The Punisher: A Born Monster who tried to be Human

The world of superheroes has seen many different characters over the course of its history but if there’s someone who challenges the views of most of them, is the antihero called The Punisher.

Created by Gerry Conway in 1974 in the pages of “The Amazing Spider-Man #129”, Frank Castle was introduced as a mercenary who was hunting Spider-Man because he was suspect of the murder of Norman Osborn (which obviously was a mistake). The basics of the character were quickly established, he was an antihero who was decided to end with the criminal world and injustice in the planet.

However, it was pretty clear that Conway really didn’t have a clear idea about where he wanted to take the character. The characterization for Frank during this little story was pretty simplistic which is understandable since Conway’s original plans were about to make an one-note antagonist for Peter Parker to fight, he really wasn’t expecting the character to take-off to the point that he would become a pretty popular figure in the following years.

There are a few traits that contradict what future writers decided to talk about  like how Conway didn't really want to portray The Punisher as a cold-hearted killer and instead depicted him as  a mercenary who had a certain code of honor and believed in justice (which people familiar with recent takes on the character would say that is completely wrong). That being said, there are certain aspects that would actually stick like when Frank mentions that he’s fighting “a lonely war” and “Sometimes I wonder if evil has rubbed off on me” which are surprisingly deep dilemmas for someone who just was supposed to appear in a single issue.

Frank Castle continually appeared along with other Marvel characters over the years, most notably during Frank Miller’s legendary Daredevil run in which the connection and rivalry between both characters was  cemented by depicting Matt Murdock as a firm believer in the justice system and Frank as the complete opposite of that.

Is also necessary to mention that during this time the antihero received his own “nemesis” called “Jigsaw” who was a formerly handsome gangster who got disfigured after an encounter with Frank. I use the term “nemesis” really lightly by the way since, despite that Jigsaw was originally conceived with that role in mind, he never really did anything to actually deserve such status and most of the stories where he appeared were rather forgettable.

The Punisher eventually received the spotlight in a miniseries written by Steven Grant in 1986 which told the story of how Frank finally ended-up prison and pretty much defined the idea that sending The Punisher to prison is always a bad one. As you might imagine putting a known murderer of criminals in a place full of them can only go so well and Frank obviously starts causing chaos until he finally finds the objective he was looking for. The series itself was decent enough and touched interesting themes about the character but at the same time it also tried to sorta redeem him in a way by mentioning how his most violent acts up to date were because of a drug which simply betrays his premise.

The miniseries proved to be popular though and launched an ongoing book written by Mike Baron that lasted 104 issues. Just like many of Baron’s stories, things could be described this way: Interesting ideas, dull execution. What I mean by this is that I love a lot of the concepts that Baron came up with (The Punisher as a social studies professor? How can you not love that?) but sadly his craft never managed to put the series as anything beyond “decent”. It still was an improvement over his other books and his run lasted for a while for that reason, although some might say that it lasted for too long since Baron is also responsible for the infamous story where Frank becomes a black man for reasons that are hard to explain.

The late 80s and early 90s is considered the most popular time for the character not only for how long his main series lasted but also because he also received two spinoffs books titled “The Punisher: War Zone” and “The Punisher: War Journal” and introduced relevant supporting characters like Micro who became The Punisher’s partner for most of this era, not even a character with much better written stories like Daredevil received such treatment but in retrospective it makes sense. This was the boom of violent heroes and if there’s someone who perfectly fits into that definition is The Punisher. Sadly, this didn’t translate into memorable stories but things would change rather quickly… just to change into mediocrity once again.

You see, The Punisher received several one-shots during the early 90s, most of them were unremarkable but there was a particular story that marked an important moment for the character. The story was called “The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe” which pretty much tells you exactly what you can expect from it but the premise is not what is important, what matters is who worked on it: Garth Ennis.

As most comic fans should know, Garth Ennis has worked on some of the most legendary stories in the medium, his whole list of work includes such outstanding titles like Hellblazer, Hitman, Preacher and many more so the idea of working on a character whose defining trait was that he killed criminals was something intriguing, something that could finally be expanded into an actual complex exploration of what made this murderer the kind of person he is.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen right away. “The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe” was Garth Ennis at his most basic. Ennis has a complete dislike for superheroes, he considers the genre, characters and to an extend, the audience, ridiculous and this is clearly seen in this story. The premise was about how superheroes accidently caused the death of Frank’s family which is an interesting idea in and of itself considering how collateral damage wasn’t something really explored during the 90s. However, this mostly serves as an excuse for Ennis to see most of the heroes from the Marvel universe getting killed by The Punisher, that’s the whole plot.

That doesn’t mean that there isn’t any salvageable aspects though since a few important concepts that Ennis would use in the future appear here. For example, Frank was portrayed as a cold and inhuman being who barely showed any emotion aside from rage which was something that not many writers were consistent about. Second, he defined the connection between The Punisher and Daredevil right away and funnily enough, Daredevil has always been one of the few superheroes that Ennis has treated with some sort of respect (Possibly because of Frank Miller’s influential run). Third and most importantly, he showed that at the end killing doesn’t really solve anything and that Frank’s mission is always bound to conclude badly.

These were definitely interesting themes despite of being trapped in a simplistic plot. Such concepts could have been further explored to actually create a quintessential interpretation of the character but sadly, another change was forced for the following years.

The late 90s were not as fond of antiheroes as the early parts of the decade and sales for The Punisher started to decline to the point where all of his series were cancelled. Not all was lost though since Marvel found new success in their recent “Marvel Knights” imprint which consisted of outsourcing some of their characters to other creators (One of the most notable examples being Kevin Smith’s Daredevil run) and thus they decided to give the reigns of The Punisher to Christopher Golden with less than mixed results.

The Punisher: Purgatory was released in 1998, a miniseries that told the story about how Frank finally died just to be hired by angels to kill for them and ultimately redeem himself. Credit where credit is due, this is not a bad idea per se, the notion of The Punisher becoming an angel of vengeance and dealing with supernatural enemies had potential that could have been exploited by any competent writer to create an unique incarnation of the antihero.

That didn’t happen here though. The Punisher: Purgatory is the most maligned era of the character and with good reasons. The major problem was that the writer decided to rewrite Frank’s origin and force the angels into it to the point where the reason why Frank’s family died was because “their guardian angel didn’t save them” which is such an unnecessary change that feels out of place for Frank’s history and most importantly, denigrated the idea about how crime was the reason why his family died.

That's far from the only issue since this story also presented an overly-emotional Frank who tended to be portrayed almost like any normal person who was supposed to be sympathetic due to the loss of his family and again, it also contradicted previous portrayals and went against his own characterization.

On the other hand, this change didn’t last long due that Marvel quickly realized their mistake and hired Garth Ennis once again in 2000. The premise was simple, a “back to basics” direction for The Punisher in which we would basically ignore everything that happened in the 90s, meaning no extreme guns, Micro and supernatural powers. In fact Ennis explained why Frank stopped being an angel in a pretty simple, effective and profound way that gave a complete new insight of the character.

Is worth mentioning that this is basically the first time where Ennis would explore what actually happens inside of Frank’s mind, about how the death of his family might not be the reason why he became the person he is. Such question remained during the rest of Ennis' work on the character and turned out to be a pretty complex insight of a man who was born very different from others.

While pretty good, this story is not perfect. Ennis tended to go for his overly-silly traits quite quickly which in some ways worked against the complexity that he tried to give to the title (Polar bears and goofy villains come to mind). However, it was still the revitalization the character needed after being treated so badly for almost a decade.

Unfortunately, Ennis himself wouldn’t be able to repeat his luck the next time he relaunched the book in 2001 which lasted 37 issues and sadly, didn’t match the quality of the last volume. Ennis became even sillier in this series where he constantly made fun of Marvel’s superheroes (Wolverine’s fans were not happy about the caricaturesque portrayal he received here) and not even Daredevil was safe from being ridiculed (He still was most respectfully portrayed in comparison though). The writer even made other characters he created in the last series who received a satisfying ending very miserable.

There were decent moments since Ennis offered some of his trademarked real life stories that were touching at times but he wrote so many silly tales that made both styles clash really badly and overall, this book lasted for too long telling basically the same joke.

Not all was lost nonetheless, since Ennis himself realized that his cartoony stories were actually disrespectful for the character and in 2003 he delivered was is possibly the most defining story about Frank Castle. “Born” was a 4 issue miniseries where Garth Ennis explored the actual origin of The Punisher, I don’t mean the moment his family died  but the moment where he became the murder machine he’s known today and doomed himself for the rest of his life.

Ennis always had a certain preference for war stories, most of his most famous books contain those elements and this series allowed him to indulge himself. The plot takes place in the Vietnam War, a pretty important time in Frank’s life which was hinted at several times in the past but it was never explored as profoundly as here. Told from the perspective of a simple soldier, we learn about Captain Castle and the terrifying thoughts that occur inside of his head. Ennis plays with the idea that something is wrong with Frank, something is constantly pushing him towards the edge and is something that is not human-related. The story escalates powerfully towards the inevitable end where Frank loses himself and swears to fight an eternal war by paying the ultimate price.

Including war themes, social commentary and with a little hint of supernatural aspects, Ennis’ “Born” quickly became an automatic fan-favorite book which made the audience ask for more and thankfully they didn’t have to wait much.

“Punisher MAX” was released in 2004. An out of continuity series where Garth Ennis decided to create the perfect timeline for the antihero. Unlike regular Marvel books which were constantly updating themselves to reflect current times, the “MAX” imprint had the firm idea of keeping the timeline fixed, that way Frank always fought in the Vietnam War and he aged in real time. In fact the plot tends to focus on how The Punisher is getting older and story after story we start to realize how he’s actually getting weaker and his end might come at any time.

One of the most relevant differences from Ennis’ previous books was that this was a series firmly cemented in reality, meaning no silly ideas, humour or encounter with superheroes. The writer was so obsessed with this serious direction that the only Marvel character Frank had contact with was Nick Fury and considering how similar their backgrounds are, it made sense.

This route worked splendidly since the idea of The Punisher is much better executed when it tries to deal with serious topics like crime, war, racial conflicts, human trafficking among other of the worst acts that this world can present without surreal elements that work against them. Just from the beginning when one of the characters screams “Motherf*cker”, you just know that you’re not reading your usual superhero comic. If “Born” defined Frank Castle’s origin, “MAX” defined the rest of his life.

And that is far from the only excellent work that Ennis would do in this tone. One can’t forget the one-shot stories he released. “Punisher: The End” was a story about the last days of Frank Castle where he has to deal with the heartbreaking ramifications of a inevitable war that caused the apocalypse.  “Punisher: The Cell” was a fantastic and suspenseful tale about how Frank once again ends in prison, if his first miniseries proved that incarcerating The Punisher was a bad idea, then this story showed is the worst thing that you can do. “Punisher: The Tyger” finally revealed Frank’s childhood and how there always was something eerie about him, Ennis had the good sense of emphasizing that this didn’t automatically made him a bad person but still, had the potential to become really dangerous at any second.

Then after this Ennis would return to the usual Marvel continuity to write yet another miniseries that deals with a few characters from his first book in the franchise. It was silly, unremarkable and simply wasn’t worth mentioning.

“Punisher: MAX” eventually received a spiritual sequel written by Jason Aaron in 2010 and tells the unavoidable conclusion of this incarnation of the character. Unlike Ennis though, Aaron implemented other characters from the Marvel universe to serve as antagonists like Kingpin, Bullseye and Elektra which were solidly incorporated into the title and in some cases, uniquely depicted but didn’t contrast well with the ultra-realistic environment that Ennis created. Not to mention that at times it seemed like Aaron was trying too hard to emulate Ennis’ style, particularly the swearing which in Ennis’ writing seems natural while in Aaron’s work just seems forced.

Nonetheless, Aaron still knew how to create a logical development for the cold and inhuman being that Ennis portrayed and went even further at times, all of this leading to a strong finale that just felt appropriate.

While I maintain that the best stories about The Punisher are the ones that are out of continuity, the character still received solid efforts from writers like Greg Rucka and Rick Remender, the latter deserves a honorable mention because it created one of the most unique directions in the title’s history where he actually murders Frank in one of the bloodiest scenes ever depicted in the comics and revives him as a monster appropriately named “FrankenCastle”. He eventually got better of course.

Those are some of the most relevant events that have occurred in the life of one of Marvel’s most famous antiheroes. The Punisher had the luck of having some of the most memorable stories in the comic medium and they have perfectly summarized their personality.

Frank Castle is not a hero, I know I’ve been calling him an “antihero” quite a few times in this column but even that might be selling him short. In some incarnations he has been called a “force of nature” and that might or might not be true but what I’m completely certain is that he’s no human being. Frank Castle was born different, in a way that provoked a doomed fate for him, the death of his family is often considered just an excuse for him to simply be free but at the same time you could see that at least he tried to love them, he tried to be human.

That kind of effort is what differentiates him from a simple monster and turns him into a complex being, one that has an urge to cause harm to others but still has the strength to direct that hate to the people who truly deserve it. His story is never bound to end on a happy note though but at least he won’t ever be stopped by any superhero since there’s only one way to put him down and no self-respected hero is willing to take that choice.

The Punisher is not relatable, he’s no human, he’s not supposed to be but that doesn’t mean he can’t be understandable, just like some of the best characters.