Trade Review #6--Punisher: Born

Oh man, if there is a character I can really dig, its the Punisher.  Whenever I played the Marvel MMO, Frank Castle was my guy!  If there is anyone I know who loves the Punisher more than me, it's my guy Jason from Chops Comics.  When I received my "surprise me" order from him, Punisher: Born (a 2003 run published by Marvel under the MAX imprint) was in the stack, and I was super hyped!

Punisher: Born TBP (Marvel, MAX)
​By: Garth Ennis, Darick Robinson, Tom Palmer

So, we all know what helped push Frank Castle into becoming the Punisher...

via GIPHY

But there is never much insight into what makes Frank Castle be the violent sociopath that lays at the core of Castle.  Born, is the perfect insight into what hardened Frank into the war-loving, state-of-nature embracing, Hobbesian being who becomes the Punisher.  Born focuses on the final days of Castle at the Valley Forge base in Cambodia during the Vietnam war.  Most of the story is told through the eyes of Steve Goodwin, who is counting his days until he gets to go home.  Goodwin is war-adverse but is serving out of a sense of duty, and he is critical of folks like Castle who are life-long Jarheads who are back on multiple tours of duty.  

Throughout the four-day span of the book, we see Castle's sense of duty and justice in very violent ways.  From allowing a visiting General who was doing a base inspection to wonder into a sniper zone to be killed, because he was shutting the base down, to killing a female Viet-Cong operative who was being sexually assaulted (and then drowning her attacker from his platoon) everything he does is out of his sense of right and wrong.

However, a voice begins to speak to him during the final days of the mission.  From fighting the urges to kill his CO with a grenade while he takes a shit, to embracing that he will do "anything" to save the platoon while under heavy firefight in the final book, the voice may be setting the sights on the target who is eventually responsible for turning Frank into the Punisher.

​I really really enjoyed this book, and I think my guy Jason from Chops Comics delivered on another solid recommendation.  It makes me want to ask for other Punisher titles in my next "surprise me" order from him.

I'll also note, as I so eloquently noted in one of my Punisher Soviet reviews: 
​I. LOVE. GARTH. ENNIS. PUNISHER. BOOKS.
FULL STOP.