Suicide Run is an eleven-part Punisher storyline event that run through all three of the character's booksnote from 1993 to 1994.
Several criminal elements conceive a fake meeting to draw out The Punisher. Knowing that the whole thing is going to be a trap, Frank takes precautions, which leads to a destruction of an entire skyscraper. In the aftermath, weakened Frank smuggles himself out of New York into the small town of Laastekist, and several parties of various moral spectrums soon follow.
The Punisher: Suicide Run provides examples of the following tropes:
- All Asians Know Martial Arts: Lampshaded when Tony Rhee and Bruce Lam, two of the attendees at the trap, use kung-fu on the Punisher.
- An Asskicking Christmas: Some of the dialogue reveals that the whole thing takes place near Christmas.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Jackie Dee, a racketeer and the chief organizer of the crime bosses' meeting engineered to draw out the Punisher. He doesn't survive the experience, outlined within the first couple of books in the story.
- Colliding Criminal Conspiracies: When Frank is arrested and held in the little town of Laastekist, the town finds itself in the middle of a war zone when everyone who's out to get Frank sets their foot in there. This includes the FBI, fellow vigilantes, the VIGIL organization, The Mafia, a biker gang, and various smaller criminals.
- Creepy Mortician: Played for Laughs (somewhat) and in a way that benefits Frank. The coroner who examines "Frank's" body that was recovered from the rubble of Manhattan Tower quickly deduces that he's Faking the Dead due to there being bullet holes in the torso but not in the suit (meaning the suit was placed on the disfigured body after it was dead). And alerts the local FBI agents who'd just taken credit for closing the books on the Punisher case. They ask the coroner if he can delay the announcement, and he counters by offering to have that section of the morgue burn down while he's on vacation in Hawaii. The FBI Agents agree to this proposal, and ask when he's going to Hawaii, to which he replies as soon as they buy his ticket.
- Dead Man's Switch: When the Punisher learns about a trap set up by various criminal elements, he plants explosives on the bottom floor of the skyscraper they're meeting in. When the trap is eventually sprung he tells his enemies that he has his finger on a dead man's switch, and is ready to blow them all away. He then proceeds to start shooting, and there's nothing that the criminals can do to stop him.
- Death Faked for You: The sheriff of Laastekist claims that Castle died in an explosion after he lets him go.
- Foreshadowing: the first person to tell Frank about the mob meeting, an accountant, repeatedly mentions that he doesn't know why his bosses talked about it in front of him. This foreshadows how it's a trap, although to Frank's credit he picks up on this quickly.
- Legacy Character: After Frank is thought to have died in the collapsing skyscraper, several factions try to take up his mantle: The Black Cullens force one of their estranged members to dress like Punisher in order to quell to competition, police officer Lynn Michaels quits the force to become his replacement, a rich jerk tries to turn it into a protection franchise and a loser fanboy decides to start his own war against crime.
- Little "No": Rosalie utters a soft but firm "No" when her men urge her to send assassins after Frank during a rare period where she's trying to avoid making him angry at her. When they persist, she repeats the word much louder and throws a wet sponge at them.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: When Sheriff Bendix discovers Frank hiding in his daughter's playhouse, he mistakes him for a creep and has him roughed up before throwing him into a cell.
- New Old West: The part of the story that takes place on Laastekist plays out like Rio Bravo, resulting in this.
- Percussive Prevention: When the sheriff of Laastekist lets Frank out of his cell to fight the criminals infesting his town, Frank knocks him out so he won't be in the line of fire.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Although Jigsaw is one of the criminals invited to the meeting at the start of the story, once he realizes the whole thing is a trap to draw out the Punisher, he immediately decides to make a quick exit. This is because, having tangled with Frank before, he knows that Frank's going to come in with a plan that'll end with all the crooks dead, guaranteed.
- Searching the Stalls: When a bunch of Mafia mooks hides in a bathroom, Frank is not sure which stall contains what, so he shoots through all of them.
- The Siege: Last part of the story has sheriff Bendix and Frank taking refuge in an abandoned winter lodge against the rest of the bad guys.
- Suddenly Shouting: Rosalie Carbone, when her henchman continues suggesting she send men to Laastekist after she nervously rejected the idea.
- Taking You with Me: After Frank has finished killing nearly all the criminals in the skyscraper trap, the last criminal alive points out to Frank that as they are the only ones left alive, they can both just walk away now. Frank thinks otherwise and lets go of the dead man's switch, bringing the building down.
- Taught by Experience: Jigsaw (along with Rosalie Carbone) decides not to partake in the plan to kill Castle because of past experience, knowing that it'll blow up in the villains' faces.
- We Will Meet Again: Agent Blackwell gloats to Frank that, since he has a code against killing cops and the like, he's never going to be rid of him since he is technically an officer of the law. However, Frank knows that Blackwell is a total bastard, and blows him away.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Jackie Dee asks this exact question when he's outlining his "kill the Punisher" plan to the other crime figures gathered at his tower. Well, the answer to that question, in this case, is—everything.
