History NightmareFuel / ThePunisher

* The Hood attempts to get the Punisher to leave his organization alone bu offering him the single thing he could possibly ever want - the return of his wife and children. Hood brings them back with the same magic he used to temporarily resurrect a group of supervillains (not zombies, their actual living selves), and offers to make the resurrection permanent if Punisher agrees. ''Punisher promptly burns them alive with his flamethrower'' angrily declaring that his family is dead. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Hood is horrified]]. [[spoiler: the reader is never shown whether or not what Hood brought back was Frank's family, they're never shown on panel or speaking, and a later issue reveals that no, they were not real]]

* The Hood attempts to get the Punisher to leave his organization alone bu offering him the single thing he could possibly ever want - the return of his wife and children. Hood brings them back with the same magic he used to temporarily resurrect a group of supervillains (not zombies, their actual living selves), and offers to make the ressurection permanent if Punisher agrees. ''Punisher promptly burns them alive with his flamethrower'' angrily declaring that his family is dead. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Hood is horrified]]. [[spoiler: the reader is never shown whether or not what Hood brought back was Frank's family, they're never shown on panel or speaking, and a later issue reveals that no, they were not real]]

* The Hood attempts to get the Punisher to leave his organization alone bu offering him the single thing he could possibly ever want - the return of his wife and children. Hood brings them back with the same magic he used to temporarily resurrect a group of supervillains (not zombies, their actual living selves), and offers to make the ressurection permanent if Punisher agrees. ''Punisher promptly burns them alive with his flamethrower'' angrily declaring that his family is dead. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Hood is horrified]]. [[spoiler: the reader is never shown wether or not what Hood brought back was Frank's family, they're never shown on panel or speaking, and a later issue reveals that no, they were not real]]

* The Punisher, [[TortureTechnician being the master of torturing people for information]], have a lot of his torture scenes to be flatout disturbing. The Punisher tortures his victims in slow, painful, bloody, and goriest manner ever.
* The Punisher is this incarnate. Morality is below him, sanity, health, the law, nothing matters to him except killing criminals. Frank Castle loses everything, and then loses himself. The Punisher is not anything human anymore, he's a weapon pointed directly at the criminal underworld.

* The Punisher is this incarnate. With a few exceptions, the general height of a Marvel hero's tendencies stops at invoking sheer bloody terror on their foes. But not Punisher. Frank Castle kills because he HATES. He hates, and he takes revenge. This is a man who wants, can not have, and will never want, anything other than revenge. He won't stop, not ever. He will go to any lengths he needs to kill his targets. The law, morality, sanity, none of that matters because his job is not done, and there are people who need to die.

Spoilers below. You've been warned.

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* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The End]]. It begins with Castle in Sing Sing after a [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt horrific nuclear war]]. A year later Frank and another prisoner escape, heading to NewYorkCity through the irradiated wasteland. Past burning skies, assisted suicides and Terminator style mountains of skulls, we learn that the other prisoners were cannibalistic and the nukes were detonated in mid air to kill more people. As they reach New York, Frank collapses and wakes up in the care of [[AncientConspiracy the Coven]], who were responsible for what happened. He escapes and kills everyone, knowingly condemning the human race to extinction. The comic ends with Castle burning from radiation and fire as he walks to Central Park to, in his mind, be with his family.
* Also by GarthEnnis, ThePunisher arc ''Up Is Down and Black Is White'', has Frank [[BerserkButton driven off the deep end]] by a [[AxCrazy vicious mob boss]]. After a night of him going ''ballistic'' on the New York underworld, the next issue opens on Frank sitting silently on a Police car...''surrounded'' by the corpses of civilians, hoods and cops. He starts to hear a ghostly voice calling to him...
-->"Frank...Frank... ''[he sees the silhouette of a [[DeathByOriginStory young woman and two children]]]'' ...we're ''still dead''.Frank." ''[[[CatapultNightmare Frank jerks awake]]]''
* ''Every. Single. Thing.'' About "The Slavers" arc. From what Viorca tells Frank about her baby to what the horrific things the titular slavers did to their prisoners to - most disturbing of all - the apathetic response to what happened, it is ''all'' horrifying and disturbing. This is not to mention the [[PayEvilUntoEvil extreme lengths Frank Castle goes to]] in order to destroy the slavers in question. And, as far as the human-trafficking goes, it's all TruthInTelevision.

* MAX Bullseye's attempts to get inside Frank's head.
** In one attempt to get into the mind of Frank, Bullseye [[spoiler: kidnapped a woman along with her son and daughter after killing her husband and tried to reenact that fateful day in Central Park.]] It didn't work. So what does Bullseye do? [[spoiler: He tried again with ''3 more different families'', all with the same results.]]
* Frank Castle's own death during the ''MarvelDarkReign'' also counts. There are few sequences in the Marvel universe that so effectively and blatantly present the risks of BullyingTheDragon, as Punisher's stubbornness and arsenal are pitted against the [[HealingFactor regenerating]] Daken, who proves just how useless they are. Daken starts by shooting him and blowing him up with grenades, seemingly just for kicks. Then the mutant closes to hand to hand range, where he pummels Punisher mercilessly, breaks his leg, slices his throat open, hacks off a limb, and, finally bored of it all, cuts him into pieces with the ease of an industrial meat slicer.
* The Valley Forge Massacre. The N.V.A. launched an assault on Firebase Valley Forge where Frank was the top dog. Due to bad weather and other problems they couldn't receive reinforcements. After the battle ended and the smoke cleared 700 men were dead, including 200 US troops. Frank was the only survivor; he was found still standing, surrounded by twenty enemy soldiers with their heads smashed in, holding a broken rifle and riddled with bullet holes. The story arc ''Valley Forge, Valley Forge'' has typed interludes that are excerpts from the book of the brother of one of the men who died, featuring interviews with those involved (the sister of his brother's friend, the man on the radio and one of the men who first arrived at the aftermath). All three of them combined paint a picture of the events surrounding the massacre and its effect on Frank Castle, and its a very scary picture. The massacre itself is detailed in the ''Born'' miniseries and reveals why Frank survived: he made a deal with either The Devil or Death.

* ''Punisher POV'' towards the end, when a baby mutated by toxic waste slaughters it way out of a hospital and has to be confronted in the sewers below.

* ''Punisher POV'' towards the end, as we find out that the monster is a mutated baby.

* MAX Bulleye's attempts to get inside Frank's head.

** What I truly found haunting was the very last page of that arc. Even if it was only temporarily, Frank punished the wicked, and set things straight, plus Virioca is safe and alright... wait, no. Not even close, nope. All the horror and death inflicted by Frank on those who wronged here meant very little and did nothing to help her, she is still a deeply traumatized woman and probably will never be "alright". Reality slaps real hard.

** ''Every. Single. Thing.'' About "The Slavers" arc. From what Viorca tells Frank about her baby to what the horrific things the titular slavers did to their prisoners to - most disturbing of all - the apathetic response to what happened, it is ''all'' horrifying and disturbing. This is not to mention the [[PayEvilUntoEvil extreme lengths Frank Castle goes to]] in order to destroy the slavers in question. And, as far as the human-trafficking goes, it's all TruthInTelevision.
*** What I truly found haunting was the very last page of that arc. Even if it was only temporarily, Frank punished the wicked, and set things straight, plus Virioca is safe and alright... wait, no. Not even close, nope. All the horror and death inflicted by Frank on those who wronged here meant very little and did nothing to help her, she is still a deeply traumatized woman and probably will never be "alright". Reality slaps real hard.

* Frank Castle's own death during the ''MarvelDarkReign'' also counts. Being sliced up by Daken is exactly as messy as it sounds.

-->"Frank...Frank...''[he sees the silhouette of a [[DeathByOriginStory young woman and two children]]]''...we're ''still dead'' Frank." ''[[[CatapultNightmare Frank jerks awake]]]''

* ''Punisher POV'' towards the end, as we find out that the monster [[is a mutated baby]].

* ''Punisher POV'' towards the end.

--->"Frank...Frank...''[he sees the silhouette of a [[DeathByOriginStory young woman and two children]]]''...we're ''still dead'' Frank." ''[[[CatapultNightmare Frank jerks awake]]]''

* MAX Bulleye's attempts to get inside Frank's head. See CompleteMonster.
** Hell, in one attempt to get into the mind of Frank, Bullseye [[spoiler: kidnapped a woman along with her son and daughter after murdering her husband and attempted to reenact that fateful day in Central Park.]] It didn't work. So what does Bullseye do? [[spoiler: He tried again with ''three more different families'', all with the same results.]]

* The Valley Forge Massacre. The N.V.A. launched an assault on Firebase Valley Forge where Frank was the top dog. Due to bad weather and other problems they couldn't receive reinforcements. After the battle ended and the smoke cleared 700 men were dead, including 200 US troops. Frank was the only survivor; he was found still standing, surrounded by 20 enemy soldiers with their heads smashed in, holding a broken rifle and riddled with bullet holes. The story arc ''Valley Forge, Valley Forge'' has typed interludes that are excerpts from the book of the brother of one of the men who died, featuring interviews with those involved (the sister of his brother's friend, the man on the radio and one of the men who first arrived at the aftermath). All three of them combined paint a picture of the events surrounding the massacre and its effect on Frank Castle, and its a very scary picture. The massacre itself is detailed in the ''Born'' miniseries and reveals why Frank survived: he made a deal with either The Devil or Death.

* The MAX series does a decent job at this, but if you're after a particular type of fear may I recommend "The End".
* "The Slavers" is ''full'' of NightmareFuel. Viorica's backstory. What Frank does to the three ringleaders of the slaving gang. The sickening image of Viorica's ''murdered baby''. Jen Cooke's accounts of what happened to other girls/women, which are TruthInTelevision.