The Punisher: Born

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Born is a four-issue comic book limited series featuring the Marvel Comics character Frank Castle a.k.a. the Punisher. The series was released in 2003 written by Garth Ennis and penciled by Darick Robertson.

[edit] Synopsis

The Born series looks at Frank Castle when he was a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps during his final tour in Vietnam in 1971 and how the events in the comic book play an influence in Frank Castle becoming the Punisher after his family was murdered.

In the story, it is revealed that Frank Castle was a bloodlusting soldier, which was the real reason why he became the Punisher. The death of his family would merely be the trigger.

Throughout the series, the Punisher has an internal dialogue with an unamed antagonist (later to be revealed to be the Grim Reaper in the hardcover copy) who goads him into killing more. This internal dialogue becomes more and more active as the four-day storyline progresses, and Castle's platoon is thinned down. By the fourth day, the unit's numbers have dropped staggeringly, leaving the encampment severely undermanned and outgunned. The Fourth Day approaches, bringing with it a hellish downpour, and the Viet Cong opposition uses this opportunity to attack, as the storm has kept Air Support entirely out of the realm of possibility. A unit of no less than one hundred VC swarm Firebase Valley Forge, overtaking the base rapidly, despite heavy loses. One by one, Castle's unit drops, and he finds himself surrounded with a rapidly overheating M60 and a severe disadvantage. The dialogue returns louder and more intently during this, offering Castle the strength and stamina needed to survive, to maintain an eternal state of vigilance, and to wage the permanent war. Faced with no alternative, Castle gives in to this voice within him, and the massacre turns in his favor. By the next morning, the air support has returned with an EVAC helicopter to inspect the assumed destruction of the mutually unloved encampment, but are stunned (horrified may be a better word) to find Castle standing in a field of mutilated and broken VC carcasses, bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds and apparently having suffered severe physical trauma, but remaining unaffected by it, eyes still red with fury.

In the next scene, Frank Castle returns home, a decorated officer on a crutch, to his waiting wife, Maria and children, and in the midst of the smiling return, the internal voice speaks again of the price of Castle's choice. We find now exactly what Castle's eternal war will cost him, as a picture details Castle's family in a Punisher Skullesque targeting reticule. Castle embraces his smiling wife and eager children, as the voice instructs him to "Hold on to it," implying that it will not last.