A Single Sentence Changed Everything I I Knew About Punisher's Bloody Work

I don’t think anyone can argue that the Punisherisn't a morally complex character. His rage against corruption and crime was always motivated by the death of his family, but also by his innate hunger for violence. He often relishes in the agonizing deaths of his victims, despite hiding his emotions behind a stoic expression. However, one Punisher story suggests Frank’s violent ways aren’t inherent to his nature.

In 2017's Punisher: The Platoon –writtenby Garth Ennis, with art by Goran Parlov – we follow Frank Castle during his first tour in Vietnam. The six-part miniseries serves as a prequel to Garth Ennis’s 2003 Punisher story, Punisher: Born. This series explores Frank Castle’s first exposure to bloodshed, and how those early experiences in Vietnam shaped his modern disturbingly savage nature.

Until this series, it had been assumed that Frank was always a cruel man, simply looking for a reason to release his rage. However, in Punisher: The Platoon #4, Frank admits he never intended to join the Marines.

One Line Of Dialogue Reshaped My Understanding Of The Punisher: “Then I Got Drafted”

Punisher: The Platoon #4–Written By Garth Ennis; Art By Goran Parlov; Color By Jordie Bellaire; Lettering By Rob Steen; Cover Art By Goran Parlov & Giada Marchisio

Punisher admits that he was drafted, not enlisted.

Frank Castle never enlisted in the military; he was drafted. While this may seem small on paper, it has huge implications for the Punisher’s source of rage. I come from a family with a lengthy history of serving in the United States military. I know that some join for the pride and honor of their country. Others, like Frank, were drafted into wars they wouldn’t have fought in otherwise. And a few just joined because they were angry people and needed somewhere they could release their rage for a “good cause.” Until this series, Frank was described as the latter.

In 2022's Punisher #3– by writer Jason Aaron – it is shown that Frank Castle first killed someone when he was ten years old. To acknowledge the depth that Garth Ennis’s story added to the character before Jason Aaron’s series, I am intentionally omitting Aaron’s Punisher series from this article. That said, I acknowledge that Frank Castle’s newer lore contradicts what I had originally taken from Punisher: The Platoon.

However, the revelation that Frank didn’t choose to go to Vietnam completely changes the character’s earliest motivations. Sure, the Punisher could have always had aggressive tendencies, but Punisher: The Platoon paints Frank as yet another victim of the controversially pointless and terrorizing Vietnam War. He, like thousands of other Americans, was forced to comply in a brutal assault against Vietnam that ultimately broke both the American soldiers and the Vietnamese. Frank didn’t go into Vietnam looking for an excuse to kill; he was shattered and reforged into a killer through the terrors of war.

Garth Ennis Is The Punisher's Greatest Writer Because He Understands That Frank Castle Is An American Tragedy

Vietnam Shaped Frank Into A Killer

But why does this matter? The Punisher is still a killer, right? Sure, but that’s not entirely the point. I don’t see Frank’s violence as a product of his own nature, but rather a result of the war. He didn’t ask to be there. He didn’t want to be there. Otherwise, he would have enlisted willingly. But no, Frank wanted to stay in the States with his newly pregnant wife. Instead, he was forced into war to watch his allies die and enact a needless storm of death upon strangers he never knew were “enemies.”

Frank Castle’s vehement hatred of institutional corruption, which he would later weaponize as the Punisher, was born from the draft.

While I don’t want to speak for any veteran’s experience, my family and friends who once served in Vietnam all echo what Frank inevitably feels following Garth’s The Punisher: Born series:disillusioned betrayal. Frank Castle’s vehement hatred of institutional corruption, which he would later weaponize as the Punisher, was born from the draft. In The Punisher: Born, Frank is on his third tour in Vietnam, notably scarred by the horrors around him and the calloused incompetence of his senior officers. By this point, he doesn’t see Vietnam as the enemy, he sees the United States as one.

Castle Became Disillusioned With Authority After The War, A Reflection Of True Veteran Experiences

His Fight Against Corruption Began In Vietnam

Frank Castle is a uniquely American monster. His sense of morality was twisted and broken by rampant corruption within the police, government, and military. He killed for men who never stepped foot on Vietnamese soil. He fought for a shallow cause that served no purpose but to kill men on both sides of the war. He, like many veterans who returned from Vietnam, was cast aside by the U.S. Government and left to fend for himself. The Punisher is more a product of the United States’ failures during the war than he is of his own nature.

Wolverine and Punisher stand next to each other.

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The Frank Castle has gruesomely killed hundreds of people, but no Punisher kill can be more brutal than Wolverine’s slow and painful death.

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I think this detail makes the Punisher a comparatively more tragic character than without it. When Frank later loses his family, he relies on the hardened nerves, military training, and emotionally blunted psyche that the Vietnam War imparted on him. If Frank had never been drafted and chose to stay with his family instead, he probably wouldn’t have been primed to become the Punisher when tragedy later befell. His anger may have already been present, but his disillusionment with authority wouldn’t have been as intense as it was.

To me, the Punisher is as much a victim of institutionalized governmental corruption as his wife and children were. Frank became an unwilling pawn in someone else’s global quest for power. His hatred for “the system” was forged in the blood of his allies. His commitment to a cause was radicalized by the police’s unwillingness to bring justice against his family’s murderers. The Punisherisn’t just violence incarnate, he’s an American tragedy, twisted by a war he was forced to fight.

Punisher: The Platoon #1-6is now available from Marvel Comics.