Marvel Comics General

“You’re single-“

“My family was murdered”

“That does not fit the narrative im going for”

Nowadays Frank wouldn't give a shit or even bother to listen to a sad backstory.

In his earliest appearances, Frank was actually portrayed as a straight-up villain whose moral compass was comparable to characters like JD from Heathers and the villains from Hot Fuzz: "make a Decent World for Decent People by slaughtering anyone even mildly unpleasant."

Given the character's appropriation by, uhh, certain people in recent years, I occasionally wonder if it might be interesting to return him to that, not that it would likely change those people's minds, of course.

A recent comic had Frank say that he has no love for racist and corrupt cops.

Remember that the only reason Frank was going after Spider-Man was because the Jackal tricked him.

Wolverine didn't remember any of his immortality for the vast majority of his existence. And "knives" and "healing" are less grandiose powers that Omega-Level Ice Powers.

Honestly, I kind of think the Punisher has inconsistent characterization because some writers want him to be redeemable while others want him to just flat out be a fascist. Hence why Punisher worked with Hydra and once beat a woman to death under the influence of hate gas (that brings out your worse impulses) or points a gun at Molly versus lecturing cops on being Police Brutality. Both of them feel grossly out of character.

Apparently Judge Dredd's writers have the same issues.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Dec 1st 2020 at 8:05:37 AM

Makes a guy wonder what'll happen once Spider-Man remembers his deal with that SOB in light of Last Remains making explicit references to OMD...

The Punisher's problem isn't his body count, it's his mindset. Killing bad guys is admirable, just not exactly how he does it, and the fact that he's super rigid about it sucks. The time in Civil War when he killed Stilt-Man despite the guy literally working for the government and doing good is a great example of that.

Daredevil#25 gives us a new daredevil...Electra

I do quite like that costume.

Yo! That Elektra daredevil costume? Might be my favorite Daredevil costume.

I am entirely comfortable with the idea that Frank Castle should be closer to DEXTER rather than Rambo (who Wolverine is closer to, IMHO). The idea Frank is a serial killer and does it because he likes it.

One of the few Ennis ideas I really liked was that the last conversation Frank had with his family was that he wanted a divorce.

That was Jason Aaron, who revealed that Frank secretly hated his life and family and planned on leaving them so that he could kill people for Nick Fury.

It should definitely be an alt costume for the character in the next Ultimate Alliance.

Really should read Pun Max one of these days. Especially since it is collected in a Complete Collection trades.

Personally, I don't like the sociopath Punisher interpretation — I like it more when he's a severely fucked up individual who nonetheless still retains a little bit of humanity.

It depends if you want from the Punisher I suppose. I say the problem with the character stems from the inability to balance him being a mass murderer of all criminals vs. someone who isn't a despicable monster.

Netflix Punisher is the only one I feel like the second worked with.

Batman isn't a fascist.

You might argue Frank Castle is.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Dec 1st 2020 at 3:55:57 AM

I don't see how that would even be possible. As you said: he kills virtually all criminals. And majority of crime is committed out of desperation. So, how one could find the Punisher sympathetic, I have no idea.

The Netflix series had Frank Castle primarily fighting the Military Industrial complex and having a desire to lay down his weapons before getting pulled into horrific battles against cults as well as other groups beyond the law.

In other words, they changed Frank's motives completely.

x5 Assuming there is another Ultimate Alliance. Though while we're on that subject, I literally just beat the game today, and I was thinking that Krakoa would make a great level for a potential sequel, going of Ho X-Po X. And based on what I've heard about X of Swords Otherworld could also be an interesting possibility.

EDIT: On Punisher - my understanding is that his direct inspiration was Mack Bolan, an existing prose character who is also a Vietnam vet on a crusade against crime after his family dies because of them.

EDIT EDIT: Also on Punisher - I'm also of the opinion that his core philosophy lines up uncomfortably well with a lot of issues in the Usonian justice system, and a lot of the in-universe attempts to remove him from that aren't very persuasive, I find. That being said I think the discussion would be better served in the Politics in Media thread.

Edited by Aleistar on Dec 1st 2020 at 8:42:02 AM

In the admittedly unlikely event they fully incorporate Marvel, Krakoa would be a good Kingdom Hearts world too. Mindscrewy environments, lots of weird things to jump off of...

Ooooh I'm also curious what other X-Men they could bring.

Maybe Apocalypse could be playable. Finally have a team with Thanos & Apoc working together.

If they can add in a Bad Future level, the case of Powers of X seem like good inclusions, or at least Rasputin and the future Horsemen.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Exiles

All the levels can be based on weird continuity bits, bad futures, and wild A Us and what ifs

Ya know that should be easily feasible for the Lego games.

Huh the next Lego Marvel game will have X & FF franchise characters again, probability even more than the 1st Lego Marvel game.

"Wasn't exactly impressed when one writer did so by having Wolverine taunt Frank for apparently being gay." Frank fucking Tieri. Has that guy ever written anything worthwhile? And yet Marvel keeps giving him work, despite him also being a massive asshole who threatened to beat up a comics journalist.

On that new Daredevil reveal: Not clicking the link because fuck Bleeding Cool, and especially fuck them for leaking stories. Just let the fucking creators tell their stories, Rich Johnston, you fucking gossip hack.

On Punisher: I've never liked him, though some of his '80s stories were pretty enjoyable. His best-ever story was when he met Power Pack, who were trying to stop him from murdering Cloak & Dagger (who he wasn't going to kill anyway).

Is that when Molly punched him in the nuts so hard that he was still doubled over in pain issues later?