Explaining the place of Jigsaw in The Punisher season two 

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With Netflix\'s Punisher gearing up to start shooting season two imminently, what better time to take a deep dive into the inevitable enemy Frank will be almost certainly be facing off against?

We\'ve already told you how Punisher season one sets Jigsaw up, but where did the character originally come from, and how many times has he appeared in the canon previously?

We\'re very glad you asked – make yourself a cup of tea, get a slice of cake, pull on your black t-shirt with a white skull on the front, and allow us to explain.

Like Frank Castle, Jigsaw first appeared in a Spider-Man comic.

#162, to be exact – which was published in 1976.

A handsome gangster disfigured by The Punisher and hellbent on revenge, Jigsaw (former name: Billy Russo) is one of Frank\'s few recurring villains (it\'s hard to bring characters back when your hero has a penchant for gunning down his enemies).

, a limited prequel series published in 2009, but he\'d made tons of appearances across all of The Punisher\'s titles before that.

(so the character could plausibly turn up in that Netflix series too) as well as

For a character whose only real distinguishing feature is a messed-up face, he sure gets around!

Believe it or not, Jigsaw has appeared in a live-action property before – in Lexi Alexander\'s

Played by Dominic West as an even more demented Joker (with an origin involving underground surgery that plays out extremely similarly to Tim Burton\'s 1989 Batman movie), Jigsaw suited Alexander\'s crazed / insanely violent take on the comics.

We\'re not sure if Netflix will be brave enough to use this blood-splattered movie as an influence for season two, but we\'d sure like to see it.

Jigsaw also almost appeared as the villain in the 2004

movie, and was mooted for the cancelled sequel. Sadly, we got John Travolta instead.

Because of his status as being the closest thing Frank has to a nemesis, Jigsaw has appeared in a whole host of videogames. He was a boss in the very first

game, released on the NES in 1990. He also appeared in the Game Boy adaptation

in 1991. Jigsaw also appeared in another 1990

, a sub-boss on the final level of the game, who Frank has to defeat on his way to face-off against Kingpin.

game inspired by the 2004 movie was released, which was especially interesting - as it may have revealed the planned storyline for that film\'s abandoned sequel.

In the game, Jigsaw\'s origin was significantly altered to fit with the first film\'s plot. Renamed John Saint so he can be the son of the movie\'s villain, Howard Saint (Travolta), Jigsaw is injured in the explosion that ends the first film.

He vows revenge, teams up with a Yakuza gang and uses some stolen Stark tech to basically turn himself into an evil Iron Man. It sounds weirdly like a lost

Collectors can hunt out a 2006 Marvel Legends release, which came in two variants, one in a smart white suit, the other in a messed-up version of Frank\'s costume.

You can also scour eBay for the 2008 Minimates set, which includes a Jigsaw figure, or the 2009 Hasbro Mighty Muggs figure, which came in the Marvel Legends white suit with a silver pistol.

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