Day 1 of the 2007 Cape Comic Con is in the books, and it was pretty good for the time I was there. I got plenty to talk about, and even some pictures to share, but I want to wait until tomorrow, see what Day 2 brings. So the recap post will be on Sunday.
For today I wanted to ask if anyone remembers when the Punisher hated mutants. It was early '90s, and it just seemed to be a running theme ("joke" is more like it). It didn't make a lot of sense at the time, why the Punisher would specifically hate mutants. Sure, at that time it seemed as though pretty much every mutant that was alive had thrown on a costume and gotten mixed up in the X-Men vs. Generic Evil Mutant Organization, whether it was lead by Mr. Sinister, Stryfe, Apocalypse, Magneto, whomever. But still, not every mutant was out threatening innocent lives.
Most of the time, he seemed to have this attitude in appearances in other books, usually involving some young, inexperienced hero, who was also usually weird looking, and so Frank decides they must be a mutant and he should try to kill them. Never worked out, and usually there was property damage, and lots of frightened people before it was all said and done, and Frank never seemed to learn anything. I can't recall him deciding after the fact that the hero in question wasn't actually a menace, just that he'd failed this time, and he'd be back to make another attempt another time.
Since I wasn't reading Punisher books in the '90s I don't know whether this attitude was present in his titles, or if it was just a reason writers cooked up to explain his appearance in other books, something to deviate from the standard "hero wants to stop criminals, Punisher wants to stop criminals, but hero is uncertain of Frank's lethal methods" excuse.
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4 comments:
It didn't make a lot of sense at the time, why the Punisher would specifically hate mutants.
As much sense, I'd say, as any other normal Marvel Universer hating mutants, and Frank's more deranged than most.
Actually, I do think there's a fairly good idea in there somewhere. It's statistically unlikely that, in a world where the majority hate mutants, none of the costumed heroes do. I mean, I know that they're supposed to be heroes, but Marvel's all for moral complexity, and I don't think it would necessarily ruin a character like (for example) Falcon to have him dislike mutants. Or you could get a lot of mileage out of Captain America disliking mutants (because they weren't around before the freeze), but standing up for them anyway because it's the right thing to do. That sort of thing.
Since the Punisher's mental anyway, I don't think it adds to his character, but back then they were probably trying to play it safe and have a hero who hates mutants, but one who's a bit crazy anyway so it can be explained away if the readers don't like it.
Well, the 90's were a dark time for just about every character. I was clearing out the basement yesterday, and came across the issue where Frank became black for a few issues. I think that was when I dropped the book. What were the issue numbers on the mutant hating thing (just give me a range, I have them all sitting around waiting for a garage sale)?
kelvingreen: That's an interesting thought. During his younger days, Hawkeye might have been a good candidate. He was pretty quick to judgement on people.
jason: I don't know any specific Punisher issues offhand, though I'd bet it was prior to the black Punisher story. There was an issue of Slapstick's comic, and a running theme in the Bullpen Bulletins, talking about how much Frank liked shooting mutants. So I'm not sure if it was a part of his character arc, or if they just thought it would be something to joke about.
Hawkeye would be a great choice for that, especially with his sniffing around Wanda.
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