Headscratchers / The Punisher MAX

• Let's start with the most obvious one. How is it that the mob has such a hard time finding Frank? In one scene in the first arc, we see a group of capos discussing how none of them can find any leads on the Punisher, because he has cut himself off from society. Except... That isn't true... In a number of scenes we can see Frank going about his business, casually strolling through the city in broad daylight, to even stopping at a local diner for some grub. You'd figure that, with the Mob having such a big presence in the city, that eventually one of them would run into Frank. Or at least have one of their boys spot him.
  • It's a city of around 8 million people. The odds of running into one particular person is fairly small. Especially since even the largest mafia organization is only going to have only a few hundred people. Add in that Frank knows these mobs and where they operate. He knows where not to go when he's not prepared. Plus, plenty of mob soldiers would simply look the other way because they know what he can do.
  • The two organisations with actual military personnel and training (Microchip and later on the special forces team) did track him down relatively easily. The mob is a bunch of wise guys and thugs, not on the same level at all.

• Okay, so we know that Frank has been working as a vigilante for the past 30+ plus years. He's built up his rep to the point that he's practically a modern day myth. A living legend, so to speak. So... how come none of the civilians seem to recognize him whenever they see him on the street? I mean, we know Frank doesn't wear a mask, or have a secret identity or anything else that a traditional superhero would be expected to have. In fact his identity has been known to the public for years, and they even show his face on the news whenever a story about him breaks out. So you'd figure that at some point a pedestrian would see him and go: "holy crap! It's that Punisher, fella from the news!" But we never see that happen. How come? The newer Punisher comics dealt with this by having Frank wear a mask whenever he goes out and does his whole vigilante shtick. Because he doesn't want the public to know that Frank Castle, and the Punisher are the same person. But here, everybody knows what the Punisher's true identity is, and what he looks like. And yet, nobody ever reacts to him when they see him out and about.
  • Frank is an old, broad-shouldered, grizzled Italian guy in modern New York City, which has a population of eight million people. He has no particularly distinguishing features. There's nothing about him that's so unique that people would recognize him on the street, especially in a city like New York, which is notorious for the blinders worn by its citizenry.
  • It's also a plot point that after the first arc in MAX, the Italian mob is scraping the bottom of the barrel; Frank wiped out the better part of four generations of made men, and by the time of the Widowmaker arc, they're resorting to bringing in talent from way out of town. Even if the survivors did recognize Frank, as seen in Up is Down and Black is White, they'd be just as likely to head the other way as fast as they could.

• Why is there even a S.H.I.E.L.D. at all? S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to be the Government Agency of Fiction of Marvel, sanctioned by the UN to deal with HYDRA and rogue meta-humans, so why is it even a thing? Is it just some redundant spy-agency?
  • In the MAX universe, SHIELD was created during the Cold War to oppose the Soviets rather than metacriminals. It's basically just a souped up version of the U.N and NATO forces. Once the Cold War was over, it had pretty much served it's purpose, which is why Fury mentions it being neutered.

• A small one from the Mother Russia arc: when The Punisher and his US military sidekick are trapped in the Russian base, the sidekick says that the Russian computer system is easy to figure out because, "It's almost completely obsolete. If you can use an iPod, you're overqualified for this thing." Except...wouldn't old computer tech make it more difficult to use? IIRC, that system was implied to have been installed and used during the Soviet Union days, meaning an operator would probably have to use command lines and such. On the other hand, modern tech like the iPod he mentioned is generally a lot more user-friendly.