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The Punisher: A Nightmare Not A Hero


July 13, 2013 I eagerly rushed out of the hotel I was working at that summer. Hoping not to miss my bus as it was the last one that night at 1am. Another wouldn't come until 6am. As I emerged from the employee entrance my mother waited calmly in her car. I entered, surprised she would pick me up from work as she had to be at church early that morning. I sat and she took my hands, with tears in her eyes, telling me that she loved me even if we didn't always get along. 

July 13, 2013 was the night George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin. That's a night forever burned into my memory because I had never seen my mother so scared for my life before. You may be wondering what any of this has to do with my distaste of The Punisher, the answer is simple. George Zimmerman is no different than The Punisher in my mind. A person on a power trip looking to evoke his wrath and personal sense of justice on whoever they feel deserves it.

The Punisher initially started his spree killings as a way to get revenge on the people who killed his family. Understandable, he isn't the first character to do this. Did Batman not become a hero to find his parents killers and make sure it would never happen to another child? Did Spider-Man not put on the suit to make amends for Uncle Ben's death? Death can be a powerful motivator and it motivated The Punisher like it had many characters other than The Punisher.

The fact that The Punisher kills doesn't bother me at all. Some of my favorite characters have been known to kill. Nighthawk and Jason Todd are among my favorite heroes and they never had a problem killing someone. Yet, when Punisher does it, there's a chill down my spine. Nighthawk never saw killing as the only option, and it was his choice only when he had no other solutions. Jason Todd always stated there's a difference between killing and murdering. If you someone dies while attempting to kill you, then you've killed a person, but it is murder when that person poses no threat to you or anyone else. It's at the point where Jason currently uses non lethal bullets unless the situation calls for something more.

The Punisher doesn't have any limits. He kills anyone he feels has crossed him. I remember one scene where The Punisher had tracked down a woman named Vera Konstantin. I don't remember what crime she had committed. What I do remember is The Punisher repeatedly throwing her against a glass window in a sky scraper, panel after panel, over and over again, until it broke and she plummeted to her death while still begging him to stop. That's not the most violent thing I've seen in a comic at all.Yet, Punisher is the only "hero" that goes these lengths to torture and humiliate his victims when most villains have codes of conduct that wouldn't allow this.

When Jason Todd kills someone, it's fast, efficient and many times it is out of mercy. On one occasion Jason killed a Talon, essentially a superhuman minion for The Court of Owls. While other members of the Bat Family were attempting to subdue them, Jason realized they were begging for death as they were essentially zombies with no free will. He had no problem killing them and setting them free of what they considered to be eternal prisons. When The Punisher murders someone it is never fast. He often takes the time to taunt them, give some kind of meaningless speech or gleefully torture them sometimes. Characters like Nighthawk and Wonder Woman take no pleasure in killing. Punisher is unique because he not only enjoys killing. He relishes the torture. He doesn't do these things because he's fighting evil. He does them because he enjoys murder and figures that nobody will care as long as he's killing criminals, or at least people he sees as criminals.

For the sake of argument, let's say Punisher is a man possessed. A man who is only driven by wanting revenge for his family. The problem is, he avenged his family a long time ago. At this point he's killing simply because he enjoys it. He's killing because it gives him a rush. It doesn't even matter if his victims are guilty, if they're criminals or either heroes. On one occasion Punisher attempted to murder Blade because he didn't like Blade hunting vampires on what Punisher considered to be his personal turf. Punisher has killed Captain America. He doesn't care who he's hurting. He does it because he enjoys it.

The Punisher scares me. If you don't view him as a serial killer, that's fine. Just consider the following. There are millions of people who idolize Frank Castle around the world. People who think they are the ultimate justice. Have you never seen the Blue Lives Matter Punisher Skulls? There's guys who practice open carry and march around the streets wearing Punisher emblems because they think they're doing what Frank does. They think it is okay and they idolize him. Maybe I'm the strange one but when I see police officers wearing Punisher emblems proudly I don't just get scared, I get sick. The idea of police dispensing justice as they see fit like The Punisher, should not sit well with anyone. 

The Punisher could never be a hero to me. The Punisher is the type of thing I have nightmares about. How is The Punisher any different than George Zimmerman? How is he any different than a police officer who decides to shoot an unarmed person? The Punisher is never going to be someone I see as a symbol of justice. He's nothing more than a serial killer who escapes punishment time and time again when many other people would be locked away or executed for the things he does. The Punisher is no hero, he's no different than Freddy Krueger or Jason Vorhees. The Punisher is a nightmare.

You should buy Darrell's Book, watch him on the Blerds Online YouTube Channel or The CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. 
Darrell S.

Hey, I write stuff, a lot of different stuff, that's all.

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