(electronic music)
- Punisher's skull emblem is incredible menacing,
and so iconic, that it's actually used
in real life war zones.
As opposed to this fictional war zone,
with its exploding traceurs.
That's a fancy word for some dumb idiot who does parkour.
Look, we're already off track.
What I wanted to find out
was the history behind this distinct death's head symbol,
both in the comics and in the real world.
So, let's do that!
Let's do that thing I just said.
Huzzah!
(rock music)
(alarm sounding)
After his wife and children were murdered by the mob,
Frank Castle, a special forces veteran,
dedicated his life to a war on organized crime,
as The Punisher.
Though many fans consider him to be an antihero today,
Punisher made his first appearance in
The Amazing Spider-Man #129, from 1974,
as a straight-up villain
hired by The Jackal to kill Spider-Man
for a crime The Web had never actually committed.
Punisher quickly learned that Jackal not only lied to him,
but also attempted to frame Castle
for the murder of his arms dealer.
Punisher storms off!
And that's it.
That was supposed to be the last
we would ever see of The Punisher.
According to one his co-creators, Gerry Conway,
he was originally supposed to be.
Conway drew the initial sketch of the character,
including the skull emblem.
But it was a lot smaller and off-center.
When John Romita, Sr. got a hold of the design,
he blew up the skull large
to cover the entire chest of the costume.
Romita, Sr. also tried to incorporate the skull symbol
into the costume in a functional way.
Which is why the teeth were originally
designed to be a part of his belt,
and have later been used as magazines
for Punisher's array of firearms.
There's also, of course, the other practical use
the giant white skull plays in Punisher's costume design.
It functions as a target for criminals to shoot at.
Which is a smart move,
since his chest is usually more heavily armored
than the other parts of his body,
especially compared to Frank's completely unprotected head.
Interesting story behind that, by the way.
Romita, Sr. purposely left a helmet or mask out
of the costume design for two reasons.
Firstly, he thought it would get in the way
of seeing Frank's face as he does his work.
Secondly, he simply wanted to see
if he could get away with it.
He fully expected the higher-ups at Marvel
to see his rendition of the character,
and demand that they put some sort of
face-obscuring mask or helmet on him.
But, no one ever did.
Thank goodness, too.
Now that Marvel had their freshly designed character,
all they needed was a name.
Conway suggested The Assassin,
but Stan Lee was not convinced that that would work out.
Lee reportedly recycled the name Punisher
from an old Fantastic Four robot villain,
created by Galactus.
And Frank Castle, The Punisher was born!
As for the incontinuity reason
for why Frank Castle chose
the white death's head symbol as his logo,
there have been a few explanations for that.
Like the 2004 movie, where his son got him a t-shirt
that the shop owner said would help ward-off evil spirits,
or in season 2 of the Daredevil Netflix series,
where Fisk tries to have Castle killed in prison,
but Frank just brutally murders everyone
in a fight scene that's worth watching at least 60 times.
Culminating in one prisoner's face bleeding all over
his new fresh white prison jumpsuit,
leaving behind a skull symbol on Frank's chest,
that he's inspired by when he goes full Punisher.
In the comic books,
probably the most well-known origin of the logo
comes from issues #52 and #53 of Marvel's The 'Nam comic.
Before Marvel tried to vaguely cover-up
exactly which war Frank Castle fought in,
as a way of keeping him younger in the comics,
he was very clearly a Vietnam vet.
In The 'Nam comic book,
Castle was sent out on a mission
to kill an exceptional enemy sniper,
known as The Monkey.
He was given this name because he would
kiss the skull of a monkey that he wore around his neck
before taking out a target.
When Frank was captured by The Monkey and his men,
he faked suicide in order to get a jump on the guards,
found their supply of munitions,
along with a small bucket of white paint.
Castle blew up the enemy's entire base of operations,
setting up booby traps for the remaining hostiles,
and even taunted The Monkey
by painting a white skull on everything.
Similar to the monkey skull necklace.
He even paints a white skull on his own chest,
which we see for the first time
after Castle makes a one-in-a-million shot,
sniping The Monkey though his own scope.
When Frank becomes The Punisher later,
he reprises the skull symbol,
which was originally meant to mock an enemy sniper.
It's honestly a great story,
and the folks at Marvel should have left it at that,
but, of course, they didn't.
They had to go and complicate things.
You ever read a Punisher comic and thought to yourself,
"You know, this is great and all,
but it'd be better if Punisher died and was resurrected,
and used weapons crafted by angels
to fight demons instead of crime bosses."
Yeah, I didn't think so.
But that didn't stop Marvel from releasing
The Punisher: Purgatory in 1998,
which is everything you never wanted in a Punisher comic.
It's also not the last time
they tried to give Frank a supernatural spin.
Franken-Castle, anybody?
This story is only four issues long,
but it's kinda complicated, so stick with me here.
Frank Castle was coerced by demons to kill himself.
Already off to a great start.
Luckily, Frank had an angel looking out for him,
named Gadriel,
who was supposed to be the guardian angel
of the entire Castle family.
You remember how Frank's wife and kids were all murdered?
Yeah, that's because Gadriel was more interested
in women and booze than actually protecting the Castles
like a guardian angel should do.
After Frank shot himself, Gadriel brought him back to life,
hoping that Frank would forgive him
for not being there when his family was killed,
since Frank's forgiveness is the only way
Gadriel could be allowed back into heaven.
Boy, we are barely into this.
We got to pick up the pace.
Okay, so we confusingly introduce
another character named Frank into the mix,
with one Frank Costa.
If that last name sounds familiar,
it's because the Costa family was the crime family
who killed Frank Castle's family.
Ugh, it's so confusing!
Apparently, Frank Costa's body was serving
as a fleshy prison for a fallen angel named Olivier,
who got a little too ambitious
trying to take over as the ruler of Hell.
In order to be restored to his former glory,
Olivier needed blood.
A lot of blood.
So, he set a plan in motion to forge a perfect weapon,
The Punisher!
The murders of the Castle family
were part of a ritual set up by Olivier
that would transform Frank Castle into,
"An engine of death and sacrifice."
Every time Punisher killed,
it was secretly a blood sacrifice in the name of Olivier,
that would make the fallen angel stronger and stronger.
That's why Punisher wears a skull on his chest!
It's supposed to resemble Olivier's face,
as Frank unconsciously represents him
in the mortal realm with every kill as The Punisher.
When Olivier no longer needed Frank,
he sent his demons to convince Castle to kill himself,
which, if you recall, is where the story started.
And just to wrap everything up,
Punisher defeats Olivier, Frank finally forgives Gadriel,
after the angel sacrifices himself at the end of the battle,
and Punisher hits the streets once again
to fight common thugs with the angelic weaponry.
The end!
For now?
A bit ambitious.
We can see now, why Marvel had purposely
tried to sweep this story under the rug.
Personally, I prefer The 'Nam story,
with Frank killing Monkey,
and, wait, what did Monkey just refer to Castle as?
American Sniper?
That is super interesting.
You may remember that there was a movie
in 2014 titled American Sniper,
about the real-life US Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle,
loosely based on his autobiography of the same name.
With over 160 confirmed kills,
Kyle was the most lethal sniper in US military history.
And, coincidentally, he had quite the love for The Punisher.
The white skull was emblazoned
across every thing in their unit.
There was even a soldier reading
a Punisher comic in the movie.
As Kyle himself wrote in his memoir,
and I'm just gonna read this verbatim.
- Language!
- To some extent, this is kind of what
Frank Castle utilizes the skull emblem for in the comics.
As Punisher himself has said before,
"The skull terrifies people."
Plus, Punisher abides by a code
that's as black and white as his costume,
making it appealing to people who are put
in morally difficult situations.
As Conway has stated on different occasions.
Even though Kyle was adamant that no unit,
other than SEAL Team Three, should use that symbol,
it caught on with others like the 24th Infantry,
the Iraqi Armed Forces, and even,
interestingly enough, the comics themselves.
In issues #7 and #8 of his self-titled series from 2014,
The Punisher helps out some
US special forces soldiers with their mission.
And on their next tour, they start wearing
their own Punisher patch on their uniforms to honor Castle.
Because of its frequent use in real life war zones,
the Punisher emblem has transcended
its comic book association.
Becoming a symbol of military might and strength.
I wonder how Frank would feel about that.
What do you guys think?
What is your favorite origin of The Punisher skull emblem?
And do you think the symbol
goes beyond The Punisher himself?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
If you liked this video, I know you'll like this one
about why a certain comic book hero
was painted on tribal shields.
It's super interesting!
Definitely worth a watch.
And in honor of Daredevil, season two,
here's a playlist of videos about
The Man Without Fear that you can binge watch.
Click right here to learn about how he can see,
how he's connected to the Ninja Turtles,
whether or not Elektra is secretly a scroll.
Tons of great stuff!
Links will also be in the description.
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My name is Scott, reminding you to read between the panels,
and grow smarter through comics.
See ya!