the Hood's gang in Secret Invasion to help fend off the invading Skrulls. In Dark Reign he joined it again to attack the New Avengers.

  After the Secret Empire event, Nick Fury captured the Punisher and handed him to Baron Zemo, who wanted to punish the vigilante for targeting Hydra. Jigsaw went with Zemo to Bagalia as one of his operatives. Zemo's plan to execute Frank Castle in public went wrong, and Jigsaw was sent to recapture him. Commanding Zemo's Hydra agents, Jigsaw killed Sister Mercy, a nun whom Frank had befriended in Bagalia's prison.

  Both Zemo and Castle escaped. Jigsaw then turned up in New York as a disguised member of Zemo's Thunderbolts. He clashed with the veteran Moonstone while the team hid out. When the Thunderbolts fought the Punisher's squad of allied heroes, Jigsaw stepped in to save Zemo. That let the team escape with a hostage.

  Some time after the Punisher became leader of the Hand, Jigsaw and other criminals joined forces to kill him. During an explosion, Jigsaw attacked, determined to finish the job. The Punisher gained the upper hand and stabbed Jigsaw in the throat with a sword. Jigsaw died there. Other universes would write him different fates.

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• 6. The Paper Trail

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  The Amazing Spider-Man #188 brought Jigsaw back after his debut. He then appeared in The Punisher #1 and in issues #4-5 of the same series. Issues #35-40 of the second Punisher series carry the Rev storyline, and Gregario appears with him in issues #55-56.

  A cameo in The Punisher War Journal #61 came before the story of his origin. That story fills issues #3-4 of the prequel miniseries The Punisher: Year One. He bedeviled the Punisher again in issues #2-4 and #9-10 of the third volume.

  The 2000s kept him busy. Daredevil Vol. 2, #61-64 pitted him against Daredevil. New Avengers #1-3, #35, #46, #50 and #57 used him, as did The New Avengers Annual #2. In the same period he starred in Punisher War Journal Vol. 2, #11, #18-20 and #22-23. The five-issue miniseries Punisher: In the Blood followed, and he made a cameo in the Thunderbolts Vol. 2 Annual.

  Marvel's reference books profiled him too. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #6 and its Master Edition #10 gave him entries. So did Marvel Encyclopedia #4 and #5, New Avengers Most Wanted Files #1 and Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #6. Beyond the main continuity, other writers took the name and rebuilt the man.

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• 7. Parallel Jigsaws

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  In Punisher 2099, a character based on Jigsaw first appears as Multi-Fractor. He is a cyborg and a leading member of a crime syndicate called Cyber-Nostra. The Punisher kills him. Multi-Fractor then returns as Jigsaw 2099, a being in the manner of Frankenstein's monster, built from machinery and body parts taken from animals.

  Two Batman/Punisher crossover books feature Jigsaw. In the first, he allies with the Joker against the Punisher and Batman, who in that book is Jean-Paul Valley. In the sequel, a plastic surgeon repairs Jigsaw's face. One of the Punisher's grenades destroys it again.

  In the Amalgam Universe, Jigsaw merges with the DC Comics character Cheetah to become Pelt-Man. This is Billy Minerva, cursed by an ancient ritual to resemble a big cat. Furious over his condition, he mutilates the faces of beautiful people.

  In Earth X, Jigsaw dies and is sent to the Realm of the Dead. Captain Marvel and Thanos destroy Death and create Paradise, and Jigsaw realizes he is dead. He refuses to go to Paradise. He and the Jackal torment the Punisher instead, until Captain America banishes them to a desolate region of the Realm of the Dead.

  In the Marvel MAX story "Girls in White Dresses," Jigsaw goes by The Heavy and runs drug operations in Mexico. He kidnaps women from border towns to work as disposable slave labor in meth labs. The Punisher destroys the Mexican operation and frees the captives. In their fight, the Punisher knocks Jigsaw out a window onto the boxcar of a passing train, and his fate is left ambiguous.

  Jesse Schedeen of IGN judged Jigsaw's role in that story generic and anticlimactic. He called the character's inclusion in the MAX imprint obtrusive and gratuitous. In his words, Jigsaw was "planted in this story mainly to appeal to fans of the recent movie."

  In Punisher Noir, Jigsaw is Al Capone's top assassin. He, Barracuda and Russian are hired to kill Frank Castelione, a grocer who had defied the mob boss Dutch Schultz. Years later, Frank's son, the Punisher, tries to ambush Jigsaw. He is shot unconscious and loses his skull-faced mask. Jigsaw takes him to his lair and carves a skull into his chest. When Jigsaw names the man who helped him and Barracuda murder Frank, the Punisher breaks free and garrotes Jigsaw. Outside comics, Jigsaw's face and fate changed again on screen.

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• 8. Screen, Console and Shelf

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  Ben Barnes plays Billy Russo in the 2017 series The Punisher. This Russo is Frank Castle's former best friend, who served beside him in the Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance as a Scout Sniper. After leaving the Marines, he founded a private military company called Anvil. In the first season he works with his former commanding officer, William Rawlins, to eliminate Castle and anyone who could link them to their illegal affairs in Kandahar. He also pursues a relationship with DHS agent Dinah Madani. She works out his crimes. Castle kills Rawlins and disfigures Russo's face, and Russo is hospitalized.

  In the second season, Russo wears a mask with a shattered face and seeks psychiatric help from Dr. Krista Dumont for his scars and memory loss. After meeting Castle again and failing at a bank robbery, he tries to flee with Dumont. Madani finds them and gets Dumont to safety. Russo hides in the basement of Curtis Hoyle's workplace. Curtis alerts Castle, who finds and kills Russo.

  Dominic West plays the character in Punisher: War Zone as a young crime boss named Billy "The Beaut" Russoti. The Punisher attacks a mob dinner, and Russoti flees to his recycling plant. The Punisher chases him there, and he falls into a glass crusher. A plastic surgeon cannot restore his face, because the muscles, tendons, skin and bone structure are damaged beyond repair. Renaming himself Jigsaw, Russoti frees his brother James Russoti from an asylum. They kidnap the Punisher's allies and unite several New York gangs to lure him into a trap. The Punisher kills them all, and throws Russoti into a fire, where he burns to death.

  Michael France's early drafts of the 2004 film The Punisher included Jigsaw. Thomas Jane, who played the Punisher, later revealed that Jigsaw was going to be the main antagonist in the sequel. That sequel was never produced.

  Video games gave him many roles. He is a boss in the 1990 NES game The Punisher and the final boss of The Punisher: The Ultimate Payback!. He also appears in the 1990 PC game, as a sub-boss in the 1993 The Punisher, and as a playable character in The Punisher: No Mercy. The 2004 film tie-in game, with Darryl Kurylo voicing the role, invents a different Jigsaw. That one is John Saint, son of the crime lord Howard Saint, who was disfigured after the Punisher attacked him and left him for dead. He takes the name Jigsaw, takes over his dead father's business and vows revenge.

  In December 2006, a Jigsaw figure shipped in a two-pack from the second wave of the Marvel Legends Face-Off series. It was paired with the Punisher and came in two versions, one in a business suit and one in a Punisher costume. In 2008, a Jigsaw based on Punisher: War Zone appeared in a Minimates box set with the Punisher and Loony Bin Jim. Hasbro released a Mighty Muggs Jigsaw in 2009. In 2022, Hasbro made a Walgreens exclusive Jigsaw for its Marvel Legends line.

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