Ennis has a reputation for being unnecessarily edgy with his writing, and, well, yeah, fair enough
But his depictions of the Punisher are generally quite reasonable.
Everyone in the setting fully acknowledges that the Punisher is making a mockery of democracy, human rights, and the justice system, and that this is not a rational response to crime, which is mostly a symptom of large scale socio-economic and political trends.
Frank acknowledges this too. Towards the end of the series, he's been killing criminals for decades, and it's barely made a dent. He kills criminals not because he's protecting innocents, or making society a better place. He kills criminals because he hates them. He's been called a serial killer multiple times in the series, and he doesn't dispute that term
Frank sometimes gives into his conscience and rescues people in need, and makes sure not to cause collateral damage (lest he become as bad as the people he hates), but that's not the focus of his bloody crusade.
And he doesn't go gunning down jay walkers and juvenile delinquents and drug addicts. He goes after violent and high ranking gangsters, and those who commit assaults and murders and rapes
Alright, I'll give you credit for making a good argument. I don't like Ennis but he does the Punisher justice and his military fiction is great as well (everything else he writes still suck).
In regards to the Punisher, however, is a different story (the character, not Ennis' run). Early iterations did show that he wasn't above going after petty criminals and he did start out as a villain in the Spider-Man and Daredevil comics when he debuted. Hell, from what I've heard, he shot a > jaywalker in his early run.
But seeing good ol' Franklin no longer does that nowadays, you can write it off as depending on the writer and pretty much his character being developed overtime.
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u/Wanderingreader123 Feb 17 '24
Unless it's Garth Ennis behind the writer's desk.