The Batlord

Holy ****! That was awesome! There's just something about the Punisher. He's pretty much what an actual superhero would be in the real world, even though he's not really "super", and not much of a hero. If anybody was gonna strap up and dedicate their life to fighting crime, they'd probably have to be a borderline-psychotic, ex-military gun nut whose family had been murdered right in front of him. He's pretty much Batman, but stripped of all the rationalizations that make him kid friendly.

And yet pretty much nobody can name a single one of his enemies, allies, or famous storylines. I imagine the fact that he's generally kept PG-13 leaves him in also-ran status. But there's a reason I checked this series out: I saw it on a list of the best comic book series ever made. Apparently when you let the character loose in all of his rated R glory, magic happens.

It says something about this series that, even though Frank Castle pretty much has no personality to speak of, no character arc (so far), and shows barely a hint of human emotion, that he is still such an imposing figure in this story. In fact, he's ****ing terrifying. For the most part you don't even see his face, and I'm not sure if they ever show his eyes. Almost every time you see him he's shrouded in shadow with a face so lined that you're not sure if they're wrinkles, scars, or just the outward manifestation of his own scarred soul. The first time you ever actually see his eyes---kinda sorta---is in a pitch black room while he's telling a "friend" that he plans to kill him. I say "kinda sorta" because the lack of light in the room leaves his eyes as pitch black orbs of nothingness, with twin points of light in each one that give a horrifying approximation of pupils. So, for pretty much the entire series (or at least the series that I've read), Frank Castle looks like a demon from hell. No humanity, no soul, just robotic malevolence.

Perhaps even more impressive is that I really can't empathize with this character at all. For instance, issue #1 starts with the murder of his family, and I actually felt something---in what in a good person might be called a "soul"---when I saw the look of fear on his daughter's face, underneath the caption...

"I hit the ground beside my daughter. She'd been gutshot, badly, and when she saw the things that boiled and wriggled from her belly the expression on her face was not a little girl's."

Sad ****, right? And yet the sociopath that we see afterward bears no resemblance to anything that had ever been a father, so any empathy just doesn't transfer. All that's left of Frank Castle is a killing machine without remorse.

I think the perfect summation of his character is in issue #4, when he is telling a story to a "friend". After the murder of Frank Castle's family, but before he became the Punisher, a neighbor comes to his house, and they have a talk. At one point the neighbor mentions that he's left his wife for a coworker. Castle responds, "I lost my wife. And you threw yours away like she was nothing", and then proceeds to assault the man. His explanation: "In his heart, he knew it was wrong. But it was what he wanted. So he went ahead and did it, and hoped everything would work out all right. That's why he deserved to be punished." That kind of binary, black/white logic shows the reasoning of a psychopath without emotions like mercy or empathy to influence his outlook on life. It's the reasoning of a child. He may be a "superhero", but at this point he seems more of a serial killer who just so happens to target criminals.

Oh, and the action is pretty badass too...



Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go read issue #7.

P.S. If you're going to read this series, might I suggest listening to Bolt Thrower while you do. I'm not one to listen to music while reading, but it just felt appropriate.

Aw yeah.

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