In Marvel’s Punisher #1, Frank Castle is faced with a ghost from his past that has a drastically different effect on the vigilante than it has before.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Punisher #1, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Frank Castle has officially resurfaced in the Marvel Universe, leaving a bloody trail in his wake as he returns to his violent legacy as the Punisher. This time around, the Punisher has a shadowy benefactor in the ancient ninja cult The Hand, with Frank selected as the mystical syndicate’s new enforcer after personally impressing the matriarch of the dark organization. The Hand offers Frank the ultimate incentive for his services in the form of his resurrected wife Maria, even though this is a prize that Frank has denied before.
The eighth comic book volume of the Punisher was launched in the midst of “Dark Reign,” a publishing initiative that saw some of the Marvel Universe’s biggest supervillains take control of the world after Norman Osborn defeated the Skrulls during the 2008 crossover event Secret Invasion. This seismic shift saw the Punisher primarily target supervillains rather than the usual low-level criminals that he massacred for years. Eventually, the Punisher confronted the Hood, a villain who took the helm of the criminal underworld following a power vacuum left by the fall of the Kingpin. In the face of the Punisher and the Hood’s showdown, the supervillain pulled out all the stops by resurrecting Frank’s wife and children by way of an occult ritual.
This fateful confrontation occurs in 2009’s Punisher #10 vol. 8 (by Rick Remender, Tan Eng Huat, Lee Loughridge and Joe Caramagna), with Frank witnessing his family emerging from their caskets. Maria and his children’s murders provided the justification for his lethal war on crime and the Punisher immediately forces the villain Firebrand to burn them alive just moments after their resurrection. Shaken by the entire ordeal, the Punisher executes Firebrand on the spot before resuming his never-ending war on crime, gunning for the Hood’s cartel even more obsessively than before.
There are several reasons behind the Punisher deciding to incinerate his family rather than be reunited with them. The Hood bringing back Maria and the children is used by the villain as a weapon to keep the Punisher off-balance. Frank would rather destroy this twisted image of his family rather than allow their memories and lives to continue to be tainted by the Hood’s agenda and dark magic — the Punisher goes as far as to declare that the resurrected Castles aren’t his real family to underscore that point. The other idea is that Frank wouldn’t want his family to see what he has become and used their memory to do, with hundreds of criminals dead in his wake all stemming from their murders.
It’s unclear what makes The Hand bringing back Maria Castle different than what the Hood did, but there is an entire unseen conversation between the reunited couple after the Punisher cuts through waves of Hand ninja. Punisher #1 vol. 14 (by Jason Aaron, Jesus Saiz, Paul Azaceta, Dave Stewart and VC’s Cory Petit) tells the story of the Punisher confronting his blood-soaked legacy, and his new life with Maria offers him a purpose without compromising the deadly mission he has chosen for himself, settling into his role as the world’s most successful mass-murderer, now with his wife by his side.
The burning of the Castle family reflected Remender’s themes during his Punisher run, indicating just how ugly and costly Frank’s war on crime had become. The Punisher is at a different place in his life that now allows him to be reunited with his wife without torching her on the spot. But given the true nature of The Hand, Frank may have just made a deal with the devil that may eventually make him wish he had followed the same fiery strategy he applied years ago.
About The Author
For all the latest Comics News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
