Summary

• Frank Castle’s iconic skull emblem had a darker origin during the Vietnam War, tied to a barbaric display of enemy remains.
• The skull symbol acted as a trophy, inspiring Castle’s men to kill more, hinting at a disturbing enjoyment of slaughter.
• Garth Ennis, the definitive Punisher writer, brings back a darker version of the character, seemingly focusing on the emblem’s twisted origin.

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Get Fury #1! The the Punisher’s antihero emblem, but also as a symbol meant to convey one’s ‘toughness’ or ‘badassery’. However, it’s just been confirmed in Marvel Comics canon that the origin of the Punisher’s skull symbol is actually way darker than everyone thought, as it’s decidedly more ‘screwed up’ than ‘badass’.

In a preview for Get Fury #1 by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows, readers are transported to Vietnam in February, 1971, where Captain Frank Castle leads a platoon of marines. The book opens with Castle reading a letter from his wife when he’s approached by two soldiers with orders to shoot all the dogs in the area to keep them from spreading rabies.

However, before these two soldiers even get the nerve to ask Castle if his team has any dogs, they are immediately taken aback by what they see upon their approach. Right there, sitting next to Castle, is a human skull, which Frank explains was found outside a bunker complex by his team after they “called in napalm”. When asked why he’s keeping it on display like that, Frank replied, “good for morale”.

Frank Castle’s Punisher Skull Originated from His Corruption During the Vietnam War

Brandishing human remains within a platoon of US soldiers during wartime is a truly barbaric display. That is the skull of an enemy that Frank’s team killed, and looking at it every day inspires them to keep killing more and more until the war is done and they can go home. While fighting for one’s country is irable, this is something else entirely. It’s almost as if these marines derived enjoyment from slaughtering their enemies, with this skull acting as a collective trophy of every Vietnamese person they’ve killed, and will continue to kill.

Castle’s platoon mounted this skull as if it never belonged to a person at all, but some trophy animal the soldiers can look at with pride. While the Punisher led a special unit of marines during Vietnam (meaning they saw the worst of what the war had to offer, and would more understandably be desensitized to this level of casual barbarism), it’s still decidedly dark that he and his men display this skull so prominently. And it seems Punisher took this lesson home with him after the war.

Frank Castle says showing off this skull is “good for morale”, but he doesn’t specify whose morale it’s good for. It’s assumed he means his men’s, but this preview shows that he’s the one relaxing with a letter from his wife right next to it, meaning there’s some level of comfortability, or even calming effect for Castle by being near it. This totally explains why the Punisher started using his skull emblem to begin with, since his war never ended, and the skull is “good for morale”.

Punisher’s Skull Emblem Origin is the Perfect Callback to His WORST Story

Punisher Vol. 4 by Tom Sniegoski, Christopher Golden, and Bernie Wrightson

Get Fury is making it clear that Frank Castle picked up a certain level of darkness during the war, focusing on the ‘skull’ iconography in particular. That’s actually an interesting callback to a previous Punisher storyline (albeit arguably his worst one).

Every Marvel Comics fan knows that Frank Castle losing his family in the crossfire of a mob-fueled shootout in the park is the reason he became the Punisher, but there are a number of comic storylines that assert his journey to becoming the murderous vigilante started during his time fighting in the Vietnam War. Get Fury is the latest, but it’s far from the first, as Punisher Vol. 4 reveals something quite similar.

During that era in Punisher lore, it’s revealed that Frank Castle was manipulated by demonic influence to crave murder, something that happened to him during Vietnam. The demon, Olivier, was siphoning the souls Castle sent to the afterlife to be a part of his army of demons, which he’d use to take over hell. Not only that, but Olivier was secretly responsible for the shootout in the park that killed Frank’s family in order to deliberately complete Frank’s metamorphosis into the Punisher.

Frank Castle picked up the darkness that would eventually mold him into the Punisher while fighting in Vietnam, something that’s true in both Punisher Vol. 4 and Get Fury. Punisher Vol. 4 makes that darkness a literal demon that manipulated Frank into becoming the iconic antihero, while Get Fury shows that it was just war itself that corrupted Castle’s spirit. One literal, the other figurative, but both are effectively telling two versions of the same origin story regardless.

Marvel Is Resurrecting the Best Version of The Punisher by Bringing Back His Definitive Writer: Garth Ennis

There have been a number of fantastic writers who have tackled the Punisher, but it’s fair to say that the definitive Punisher writer has to be Garth Ennis. Ennis gives the character that hyper-violent, unsettlingly gritty, and uncomfortably deranged feeling every Punisher book should have. It’s no coincidence that a majority of the 2004 Punisher film pulled almost exclusively from Ennis’ Punisher Vol. 5 storyline (Ennis’ first for the character), as it’s just an unquestionably fantastic Punisher book.

Garth Ennis proves that he’s the perfect writer for the Punisher right now, not just because he’s been the perfect writer for the Punisher in the past, but because of the events surrounding the Punisher in his most recent storylines.

The Punisher seems to be caught in an endless cycle of grounded realism that turns supernatural in nature before wrapping back around to realism again - and he just experienced the ‘supernatural’ aspect of that ‘flat circle’ recently. The Punisher has just ended his tenure as the Beast of the Hand, as he was supernaturally powered by the god the evil ninja clan worships. The story ends with Frank’s soul trapped in a hellish underworld, which is where the Punisher is in the current canon to this day.

The Punisher’s most recent storyline was no different from the aforementioned Punisher Vol. 4, where he was influenced by a demon. And what happened immediately following Frank’s supernatural outing last time? Garth Ennis was brought in to bring him back down to Earth - and that’s exactly what’s happening again right now with Get Fury. In other words, now is literally the perfect time to bring back the Punisher’s definitive writer, Garth Ennis, as his expertise with the character is needed now, just as it was following Punisher Vol. 4.

While Garth Ennis was, indeed, once called in by Marvel Comics to effectively undo the events of Punisher Vol. 4, it seems he decided to perpetuate one of the most significant points that run made: Frank Castle brought a darkness home with him from Vietnam. However, Ennis’ Get Fury concentrates that darkness on this single skull, which not-so-subtly redefines the meaning of the Punisher’s skull symbol from ‘badass’ to ‘screwed up’, as this seems to be the emblem’s incredibly dark origin.

Get Fury #1 by Marvel Comics is available May 1, 2024.