The script was written with the intention of remaining true to the spirit of both characters rather than focus only on Archie's humor or the Punisher's action.

Although news outlets and critics initially believed the announcement was a joke, Archie Meets the Punisher received mostly positive responses.

Because of its success, Marvel participated in more crossovers with other publishing companies and Archie began a tradition of meeting unexpected guest stars such as Kiss, Sharknado, and the Predator.

Over the next four decades, Archie Comics Publications rarely published material outside the teen humor genre, and most of its attempts to do so were short-lived and commercially unsuccessful.

[4] By the 1990s, Archie had a strong presence in magazine outlets such as supermarkets, but was struggling in comic specialty shops where the clientele was more interested in adventure stories.

[6][10][11][12] During a lunch in San Diego, top Archie editor Victor Gorelick discussed possibilities with writers Batton Lash and David Scroggy.

[15] Comic Book Resources calls this a legend and claims a meeting between Archie and Punisher was a long-running joke between Gorelick and his friend Tom DeFalco, Marvel's editor-in-chief.

[11] In his introduction to the comic book, Gorelick claims to have pitched a different version of the story to Archie publishers Richard Goldwater and Michael Skilberkleit prior to mentioning the idea to Lash.

[12][note 2] Reed Tucker wrote in his 2017 book Slugfest that it was conceived by Gorelick and Punisher editor Dan Daley.

[6][13] He modeled it on the 1948 film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, which he felt was true to the spirit of both the comedy team and the horror monsters that it featured.

[13][17] The novelty of the unlikely crossover drew attention from general news media, and NPR aired an interview between Weekend Edition host Scott Simon and Lash on Saturday, July 9, 1994 discussing the project.

[6] The artwork was split between regular Archie penciller Stan Goldberg and longtime Marvel artist John Buscema.

Red draws the attention of Hiram's teenage daughter Veronica because his appearance is very similar to her frequent suitor, Archie Andrews.

The Punisher and Microchip continue to secretly monitor Archie, hoping the remaining thugs will make the same mistake and come into the open.

The Punisher uses non-lethal methods to disarm and incapacitate them and clears the misunderstanding with Archie, but Red escapes with Veronica as a hostage.

Red forces Veronica to call her father for ransom, but she takes the opportunity to use code words to let Archie know that she's being held in a specific warehouse.

During the subsequent scuffle, Red accidentally triggers the automatic doors that open the warehouse roof and gets his foot tangled in a rope attached to a large parade balloon.

[20] That sentiment was shared by Hero Illustrated and Comic Book Resources, with the latter going on to call the portrayal of Riverdale as a "bastion of innocence" that needed the Punisher's non-lethal protection "brilliant".

[11][21][22] The combination of artwork by Goldberg and Buscema heightened "the clashing sensibilities and themes" for Pop Matters, concluding its review by calling Archie Meets the Punisher "the best crossover in the history of the comic medium".