Super Soldiers

by Jason Inman

  Patriotism, like every moral aspect of our country, is malleable. The men and women of the 1940s were considered to be the best of the best. They were named the “greatest generation” by NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw. The men and women who served in the 1970s were dubbed murderers. Tomatoes were thrown at them when they returned. No parades greeted their return, only hate. Both generations were good soldiers doing their duty. Yet one generation is loved and the other is hated as a mark of how much American patriotism had changed over thirty years.

  Nuke is the personification of the worst parts of American patriotism. He’s a problematic soldier with similar beliefs to many problematic citizens in our country today. The Americans yelling “blow it all up,” the Americans turning away refugees at our borders, and the Americans yelling “speak American” are an extreme version of our country’s beliefs and values. My training in the military taught me to have honor, dignity, and courage. To not fire upon someone unless it was absolutely necessary and that all soldiers, from any country, are your allies. My America is closer to Captain America’s than Nuke’s. It’s the reason I despise him so much. He’s stuck in a war with its fighting long over, using methods now considered morally repugnant. He’s stuck in the past. Patriotism should always move forward. It should not remain in one place or one conflict; it should always reflect the best of America. As a means to look at the past and improve upon it. That’s the America I believe in. That’s the America that makes me patriotic.

  Chapter 14

  The Punisher

  A Love of War

  Everyone knows the symbol Frank Castle wears. Whether or not you’ve never read a comic before, you’ve seen the skull symbol of the Punisher. Whether it was on a pickup truck or maybe on someone’s backpack, the skull has permeated our pop culture and beyond. Why? At his core, Frank Castle is a normal service member driven to a revenge quest. A marine so damaged beyond repair, his only way of functioning is to always be fighting a war. A war with corrupt officials, a war with superheroes and their values, and a war with criminals. It is an eternal conflict for Frank Castle. He is a post-traumatic stress disorder drama wrapped up in an action revenge tragedy. The Punisher forces us to face some difficult questions. What is “right and wrong” when it comes to our vigilantes, our superheroes, our soldiers, and their families? Can we cheer on a hero as evil as the bad guys? We can. Should we? That’s a tougher question. Furthermore, was it right for Frank Castle to bring the war home with him? When a service member signs up to fight the “good fight” for their country, most of the time, it’s to protect their home. It’s to keep the enemies far from home and keep their family safe. Frank failed on both those counts. Internally and externally, the Punisher brought his war back home, and eventually his family became the true victims of it.

  Frank Castle originally fought in the Vietnam War. This has since been retconned to some unnamed war in Asia, due to Marvel Comics’ sliding timeline to prevent Peter Parker from ever aging beyond forty. Personally, I prefer the Vietnam conflict as the background for Frank’s trauma. The issues raised by one of America’s most divisive conflicts are the perfect ground for the origin of Frank Castle. America has always had problems with the actions of its military in Vietnam, so why shouldn’t that very conflict be the birthplace of one of Marvel Comics’ most troubling heroes?

  He was as decorated a marine as he was a dedicated family man, fighting every battle in the Vietnam War with more passion and grit than most marines. He eventually retired to become a Marine Special Forces instructor back in New York, specifically with the goal to be closer to his wife, Maria, and his two children, Lisa and Francis. Not long after his war, Frank and family went on a picnic in the middle of Central Park. There they became accidental witnesses to a mob execution. The mobsters turned their fire on the Castle family to ensure there would be no witnesses. Frank’s family perished before his eyes. Somehow, Frank was able to survive his wounds, but the violence of war had followed him home. The battle was about to consume his entire life. Frank soon discovered he was unable to move on from the death of his family. It would be a tough task for anyone who wasn’t in the midst of the effects of PTSD. Right as he was about to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Frank disappeared. He felt betrayed by a corrupt criminal system and had decided to take matters into his own hands. When Frank returned weeks later, he sported all black and a large white skull had been painted across the chest of his body armor. Calling himself “The Punisher,” Frank vowed to get his vengeance on those who had killed his family, while at the same time he declared he would end all crime.

  This origin happens before his first appearance in comic books in 1974. In The Amazing Spider-Man #129, the Punisher is an assassin hired by a villain known as the Jackal to kill Spider-Man. Not an anti-hero, not a vigilante, but a straight-up assassin. Over the course of the issue, Frank Castle came to realize that he had been tricked by the Jackal. Spider-Man was not a criminal, nor was he an inherent “bad” guy. Even though Frank was an assassin, he still had some sort of moral code—a code, one can assume, made of the last vestiges of the US Marine Code of Conduct, which would have been drilled into his brain as part of his initial training. He wasn’t about to murder a straight-up good guy. Later in the issue, Punisher teamed up with Spider-Man, and they took down the Jackal. Thus, Punisher’s true comic book origins are revealed.

  How could a straight-up villain, a murderous marine, turn himself around to become a figure worthy of admiration and revered by the modern military? Punisher co-creator Gerry Conway once said in an interview that he believes the public perception of the Punisher is indicative of the perception of the military:

  “The Punisher as a character is a bit of a Rorschach test in that, as time has passed since his creation, we’ve gone through different cultural eras and through each of those the character has been reinterpreted to reflect the concerns of society,” said Conway, in reference to the end of the Vietnam War and the manner in which many veterans were treated when they came home. “If society feels what we are doing is justifiable, the respect for the military is high, if the society feels guilty or shamed in what we’re doing, we project that onto the military.”

  Based on the sage perspective of the Punisher’s co-creator, it can be deduced that the Punisher may be a litmus test for how we judge service members. Remember, at the time of his creation, the Punisher was a veteran of an unpopular war to the citizens of the United States. Service members returned home to be attacked and sometimes brutalized. Now, in the present War on Terror atmosphere, service members are idolized and treated with much respect, with huge celebrations when they return home from their time overseas. (When I returned home, my plane was driven underneath two fire engines shooting jets of water! It was an astounding honor. I wish all my flights received such recognition now.)

  In some ways, by our contemporary mindset, the Punisher can be seen as a hero to modern society. He is a marine who was betrayed by the system. All he retains from his time in the service is a military code of honor and responsibility and single-minded dedication to the mission. The rules of society will not apply to him. The Punisher will hunt down and kill those he deems to be “the bad guys.” This is how the general public views the Punisher. Guns blazing. Skull out front and telling the bad guys it’s time to get what’s coming to them.

  However, that fantasy is the smallest percentage of what makes up Frank Castle. His defining characteristic is trauma. When Frank returned home from the war, he had a very difficult time transitioning back to civilian life; most service members do. (I recounted a similar story of my difficult transition back in the War Machine chapter.) It’s the contrast of, “How can I go from these very stressful situations where my life is literally in danger every second to the complete opposite? A calm world where your biggest decision of the day might be what color shirt to wear.” Compound this transition with the fact that Frank had to witness his family be brutally murdered, and
I hope you can see how it would make any person break down.

  There’s tragic poetry in his origin. Frank finally home from the war. A promise of peace and serenity lies in front of him because he made it home. A calm picnic with his family is yanked away from him in a blast of bullets. Something that should not happen on the home front. Something he fought to ensure would never happen at home. The blood of innocents spilled in a serene place. It would make Frank believe the war was not over. His missions were lies. The peace he was ensuring never existed. It would make anyone wrap up their hidden PTSD in retribution. He couldn’t live without his family. So, when he lost them, he went back to the most comfortable place for him: a war.

  On the other hand, I acknowledge that serving during a time of war isn’t only brutal for the service member; it also affects the family. Every day, a wife can be terrified of receiving the news her soldier husband has perished. A brother can be stressed and worried to receive the call that his airwoman sister was shot down. For all the external conflicts we service members have in combat, our loved ones have to face battle internally. They fight a war as well.

  To worship the Punisher and all that he stands for is to say you are worshipping a man who is hurt. A man who needs help. Nonetheless, rather than offering Frank the help he so desperately needs by way of counseling and/or more, we want to send him back out into the fray. We want him fighting the demons of his mind, projected onto the criminal he believes deserves to be punished. Thinking the deaths of hoodlums and drug dealers will somehow cure his pain. The fandom that has sprung up surrounding this character is confusing to me. It’s also, to my mind, quite controversial, but police officers and service members have taken up the Punisher’s skull sign as a totem to lead them into battle. Even Chris Kyle, the famous subject of American Sniper, admits that his squad had the Punisher skull symbol painted on their equipment. That’s fine for soldiers on the front lines of battle, but on the streets of Anywhere, USA, that could lead to some dangerous situations. Could their love for a damaged character be misplaced? Do they not understand the hurt which exists inside this mentally damaged character’s backstory? Or are they obsessed with the masochistic bloodlust of the Punisher? I think it’s the final option, sadly, because the Punisher is not a character to praise. He’s a character to pity.

  While some stories place the blame for Frank Castle’s murderous turn on the death of his family, Garth Ennis’s story, Born, in 2003, hypothesizes that his rage and anger were always there. It was always waiting for a way to be released. The story shows Frank’s final tour in Vietnam. Frank is portrayed as a hard captain. Another character describes him as being “in love with war.”

  I have known many soldiers who were “in love with war.” It’s a sad side effect that the military draws out of these people. We all know examples of them in our lives. They’re the friends who would easily rattle off a statement like “Blow up the Middle East!” A statement so ludicrous and ignorant of the details of the situation, it always makes me facepalm. From my perspective, service members have a duty of protection. To always protect the ideals and the people of their home country. Soldiers are not killers first. Killing should always be the last option. Every soldier on each side wants to go home to their loved ones. None of us want to pull the trigger. It’s the absolute last option. Protect the innocent, protect your battle buddies, and protect your ideals; it’s the only motto that will get you safely through a war. Anyone who thinks more bullets, explosions, and death will save them is completely insane.

  Unfortunately, we see a fully insane Frank Castle in the aforementioned Garth Ennis tale. (I must warn some of my readers about the brief mention of sexual violence. It’s sadly a common scene in many Garth Ennis stories.) Born reveals what happened during a four-day battle at Firebase Valley Forge, an outpost on the South Vietnamese-Cambodian border. During his last tour, Frank Castle committed several reprehensible acts. He drowned one of the men in his command when that marine raped a female Viet Cong sniper. Frank shot the same sniper during her rape to put her out of her misery. He continued to lead his squad out on patrols into the dangerous jungle, allowing his squad to slowly be picked off one by one in Viet Cong ambushes. The firebase was due to be closed in less than four days. There was no need for constant patrols. Frank and his men could have safely stayed behind enemy lines. Instead, Frank’s drive for violence led them back out into the fray and to their eventual deaths for the possibility of one last engagement. One last fight to possibly satisfy Frank’s bloodlust. Well, Frank got his wish. On the fourth and final day, the firebase was attacked. As a result of Frank’s patrols, the outpost was undermanned, a military ghost town. It presented the perfect target for the Viet Cong. Under the cover of night, they attacked the fortification, having planned their attack to coincide with a rainstorm to help hide their numbers. The marines engaged in the fight, but wave after wave of Viet Cong stormed over the walls. Frank and his men soon found themselves running out of ammunition. His men began to drop. A pile of bodies overwhelmed the base. So much so, there was no way to determine which body at their feet was a friendly or a foe. Frank found himself alone in the base. He was the last marine standing. His weapon was overheated. It would take a miracle for him to survive. Over the noise of the carnage, Frank could hear a voice in his head. Was this voice imagined? Was this voice real? Smartly, the writer never revealed the truth to the reader. The voice inside Frank’s head offered him the strength to survive the night. This battle would not kill him. All it asked for in return was an unknown-to-the-reader price. Frank agreed to this devil’s bargain, and the comic cuts away. The next morning, air support finally arrived. The firebase was now destroyed, with not a single building remaining intact. However, one person did emerge intact: Frank Castle. Atop a gigantic pile of bloody bodies and debris, he alone stood. Frank was bleeding from several gunshot wounds but gave no indication of pain. The voice allowed him to survive the night. It allowed him to kill every single Viet Cong who had invaded his base.

  Later, the story hints that the price of survival was the lives of Frank’s family back home. This entity forced Frank to give up the only thing capable of ever bringing him happiness in exchange for endurance. However, I have a different outlook on this story. I believe the voice inside of Frank’s head was Frank. The carnage and the destruction of the night’s events made his mind snap. How could they not? Also, consider that this battle happened toward the end of Frank’s third tour in Vietnam. His third tour! Earlier events in the same story proved Frank Castle was not the sanest of men, and when the battle began and fellow marines around him dropped, I believe that voice was Frank’s “Punisher” persona. It’s the voice that gives him permission to do what is necessary. It’s the voice that gives him the out to take bloody and brutal actions when he wants to. It’s the voice that tells him what he does is morally right, even though we, as readers, know he’s completely wrong. I believe the Punisher was born on that day in this story, and there was no chance of a happy home life for Frank Castle. This is a sad truth for many people who are veterans like him. Sometimes the war is too much.

  I never experienced a tragedy like Frank Castle’s. I would surmise that most service members don’t. However, I have had military experiences that can make me empathize with the Punisher. I went on several dangerous missions. I drove Humvees through bare hills filled with hellacious pitfalls, and my unit lost people. Combat is a symphony of chaos. Danger surrounds you from every side. Noise fills your every thought, and the only way you can survive is to ignore it all. Just function. It goes against our every human instinct. We want to cower, run, and hide. However, if you do that in combat, you will be killed. Your only chance of survival rests on your becoming a robot, going through the motions of your training, and executing the goal.

  That’s the way the Punisher operates at all times. Find the target, engage the target, and execute the threat. Yet this is not how a service member should operate in a civilian environme
nt, and that is exactly where all the Punisher’s missions take place. Our cities and streets are where Frank hunts his prey.

  Frank was a family man. Remember he had two children and a wife? A family he fought through hell to get back to. A family he intentionally took a posting to be closer to. They should be the moral absolute Frank holds to. The Punisher is a collateral damage machine. He doesn’t care what buildings get destroyed, or whose father he obliterates, as long as the guilty are punished. I find it very hard to believe the innocent casualty list from the Punisher’s actions isn’t longer than his guilty list. One cannot operate in a civilian theatre like one does in a combat zone. It’s the line I draw on the Punisher. It’s the line I know I would never cross. It’s a line I believe someone who is hungry for war and damage would. Someone who wants the blood. Someone who was bored with civilian life, family life. Someone who missed the action. That’s the Punisher, for me.

  Frank Castle is a hurt man. Suffering from his pain, he deems it his mission to take out the ones leading the world to a dark and deadly place. But who the hell assigned him this task? Who in their right mood would pick this damaged service member as the avenging angel of justice?

  While Frank has qualities that are commendable—his strength, his decisiveness, and his tenacity—he should not be praised for how he operates. The world is not black and white, like the symbol he wears on his chest. His simple view of the world should not be lauded. Yes, I can see the value in a hero who takes on corrupt officials at all levels, but from my veteran perspective, I also see a very hurt man. I have no desire to celebrate that.

  The Punisher is ultimately a dark vision of the breakdown of our society when a war takes over our lives. When we think those in charge aren’t looking out for us, we see the Punisher as the ultimate savior. He can get past the red tape; he can right the wrongs with his weapons. Nonetheless, the Punisher is a villain. He should not be cheered on. He should be helped. We can praise his strength and his resolve, but his mission is wrong. Frank Castle does not need more bad guys to kill. Frank needs a hug and support. Why has no one in the Marvel Universe given it to him?