Children and teenagers have traditionally been the target demographic for American comic books’ plots and themes. In fact, the word ‘comic’ refers to humor and humor in general. Nonetheless, as time went on, certain comics began to take on a more mature tone in their work. It was aimed towards adult readers and featured violent violence, profanity, sex, and nudity, akin to Japanese mangas.
There was an infusion of a more mature readership following the growing popularity of DC after creators Neal Adams and Denny O’Neal delved into deeper issues including race, sex, and poverty. Marvel had its fair share of death-related themes, but it was with the entrance of MAX Comics on the market that they really grew into this subgenre.
MAX Comics is a division of Marvel that caters to a more mature audience. They were successful in gaining popularity by releasing unedited entertainment. This leads us to the Punisher franchise. The Punisher is an anti-hero whose origin story begins with criminals murdering his wife and children right in front of his eyes.
In comparison to his Marvel Comics peers, The Punisher was always a far more cutting-edge figure. He had no qualms about murdering, unlike other heroes. Rather, it was in this area that he excelled. But Garth Ennis’ portrayal of The Punisher in Born sealed his place in the dark world of unrestrained brutality.
Despite the fact that Frank Castle was conceived by Gerry Conway, many people believe that Northern Irish writer Garth Ennis did a better job with the complex character. Fans have often remarked on how he resembles Captain America’s shadow side. Captain America became a symbol of optimism, pride, valour, and heroism after the defeat of Hitler in World War II. The Punisher, on the other hand, is a symbol of the fury and negativity that afflicted soldiers and America as a result of the Vietnam War.
Frank Castle is hardly the first character in a comic book to lose a loved one. In fact, this is a repeating storyline for a number of superheroes. However, his loss has prompted him to seek vengeance. And Ennis skillfully exploits this by delving into Frank’s mentality and reminding his readers how, even before his devastating loss, everything was not sunshine and daisies in Frank’s head. Within me, there was constantly a blaze of violence.
Garth Ennis’ novel ‘Born’ takes us to the origin before the origin. Frank Castle takes us back to the period when he was serving in the Vietnam War, revealing the evil that was already existing within him. After killing those connected to his family’s tragedy, Frank could have put an end to his violent behavior. He, on the other hand, does not. Ennis demonstrates that there is something wrong with Frank in the first place and that the situation with his family was merely a catalyst for the aggression that was already present in him. Frank embraces his role as an assassin in Born while serving in the Vietnam War.
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The Gruesome Events From Frank Castle’s Final Tour In Vietnam
Frank Castle serves in the United States Marine Corps as a Captain. The year is 1971 and the four-day incidents have been documented during his final tour in the Vietnam War. Garth Ennis exposes and narrates the story through the eyes of a young marine named Steve Goodwin.
The first issue opens with an illustration of Frank Castle himself, where his skin is disintegrating, exposing his skull. As the story begins, we see a plane coming towards the Firebase Valley Forge, an outpost for the US Marines located at the South Vietnamese-Cambodian border. As it nears the soldiers, it gets shot at by guns, and the wing subsequently takes a terrible hit. It crashes lands and explodes.
The Marines decided to go after Charlie, the Vietnamese who caused this. Stevie Goodwin takes center stage as he talks to himself about how desperately he wants to board a plane and leave the hellhole of a battlefield. He wishes to sleep in peace as beautiful stewardesses offer him food and cold beer. He never wants to return, unlike other combat junkies who are here for a second or third tour, implying that some just like to partake in violence. Such as Frank Castle. A man who is seemingly in love with war.
However, Goodwin believes that Frank’s caliber and abilities are necessary for their survival. Since Frank’s arrival, the soldiers of the patrols he led have not been killed in action. Not out of his love for the soldiers but due to his survival and killer instincts. Goodwin talks about Frank’s exploits during the first two tours in Vietnam where stories of his killings were too horrifying but nevertheless, true. This is where Garth Ennis first sheds the light on Frank Castle’s psyche, preceding the unfortunate event of his family’s death. Frank was always messed up. A man who killed without breaking a sweat. A man who was ‘in love with war’.
The Marines camouflage themselves around a stream and bushes when a group of Vietnamese soldiers passes by the front alongside a herd of rhinos. The Marines rain fire on them, shooting them and throwing grenades at them mercilessly. They’re at war after all. The illustration is far from being sugar-coated or PG-13 as it depicts people being shot as their intestines spill out. That’s MAX for you.
Goodwin enters his internal monologue once again, where he talks about having sons one day with the woman he finds the most beautiful. He wishes for them to grow up to be strong as he shows them America – the greatest country in the world, a land full of hopes which are supposed to be the real America. Unlike the bloodied America in the war.
The scene shifts as we see Frank Castle in a room with Colonel Ottman, a man with absolutely no empathy and a serious alcohol problem. Frank updates him with the incidents of the day and reports to him regarding the ammunition available, or the lack thereof. The Colonel tells him that General Padden would be making a visit for a surprise inspection. Anytime someone comes to inspect the base, the Colonel fakes contracting malaria and with the same ole excuse, he assigns Frank the task of giving the General a tour of the base.
The General and Frank converse regarding the Colonel’s absence due to malaria. The General disses the Colonel’s abilities due to the sorry state of the base with its unmanned bunkers, rusted artillery, and abuse of marijuana cigarettes. Frank tells him about the Valley being unmanned half the time and a severe lack of ammunition and equipment. The General wants to close down the base even though Frank’s outpost was the only US outpost that looked over Cambodia.
The General expresses how cuts have to be made and can be made as the war at the forefront needed a lot more support than this outpost. He threatens Frank by saying that if Frank were to oppose him, he’d be kicked out of the Marines and the closest he would then get to a Vietnamese enemy would be via the television news. Hearing this, Frank seeks to settle things with the General. He tells him that he has concrete proof that will guarantee why the Valley Forge outpost must remain functional.
He takes the General to a ridge and asks him to get atop to find what he is looking for. Nearby, a signpost reads ‘Danger. Sniper at work. Dawn to Dusk’. And it was dusk. As the General stands on the ridge, looking for whatever Frank asked him to let at, he is shot dead by the snipers.
The Marines make fun of the General for not reading a sign while Frank has a dark inner monologue with himself. It reminds him that the General is right about the base being too messed up but Frank could not let go of his life as a soldier of war because he craved violence. It made him feel alive. It tells him that Frank will one day have to pay a price for his acts of killing. With this, writer Garth Ennis teases the event that later goes on to become the origin story of The Punisher.
The second issue opens with an illustration similar to that from the first one but this time, Frank’s skeleton has disintegrated further. His helmet takes color as mold forms around him while his skull has been infested with maggots.
Angel from the Marines is seen doing heroin. He is summoned by Goodwin, who takes him outside while he is high. They get into a verbal altercation with Garcia and Coltrane due to the money transactions regarding heroin. Frank enters the scene and enquires whether Angel was clean or not. Goodwin stands up for him and says he was but at that moment, wished to face Garcia and his sharp razor instead as Frank was a much more terrifying man to face.
The platoon moves forward. It comprised the last twenty-nine Marines from Valley Forge who cared to hunt down the enemy. Everyone had a motive for being here. Tedrow liked to throw grenades and McDonald had a bag of scalps. Goodwin himself was here to be there for Angel while Frank was simply a man who loved war and its horrors.
Goodwin could’ve stayed with the others from the Valley but he chose to be with the platoon. They were all expecting to run into Charlie and his North-Vietnamese army. He was the one who had caused the plane to crash. They come across some Vietnamese soldiers who attack the Marines. The two sides face each other off and the platoon has a hard time keeping up. As casualties increase on the American side, Frank picks up a gun and shoots at the enemy. At this point, it is hard to say which one is the machine – the gun or Frank himself. He kills the enemies by himself while the others look in shock and bewilderment. Frank’s instincts are fired up as he shoots until his enemy’s body is tattered with holes from bullets. As Goodwin thinks about the payback the Vietnamese had to face right now, an internal dialogue within Frank talks about a worse payback that is to come.
The Marines find a Vietnamese woman trying to kill herself following their defeat. She is bleeding while her legs are broken and her shirt torn apart. McDonald sees this as an opportunity and decides to rape her but Frank points the sniper at her and kills her. McDonald moves to a nearby stream to wash off his blood and drink water as Goodwin hides behind a nearby tree and prays for a jet to rescue him from the hell of war. Frank arrives at the scene and steps on McDonald’s head, forcing his head under the water. He dies from Frank’s punishment. Goodwin witnesses it all and doesn’t mention anything about this event to the rest of the platoon. Everyone believes McDonald’s to be missing.
Later, as Goodwin drinks alcohol, Frank approaches him, inquiring what made him not give out the details to the others. Goodwin is startled to know that Frank knew and asks him what made Frank kill McDonald. Frank mentions that he wanted to punish him. This is a more direct reference to Garth Ennis pointing out how even before becoming The Punisher, Frank Castle felt the need to punish the offenders in a gruesome manner. It was as if he wanted to hand out the judgment himself.
Frank tells Goodwin that he did not need to be afraid of him but Goodwin couldn’t help it. And yet, he needed Frank to survive in the war. He kept justifying his actions by mentioning this bit about his survival. As for Frank, killing the Vietnamese victim was his way of helping the girl out because had she survived, she would be handed over to Intel where the men would take rounds raping her.
The third issue opens with the same illustration of Frank, but this time it is much grimmer than the first two illustrations. The skull is not present anymore, it is his disintegrated face and helmet but it is a shell in itself which is on fire.
The first few panels depict a ruckus around a Vietnamese bridge, where the Americans drop bombs. Others burn down the houses of the Vietnamese, throw them in ditches and shoot at them, or light them on fire with their weapons. Goodwin retrospects on the effect this has on America, as the rest of the world goes on to hate them. But in the end, they cannot lose, even though they already are. They do this so that when others in South-East Asia look at the condition of Vietnam, they will not dare to mess with the United States again. In a way, it guarantees safety for the American citizens following their apparent loss in the war.
He asks Angel why the United States cannot stay out of the business of other countries. Despite having everything as a country such as a bustling economy, adequate jobs, a high standard of living, and anything anyone from the third world can only imagine, they still meddle in war with others. Before he can get his answer, they see two planes flying high nearby, possibly Vietnamese.
Ottman speaks with Frank, who is troubled by how much the unit has thinned out following the ambushes by the Vietcong. There’s exponentially less ammunition, the outposts are undermanned, and the battle is severe in the homefront. Ottman confesses that he never requested for resupply as it was pointless. The war was almost over and the United States was heading towards its defeat. And the American soldiers were tired, they just wanted to go home.
A major reason why Vietnam won the war in the real event was due to their territorial advantage, which they used to its utmost extent. This is depicted in this issue as Frank tells Colonel Ottman about the weather is perfect for the enemy’s attack. The Colonel seems like he does not care anymore.
As Frank walks by himself, his dark internal monologue comes back. He ponders over not killing the Colonel as he did with the General in the first issue. After all, the Colonel did not care about their victory as much as Frank, and the ends justify the means. Or maybe it is a phrase people use after committing atrocities for a ‘good cause’. Frank probably wanted to kill to lead the people better. Or he probably wanted to kill because he considered the Colonel to be a bastard. His monologue dives deep into his psyche as he reflects on killing people at the drop of a hat because he believes he deserves to hand out judgment and punishment to others. Every time the monologue comes back, Ennis unravels more and more layers to Frank’s dark personality, revealing more about how he has always felt and the violence that burns within his soul.
He meets Goodwin who eases the springs of the magazines and tells him about how everyone did not feel the same way about wanting to go back home, referring to the people’s lust for violence. Franks tells him about having a family. Goodwin is surprised but Frank tells him that they might be his last chance, maybe at redemption, even though he does not say the latter outright but it is implied. Meanwhile, it rains heavily and Frank recognizes how they really did not have a chance of winning this one.
Frank’s internal monologue takes over again and chides him for getting into a somewhat emotional interaction with the softest heart in the platoon. And, it reminds him that it was his last chance and not his family. It was what Frank needed to accept to be his real self.
Goodwin notices Coltrane who deals heroin to Angel. He knocks him unconscious and takes Angel away. He points out that Angel will be taking a drug addiction home following the war when Angel reaches his tipping point. He points to an obvious situation that does not favor him at all. As Goodwin tells him that he has a lot to live for, Angel claims that Goodwin can go back to a normal life with his college education and a girl next door while Angel goes back to his ghetto where he can die any second. Goodwin tells him about how the Americans shouldn’t have gotten involved in this war and that this wasn’t real America when Angel bursts and explains how the real America is one where people like Angel were shot down by people like Goodwin, called racial slurs, and how the American Dream was not real for the black man who only got the shorter end of the bargain.
Just then, they are attacked by the Vietcong who completely dominate the battlefield. Bombs take over the fight as there’s destruction all around. Frank calls for having the sixty handed over to him.
The fourth issue opens with an illustration of Frank’s face but this time, his skull-like face has turned into the skin as he covers it with his bloodstained hands.
Goodwin narrates the story of a Great Beast, which is symbolic of man’s violent nature that awakens on the battlefield. He speaks about how the Beast still remains at large even after the end of the war. And when it does not get to fight, it grows hungry. This is why in every generation, Americans go to war even though they do not need to. And it does not come from wanting to defeat others. The Beast requires blood to be shed. It does not matter whether the blood was the enemy or America’s. And this battle was the one where America’s blood would be shed. Maybe it was payback.
The platoon fights with Frank at the forefront. They were unable to contact anyone due to the storm. The two sides fire at one another even though the Vietnamese clearly dominate this one. Angel talks about how there’s no God because of the horror he witnessed on the battlefield.
Coltrane sneaks up on Goodwin with a razor to his throat, asking for Angel while referring to him with racial slurs. Frank attacks him from behind and takes Goodwin with him. They realise that almost everyone else was dead. Goodwin rushes behind Frank, thinking that he wasn’t gonna make it even though he thought he would. A plane flies over his head and drops bombs. The place explodes.
Goodwin is dragged into an airplane where he is greeted by beautiful stewardesses, as he had visualized. He cries happily, telling himself that he made it. However, he did not. The explosion had killed him.
Frank shoots at the Vietnamese by himself. His inner conscience points out how he had been shot over four times already. He asks Frank to think about why he did what he did. He asks Frank what made him come back to the War thrice despite its horrors. As Frank kills an enemy, he asks himself what did he look for if not this exact feeling of killing. He tells him that if he admitted to it, he would get what he wanted but of course, for a price. Frank admits to wanting a war that lasts forever.
Day breaks and more soldiers come to rescue any survivors in the battlefield. There weren’t any except Frank, who looks like a zombie at this point but he still stands.
He returns to America with a bandage around his arm and a crutch. His wife, son, and daughter receive him. He tells his family that he will never be going back to war again. His inner monologue returns. It mentions how Frank won a couple of medals and due to accepting his agreement, was able to kill two dozen men, soak up seven bullets, and still survive. However, he had to pay a price, as mentioned before. The illustration zooms into his family. It reminds Frank to enjoy his time with his family but that it was too late to turn anything around. Frank hugs his family tightly at the end.
It is unclear whether the monologue is actually another entity, his conscience, or his shadow self, even though the latter two seem more probable as the series remains too grounded in reality for it to be a separate entity striking a deal with him. It is similar to concepts such as karma or the law of equivalent exchange. One states that you get what you give while the other states that to get something, you have to give away something of equal value. And what better way to balance the scales for relentless killing but taking away those Frank Castle holds the closest to his heart.
Its prominence increases with each issue, as the events of all four days unfold. What starts out as something that teases Frank’s lust for violence and having to give up something in return to have this lust fulfilled, grows into something that consumes him as he kills the Vietnamese soldiers during the fourth day, all by himself, that too during a fight that was completely lost.
Because why else would anyone go into a killing rampage in a lost battle, unless they craved this exact sensation. And since this is what his heart desired, he was able to give in to it once again following the death of his wife and children. It was an instinct he had suppressed to not lose his family after realising that his killings were bound to cause him their lives. So when that was out of the equation, he allowed himself to be consumed by it once again.
With Born, Garth Ennis added several more layers to Frank Castle’s personality, developing an origin before the origin and making him much more gritty, realistic, and complex. He crafted Frank Castle like an onion, and then peeled him layer by layer, exposing his deepest and darkest side to the readers.
What did you think of these four issues? Did you enjoy this video? If yes, they don’t forget to like and comment on this video. Till then, goodbye and have a nice one!