The Punisher is one of those characters that can work in a variety of different ways—and the comics have definitely taken advantage of that.
There are more superheroic takes on Punisher, where he’s wearing variations on his spandex look, and then there are street level versions or more militaristic/tactical, or sometimes he’s armored up, sometimes he’s some Frankenstein-looking monster, once he was black, he’s also been a cosmic entity. So yeah, “to be Frank” takes on an entirely different meaning with him. The strength of the character means that all of these various permutations actually work within the context of whatever story is being told. Even the more bizarre ones. Because comics.
This time around, Frank is wearing a very stripped down T-shirt and jeans look. It’s casualwear for killing thugs. The thing about this look is that there’s a seedy aggressiveness to it. He’s not overly pimped out with all the requisite Punisher trappings. Sure, his shirt has the Punisher symbol on it, but you can find that on any guy cruising his local comic book shop. This is probably as “straight to video Dolph Lundgren Punisher except without the skull on his shirt” as it gets for Frank, right down to the black bike. Frank looking like this isn’t that far removed from the scum and villainy that he’s busting a cap in.
We’ve seen this bike a couple times before, and I have no doubt that hasbro is going to continue to find mileage (I’m not even sure if the pun is not intended or not) in the bike whenever they can. It’s a good bike, with a nice bikey silhouette, so I’m not pooping on it, but I don’t want to see a trend of releasing a figure that could easily have been released on their own but with a bike so the price is increased. I don’t necessarily mind the bike, but I would have been just as happy to buy this Punisher figure without the bike. The bike isn’t that big of an incentive, is what I’m saying. But to get the figure, you have to get the bike, and the price is higher…due to…the bike. Ghost riders in various forms? Cool. Bike them. But adding scooters and bikes to random characters that aren’t intrinsically connected to those methods of transportation…
Bah, I’m getting tired of my own sentences here, so you get the point.
All that run-on bullshit aside, I do like this bike in black. It hits the previously described aggressive feel of this Punisher. He looks like he’d be riding this bike.
Punisher is mostly the Netflix Luke Cage figure with new arms and head. I liked that body for Cage, and I like it here. The arms and head are sized slightly larger than the body, which gives the figure and overall stylistic and hard-hitting look to it. It’s more artist-specific than most interpretations, but I like the oversized nature of the heads and arms here. It gives Frank a feel like he just got done pounding a side of beef for an hour as training. Frank seems like the kind of guy that sits in a room and lifts weights until it’s time to kill people. He also wraps some Ace bandages around his fists and punches concrete walls until the blood soaks through. Then he knits himself a sweater while sipping Earl Grey.
This is a nicely articulated body. The elbows, hips and knees all have a great range, allowing for a variety of posing options. The wrists have an up and down hinge on the right hand, and a side to side on the left. He comes with some webgear on his torso and ammo straps attached to his left leg. I haven’t decided if I’m leaving all of that stuff on him or will be removing it for an even more stripped down look.
He comes with two heads and a helmet. One head is clean, with angry eyes rimmed with reddish pink anger. In keeping with his earlier appearances, Frank has often been portrayed with a Receding Hairline of Doom, and this figure carries on the tradition. He could crack a walnut between his lips. This is a tense dude.
His other head is a beat up head with some bandages and a bloodshot eye. He’s gritting his teeth, because when you’ve been smacked around you’re more likely to vent your anger and frustration at the unforgiving world by baring your teeth at it before unleashing your savage rage in a shower of bullets and chunks of shattered teeth.
The helmet is apparently from when he was traveling around using the Black Bifrost and was…doing things? This was in Punisher Kill Krew, a comic I’ll have to read now to find out why Frank has a viking helmet. Regardless, it fits on his head well. I’m not sure I I need Frank wearing a viking helmet, but options are always nice.
Punisher comes with a small arsenal. He comes with a baseball bat, machete, Uzi (not the same Uzi that came with Snake Eyes), Tec-9 and a double barreled sawed of shotgun. This entire package is worth it just to get some different weapons for Punisher that actually look like real weapons. These look like the kind of small compact weapons he’d be using dressed like this. Easily concealable. Boom, oh shit, it’s the Punisher, ratatatat you’re dead.
If you’re in the market or a street level Punisher and don’t mind buying the same bike you might already have but in black this time, then this is a fun set and delivers a great rendition of Punisher on a body that works great for him.
