The Punisher: The End
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The Punisher: The End is a one-shot title published by Marvel Comics under the MAX imprint. The story focuses on the Punisher's final days in a post-apocalyptic future.
[edit] Synopsis
In a Post-Global-Holocaust world, the third and last world war has ended. A war that went from Iraq, North Korea, Pakistan, and then to China. People have vanished from the face of the Earth due to dozens of Hydrogen bombs going off across the world. But Frank Castle, The Punisher, is still alive. When he tries to rise up from the ashes of New York City, not a rat or a bug has survived. Frank is now an old man, possibly somewhere in his mid or late 70's. After some 40 years of fighting crime, Frank was caught and put into the maximum security prison Sing-Sing. But even in Frank's old age his war on crime continued where he killed dozens of inmates. Because Frank had killed so many inmates at the end of his first year, a judge says to a prisoner going to Sing-Sing
Judge: "Sending a man to Sing-Sing is like feeding a tiger meat."
A year after the war, Frank and another prisoner, Paris Peters, climb out of the prison's bomb shelter. Background radiation is in the air. It would take a thousand years for it to drop down to safe levels. After leaving the bunker, Frank and Paris travel to what is left of New York City.
Castle is trying to get the people who not only did this to the world, but who have been doing evil to the world for a long time, a group known as "The Coven", a word that means an "assembly of witches." Parallels between The Coven and the conspiracy theories of the New World Order are obvious. This group is very similar to a group in the Metal Gear video game series called the The Patriots, and the group from the X-Files TV series known as the Syndicate or Consortium. There is even such a group that is spoken of in the Oliver Stone film JFK. A group of people who have all the money and power in the world. Even the President of the U.S. is not above their power and control. This group is made up of Generals (These could be the same group of Generals from the MAX Punisher story “Mother Russia”), Senators, Oilmen and Computer billionaires from around the world. They run and control everything in the world as they see fit. This could also be seen as a swipe at the neoconservatives that advocated the Iraq War.
As Frank fights his way to the Coven, Castle narrates in his mind just who these people really are.
Frank: "Once upon a time there was a bunch of evil fucks. Hardly anyone knew, because they were so good at keeping it quiet, but these particular evil fucks owned the world. And they made the world a cruel and terrible place. They ran the great industries that poisoned the air. Their businesses turned whole countries into slaves. The money they made could have fed and healed the population of the earth twice over, but all that they could think to do with it was hoard it. They got away with it by being expert salesmen. These were men who could sell anything to anyone. They made puppets out of presidents and started wars for profit. Eventually, they came to believe that there was nothing that they couldn’t do. And so one day… inevitably… they pushed the planet’s luck too far."
When Castle finds the group, they try to convince him that they can save the world. Castle does not believe them, knowing that these people would do the same thing all over again to the world. Castle kills them. When Paris asked why, Castle says
Frank: "The human race. You've seen what that leads to."
Castle then kills Paris because as it turns out, Paris was put in prison for burning down houses, including a kindergarten school with children inside. Castle leaves The Coven's bunker after killing the members of The Coven and Paris Peters. Castle was dying from radiation poisoning since he left the bomb shelter and the amount of time he has to live is very short. Later on, Frank is seen trying to make it to New York's Central Park to spend the last moments of his life at the place where his wife and children were killed by the mobsters on that fateful day in 1976. Fire consumes him. We do not see Frank die or see if he ever made it to Central Park before he dies, but his death is assured.
