Frank Castle was a highly skilled Vietnam veteran turned family man.
One day, he and his family were having a picnic in the park, when lo
and behold, they fell upon a Mafia rub out. They opened fire on him and
his family and killed all but him. When the justice system could do
nothing for him, he vowed revenge and became THE PUNISHER.
This is a character I used to follow in his young days, I thoroughly
enjoyed the fact that Frank Castle was just a man. ( Okay, he was
highly exceptional in his capabilities, but still ... ). He didn't
fly, he didn't have laser shooting out of his eyes, and even the fact
that he was bulletproof was attributed to his kevlar vest. It was
ALMOST a realistic character, other than the fact that he went up
against such characters as the Kingpin and Dr. Doom from time to time
and he was still included in the same Marvel universe that holds
Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.
But now comes the release of The Marvel Knights: The Punisher. A four
part mini put out by Marvel Comics over the last 4 months. In this
story arc, The Punisher is resurrected ( after killing himself in prior
stories ) by a renegade angel from Heaven. He ends up battling a demon
from Hell who was incarcerated in a human body ( Not the same way as
Etrigan, "The Demon" ), and finding out that the death of his family
and the consequent beginnings of "The Punisher" were actually
orchestrated by him, placing The Punisher in a totally supernatural
light. I may only be speaking for myself when I say, WHAT A PIECE OF
CRAP! They've taken a character that was mostly a shady cross between
Rambo and James Bond and turned him into a cross between Rambo and
Hellstorm ( who by the way makes a cameo appearance in this series).
Don't get me wrong, SUPER is good, I like the good old superheroes, but
characters should not be messed with on such a drastic level. It's an
even more stupid story turn than the Energy Superman... I mean, if they
had ONLY resurrected him and somehow kept more of what he was all
about.
All in all, after reading 2 issues, I just bought the rest of the series for two reasons:
1) I hate to leave a short mini unfinished.
2) It was on my reserve for two months in advance, so I had no choice but to buy it.