25 Things You Need to Know about The Punisher on Netflix
By Shawn Lealos
21. Punisher Committed Suicide Once And Returned As A Supernatural Angel
The Punisher has appeared in some dark and disturbing storylines over the last 43 years at Marvel Comics. However, he has also appeared in some of the most ludicrous. The first of two mentioned in this countdown came in the ’90s when Frank Castle committed suicide.
This comic was at a time where The Punisher’s sales dropped, and Marvel Comics canceled the character’s three different running comic books in 1995. On the verge of bankruptcy, Marvel Comics tried a lot of strange tactics to uplift their slagging sales, and they came up with this bizarre idea for The Punisher in 1988.
Christopher Golden, who has since tackled some tie-in novels for TV series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica, wrote a four-issue miniseries for Marvel Knights called The Punisher: Purgatory. The first issue showed that Frank killed himself only for an angel to help resurrect him as a supernatural agent of death.
Frank comes back with a glowing arcane sigil on his head and glowing eyes. He also has guns that respond to his thoughts and have divine powers as well. As ludicrous as it sounds, the final results were worse. This storyline killed The Punisher as a character until 2000 when Garth Ennis came along.