The Punisher cancel culture’s next target

[nicapica]

Lol at the monster right wing evangelicals created. Remember cancel heavy metal, cancel rap, cancel mortal kombat, cancel Marilyn Manson etc.....

 

[Kforcer]

Lol at the monster right wing evangelicals created. Remember cancel heavy metal, cancel rap, cancel mortal kombat, cancel Marilyn Manson etc.....

Nonetheless, it isn't anything new for the left to want to censor works with messages that undermine a 'progressive' agenda. That goes at least as far back as Plato wanting to ban the poets, including his beloved Homer, from his ideal Republic.

 

[KnightTemplar]

They highlight it in season 1 and then fully talk about it in season 2 in conversations with Karen and Frank's hallucination convo with his dead wife.

"Come home Frank"
*keep in mind, Frank is getting basically beaten to death
"I am home"

Then in season 2 with Karen:
"I think, I was always like this and my wife knew, and she loved me anyway. Then when she was killed, the only cork holding back my true self... was gone and I directed this thing inside of me back out at those responsible"


Punisher has been referenced as the Angel of Death and not just by fans of the character but by Marvel's own characters themselves. Pretty sure Blade described him as such and Blade's a pretty ambiguously moral character as well.

One of the most chilling sequences in Punisher Max is Frank's inner monologue while slaughtering a crack house.

There's a dream I have from time to time.

And in the dream I don't stop.

I kill the soldiers and the hitmen. The extortionists and racketeers. The dark old fucks who send them out to fight. I hold the trigger down until they're all gone.

But I don't stop.

The innocents are watching, just like always. The slack-jawed thousands, staring at the Beast.

My family lie red and shredded in the grass. I turn to the crowd and say,

"If my world ends, so does yours".

I bring the weapon to my shoulder. The recoil starts and I wake up.

It's only a dream, I always tell myself.

It's only a dream.

It's only a dream...

 

[KnightTemplar]

Born is the pinnacle of Ennis' run with the Punisher, a true masterpiece.

That final scene, where we find out who and what Frank has been talking to all this time. And the price it demanded for keeping him alive at Firebase Valley Forge...

 

[Gregolian]

One of the most chilling sequences in Punisher Max is Frank's inner monologue while slaughtering a crack house.

There's a dream I have from time to time.

And in the dream I don't stop.

I kill the soldiers and the hitmen. The extortionists and racketeers. The dark old fucks who send them out to fight. I hold the trigger down until they're all gone.

But I don't stop.

The innocents are watching, just like always. The slack-jawed thousands, staring at the Beast.

My family lie red and shredded in the grass. I turn to the crowd and say,

"If my world ends, so does yours".

I bring the weapon to my shoulder. The recoil starts and I wake up.

It's only a dream, I always tell myself.

It's only a dream.

It's only a dream...

Everything Ennis did with the character is haunting and why Punisher is a great character.

The scene where the guy is blubbering the Lord's prayer and Frank murks him before he gets to the part asking for forgiveness:
"It's a foreign language, but I'd recognize the Lord's prayer anywhere. I end him before he can ask for forgiveness"

 

[KnightTemplar]

Everything Ennis did with the character is haunting and why Punisher is a great character.

The scene where the guy is blubbering the Lord's prayer and Frank murks him before he gets to the part asking for forgiveness:
"It's a foreign language, but I'd recognize the Lord's prayer anywhere. I end him before he can ask for forgiveness"

Slavers. IMHO, the ultimate Punisher story. Ennis said about it,

"I had to do a lot of research on human trafficking and sexual slavery. The story was written out of pure rage. It's the one time I actually wanted someone like Frank Castle to exist in the real world".

There's a scene that gives me the chills no matter how many times I read it. Each panel gets tighter and tighter on Frank, until the last one is just the Skull, while he says,

Later on she told me everything.

About the day she left her village. About Cristu and Vera. The Old Man.

That thing her father said.

About her baby.

When she was done, I knew a lot of men would have to die.

That last line sums up the character for me. Once you cross a certain line, there is no forgiveness, no second chances. No redemption. Castle will kill you; he doesn't even see it as a choice. It's inevitable.

 

[Gregolian]

Garth Ennis summed it up perfectly,

"No one really wants to be the Punisher. No one wants to do three tours in a combat zone, the last one going catastrophically wrong, come home with a head full of broken glass, watch their wife and kids get machine-gunned into bloody offal, and spend of the rest of their life locked in a never-ending cycle of bleak, meaningless slaughter.

The cops who wear the Punisher Skull just wanted to pretend to be Bad Ass for a few hours, then go home to their families".

Captain America beating the shit out of Frank then someone else asking why Frank doesn't fight back:
"Cause he worships Steve. Steve's the whole reason he joined the military. Steve is everything Frank wants to be but knows he can't." -SpiderMan

There's the fucking line in season 2 of Daredevil.
"Just once, just this one time, let's do it your way" -Murdock
"No, once you step to my side of the line, you can't go back" -Castle

The modern versions of Frank, Hell, ALL the versions of Frank that have existed in the main continutity know what he is. The rest of the Marvel universe knows what he is to the point even guys like Blade avoid him and Blade kills just as many fools as Frank does. And yet, when they need to know about the criminal underworld and which mob boss runs things who do they go to? Even Captain America and Thor go to Frank to find out about the darker and seedier side of things.

 

[Gregolian]

Slavers. IMHO, the ultimate Punisher story. Ennis said about it,

"I had to do a lot of research on human trafficking and sexual slavery. The story was written out of pure rage. It's the one time I actually wanted someone like Frank Castle to exist in the real world".

There's a scene that gives me the chills no matter how many times I read it. Each panel gets tighter and tighter on Frank, until the last one is just the Skull, while he says,

Later on she told me everything.

About the day she left her village. About Cristu and Vera. The Old Man.

That thing her father said.

About her baby.

When she was done, I knew a lot of men would have to die.

That last line sums up the character for me. Once you cross a certain line, there is no forgiveness, no second chances. No redemption. Castle will kill you; he doesn't even see it as a choice. It's inevitable.

The end of the Thomas Jane movie:


"The thieves and petty criminals, be careful you do not go further, because I am here"

 

[Last Falconry]

sucks when your character's logo gets co-opted by unemployable chuds

 

[Gregolian]

The other thing people skip about Frank too @KnightTemplar the more I see people talk about the character is how he will fight till he's almost dead to try and prevent other Marvel superheroes from falling to his side of the line.

The aforementioned part with Daredevil. Pretty sure he's threatened to kill Wolverine once or twice when Wolverine was closing to cutting someone's head off. The only guy he doesn't do that with is Deadpool and Blade because Blade is killing vampires and their minions all the time and Deadpool is much like Frank though more willing to be a bad guy.

 

[KnightTemplar]

Captain America beating the shit out of Frank then someone else asking why Frank doesn't fight back:
"Cause he worships Steve. Steve's the whole reason he joined the military. Steve is everything Frank wants to be but knows he can't." -SpiderMan

There's the fucking line in season 2 of Daredevil.
"Just once, just this one time, let's do it your way" -Murdock
"No, once you step to my side of the line, you can't go back" -Castle

The modern versions of Frank, Hell, ALL the versions of Frank that have existed in the main continutity know what he is. The rest of the Marvel universe knows what he is to the point even guys like Blade avoid him and Blade kills just as many fools as Frank does. And yet, when they need to know about the criminal underworld and which mob boss runs things who do they go to? Even Captain America and Thor go to Frank to find out about the darker and seedier side of things.

I loved the scene in Punisher Max where Frank meets the one character even more cynical, ruthless and battle-hardened than himself: the OG Nick Fury.

"Nick Fury. Old school cold warrior. The original black ops hard-case. Long before I stepped off a C13O at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia".

 

[Gregolian]

I loved the scene in Punisher Max where Frank meets the one character even more cynical, ruthless and battle-hardened than himself: the OG Nick Fury.

"Nick Fury. Old school cold warrior. The original black ops hard-case. Long before I stepped off a C13O at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia".

I liked SLJ as Fury (even though mentally I kept adding "motherfucker" to the end of all his lines) but hated how they glossed over what a hard ass he could be.

 

[KnightTemplar]

The other thing people skip about Frank too @KnightTemplar the more I see people talk about the character is how he will fight till he's almost dead to try and prevent other Marvel superheroes from falling to his side of the line.

The aforementioned part with Daredevil. Pretty sure he's threatened to kill Wolverine once or twice when Wolverine was closing to cutting someone's head off. The only guy he doesn't do that with is Deadpool and Blade because Blade is killing vampires and their minions all the time and Deadpool is much like Frank though more willing to be a bad guy.

Yeah, there's a story arc, The Devil in Cell Block D, in which Murdoch is sent to prison. He's close to breaking at one point, and killing Wilson Fisk, who he blames for the death of Foggy Nelson. So Frank kills a pimp who's beating one of his girls, then surrenders just so he can get sent to the same prison. He later escapes, taking Murdoch, "hostage" - which proves that he's just a blind man, not Daredevil and gets him released. When Murdoch asks Frank why he did all this, Frank replies,

"You're not me, Murdoch. You needed to be reminded of that".

 

[Gregolian]

Yeah, there's a story arc, The Devil in Cell Block D, in which Murdoch is sent to prison. He's close to breaking at one point, and killing Wilson Fisk, who he blames for the death of Foggy Nelson. So Frank kills a pimp who's beating one of his girls, then surrenders just so he can get sent to the same prison. He later escapes, taking Murdoch, "hostage" - which proves that he's just a blind man, not Daredevil and gets him released. When Murdoch asks Frank why he did all this, Frank replies,

"You're not me, Murdoch. You needed to be reminded of that".

The argument Matt and Frank have on the rooftop also shows this great:

 

[KnightTemplar]

Bernthal was a great Punisher. The problem with the Netflix series was they all had to be thirteen episodes long. Sometimes that worked, like Daredevil. But other series, including the Punisher's, had way too much filler just to stretch out the runtime.

The resulted in Frank being too, "human", rather than the remorseless, cold-blooded killing machine we all know and love

 

[tonni]

Cancel Culture will eventually cancel everything. But, this is what you liberals asked for.

Rip

 

[My Spot]

In Garth Ennis' seminal run on the comic, it's heavily implied that not only is Frank a high-functioning psychopath, but also the avatar of the Angel of Death himself. As Micro tells him,

"You kill because you like it, Frank. Maybe it was in you all the time, or maybe it was Vietnam. I know all about that Scout-Sniper work in your second tour. I know something happened on your third.

You see, I think some...darkness reached out to you, Frank. And I think you told it...Yes"

That’s exactly what happened in Born (also written by Ennis). It’s about his third tour in Nam and the voice speaking to him (probably Death).
Of course he was ready to murder someone at the age of 10 (The Tyger) long before his first tour.

 

[KnightTemplar]

That’s exactly what happened in Born (also written by Ennis). It’s about his third tour in Nam and the voice speaking to him (probably Death).

Exactly. The final scenes of Born are absolutely chilling. When Frank's fighting hand to hand with waves of NVA,

Time to shit or get off the pot, Frank. You've been hit three times now. Four. You'll burn out the barrel on that M60 any moment now.

I can help you, if you'll only say the word. You know you want to. Three tours in Nam, Frank. Seeking without realising. Into the nightmare again and again and again. What was it kept you coming back? What else could you be looking for but this?

(Frank kills an NVA soldier by ramming the red hot barrel of his M60 into the man's stomach)

I can help you. There'll be a price, but nothing's free. Say no, and you're one more KIA on a hill no one gave a fuck about to begin with. Say yes, and I'll give what you've wanted all these years.

(It's hand to hand combat now, Frank killing NVA with an entrenching tool as they try to bayonet him to death)

A war that lasts for ever! A war that never ends! But you have to SAY THE WORD, FRANK!

(Close up of Frank's face, grinning maniacally)"YES!"

 

[nicapica]

Nonetheless, it isn't anything new for the left to want to censor works with messages that undermine a 'progressive' agenda. That at least as far back as Plato wanting to ban the poets, including his beloved Homer, from his ideal Republic.

Lol these are literally their children doing this cancel culture thing

 

[Kforcer]

Lol these are literally their children doing this cancel culture thing

Again, if you think that the idea of censoring works with ideas that undermine their agenda is something new to the left, you're wrong. Like I said, it goes back at least as far as Plato and probably further than that.