Under the Net with Jake Estrada
Special Edition
The Coming of Hobo Punisher
As a longtime comic fan that owns possibly 30k comics from my personal collection and the collection I have left over from my comic shop owning days, I have seen all sorts of renditions of popular iconic characters in comics. Today, I am going to be analyzing a popular but polarizing figure in Marvel comics: the Punisher.
The Punisher’s origin is pretty basic. One sunny day in Central Park, he and his family were laid to waste by mobsters. This happened because either the Castle family stumbled across a mob hit or they were just in the middle of a mob war, depending on what era of the comic you read.
The bottom-line is that this is what created the Punisher; this act made Frank Castle die a former Vietnam vet, a Marine that had the skill to take on the mafia in NYC.
There have been plenty of renditions of the Punisher in his long history in comics. The Punisher has been a jaywalker murderer, a prop for the jackal, and a head of a mafia crime family. Hell, the Punisher has had an alternate history free of the normal Marvel history, and he has even been chopped up by Daken and later put back together and dubbed FRANKENCASTLE. That idea was way out there, but I do give the house of ideas their props for trying something different, even if it was totally off the wall.
About 10-11 months ago, the comic book had been rebooted once more with Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto.
Rucka has taken the reigns of the character and has taken a different path with him. He stripped the Punisher down to the core, and revealed what has made him tick. In nine issues, Rucka’s Punisher was a ruthless killing machine that did not stop, and Rucka does have a flare with his supporting cast, which makes the book prime for many accolades. It has that Gotham Central feel to it. Rucka is a capable author.
Rucka has gotten rid of the Punisher’s inner monologue, so the first three issues of the Punisher were very quick reads. There were pages of no dialogue as the Punisher entered a scene, mowed down his enemies, and moved on. The readers wouldn’t know what the Punisher had to say. Basically, he had nothing to say because he was doing what he had been doing for years. He killed the bad men and moved on to the next target in a cold, calculated manner.
Of course, the book has a cast that does some of the talking such as Oscar Clemons and Walter Bolt, who is an informant for the Punisher. These two characters are detectives put onto the Punisher case squad, and who are trying to bust the Punisher in the act.
As for the writing goes, it goes well. There are various characters in the first issue, and a new act of violence on a would-be husband and wife on their wedding day takes place at the church. It was case of mistaken identity, and there was one survivor, a female who happens to be a Marine as well. The parallels are obvious from the offset. The woman’s name is Rachel Alves; she survives and eventually sets out to attack the scum that destroyed her life.
She, of course, runs into the original Punisher whom she idolizes.
In the context of the story, Checchetto draws a very detailed Punisher. The art is very beautiful, and Rucka gives us a brief glimpse into Punisher’s life, yet always hints that he is very regimented in his Marine lifestyle. There is even an issue in which the lead character is talking to a child in a page or two. The child tells him that his parents are in the army and the Punisher tells the kid that the army is for pansies. Rucka is adhering to the Marine lifestyle.
As I continued to follow this series, a realization came over me. One huge glaring issue overtook my mental prowess as I read this. The Punisher has been revived, he is still on his mission, but he is a freaking HOBO.
Now, someone may ask me, “What do you mean hobo, Jake?”
Let us examine this title a bit more.
The majority of the covers for the comic have the classic iconic figure of the Punisher with a nicely sewn skull on his chest. Of course, most of the uniform is not the same. There are no white gloves and boots. For the most part, the classic skull is in place. This is war, and he has to use that skull as a tool to put fear in the hearts of criminals. Once you get past the front cover and open the book, you see this runny skull on his chest that was painted on by hand.
When you first look at it, you may think they went the Thomas Jane or Ray Stevenson route with the faded, runny Punisher skull. That is fine; no skin off my nose. I thought it was cool.
Like I said, the issues were quick reads. We are getting action no nonsense punishing. The Punisher eventually goes up against a newly-created Vulture which he takes out, but during the process, the Punisher is wounded, scared, and loses his eye. He is pretty messed up in this fight. He falls and has Norah Winters take him to one of his many safe houses. One hundred days go by; the Punisher is all grazed up and grows a beard. Some might think that this is okay; he is convalescing and Rucka throws out information about how a Marine acts and how he takes care of things.
The detectives are on the Punisher’s trail. They want to take him down for good, and then we get a background story about Ozzie Clemons. Rucka featured panels from a previously released Punisher story that was written in 1988 by Mike Baron. The issue had the Punisher fighting Daredevil, and this issue covered that now classic story. At first, I was wowed and happy to see that Rucka actually gave a nod to a classic story and that his new series was lined in the past because we know plenty of comics disregard the past, but there was one thing I noticed.
This flashback had Frank in his classic get up. You know, the skull perfectly drawn and sewn to his chest, the white gloves, and boots.
When I saw this, I said “What???”
I don’t understand why we have the hobo-inspired skull as opposed to the original skull because of the way this issue linked the past with this current series.
I got to thinking that it must be really rough for Frank to make his suit, so he just paints it on real quick these days since he is at war, and in war there is no time for the slow poke, but there is always downtime like they have shown recently when Frank was wounded. So why couldn’t make his suit look good? I mean, this man is a Marine after all, and Marines take pride in their dress.
Of course, he was hurt and had a beard.
I thought he would be back to war soon, and shave off that beard.
Guess what? The man doesn’t shave off his beard. He goes back to his war, with a fully grown beard, gauze over his wound, and very long hair.
When I saw this, the first thing that came bubbling out my mouth was HOBO PUNISHER.
Here we have a Punisher who is a self-professed Military man, who has spent time in the Marines, and you know the saying, once a Marine always a Marine, but what’s wrong with this picture? We have a Punisher who still has a job to do even though he is hurting due to the injuries he sustained. He has to keep the pressure on his enemies. I am pretty sure the Punisher would also want to keep up his appearances as well. I mean, seeing this guy walking down the street on a rainy day dressed up with the longish hair and the runny skull wouldn’t let anyone know this is the Punisher.
In fact, it would confuse people because he looks like a homeless wreck with a gun. Maybe Checchetto was inspired by Hobo witha Shotgun. I don’t know, but this is certainly a new take and a new era for the Punisher.
This wasn’t a one-off thing either. We have issues 8 and 9 where the Punisher has a white snow suit with a runny skull and a full beard taking on the syndicate in Hobo Punisher style.
We even get an appearance of the Punisher the Omega Effect crossover in full Hobo Punisher style. In fact, I see the Punisher is going to make an appearance in the current Incredible Hulk series in full Hobo Punisher style. Now we are in the Hobo Punisher era of Marvel comics.
Some could argue that he is at war, but c’mon, we know that isn’t right when Rucka took the time to point out that he is a Marine, and we have the female Punisher-like character even salute and take commands from Castle as if they are still in the Marines. If Greg Rucka ever reads this summary of my ideas on the Punisher, I would like to know why the Punisher has gone hobo on us. Everyone has family or a friend in the military, and we know those people take pride in their appearance. Well, I guess it is true that when Frank Castle died, he died with his family and all that was left was a soulless, broken homeless man.
When you are on the street, and you see some bearded guy in a dark trench coat picking through a trash can, it may be the Hobo Punisher. ;)
Jake Estrada
Email me at estradajake@yahoo.com for website suggestions. Thanks.
Jake Estrada is a published author who holds degrees in Multimedia Design and Criminal Justice. He is a father to three wonderful children and married to his beautiful wife, Beth. You can find his comics at
http://graphicly.com/estrada-mediaand other fine online stores.
