History Awesome / ThePunisherMAX

** There's five men in the cell; an enforcer, twin brothers who served as hitmen, a mob lieutenant and TheDon himself who once ruled New York. Special mention goes to why the lieutenant is in prison - he was once second in command of the mob, enjoyed all the comforts, luxuries and women the position offered... only for his long-suffering wife to finally set him up to the feds, [[TheDogBitsBack while she fled with the money he laundered]].

* Nick Fury's initial recruitment of Frank Castle proves he's the biggest MagnificentBastard in the series: To lure out Frank, who's in hiding, Fury releases a notorious criminal way ahead of parole. [[BatmanGambit Then he just sits back and waits for Frank to come punish said criminal.]]

* Frank taking on the MagnificentBastard Russian general who he fought in "Mother Russia," who brings a Hind gunship, two squads of Russian Black Sea Marines, and a fuel-air bomb in an attempt to take the Punisher down. Frank not only kills the Hind and the Marines, but brings down the Russian general's helicopter by faking a claymore mine injury and concealing ''a razor shiv'' inside of it, letting himself be captured, and working the razor blade out of his wound without even flinching.'

** There's five men in the cell; an enforcer, twin brothers who served as hitmen, a mob lieutenant and TheDon himself who once ruled New York. Special mention goes to why the lieutenant is in prison - he was once second in command of the mob, enjoyed all the comforts, luxuries and women the position offered... only for his long-suffering wife to finally set him up to the feds, [[MagnificentBitch while she fled with the money he laundered]].

* Big Jesus' entire plan to get revenge against The Kingpin for the murder and rape of his brother and his brother's girlfriend, all by getting into Solitary Confinement by stabbing a guard in his crotch, hiding a blade under his ''fingernail'' and inciting a prison riot, just so he could break out ''Frank-fucking-Castle'' himself and hope to use him to strike back at Kingpin. It worked... Till Frank snapped his neck.

* Frank's badass credentials are established in the very first pages of ''The Punisher MAX'', which has him wiping out scores upon scores of mooks gathered to celebrate a mafia boss's hundredth birthday. Castle begins by walking in through the front door, shooting the don through the head, then walking right back out. By the time the mooks have broken out of their shock and are coming after him for payback, Castle has already set up his trusted M-60 and let loose.

* Having surrendered himself to the law, Frank is shipped to Riker's where the guards gleefully points out the most dangerous in the joint and tells him that's the guy they're sending after him. Frank breaks one guard's nose, steals the other guard's nightstick and beats his head in, then tells the guards to send him the ''next'' most dangerous man.

** Upon finding that he'd been used by a group of Army and Air Force Generals and made complicit to a terrorist plot, the general behind the plan tries to explain - [[https://ctmworks.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/cm_f1-5.jpeg but Colonel Fury is more interested in taking off his belt and literally whipping said general with it]]. The other generals are too terrified to call for help or intervene.

[[folder:''Up is down, Black is White'']]

* While not as notable as Pittsy, his partner Ink is also pretty formidable. He kills a whole squad of Special Forces by himself [[spoiler:by sneaking into the elevator with a tool kit and tampering with the elevator cables, causing the Special Forces group to fall to their gruesome deaths.]]

---> '''Nicky Cavella:''' [[spoiler: First guy he killed was with a pen.]]
---> '''Larry Barrucci:''' [[spoiler: Stabbed him inna neck?]]
---> '''Nicky Cavella:''' [[spoiler: Stabbed him inna eye. Just kept pushin' 'till brain an' beyond.]]

* Napper French gets payback on Maginty by giving him [[PayEvilUntoEvil a firsthand demonstration of how one pulls a Houdini]]. [[spoiler:He doesn't get to finish the job before Maginty's mooks arrive, but he still costs Maginty a hand and scares him half to death.]]

*** And the ''reason'' Castle was to be arrested? After all the little girl had been through, [[spoiler: Frank wouldn't let the medics stick a needle in her because he promised her she wouldn't be hurt again.]]

** Hell, he swung the Mongolian by his leg so much, [[spoiler: it ended up ''twisting his leg off!'']]
* [[OneManArmy Frank]] fights off ''the Russian Army'', then proceeds to ''launch a nuclear missile'' into the heart of Russia itself. The kicker? [[spoiler:The missile itself is a dud with Frank Castle himself as the payload - he proceeds to HALO jump from the missile and walk to the extraction point.]]

** This quote was said soon after he'd [[spoiler: disemboweled a man and wrapped his intestines around a tree, then threw another woman out a building]] and was followed by Frank [[spoiler: capturing & binding the leader to a chair and setting him on fire]]. They're all HumanTraffickers and {{Sex Slave}}rs though, so it's ''really'' hard to muster any pity for them.

* There's this house, see? It's owned by a sex slave ring and has both a bunch of Eastern European criminals (that Castle wants to kill) and a bunch of Eastern European prostitutes (that Castle wants to save). The usual tactics[[note]]which assume no hostages[[/note]] are ''not'' an viable option this time around. So what does he do? Dump a whole lot of drugs in a cooking pot through a window while the cook isn't looking. Later, when they're all passed out, he breaks in and shoots almost all of the criminals as they lie[[note]]plus one who didn't eat up[[/note]]. He keeps the ringleader alive only so he can [[spoiler:cut him open, pulls his guts out and drape them over a nearby branch.]]

* [[spoiler:Frank blowing up the yacht filled with crooked executives allowing the nearby sharks to feast on the survivors.]] Made especially satisfying by the fact that one of the executives was egotistically boasting to Frank via headset about how he couldn't do anything to them because they we're a "corporate institution", not a tangible enemy that Frank could harm. Of course Castle quickly dispels that thought.

* Frank taking on the MagnificentBastard Russian general who he fought in "Mother Russia," who brings [[spoiler: a Hind gunship, two squads of Russian Black Sea Marines, and a fuel-air bomb]] in an attempt to take the Punisher down. [[spoiler: Frank not only kills the Hind and the Marines, but brings down the Russian general's helicopter by faking a claymore mine injury and concealing ''a razor shiv'' inside of it, letting himself be captured, and working the razor blade out of his wound without even flinching]].'

* 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 destroy the, now exposed, Mujahideen fighters and his MoralEventHorizon is revealed to be part of a cruel BatmanGambit.
* Frank's simple statement to DepravedBisexual SmugSnake Rawlins at the end, when Rawlins is trying to use [[spoiler:Kathryn O'Brien]] as a get out of jail free card:

* Frank has briefly managed to defeat [[WorthyOpponent Barracuda]]. He needs to find out where Barracuda [[spoiler:[[PapaWolf hid his daughter]]]], so Castle proceeds to whip out the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique on him by connecting Barracuda's ''[[GroinAttack genitals to a car battery]]'':

-->'''Frank''': Shut the [[PrecisionFStrike FUCK]] up. [[spoiler: ([[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Empties an AK-47]] into his [[YourHeadASplode head]])]]

** Finally, at the end of the arc the lieutenant that the generals had sent to be their liaison with the Delta Force team phones them in a panic, revealing his newfound information about Colonel Howe's secret history with Frank, his belief that [[spoiler:Howe had all along intended to ''protect'' Frank from assassination, and that Howe had played the lieutenant like a fiddle from their very first meeting]].
* At the end of Ennis' run, Castle is left in a safehouse with nothing in the way of ordnance but a single 1911 with a full magazine and a round in the chamber - eight bullets. [[spoiler:Eight Army and Air Force Generals walk in, intent on killing him to protect their careers and their lives, each one armed with more ammo than Castle himself. We don't see how it all goes down, but the final page has Castle walking away, smoking gun in hand, and all eight generals in a pile on the floor, each with a bullet hole right between the eyes.]] It is all made better by an excerpt from a book that Nick Fury is reading about the Vietnam war and the role it played in Castle's eventual fate.

* 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: "[[TranquilFury I'm going to]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge start the killing now]]."

* 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.

* Big Jesus' entire plan to [[spoiler: get revenge against The Kingpin for the murder and rape of his brother and his brother's girlfriend, all by getting into Solitary Confinement by stabbing a guard in his crotch, hiding a blade under his ''fingernail'' and inciting a prison riot, just so he could break out ''Frank-fucking-Castle'' himself and hope to use him to strike back at Kingpin.]] It worked... [[spoiler: Till Frank snapped his neck.]]

* Frank finally killing [[spoiler:The Kingpin]]. He does so after death marching all the way from Queens to his building in Manhattan, before blowing his brains all over the glass front door.

* Another of the ringleaders, a woman, advised the previous ringleader to have his men rape the women they abducted over and over just to drive home the idea that they could do it because they couldn't be stopped. She meets a fate just as bad: Frank tosses her against a plate glass windows over and over as she begs for her life, the glass eventually breaking - but not before getting absolutely caked in the woman's blood.

** At one point before the finale, when Howe informs the generals that he has Castle but not ''yet'' the evidence their ringleader 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[[note]]The general 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[[/note]].

** Upon his return to US soil, Castle is to be arrested for fucking up the generals' plan. Only Fury stands by his side, and the troops on location would rather be shipped to Iraq than cross the Colonel.
--->'''Fury''': Just one moment General. ''[throws away cigar, goes and stands beside Frank]'' [[BackToBackBadasses Whenever you're ready, gentlemen.]]

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

* Another of the ringleaders, a woman (if you can call her that), advised the previous ringleader to have his men rape the women they abducted over and over just to drive home the idea that they could do it because they couldn't be stopped. She meets a fate just as bad: Frank tosses her against a plate glass windows over and over as she begs for her life, the glass eventually breaking - but not before getting absolutely caked in the woman's blood.

--> "In the end, the war in Vietnam was like any other. [[CorruptCorporateExecutive There were those who profited]]. [[ShellShockedVeteran Those it devoured]]. [[ThePunisher And then there were those for whom there are no words]]."

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/punishermaxrussia10.jpg]]

[[caption-width-right:350:The perfect reason why you '''''do not''''' wanna fuck with a ''PapaWolf''.]]

-->'''Frank''': "Whatever he was jabbering, it wasn't English. Pavla was Albanian, maybe he was too. But I'd know the Lord's Prayer in any language. Gave him a moment. Just before the line about forgiveness." ''*BLAM*''

* Also, earlier in the arc, Frank puts an end to [[AttemptedRape a rape attempt]], but one of the guys is still alive.

** This quote was said soon after he'd [[spoiler: disemboweled a man and wrapped his intestines around a tree, then threw another woman out a building]] and was followed by Frank [[spoiler: capturing & binding the leader to a chair and setting him on fire]]. They're all Slavers though, so it's ''really'' hard to muster any pity for them.

** This quote was said soon after he'd [[spoiler: disemboweled a man and wrapped his intestines around a tree, then threw another woman out a building]] and was followed by Frank [[spoiler: capturing & binding the leader to a chair and setting him on fire]]. They're all [[AcceptableLifestyleTargets Slavers]] though, so it's ''really'' hard to muster any pity for them.

** After the mission Fury tells Castle that he would have done the mission himself if he didn't have to keep an eye on the Generals. Keep in mind that in Ennis' continuity Nick Fury is a WWII veteran who ''doesn't'' get his aging retarded by the Infinity Formula, making him a completely powerless octogenarian.

[[folder:''The Cell'']]
* Having surrendered himself to the law, Frank is shipped to Riker's where the guards gleefully points out the most dangerous in the joint and tells him that's the guy they're sending after him. Frank breaks one guard's nose, steals the other guard's nightstick and beats his head in, then tells the guards to send him the ''next'' most dangerous man.
* Two men enter his cell and start stabbing at the person sleeping in his bunk. Frank saw this coming and "convinced" his cellmate to switch bunks (he broke the guy's neck and put him in the bunk). While his cellmate was being stabbed he slid off the top bunk and walked out of his cell unnoticed.
* 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: "[[TranquilFury I'm going to]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge start the killing now]]."

* 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 what 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 one describes the feelings he has as being like those of a civilian against a special forces hardcase such as himself.

---> '''Mayor:''' [[CrowningMomentOfFunny "Fuck you, Johnathan."]]