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2* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
3** Frank is usually treated as an [[KnightTemplar absolute moralist]] and mass murderer 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]]. The only thing that stays the same is the reason why he became the Punisher.
4** Mafia caporegime Big Jackie displays hatred and disgust for Nicky Cavella in the first arc. However, a flashback has him claiming to support Nicky's violent 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)?
5* {{Anvilicious}}: 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.
6* AudienceColoringAdaptation: Creator/GarthEnnis's Punisher from the [[ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX MAX imprint]] has left a significant mark on the character's identity to this day, infusing it with touches of realism, grit, and glimpses of complexity and humanity that, in many ways, have made it the definitive version of the character. He's a character that simply doesn't fit within a more caricatured superhero environment (as it did before) due to his inherently brutal and mundane nature, and that's something Ennis made very clear. It's also influenced some of the Punisher's non-comic incarnations, most notably ''Film/PunisherWarZone'' and the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse version of the character.
7* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt:
8** This series really couldn't have chosen a better cover artist than Tim Bradstreet. The man's cover art is truly a sight to behold, haunting, and mesmerizing at the same time.
9** Interior artist Leandro Fernandez is no slouch either. What's more, his artwork actually ''[[ArtEvolution improves]]'' [[ArtEvolution as the series progresses]].
10* CatharsisFactor:
11** ''Any time'' the Punisher is killing criminal scumbags, it will be a delight to fans of this series.
12** After getting away with multiple rapes of various women, seeing Vincent Rosa get burned to death by Sal Buvoli to avenge his sister is nothing short of satisfying gratification.
13** Even though [[spoiler: Barracuda’s]] OTT nature won him many fans, following [[spoiler: [[KickTheDog his killing of Yorkie and his wife]] and [[YankTheDogsChain kidnapping and constant threatening of Frank and O’Brien’s infant daughter]] ]], Frank’s absolutely BRUTAL and hard fought execution of him spanning several issues stands out as a crowning moment in the MAX Seires.
14* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/ThePunisher here]].
15* CrazyIsCool: Bullseye is all about this trope. Best exemplified in his introductory scene, where we see him ''shit out a gun'' and kill a pair of Russian thugs with it. Not long after, he asks Frank what his favorite color is while the latter is preparing to blow him up with a stick of C4.
16* 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 freaking Millar]] would churn his stomach at some of the more darkly humorous bits in the series.
17* CultClassic: Years after the series' conclusion, it's still fondly looked back on by both fans and critics alike, with many of them regarding it as the greatest Punisher run of all time, and a number of the story arcs have even been referenced on WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay.
18* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Much like his mainstream counterpart, this is another issue that plagues this version of the character. Just about every writer (Garth Ennis, Jason Aaron) who has depicted the character on a long-term basis has established in their works that Frank Castle is a ''deeply disturbed'' and damaged man who barely even qualifies as "human" anymore, whose mass murders do nothing to actually improve society (see ''The Slavers''), whose activities only don't cause massive innocent casualties because of extreme authorial favoritism, and who should not be considered a role model by anyone. However, go anywhere in comics fandom and you'll stumble across people who think that Frank Castle is the coolest guy ever and it's a terrible pity that nobody's taking out the bad guys like that in the real world.
19* DrinkingGame: Has its [[DrinkingGame/ThePunisherMAX very own page now]].
20* EnsembleDarkhorse:
21** 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]]!
22** Yorkie Mitchell, Frank's snarky British contact, build up quite a decent reputation among the fandom, no doubt helped by his status as the OnlySaneMan.
23** Bullseye gets plenty of love too, thanks to his CrazyIsCool nature and overall charismatic presence. The man is easily tied in terms of popularity with Barracuda as the most iconic villain in the series.
24* EscapistCharacter: The Frank Castle character from the MAX imprint is particularly popular among those who strongly dislike criminals. 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.
25* FanonDiscontinuity: There are some fans who completely disavow any stories that were published after Garth Ennis left, which is usually attributed to the old sentiment that OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight.
26* 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 [[TheAbridgedHistory abridged history]] of the conflict in Northern Ireland, complete with references to the Good Friday Agreement and so forth.
27* HarsherInHindsight:
28** 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]].
29** The entire plot of the story arcs "Mother Russia" and "Man of Stone". In The2000s, it might have been seen as just another exaggeration to add elements of espionage and military conspiracy to the plot, which makes sense considering that during this period, the United States and Russia were allies against terrorism. In TheNewTwenties, however, it has become eerily prophetic, considering that tensions between the United States and Russia have once again solidified following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Particularly, there's a brief dialogue between Castle and Fury that uncannily [[{{Foreshadow}} foreshadows]] this.
30---> '''Frank Castle''': There's a rumor the Russians are our friends these days.\
31'''Fury''': Well, there's friends and there's friends. The old games never change, Castle. You know that.
32** 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 TheNewTens and the Houthis in TheNewTwenties.
33---> '''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?\
34'''Frank Castle''': Depends on who you believe.\
35'''Fury''': Leaves a lot of pissed-off people with nothing to lose. I don't know what it'll be. Guy with something in a briefcase wandering into Times Square. A plane again. But we've got something coming, that I know.
36** This little moment in "Widowmaker" has become a bit cringy after the Uvalde school shooting:
37--->'''Paul Budiansky:''' I heard downtown didn't order me into that school, Captain. But if you hadn't gone and sworn you ''did,'' they wouldn't have checked the call logs and seen you telling us all to hold for tactical.
38** The legacy of people using the Punisher logo while committing vigilante acts at the end of "War's End" is a lot less cool now that the logo has been [[MisaimedFandom co-opted by right-wing extremists.]]
39* LoveToHate: It's hard not to find the villains in the series--such as Nicky Cavella, William Rawlins, General Zakharov, Tiberiu Bulat, Barracuda, The Heavy, the Kingpin, and Bullseye--to be entertainingly despicable or [[EvilIsCool extraordinarily badass]], even if they are awful people.
40* MagnificentBastard: [[Characters/ThePunisherMAXThePunisher Frank Castle himself]] has [[OneManArmy 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--[[PayEvilUntoEvil or his foes]]--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 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."
41* MemeticBadass:
42** Frank Castle was already this in the main 616 Universe. This version only amplifies his reputation even further.
43** His Arch-nemesis Barracuda quickly earned this reputation among the fandom.
44* MemeticMutation: Behold Creator/SteveDillon's everlasting legacy, [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/frank-castles-face Frank Face]].
45* 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 morally ambigious character. How popular has Frank 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.
46* {{Moe}}: Lauren Buvoli from ''The Tyger''. A neighbour and childhood friend of Frank who is [[NiceGuy extremely sweet and wholesome]] in a otherwise dark series whom you want survive and have a happy life, [[spoiler: which of course, doesn't happen]].
47* MoralEventHorizon: Unsurprisingly given [[CrapsackWorld the very nature of the series]], this is to be expected by most of the antagonists that the Punisher encounters over the course of his story.
48** 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 psychopathic he was.
49** General Zakharov in Afghanistan [[spoiler:''throwing a baby off a cliff''.]]
50** The cabal of generals first introduced in ''Mother Russia''. [[spoiler:To provide a smokescreen for an illegal operation in Russia, they have a team of Arab terrorists they secretly trained for taking out targets inside friendly countries hijack a passenger plane and attempt a suicide bombing on Moscow, only for the plane to be shot down by the missile defenses.]]
51** If William Rawlins didn't cross it when he threw his wife overboard to the Taliban--resulting in her being repeatedly raped--he definitely crossed it when he creates a terrorist cell to create false flag attacks.
52** The Slavers were already far over the horizon, what with kidnapping young girls and beating and gang-raping them to break their spirits, but when Viorica escapes with her baby and seeks refuge with Jen Cooke, they track her down to Cooke's apartment and steal the baby back, then later send an e-mail with a photo [[spoiler: of the baby's corpse]].
53-->'''Frank:''' [[PapaWolf I knew a lot of men]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge would have to die.]]
54** Barracuda may have crossed so many times that it's difficult to mention a single example; however, most could agree that his most monstrous actions were during his time in Nicaragua, where the corruption gave him the chance to go completely wild. Other fans believe that he became completely unsympathetic when he kidnapped Frank's infant daughter with the intention of torturing her to death.
55** Kingpin -- [[spoiler: Faced with his old enemies holding his son at knifepoint and forced to choose between saving his little boy's life and killing the last people standing in his way, he coldly shoots them, not showing a hint of emotion as his rival cuts the boy's throat. He then embraces his wife and tells her "''we can have another''"]]. Even allowing that Kingpin didn't actually had much of a choice there, Kingpin's ''reaction'' to the SadisticChoice was not IDidWhatIHadToDo or a DrowningMySorrows but rather a reflection on [[ItsAllAboutMe how much he didn't really love his son after all]].
56* {{Narm}}:
57** Ironically enough, Frank's first kill falls into this. Although the scenario is played completely straight, and is treated as a major turning point in Frank's life, the seriousness of the moment is slightly undercut by the fact that Frank's first victim was caught squatting in the bushes, with his pants around his ankles... ''taking a shit''...
58** The already slightly over-the-top ''Mother Russia'' (featuring a little girl being used as a living storage container for an artificial virus that can somehow reduce people to skeletons in less time than it takes to blink) eventually has the Punisher fight a silent kung-fu midget assassin in what was presumably some kind of random, bizarre homage to James Bond or something.
59* NauseaFuel:
60** 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.
61** After Pittsy [[spoiler:takes a shotgun slug to the face]], we are treated to a highly detailed image of of the aftermath. Words do the visual no justice, you'll just have to see it for yourself. Or don't...
62* OlderThanTheyThink: The first Marvel character to get a DarkerAndEdgier makeover on the MAX imprint wasn't the Punisher, but Comicbook/NickFury in the miniseries ''[[Comicbook/FuryMax Fury]]'' and ComicBook/WarMachine in the maxiseries ''U.S. War Machine'', both of which came out in November 2001.
63* SeasonalRot: Most fans will admit that the quality of the series took a nosedive after Garth Ennis left at the end of issue #60, with most of the story arcs that followed being either too weird (even by the standards of the series) or just not good enough. The drop in quality was so bad that the series was eventually cancelled after issue #75. Thankfully, the subsequent 2009 relaunch by Jason Aaron and veteran Punisher artist Creator/SteveDillon (who also did the artwork for the 2001 Punisher relaunch) got the series back on track.
64* ShockingMoments: Issue 18 of Jason Aaron's ''The Punisher MAX'' kicks things off by having [[spoiler: [[JokerImmunity Frank blowing]] [[SubvertedTrope Bullseye's brains out while he's in a coma]]]], then moves on to [[spoiler: Kingpin laying waste to his own lieutenants, then proceeding to have sex with Elektra amid the carnage]], followed by [[spoiler: Elektra and Mrs. Fisk getting it on]], and finally, out of nowhere, [[spoiler: [[MoralEventHorizon Frank digs up the remains of Kingpin's eight-year-old son]]]].
65* SignatureScene: This series is without a doubt ''the'' definitive Punisher run of all time, so it's easy to see how Frank's most iconic moments originated from this run.
66** From ''The Slavers'', we have Frank [[spoiler:throwing one of the ringleaders behind the slavery operation face-first into a shatterproof window multiple times until the window panel finally breaks, causing the ringleader to fall to her death]].
67** From ''Long Cold Dark'', Frank Castle torturing [[spoiler:Barracuda]] by hooking up a car battery to his testicles. ''[[http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/uvula_fr_b4/3817514/91845/91845_900.jpg For an hour]]''.
68---> '''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.
69** In ''Mother Russia'', we have [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown Fury taking off his belt and whipping the life out of a crooked military General]] who came up with the whole [[spoiler:"fake terrorists crashing a passenger jet full of innocent people as a distraction" plan]]. Descriptions do it no justice - it needs to be [[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FvQxK1ZhRQQ/VfngKr4U_jI/AAAAAAAADXo/xZdcpFIpGHg/s1600/punishermaxrussia11.jpg seen to be fully appreciated]].
70* {{Squick}}:
71** Since it's geared towards a more adult audience, the series shows off deaths in the most graphic ways imaginable.
72** Frank himself feels this when, [[spoiler:injured in a gunfight and handcuffed to a bed so he can't stop it from happening, he watches Jenny complete her RoaringRampageOfRevenge: first by beating her sister to death with a baseball bat ''while naked'' for marrying her off to an abusive mobster; then screwing him to see if she can find any meaning in life now that the last of her tormentors is dead; and finally, the answer being a resounding "no", shooting herself in the head with Frank's sidearm.]]
73** In ''Up is Down and Black is White'', we are treated to a flashback to Nicky Cavella's backstory, and while most of what is featured there is easy NightmareFuel material, the real creepy part is the sight of Nicky's morbidly obese aunt, "Auntie Mo", forcing herself upon a ''twelve year old'' Cavella. Nicolas's mortified expression during the abhorrent act says it all.
74* TooCoolToLive: This being a DarkerAndEdgier series filled with [[WorldOfBadass badass characters]] where [[AnyoneCanDie anyone of them can be readily killed off]], you know you're going to have quite a few examples.
75** [[spoiler:Kathryn O'Brian, the badass CIA chick who's randomly and cruelly killed off just as soon as she and Frank were ready to ride off into the sunset]].
76** [[spoiler:Yorkie Mitchell gets it even worse. He's killed off AFTER he had just retired from the military.]] Also counts as a KickTheDog moment as well.
77** By the end of the series, you can now add [[spoiler:Frank Castle himself]] to the list.
78* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Although not as obvious as some of the other comics that were made around the turn of the Millennium (think ''The Ultimates'' and ''The Runaways''). There are still of number of elements that date the series back to the mid 2000s.
79** 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 UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden. That story element alone dates it back to a time period where the War on Terror dominated the national conscience.
80** Shows up yet again in ''Man Of Stone'', where Frank has to go and deal with a situation in Afghanistan. Although it deals with a group of {{renegade Russian}}s, the references to the modern day conflict in Afghan are laid on thick.
81** In the beginning issue of the '' Valley Forge, Valley Forge '' arc, Fury and Castle have a lengthy discussion on what eventual consequences the Iraq War and Operation Enduring Freedom in a barroom, while newsreels of American casualties in Baghdad play on a nearby TV. As of the writing of this entry, nearly all American presence in Iraq and Afghanistan has ceased.
82** 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 arcs all happened in real time.
83* 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 in the desert]].
84* TheWoobie
85** Galina, the sweet, innocent, little six year girl who is being used as a guinea pig by the Russian government so they can perfect a flesh-eating super virus which exists in her blood stream.
86** '''Viorica'''. Dear god, the hell that that poor women endures can take up an entire character page.

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