History Awesome / ThePunisherMAX

[[folder:The Punisher: Born]]

[[/folder]]

** Let's talk about the fact that Frank had the sheer brass balls to threatened to kick start an '''''all out nuclear war with Russia''''', a threat that had everyone from Moscow to Washington shitting themselves in fear. Nick Fury says it best:

* Wilson Fisk tackling Frank down some stairs after dodging a shotgun blast and a shot to the face from Frank.
* The Fight between The Punisher and The Mennonite.

* Bullseye shits out a gun and shoots the Russian mob with it.

* Bullseye gets another as after weeks of trying to get into the mind of Frank Castle, he finally figures out how to "kill him." and tries it while in the middle of fighting Castle. While we can't tell what he says, till the next arc "Frank", whatever he said, [[spoiler: ''it worked.'' For a short while mind you, but the fact it still worked]] earns Bullseye his ultimate CMOA.

[[caption-width-right:350:"''If you think payback is bad.'' '''''You haven't met Frank Castle'''''"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"''If you think payback's bad.'' '''You haven't met Frank Castle'''"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"''If you think payback's bad. You haven't met'' '''Frank Castle'''"]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"''If you think payback's bad. You haven't met'' '''Frank Castle''"]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yes_9647617fa039f646f8567850d45b1a0.jpg]]
[[foldercontrol]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yes_9647617fa039f646f850d45b1a0.jpg]]

!!! '''Man Of Stone'''

!!! '''Widowmaker'''

!!! '''Long Cold Dark'''

!!! '''Valley Forge, Valley Forge'''

!!! '''Kingpin'''

!!! '''Bullseye'''

!!! '''Frank'''

!!! '''Homeless'''

!!! '''The Cell'''

!!! '''Comicbook/FuryMyWarGoneBy'''
* Frank's mysterious second tour in 'Nam, partially featured in this story. Frank and Nick Fury are on an intelligence mission in Laos. They're captured and Frank is recognized and respected for being the sniper who has killed forty people inside of two months. After a day of torture they escape, with Frank killing two guards with his hands tied behind his back. While Fury heads off to complete his end of the mission, Frank hunkers down on a hill with a rifle and shoots at least two dozen incoming enemy soldiers. On Fury's recommendation he made Captain.

!! The Punisher: Born

!!! '''In the Beginning'''

!!! '''Kitchen Irish'''

!!! '''Mother Russia'''

!!! '''Up is down, Black is White'''

!!! '''The Slavers'''

!!!'''Barracuda'''

* After a long series of fights culminating in a ''lot'' of tasing, the Delta Force commander Colonel George Howe (a MorganFreeman {{Expy}}) finally has the Punisher captured, and has recovered the evidence he had on the cabal of generals who launch terrorist attacks for their own ends. He won't allow the armed forces' reputation to be sullied[[note]]which, however, means that he ''won't'' expose the generals[[/note]], but nor can he forget Castle rescuing him in Vietnam[[note]]he genuinely believes that Frank should be stopped, but rather by being tried, convicted, and imprisoned... ''not'' by assassination.[[/note]]. His solution: he leaves Frank with a loaded handgun, then he simply walks outside and up to the corrupt generals gunning for Frank, who he politely informs that Frank's inside... and that he's through with them.

* The Air Cavalry arrive in the aftermath of the assault to find [[spoiler: everybody, the Americans ''and'' the NVA/VC, dead and]] Castle [[spoiler: standing alone, bleeding from several gunfire wounds, holding the remnants of a shattered M-16 that he used to clobber half a dozen Viet Congs that lay dead at his feet]]. It is made all the more awesome/frightening by the smoke behind him forming an absolutely demonic version of his trademark skull.

* The Air Cavalry arrive in the aftermath of the assault to find [[spoiler: everybody dead and]] Castle [[spoiler: standing alone, bleeding from several gunfire wounds, holding the remnants of a shattered M-16 that he used to clobber half a dozen Viet Congs that lay dead at his feet]]. It is made all the more awesome/frightening by the smoke behind him forming an absolutely demonic version of his trademark skull.

* Frank's mysterious second tour in 'Nam, partially featured in this story. Frank and Nick Fury are on an intelligence mission in Laos. They're captured and Frank is recognized and respected for being the sniper who has killed forty people inside of two months. After a day of torture they escape, with Frank killing two guards with his hands tied behind his back. While Fury heads off to complete his end of the mission, Frank hunkers down on a hill with a rifle and shoots at least two dozen incoming enemy soldiers. On Fury's recommendation he made Captain.

* General Zakharov gets one after his MoralEventHorizon. After [[spoiler: forcing the whole population of an Afghan village off a cliff]] nearby Mujahideen fighters hiding in the cliff across him open fire on him. Zakharov stands there calmly as bullets and [=RPGs=] slam around him and his men scatter for cover (earning his RedBaron "Man of Stone"). He then stands triumphant as Hind gunships come and and destroy the, now exposed, Mujahideen fighters and his MoralEventHorizon is revealed to be part of a cruel BatmanGambit.

* General Zakharov gets one after his MoralEventHorizon. After [[spoiler: forcing the whole population of a Afganistani village off a cliff]] nearby Mujahideen fighters hiding in the across cliff open fire on him. Zakharov stands there calmly as bullets and [=RPGs=] slam around him and his men scatter for cover (earning his RedBaron "Man of Stone"). He then stands triumphant as Hind gunships come and and destroy the, now exposed, Mujahideen fighters and his MoralEventHorizon is revealed to be part of a cruel BatmanGambit.

* After cornering the five men he got himself imprisoned to get to, he explains to them why he's after them: [[spoiler: They're the ones who killed his family.]] [[OhCrap They promptly]] [[BringMyBrownPants shit their pants]] and he tells them what exactly is going to happen next: "I'm going to start the killing now."

--> '''The Punisher''': It was in that moment that I realized something. A dull, blurred feeling that I'd had since this whole mess began, all of a sudden crystal clear. It had been a long, ''long'' time since I hated anyone the way I hated them.

--> "Don't come back here." ''*tosses the match*''

* Falling prey to a diminutive Mongolian super-agent who goes on to terrorize a six year old girl, Castle is roused by the memory of his injured daughter; he stands back up, grabs the agent's leg, and swings, battering the walls with the body of said Mongolian, only stopping because he realizes he's scaring the little girl.

* A mobster desecrates the graves of Castle's family, trying to goad him into going on a roaring rampage of revenge and [[RevengeBeforeReason act stupid]]. Castle's response? He attacks every gang ''BESIDES'' the mobster's, and in higher numbers than usual, to force the city to rebury the remains. Only ''then'' does Castle make a move against the mobster.
** "''That...that guy is gonna go fucking berserk''." Frank was behind the guy who said this. He gets a little CMOA for ''just'' staring at the screen rather than kill everybody there in a murderous rage.

* Castle, [[BadassGrandpa now pushing sixty]], [[CurbStompBattle absolutely trounces]] a team of eight highly skilled Delta Force operatives half his age. As a bonus, he does this ''[[ThouShaltNotKill with non-lethal tactics]]'' to boot.[[note]]The idea was to hunt him with men that they knew he wouldn't kill... but the generals didn't count on was that the Delta Force operatives were also under orders not to kill Frank either, but rather to take him alive. Nevertheless, that engagement was an unmitigated Frank: 1, Delta: 0.[[/note]]
** The following day, the soldiers are dejected and describe the feelings he has as being like those of a civilian against a special forces hardcase such as they. They ''do'' bring down the Punisher, but then their commander orders that Frank be tased ''repeatedly'' before he's satisfied that Frank is incapacitated enough to be taken away.
* After a long series of fights, culminating in a ''lot'' of tasing, the Delta Force commander Colonel George Howe (a MorganFreeman {{Expy}}) finally has the Punisher captured, and recovered the evidence he had on the cabal of generals who launch terrorist attacks for their own ends. He won't allow the armed forces' reputation to be sullied[[note]]which, however, means that he ''won't'' expose the generals[[/note]], but nor can he forget Castle rescuing him in Vietnam[[note]]he genuinely believes that Frank should be stopped, but rather by being tried, convicted, and imprisoned... ''not'' by assassination. [[/note]]His solution: he leaves Frank with a loaded handgun, then he simply walks outside and up to the corrupt generals gunning for Frank, who he politely informs that Frank's inside... and that he's through with them.
** It turns out that Colonel Howe's credo is why he recovered the evidence: Frank trusted him enough to willingly give it up to Howe and to decide its fate.)
** At one point before the finale, when Howe informs the generals that he has Castle but not ''yet'' the evidence one of the generals blows up at Howe, calling Howe the N-word. Howe ''[[TranquilFury calmly]]'' asks the general whether he'd care to say that again, while turning the phone enough that if the general did so, ''all'' of the Delta Force operatives would hear it. The general instead gave a ''mea culpa'', whether or not he realized what was happening on the other end of the line, but the damage to his image in the Howe's eyes was already done.

** To clarify, Pop Nesbitt hated all of the Irish gangs when he was in power, and constantly called them all cunts to their faces. Before he dies, he supposedly decides that he wants to make peace between the gangs and leaves them pieces of a code that will lead to the remainder of his fortune, hoping that they'd set aside their differences. After failed attempts to wipe each other out, the survivors do join forces and find it - only to find a block of C4, wired to go off three seconds after the container has opened, with the word "cunts" stenciled into it.

* Everything.

* Depending on your political views, Castle's refusal of Microchip's offer to be recruited into the War on Terror is either this or massively out of character.
** Some think it's supposed to be interpreted more as a neutral "works for everyone" moment with Frank realizing (A) this would derail his war on crime indefinitely, and (B) he isn't the kind of person to spend months or years hunting one specific low-level goon since they all presumably have different identities and passports. Essentially, the time spent chasing people who are being chased by the rest of the first world ANYWAY would take away from his locating and punishing bad guys who flirted with the law and got away every time. It would be a very poor usage of his skills and resources, and it would allow both more innocents to be hurt and more crime to be committed than if he wasn't there. It's the same reason you always see Superman return to Metropolis (or Spider-Man to New York): when they leave, villains in that part of town take it as a sign they have free reign to do whatever they want.
*** I read it as having more to do with the idea of being ''assigned'' targets and working for ''anyone''. Ennis's Punisher doesn't really trust or believe in anyone in the human race. Remember, in the same arc Frank flashes back to nearly killing a neighbor who cheated on and dumped his wife; later, we see that he's got nothing but disdain for working with wide-eyed idealists like Jen Cooke *or* the police *or* the government. Frank would kill Bin Laden, but he'd do it for his own mission and on his own terms, not as someone else's assignment or agenda. That said, Ennis clearly has an axe to grind with both the government and corporations, who usually become StrawmanPolitical in anything he writes. Really, Ennis hates large and powerful institutions in general: he doesn't like major political parties (see the Limbaugh and Garofalo TakeThat caricatures in a late arc of Preacher), and often goes after organized religion. He also tends to disparage most of the officer corps in any military: individual officers like Nick Fury or the guy from his last MAX arc who were once grunts can be good guys, but not the folks who become top brass. Cynicism about any big concentration of power is a running theme in all his work.
--->'''The Punisher''': ''Fighting for the people who run the world gets you stabbed in the back. You fight the wars they start and feed. You kill the monsters they create. You die from handling depleted uranium while they get rich on oil. I'm not going back to war so Colt can sell another million M-16's. I had enough of that in Vietnam.''
--->'''Microchip''': ''That's not the way it is...!''
--->'''The Punisher''': ''There are 60,000 guys in D.C. who'd say different. Except they can't say anything because they're nothing but names on a black wall.''
*** Also a case of AluminumChristmasTrees: In ''Comicbook/FuryMyWarGoneBy'', Ennis points out that high-ranking military officials ''were'' involved in smuggling drugs both in Vietnam(heroin) and in Nicaragua(cocaine). Frank doesn't go with Micro's offer because he knows that there's no way in hell a government agency like the CIA has the resources to fund such an operation ''cleanly''. He knew the operation was funded by dirty money and would only serve to keep the Afghan heroin trade going indefinitely (basically only killing Bin Laden to keep up appearances). And, hey, it's been done before.
*** Exactly. Frank didn't trust them so he didn't work for them. One or two arcs later Nick Fury pops up and Frank almost immediately agrees to help him. Because he trusts Fury and knows he isn't going to do anything against Frank's morals (even if he is lying).