When Frank Castle received his own ongoing series in 1987, he was walking the earth like Caine from Kung Fu and righting wrongs that inevitably come across him. After killing a few dozen drug runners in Bolivia, Frank finds himself in the midwest looking for a little bit of downtime. Even obsessive vigilantes need to have their batteries recharged now and again. While in Missouri under the alias of Arnold Groetsch, Frank find himself in persuit of a gang of highly organized bank robbers. It turns out that the robbers are members of a neo-Nazi group called the Army of the New American Revolution. Frank decides to pay the leader, Colonel Fryer a little visit.

Much of Mike Baron’s Punisher involves Frank winning over the trust of his targets by telling them exactly what they want to hear. The results in Colonel Fryer spiting out every thing you would expect a neo-Nazi to say and Frank tossing it right back, unfortunately sounding like far too many Americans I actually know.

The thing that is a bit troubling about this issue is how the Punisher never condemns Colonel Fryer’s militate racism. I would assume that genocidal racism would piss off Frank just as much as any criminal trait, but it seems that he is more concerned with Fryer’s habit of robbing banks than what he has in store for anyone not white or Christian.

This is not to say I think Mike Baron was trying to dance around the deplorable nature of racism. Baron could have chosen to have Frank take on weapons dealers or even a serial killer but he chose to have him kill some Nazis. In his Badger series, Baron has two of the major antagonists become white supremacists. It’s clear that Baron dislikes racists but it’s still interesting that Frank never really called Fryer out on it. Perhaps Marvel did not want to release a book that directly equated militant racism with evil intent. It’s a slippery slope for the freedom of speech, to be fair.

Plus, the whole “Groetschburg” thing is pretty funny. Oh, anti-Semites and their special brand of paranoia!

That said, Fryer does get his, complete with one of the best narration boxes in comic book history.

If you’re interested in reading the entirety of this issue and other old school Punisher stories, you can find it in the newly published and fully awesome Essential Punisher, vol. 2.