Wonder Woman & Punisher’s Son Finally Gave Frank Castle a Happy Ending
The Punisher is one of the most tragic characters in all comic book history, not because of the scale of his tragedy, but the personal impact it had on his life, and the lasting influence it still has on his actions–but when he and Wonder Woman had a son, the Punisher finally got his happy ending.
Frank Castle became the Punisher after his wife and two children were killed in a gang-related shooting while having a picnic in a New York City park. After seeing first-hand the carnage unchecked crime can have on innocent civilians, Castle decided to use the military training he received from serving as a marine to launch his vigilante career as the Punisher. During that career, the Punisher killed countless street-level criminals with merciless indifference. If someone was breaking the law in a way that hurt or could potentially kill other people, the Punisher was going to kill them–something that remained true even after the DC and Marvel universes merged into one Amalgam Universe.
Amalgam Universe’s Punisher Redeems Frank Castle’s Greatest Regret
In Bullets and Bracelets by John Ostrander and Gary Frank, Diana Prince and Trevor Castle are teaming up once more following their marital separation after their son had been stolen by the poweful and villainous Thanoseid. As is made clear by the first few pages alone, this comic is establishing an entire history between these two, one that had a failed marriage and a child together, while essentially keeping their original origin stories the same. While Trevor Castle is the amalgamation of Steve Trevor and Frank Castle, his backstory is totally Frank Castle’s in terms of his first family being killed in the park, and his reaction to that traumatic event. Similarly, Wonder Woman’s origin remained essentially the same as well, with the only difference being that she met Trevor Castle and had a son. Now, the two are reluctantly working together again, and this time, the Punisher’s family will survive their brush with death.
In the end, Wonder Woman and the Punisher are able to save their son (despite some mind-bending time-dilated mischief on Thanoseid’s part), and also rekindle their failed marriage. In Marvel’s original Earth-616, the Punisher’s greatest regret was the fact that he couldn’t save his family. In fact, it is this regret that inspired Frank to more recently join the Hand, as the mystical ninjas promised to resurrect his family if he worked for them. While Trevor Castle shared the same trauma as the original Frank, Trevor was able to redeem that lingering regret in a way that still allowed him to move on from the past and heal those wounds properly with people who love and support him, rather than trying to make literal deals with the devil in an effort to rewrite the past.
Wonder Woman not only became the new love of the Punisher’s life with whom he started a family, but she was also the perfect partner for him during their assault on Apokolips. Wonder Woman gave the Punisher a son, and when their child was in danger, she helped the Punisher save him–thereby redeeming Frank Castle’s greatest regret and finally giving the Punisher a happy ending.
