THE PUNISHER

Before the Marines, before Maria, before the skull, there was a completely different uniform picked out for Frank Castle: a cassock. Born Francis Castiglione in Queens to Sicilian immigrant parents, the young Frank studied for the Catholic priesthood — a seminary student preparing to hear confessions and grant absolution for a living.

He quit. The reason, preserved in his character biography ever since, is the most Frank Castle reason imaginable: he could not forgive major sins. A priest must absolve the repentant, no matter what they have done. Frank looked at the worst things men do and discovered, early, that forgiveness was the one thing he was not built to give. So he walked away from the seminary — and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps instead.

The Corps fit. He rose to Captain, served multiple tours in the Siancong War, and collected the Bronze Star, Silver Star, four Purple Hearts and more — and earned the nickname he would keep forever: the Punisher. Read his whole career backward and the seminary is the key that turns it: the war on crime is what happens when a man who cannot absolve sinners decides to deal with sin another way. The confessional's loss was the underworld's catastrophe.