History YMMV / ThePunisherMAX

** The most obvious one would have to be the very first story arc, which sees a UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} Black Ops unit trying to recruit Frank so he can help them track down Osama Bin Laden. That story element alone dates it back to a time period where the War on Terror dominated the national conscience.

** The arc of ''The Slavers'', where its main antagonists are a criminal organization of HumanTraffickers. Ennis didn't beat around the bush when presenting the raw and horrific reality of this crime."

* {{Anvilicious}}: Given that this is a series penned mostly by Garth Ennis, it should come as no surprise that the subject material in various story arcs occasionally lapses into this territory. When it comes to ''[[HumanTraffickers The Slavers]]'' and ''[[WarIsHell Valley Forge]]'', however, such subjects really should be taken seriously.

** Any time the Punisher is killing criminal scumbags, it will be a delight to fans of this series.

* EscapistCharacter: The Frank Castle character from the MAX imprint is particularly popular among people who hate criminals, ''especially'' among [[PayEvilUntoEvil those who believe that any violent criminal is deserving of death]]. Similarly, for obvious reasons, Frank is immensely popular among readers with right-leaning political tendencies, as well as among state officials such as police officers and military personnel. This inclination was even acknowledged in the movie ''Film/AmericanSniper'', where one of the main characters' fellow [=SEAL=]s can be seen reading the first arc of the comic.

** The conversation between Nick Fury and Frank Castle in ''Valley Forge, Valley Forge'', where they talk about the potential fallout from UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, takes on a whole new meaning with the rise of terrorist organizations like the Islamic State in early 2010s and the Houthis in early 2020s.

** Nicky Cavella was at first just a more sadistic and efficient mafiosi than what Frank is used to, then he pissed on Frank's family's grave to cement how tasteless he is and his backstory revealed he killed his whole family at eight, just to show how depraved and psychotic he was.

* EscapistCharacter: MAX!Frank Castle is particularly popular among people who hate criminals, ''especially'' among those who believe that any violent criminal is deserving of death.

** Mafia capo Big Jackie displays hatred and disgust for Nicky Cavella in the first arc. However, a flashback has him claiming to support Nicky's AxCrazy strategies and telling Nicky to look up Jackie's cousin for work once he goes to Boston. Was Big Jackie always disgusted by Nicky and merely hiding it in the flashback to make Nicky more compliant, or did he turn against Nicky later due to Nicky falling out with Jackie's cousin (or perhaps even killing him)?

* EscapistCharacter: Frank Castle is particularly popular among people who hate criminals, ''especially'' among those who believe that any criminal is deserving of death.

** The conversation between Nick Fury and Frank Castle in ''Valley Forge, Valley Forge'', where they talk about the potential fallout from the Iraq war, takes on a whole new meaning with the rise of terrorist organizations like ISIS.

* EscapistCharacter: Frank Castle is particularly popular among people who hate criminals, especially among those who believe that any criminal is deserving of death.

* EscapistCharacter: This incarnation of Frank Castle is particularly popular among people who hate criminals, especially among those who believe that any criminal is deserving of death.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: One of the most common criticisms directed at the series. Some of the storylines occasionally fall into this territory for some people, as there are no sympathetic characters to root for - only assholes you are likely to see dead.

* ValuesDissonance: There is no way a white Northern Irishman could get away with writing a character as ''hideously'' full of "gangsta" stereotypes as Barracuda these days, let alone what he gets up to in his own miniseries.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Barracuda, obviously. The man proved so popular that Garth Ennis had him somehow survive his near-fatal encounter with the Punisher so he could bring him back for future stories. Hell, [[BreakoutCharacter Barracuda even got]] [[ComicBook/ThePunisherPresentsBarracuda his own mini-series]]!

* HarsherInHindsight: In the fourth issue of the MAX series, Frank tells Microchip how he once almost beat his neighbor Bob Garrett to death shortly after the death of Frank's family, because said neighbor had left his wife for another woman. Then, towards the end of the series, it's ultimately revealed that right before his family was killed, [[spoiler:Frank had decided to divorce his wife and leave his kids with her]].

--> '''Nick Fury''': Fuck... we invent a war and we invade. And how many of them are dead now? Half a mil or something like that?\\

* MemeticBadass: Frank Castle was already this in the main 616 Universe. This version only amplifies his reputation even further.

* NauseaFuel: The series is full of it, but probably the worst instance is what happens to Finn Cooley over the course of the series--his face, already [[HoistByHisOwnPetard blown off by a bomb of his own design]], gets steadily worse. After his scrape with Castle, half of the right side of his face is missing, with most of the teeth yanked out with the flesh.

--> '''Frank''': A half hour drive later I had the jump leads clamped to the skin of his balls and I'd been turning the key in the ignition for fifteen minutes and he'd [[BringMyBrownPants shit all over himself]] and the world was a beautiful place.

* DesignatedVillain: Deliberately invoked with the Russians in the ''Mother Russia'' arc, which sees a cabal of Army and Air Force generals send Frank Castle and a handpicked Delta operative off to a nuclear missile silo in Siberia to steal a biochemical super virus for them. The Russians who are stationed there are merely responding to what they believe is a legitimate terrorist attack, but that doesn't stop Frank from slaughtering them by the dozens.

* EvilIsSexy: Elektra, full stop.

* GeniusBonus: During Garth Ennis' run the series was rife with these. Featuring everything from well researched military history, real world crime, geopolitics, in-depth descriptions of firearms and the damage that the human anatomy takes when under extreme duress. The best example of this would be during the Kitchen Irish arc where one of character gives what is essentially an abridged history of the conflict in Northern Ireland, complete with references to the Good Friday Agreement and so forth.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Given that this is a series penned mostly by Garth Ennis, it should come as no surprise that the subject material in various story arcs occasionally lapses into this territory. When it comes to ''[[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil The Slavers]]'' and ''[[WarIsHell Valley Forge]]'', however, such subjects really should be taken seriously.

* AcceptableTargets:
** Creator/GarthEnnis really, ''really'' hates the IRA. And he wants you to hate them as well. Throughout the ''Kitchen Irish'' arc, he has several characters call them out over how stupid and cowardly they are. Understandable, as Ennis grew up in UsefulNotes/StrokeCountry during the height of the violence in the region.
---> '''IRA goon''': Ye leave me rottin' in this hole, wonderin' when ye're comin' in to kill me. Every fuckin' moment's like torture. Evil, inhuman bastard. Typical fuckin' brit.
---> '''Yorkie Mitchell''': You start a war and then you whine about the way we fight it. Typical fucking paddy.
*** He's also not too fond of the boorish members of the Irish community - specifically, those who are incapable of letting go of petty squabbles and instead bring their personal grievances to the states. In fact, the ''Kitchen Irish'' arc is made up entirely of Irish villains.
*** He also dislikes the Irish-Americans who superficially cling to their Irish roots even though they've been American for generations and are basically just obsessed with TheThemeParkVersion that gives them a reason to get drunk and act like idiots.
** He's not too fond of corporations, either; Frank butchers the executives and major investors of an Enron stand-in during the Barracuda arc.
** If there's anything that Ennis might hate more than the two above, it's human traffickers, if Frank's actions during The Slavers say anything.
** From what you can take away from the recurring cabal of crooked scheming Generals, high-ranking military officials get no love from Ennis either.
*** Interestingly enough, the lower ranking grunts and common soldiers [[DefiedTrope do not]] fall into this category; Ennis saves all his rancor for the feeble old men who send young men off to [[WarIsHell fight and die for them]], ''especially'' Armchair Generals who coasted through their careers while seeing virtually no combat between Vietnam and the first Gulf War. Even the evil Zakharov gets more respect, despite the horrible things he's done, because of his veteran status.
** You can apply this trope to just about any criminal organization: the TheMafia, TheCartel, the [[TheMafiya Russian Mafia]], GangBangers, RuthlessModernPirates, [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels bikers]], white collar criminals...
** For Jason Aaron, it's elements of the justice system, particularly [[DirtyCop members of law enforcement]] who abuse their authority.

* MisaimedFandom: If you've read the Punisher's main YMMV page already, then you'll know that the character has become very popular with members of the American armed forces as of late - much to the chagrin of creator Gerry Conway, who was a conscientious objector during The Vietnam War and explicitly wrote the Punisher as a bad guy. How popular has he became? Well, in one scene early on in the controversial war movie, ''Film/AmericanSniper'', one of the main characters' fellow [=SEAL=]s can be seen reading a Punisher comic. And if you look closely, you can see that it's issue #1 of ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX''. Later in the film, the main character and his SEAL platoon go on to call themselves "''the Punishers''" and spray-paint the skull logo on their gear as they go around laying waste to the enemy. A [[http://www.vulture.com/2015/01/american-sniper-comics-punisher.html Vulture article]] explains in depth how this homage is both eerily perfect and terrifying.

** The most obvious one would have to be the very first story arc. Which sees a UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} Black Ops unit trying to recruit Frank so he can help them track down Osama Bin Laden. That story element alone dates it back to a time period where the War on Terror dominated the national conscience.

** The fact that the series makes a point of averting ComicBookTime, is probably the most obvious way of dating the series. As events that took place in previous arc all happened in real time.
* UnintentionallySympathetic: Zakharov is introduced as the OnlySaneMan who sees through the "Arab terrorists" deception and is later seen luring Castle to Afghanistan to capture him so the generals' plot can be revealed. He's also seen killing a nosy reporter, is willing to wipe out a village to capture Frank, and we get to see how he earned his Man of Stone nickname... but he displays a lot of EvilVirtues, and of course the fact that he's up against ''[[HateSink Rawlins]]'' automatically makes him look better in comparison. [[spoiler:Frank gives him a MercyKill when he could just as easily left him to bake to death]].

** The LampshadeHanging may be good at times, but overall if you like superheroes, really, really don't read this series.

** Frank is usually treated as a [[KnightTemplar absolute moralist]] who just happens to be fighting a never-ending war on crime. Other interpretations imply [[HeWhoFightsMonsters he's just as bad as the monsters he fights]] and is little different from a serial killer. The only thing that stays the same is the reason why he became the Punisher.

* MisaimedFandom: If you've read the Punisher's main YMMV page already, then you'll know that the character has become very popular with members of the American armed forces as of late - much to the chagrin of creator Gerry Conway, who was a conscientious objector during The Vietnam War and explicitly wrote the Punisher as a bad guy. How popular has he became? Well, in one scene early on in the controversial war movie, ''American Sniper'', one of the main characters' fellow [=SEAL=]s can be seen reading a Punisher comic. And if you look closely, you can see that it's issue #1 of ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX''. Later in the film, the main character and his SEAL platoon go on to call themselves "''the Punishers''" and spray-paint the skull logo on their gear as they go around laying waste to the enemy. A [[http://www.vulture.com/2015/01/american-sniper-comics-punisher.html Vulture article]] explains in depth how this homage is both eerily perfect and terrifying.

* VindicatedByHistory: Back when Ennis started writing the series, conservative reviewers [[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1134145/posts were none to pleased]] over the comics critical view of the American Government; a key element of "In the Beginning", was Frank refusing to hunt Bin Laden for the CIA. He refers to his Vietnam war days as the last he'd ever waste fighting for the government, but what really set him off was wondering how the CIA could possibly pay for such an operation, let alone do it quietly enough to use a mass-murdering vigilante like himself as a catspaw. Later, Micro confirms Frank's suspicions; when Coalition forces opened up Afghanistan, the military gained access to world's primary opium producing areas -- Bethell planned to fund Frank's operations by trafficking Afghan heroin. Ennis based this on historical [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking allegations of CIA drug trafficking]] in Vietnam and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking Nicaragua]], and revisited it in Comicbook/FuryMyWarGoneBy as he felt the need to say "Yes, this ''really did happen!''" In TheNewTens, he was proven to be prescient; not only did the [[http://www.globalresearch.ca/drug-war-american-troops-are-protecting-afghan-opium-u-s-occupation-leads-to-all-time-high-heroin-production/5358053 US military traffic in heroin]], by doing so they [[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jan/09/how-the-heroin-trade-explains-the-us-uk-failure-in-afghanistan completely converted the country's economy to its production.]]
* WhatAnIdiot:
** Robert Bethell, the crooked CIA agent who thought that recruiting one of the most dangerous and unpredictable men alive into his highly secretive and highly ''illegal'' unit was a good idea.
** Nicolas Cavella, a smug mob chump who had the [[SarcasmMode ingenious]] idea of digging up the remains of Frank's family and ''urinating on them'', then releasing footage of this to the news media in the hopes of infuriating Castle. This goes over about as well as you would imagine. For starters, ''it doesn't even work'': instead of going after Cavella, Frank instead murders the hell out of everyone but Cavella, demanding that the city re-bury his family's remains or he'll keep murder-spreeing until they do. When they finally do bury the remains, then Frank goes after Cavella, [[TranquilFury completely calm]] and ''[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge utterly vindictive]]''. Cavella spent the intervening time oscillating between gloating that the Punisher was terrified of him and doing his work of taking out other gangs, and batshit paranoid that Frank was going to kill him at any second.
** The Eight Generals exemplify this trope. Every single decision they make continues to get them in more and more trouble. By the end, they've given up on trying to advance their own self-interests and are just trying to save their own asses.
** Special mention goes to the [[TheIrishMob Westies]]/[[ScaryBlackMan Maginty]]/[[RuthlessModernPirates River Rats]]/[[TerroristWithoutACause Cooley]] for actually believing that their [[RetiredMonster Monstrous old mob boss]] actually wanted to give them his fortune. Frank and Yorkie couldn't help but think that this was odd and they didn't even know him.

* MagnificentBastard: Frank Castle, [[Characters/ThePunisherMAXThePunisher The Punisher]], has waged a one man war on crime for decades as a way to punish both the guilty and himself. At one point, Frank even gets himself arrested and sent to Riker's Island, just so he can put into play a scheme to murder the men who killed his family. Constantly demonstrating a wicked intelligence, Frank constantly manipulates criminals into traps and [[OutGambitted Out-Gambits]] others who try to get the best of him, before finishing his enemies off, not afraid to expose himself to injury, torture or death in the process. Even when faced with the unexpected, Frank is constantly able to rebound and get the better of his enemies, often tolerated by the police for his inflexible moral standards even as he leaves a [[PayEvilUntoEvil mountain of guilty corpses behind him]]. In the final arc, Frank goes against [[Characters/MarvelComicsTheKingpin the Kingpin]] himself, who now owns the criminal underworld of New York, deprived of much of his own former assets, and ends up completely destroying his operation before finishing him off, remarking only "Your city, my world."

* SpiritualSuccessor: To Garth Ennis' previous ComicBook/ThePunisherWelcomeBackFrank 2000's Punisher mini-series]].

* CrossesTheLineTwice: As expected from an adults-only series written primarily by Creator/GarthEnnis, it should come as no surprise that the series crosses the boundaries of good taste with [[PunctuatedForEmphasis every. Single. Arc]]. Seriously. Even [[Creator/MarkMillar Mark]] [[UpToEleven freaking Millar]] would churn his stomach at some of the more darkly humorous bits in the series.