History YMMV / ThePunisherKillsTheMarvelUniverse

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: For many of the story's detractors, the Punisher comes off as unsympathetic in spite of retaining the element of losing his family in his canon origin because he keeps on murdering superhumans at the behest of an overzealous organization blinded by their desires for revenge against the harm the heroes inadvertently caused them. Even his [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realization that his last kill Daredevil is really his close friend Matt Murdock]] and his decision to not continue working for the organization [[EveryoneHasStandards and even calling them out]] when they want to keep him around to kill any new supers (not subtly implied will include ''[[WouldHurtAChild children]]'') that will inevitably pop up has been criticized as being tacked-on as a last-ditch effort to make the reader feel sorry for him in spite of his actions.

* OlderThanYouThink: Believe it or not there was a very similar ''What If'' story published before this one called ''What If the Punisher had Killed Spider-Man,'' where Castle is duped into killing Spidey by the Jackal and becomes targeted by every super-hero in New York. Interestingly, that comic took pains to illustrate the fact that Spider-Man's Spider-Sense would protect him from Castle's attempts to snipe him, and that in an all-out fight, Castle would lose. He only manages to take Peter down through pure luck, and after that, the comic then demonstrates that the Punisher is ''woefully outclassed by even minor heroes like '''Hellcat''''' (though, in all fairness, Frank wasn't actively targeting any other hero).

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: For many of the story's detractors, the Punisher comes off as unsympathetic in spite of retaining the element of losing his family in his canon origin because he keeps on murdering superhumans at the behest of an overzealous organization blinded by their desires for revenge against the harm the heroes inadvertently caused them. Even his [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realization that his last kill Daredevil is really his close friend Matt Murdock]] and his decision to not continue working for the organization [[EveryoneHasStandards and even calling them out]] when they want to keep him around to kill any new supers (not unsubtly implied will include ''[[WouldHurtAChild children]]'') that will inevitably pop up has been criticized as being tacked-on as a last-ditch effort to make the reader feel sorry for him in spite of his actions.

** Frank crosses it when he kills Spider-Man, who wasn't even one of the heroes there when his family was killed.

* BrokenBase: The story is lauded for having the Punisher kill nearly everyone in the Marvel Universe as the title promised, and in impressively pragmatic ways to boot, but also has a considerable number of detractors who see the heroes' deaths as being a bit contrived and the Punisher as being too unsympathetic and out-of-character to root for.

** Frank's trial, specifically the judge stating, "...but there can be no excusing the fact that you murdered some of this nation' greatest heroes--[[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and the X-Men Cyclops and Jubilee]]."

* OlderThanYouThink: Believe it or not there was a very similar ''What If'' story published before this one called ''What If the Punisher had Killed Spider-Man,'' where Castle is duped into killing Spidey by the Jackal and becomes targeted by every super-hero in New York. Interestingly, that comic took pains to illustrate the fact that Spider-Man's Spider-Sense would protect him from Castle attempts to snipe him, and that in an-all-out fight, Castle would lose. He only manages to take Peter down through pure luck, and after that, the comic then demonstrated that the Punisher is ''woefully outclassed be even minor heroes like '''Hellcat''''' (though, in all fairness, Frank wasn't actively targeting any other hero).

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: For many of the story's detractors, the Punisher comes off as unsympathetic in spite of retaining the element of losing his family in his canon origin because he keeps on murdering superhumans at the behest of an overzealous organization blinded by their desires for revenge against the harm the heroes inadvertently caused them. Even his [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realization that his last kill Daredevil is really his close friend Matt Murdock]] and his decision to not continue working for the organization [[EveryoneHasStandards and even calling them out]] when they want to keep him around to kill any new supers (not unsubtly implied will include ''[[WouldHurtAChild children]]'') that will inevitably pop up has been criticized as being tacked-on as a last ditch effort to make the reader feel sorry for him in spite of his actions.

** Frank's trial, specifically the judge stating, "... but there can be no excusing the fact that you murdered some of this nation' greatest heroes--[[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and the X-Men Cyclops and Jubilee]]."

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The main premise of this comic is that the Punisher ([[InvincibleVillain easily]]) kills every superhero and supervillain for the crime of [[HeroInsurance the collateral damage of their actions hurting people no matter how hard they try]], [[CreatorsPest calls them all]] [[AuthorFilibuster pussies]] and [[NothingLeftToDoButDie blows his brains out once he's done]]. Obviously, not many comic readers would be able to stomach a story that bleak.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: The Punisher gets arrested because he shot the Kingpin's head off... and then got stuck when Fisk's corpse fell on him.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: It's a story where the Punisher is killing Marvel's heroes, and the audience is meant to root for him.

* CreatorsPet: The plot runs on the fact that Creator/GarthEnnis hates superheroes and loves Punisher; even on his best day Castle would never be able to take out a fraction of the heroes and villains he does here. For instance, Spider-Man, Frank's first kill, is strong enough to flip train cars with a finger flick, fast enough to somersault around lightning bolts, and skilled enough in hand-to-hand to go toe-to-toe with Captain America. That's not even taking into account his Spider-Sense, which would warn him of any hidden danger and make it nearly impossible for a normal human like Frank to ''touch'' him, let alone kill him.[[note]]Though to be fair, it's not like earlier writers haven't dampened, tweaked, or outright ignored the Spider-Sense whenever convenient; Creator/GerryConway's famous run ended on an arc where ''Peter's own science teacher'' masqueraded under his nose as a supervillain for ''weeks'', with the flimsy HandWave that the Spider-Sense didn't go off because Peter considered the teacher a friend.[[/note]]

* MoralEventHorizon: If you're a detractor of this comic, the moment the Punisher's actions become inexcusable may depend on which hero he massacres that you like the best, since he keeps on killing them under the assumption that they have no concern for the innocents they unintentionally harm in the crossfire of their fights against evil and doesn't stop until all of them have died, not considering that they are people too until it's too late.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In addition to the advantages Spider-Man has listed under CreatorsPet, there are a few other characters killed by the Punisher with powers that shouldn't have made them that easy to kill.
** The Punisher kills the Hulk by waiting for him to turn back into Bruce Banner and then shooting him. The problem with this is that Bruce has been known to reflexively transform into the Hulk whenever his life is in danger... [[ICannotSelfTerminate even from himself]].
** Wolverine is killed by being reduced to a skeleton after being electrocuted, when his healing factor has been shown to be capable of restoring his body after taking that much damage (and in some cases even almost to FromASingleCell levels).
** Among the X-Men characters the Punisher killed by luring them to the moon and nuking them are Apocalypse and the Juggernaut. The former is immortal, while the latter is incapable of being physically damaged (there is a reason they say [[CatchPhrase nothing can stop]] [[ImplacableMan the Juggernaut]], after all).
** Also the fact that much of the Superheroes that Punisher killed should be invincible to the point where "bullet-proof" would be a moot point. One example being Comicbook/GhostRider, at least according to a splash panel of his kill counts, who are basically a Spirit of Vengeance who can't be killed with conventional weapons.
** Really, the whole premise is dependent on ''all'' the heroes acting out of character because even at their worst moments, they take HeroInsurance very seriously (especially Captain America who makes sure that ''parking tickets for the Quinjet are paid''). And that's not even getting into his personal relationships with them; here, the Punisher is presented as contemptuous of Captain America and his pathetic appeals towards his humanity (a view [[CreatorsPest shared by Garth Ennis]]), despite the fact that it's been shown multiple times that he respects Cap the most out of ''everyone in the hero community'', and he's what inspired Frank to join the army in the first place (he even takes up the mantle of Captain America - with Steve's blessing - in a ''What If'' story). It’s pretty clear that this story was just a dry-run for ''ComicBook/TheBoys''.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The main premise of this comic is that the Punisher ([[InvincibleHero easily]]) kills every superhero and supervillain for the crime of [[HeroInsurance the collateral damage of their actions hurting people no matter how hard they try]], [[CreatorsPest calls them all]] [[AuthorFilibuster pussies]] and [[NothingLeftToDoButDie blows his brains out once he's done]]. Obviously, not many comic readers would be able to stomach a story that bleak.

** Really, the whole premise is dependent on ''all'' the heroes acting out of character because even at their worst moments, they take HeroInsurance very seriously (especially Captain America who makes sure that ''parking tickets for the Quinjet are paid''). And that's not even getting into his personal relationships with them; here, the Punisher is presented as contemptuous of Captain America and his pathetic appeals towards his humanity (a view [[CreatorsPest shared by Garth Ennis]]), despite the fact that it's been shown multiple times that he respects Cap the most out of ''everyone in the hero community'', and he's what inspired Frank to join the army in the first place (he even takes up the mantle of Captain America - with Steve's blessing - in a ''What If'' story).

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The main premise of this comic is that the Punisher ([[InvincibleHero easily]]) kills every superhero and supervillain for the crime of [[HeroInsurance the collateral damage of their actions hurting people no matter how hard they try]], [[CreatorsPest calls them all]] [[AuthorFilibuster pussies]] and [[NothingLeftToDoButDie blows his brains out once he's done]]. Obviously, not many comic readers would be able to stomach a story that bleak.