Corrupting the Punisher

The following post was written by the owner of Randomology, a web site dedicated to art and the world of geek.  He is a writer and teacher based in Laredo, Texas.  Shared with permission.

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Whenever I see military or law enforcement members using the Punisher logo, I immediately think one of two things about them. Either they lack critical analysis skills, or if they do have such, they are someone you want to avoid at all costs.

The Punisher, Frank Castle, in virtually every single version of the character, is a vigilante who works outside the law and hands out lethal justice. While some of his targets could hardly be empathized with, I'm thinking primarily of human traffickers and sadistic killers; the people who post this image as an emblem of how they see themselves are not Frank Castle.

These are the same people who will either say or have somewhere on their person or car a variation of the saying: it takes a wolf to guard the sheep.

No.

A wolf does not guard sheep. A sheep dog guards sheep. And the fact that you consider the people you are sworn to protect as nothing more than sheep goes to show how little you think of them and how powerfully you think of yourself. Because once the "bad" wolves are gone, we still have a wolf...

The Punisher is one of the iconic anti-heroes. In fact, his status as a hero is highly debatable. It's not a stretch to say that Frank Castle is a man consumed by war. Many versions even show that Frank Castle is a man incapable of moving on and lives in a constant state of warfare. As much as he grieves his family, he is more at peace in a war zone than he ever was as a family man. This is a truly Broken Man. And the only thing keeping him from being labeled a serial killer is... actually, there really isn't anything that differentiates Castle from a serial killer.

And for anyone about to tell me that I don't know what it's like to be on the streets with a target on my back like police officers, I'd like to remind you that law enforcement is not even the deadliest profession in the country. And if you are so trigger-happy that you can't help but pull your gun and shoot someone for the perception of a threat you're not even sure is real, you have no business wearing a badge. Same thing goes for lunatics who join up to fly across the world so they can justifiably shoot at other human beings.