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Proceeds from these pages go to support the work of the ERIICA
Project and the student creators, including the publication of future editions of
The Workday Comic.
For more information, contact Dr. Travis Langley (email: langlet at hsu.edu). |
Torn from his family in a vicious
attack, the character Frank Castle vows upon their graves to wage a one-man war
against crime as the Punisher. Are his motives truly to create a safer living
environment for his city, thereby keeping others from suffering the same, or is
he stricken with survivor's guilt and taking to the streets in an attempt to
meet with the same fate as his family? His actions may indicate the latter when
he charges into deadly situations with reckless abandon, particularly when he
seems to show regret at his own success. On the other hand, he executes his
deadly agenda with a tactical precision that could only come from his previous
years of military training and repeatedly survives over the course of hundreds
of war journal entries. The characters shows little interest in helping or
cooperating with others, even those who share the very same goals as himself.
Despite more than three decades of comic books depicting his adventures, his
true motives often remain unclear. In the course of hunting and exterminating
criminals, he has distance himself from other human beings and even from
anything resembling a normal human life. Even though he fights crime, his
brutal methods may meet criteria for antisocial personality disorder,
particularly if the signs of regret at his own success indicate something
self-destructive rather than distaste for his own violence. Issues of guilt,
obsession, locus of control, and distorted perceptions of reality are
considered.
The Punisher, as a comic book
character, sprung up in 1974 in issue #129 of Spider-Man. It was a simple "What-If" comic
book scenario, in which The Punisher kills Spider-Man because he was tricked
into believing that he was a murderer.
From there, he only played small supporting roles in comic books for
many years, until Mike Zeck and Steven Grant decided to put him in the
spotlight with his own comic. Though
this is not the same Punisher that people are used to these days, it was just
the jumpstart that was needed to push him from side-story lunatic to headlined
anti-hero.
The character himself, Frank Castle,
is of Italian-American descent, and was raised by a devoutly catholic family in
New York. When he grew up, he believed
at first that his calling was to be a man of the cloth. As he began traveling down that path, he came
to realize that he found himself unable to forgive sinners, and dropped out of
his seminary. He then went on to marry
Maria Falconio and, as an effort to support his new family, signed up to join
the Marine Corps. During his duty,
Castle performed expertly in most every position he tried. He gained excessive military training in many
areas, honing his mind and body for what he could have never seen coming. While on a picnic with his family, his wife
and child got caught in the crossfire of a mafia assassination. Castle soon came to find out how corrupt of a
city he lived in when he learned that the police were unable to touch the men
who viciously gunned down his family. He
decided to take the fight into his own hands, letting go of what was left of
his previous life, and becoming The Punisher.
Frank Castle would not seem to most to
have a psychological disorder. He is
intelligent, but not neurotic; organized, but not compulsive; and though he can
commit the most gruesome acts, subjecting his victims to deathly horrors that
most could not even imagine in their darkest nightmares, he is consciously
aware of his actions, and can still fully distinguish from right and wrong, whether
he acknowledges it or not. He does,
however, seem to have a fair grip on the human psyche himself, often times
using psychology and mind games to lure his victims to their fate, or tricking
them into helping him. One of the
biggest testaments to his psychological tactics is his outfit. In most cases, it is all black from head to
toe, save for one shockingly conspicuous white skull on his chest. It serves a couple of purposes. First, it conveys a message of fear,
terrifying and intimidating his victims.
Second, it is a distraction for gunfire.
It acts as a target, leading bullets away from his face to the kevlar he
wears underneath his suit. The colors
also outline his general personality. No
matter what year, what comic, up until the transfer to Captain America, The
Punisher's outfit is always black and white.
This is an homage to his personal viewpoint. There are no grey areas in his eyes, there is
only guilt or innocence. One could
almost believe that he may have himself studied Psychology, judging by his
extensive usage of it in his daily work.
The Punisher has become a recluse from
society. This is not to say that he is
unfit for normal human interaction in daily life, but that he has set himself
apart from other people by choice.
Though the Punisher displays numerous signs of Antisocial Personality
Disorder, one could argue that he is not actually inflicted, as he carries a
number of the traits by pure will, knowing that they are deplorable
characteristics, but embracing them as necessities for his work. He has been known to band up with other
superheroes to help fight villains.
However, these particular adventures are typically short lived, and he
soon returns to his general animosity for his short-lived ally. There have been other vigilantes who have
sprung up, inspired by him to take up their own cause. In such cases, he has been known to simply
eradicate these loose ends, knowing that they can only lead to more harm than
good. Another reason he does not often
work with others is because of a lack of trust.
He has lost essentially all trust in mankind. He even has little trust in himself, knowing
that he is just as dangerous as the people he targets, and that one day, he too
will have to pay the price for what he does.
The Punisher's
true motives are truly unclear. He
started his work due to the fact that his wife and child were murdered, but
revenge can be easily ruled out, considering he has been killing others aside
from those who murdered his family for a long time now. It is unlikely that the Punisher is bent on
taking down the entire criminal underworld.
This would be an impossible goal, even for one such as himself. Even if he could manage to kill every
criminal in the world at a particular time, this wouldn't mean that no others
would spring up before he were finished.
His task is virtually without end.
Perhaps the Punisher understands the futility of his work, and has
accepted that the inevitable end to what he does will not culminate in total
victory, but in his own death. The
Punisher blazes into every situation, understanding that he may not come out of
it alive. He seems to have come to terms
with this fact, which makes it somewhat of a surprise that he still lives on.
There
has been much speculation as to how the Punisher would handle things if ever
his work were to come to an end. Little
is known about what he would do, but there have been a couple of side stories
and future set comics that highlight his possible resolutions. In the side series, "The Punisher Kills
the Marvel Universe," the Punisher is requested to kill every superhero on
Earth. He takes on the job the same way
he goes about killing criminals in his actual series. In the end, after his work is essentially
complete, he turns his logic on himself and takes his own life. In another scenario, the Punisher is seen
fifty years down the road, escaping from maximum security prison during a
nuclear winter that has covered the face of the planet. He staggers across a radioactive wasteland in
search of a compound in New York, hidden ninety stories underground, containing
rich businessmen and politicians responsible for funding the destruction of the
Earth. He seeks out their safe house,
and arrives to learn that these are the last people remaining in the
world. Being not frightened, but pleased
to hear so, he opens fire, and successfully brings an end to the human race.
How
does The Punisher view himself? This is
an interesting question, considering his line of work. It doesn't seem possible that a man who
executes murderers could view himself as righteous. The scenario from "The Punisher Kills
the Marvel Universe" answers a long pondered question. If the Punisher were able to kill every
single criminal, wouldn't he be the only one left? The truth is, he would be. The Punisher recognizes what he does as the
lesser of two evils, but an evil nonetheless.
He understands that, were he able to cleanse the Earth of all criminals,
the only thing standing in the way of true peace would be himself. He knows that his only place is in a world
that is still inhabited by criminals.
The interesting reality is that the fact that The Punisher seems like a mentally disturbed person probably points to the fact that he is not. This isn't to say that he has no Psychological disfunctions, but that he doesn't actually suffer from anything much deeper than any other person who would may have suffered from the same losses as him. The true distinction is the fact that he is in a comic book. Comic books tend to take certain feelings, and escalate them to their greatest extremes. Rather than a man in his position in real life, who might do everything in his power to make sure no other criminals get the chance to take from others what was taken from him, the comic shows what he would like to do; his fantasy. The claim here is not that The Punisher is not crazy because he is not real, the claim is that The Punisher, in The Punisher's world, is not crazy because of the escalated situation in his comic books. He is a man running around in a costume fighting crime in a city full of men running around in costumes fighting crime.
