This is a unique issue in that Daredevil 257 which was released at the same time, told the same story but from Daredevil's perspective.  How did Daredevil arrive on that rooftop in time to save the bad guy in Punisher 10?  Well, you'll just have to read Daredevil 257.  It isn't a part one of two situation, it's a "If you want to see what's happening just left to everything we're showing you here, go get Daredevil this month".

Anyhow, there's a lot I like about Frank Castle and a significant part of my appreciation stems from how adept he is at lateral thinking.  He's intelligent enough to be able to narrow the list of people who could be poisoning the city from thousands to perhaps just dozens, but he can't quite figure out how to narrow that list of dozens down to one.  So he figures out a way to get The Jehovah's Witnesses to do it for him.  It's a nice contrast to how Daredevil resolves the same matter in his half of the story.  Murdock's senses are acute enough that he can detect "an oil used by weightlifters" on some of the tampered with medication and from there he asks around at the company that's affected by these events if they know of any weightlifting, fired employees with a grudge.  The Punisher however, doesn't have the friendly relationship with the law or the public that permits Daredevil to openly search for clues and so has to trick a religious organization to doing at least some of his leg work while he just waits.

Not that things are ever easy for Frank Castle.  Because he's isn't afforded the respect that other superheroes are, he can't just flash the superhero emblem on his chest to let bystanders know that everything will be alright - he's a wanted criminal who has to keep a low profile at all times lest someone call the cops on him even while he's attempting to save their life.  This is why when Castle disguises himself as a janitor to get close to the killer he's after, he has to interrupt his stake out and go unplug a lady's toilet two doors down so this lady won't think something's up.  The way Portacio convey's Frank's stumped expression as he realizes that the one flaw in his otherwise perfect "I'll disguise myself as a janitor so no one will wonder why they don't recognize this guy wandering around this apartment building" plan is... that he's dressed as a janitor in an apartment building which badly needs a janitor.  It's more than just a comic moment however, it's a nice insight into how committed The Punisher is to his mission.

By the way, that issue of Daredevil 257 is penciled by John Romita Jr who would of course, be later given his own Punisher title with Punisher: War Zone.  I have to imagine then, that this issue of Daredevil marks some of his first work on the character.

Punisher #11

“Second Sight”

1.00 USD/1.25 CAD @ September 1988

Script: Mike Baron
Pencils: Whilce Portacio
Inks: Scott Williams
Letters: Ken Bruzenak
Colors: John Wellington
Editor: Carl Potts
Editor-In-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Synopsis: The Punisher is in the border between Texas and northern Mexico. Perched on the high ground, he's waiting for some people to arrive, and being discreet he has his infrared scope set so he can have night time turned into day. Finally, it arrived, a jeep and a truck. He armed himself with automatic weapons and proceeded to make his way down to meet the two vehicles. He noticed it stopped and he peered into his optic scopes and saw men manhandling a woman. Unknown to the men, the Punisher approached them, easily slicing the neck of one from behind. Then he made his way to the two men manhandling the woman. He stabbed one, and the other let the woman go to draw his gun, but the Punisher beat him to it and put three slugs in him. The noise of the gunfire drew the other men from the vehicles and they headed to where the Punisher was. The Punisher and the woman headed for some cover as bullets ran all over their vicinity. And atop the woman saw another of the men, and Punisher quickly put automatic gunfire towards that direction, but not before getting hit with ricocheted rocks near his eyes thus blinding him. As the men neared them, Punisher told the woman can she shoot a pistol, and that he cannot see. He held her upfront to lead the way and shooting with her as his "second" sight aiming for him. A bullet hit her shoulders, and both of them feel below. The men saw the two's bodies sprawled way below, and laughed and left them for dead.

The Punisher woke up the next morning with the sun blaring through the door. As he made his way outside, there was an Indian by a man made cooking fire area, and he asked Punisher questions as well as telling him that he is a medicine man and was gathering herbs when he found Punisher and the girl. Punisher told the medicine man sorry that he is too careful, it is the nature of the business he is in, punishing criminals, like the people smugglers the night before. The medicine man agreed, as the people smugglers left a stench behind them. He also told Punisher that his wives are taking care of the girl not too far away. Punisher asked for his equimpent and weapons, and the medicine man told him he doesn't need it where they are, which is his home as it is safe there. Punisher went over to the edge of the plateau and it is a long drop down, and definitely no one can access them there. He also said, Frank was talking in his sleep, and like him, he also lost his family, but to government troops and wealthy land owners who starved them. As Frank drank some of the drink offered to him earlier, the medicine man asked him if his vision has yet been altered. And slowly it did for Frank feeling glued to the earth and at the same time spanning the cosmos far away. And then it took him to his past. The origin of the Punisher. He was having a picnic with his family and they were all gunned down. That day Frank Castle died. And the Punisher was born. And he is trying to connect everything. Then he was woken from his "high" when the girl said they had to go. The people smugglers are below and on their way. Frank still groggy assisted the old medicine man who had an old cannon and they positioned it to the only entrance way, and got their rifles. And still hallucinating, Frank saw his dead wife and instructing him to move the cannon in another direction, which the medicine man was trying to prevent Punisher. Frank moved the cannon and fired and directly hit the people smugglers sneaking up behind them, and the remaining opened fire on Frank and the medicine man. In the melee the medicine man was shot, and the remaining enemy made his way to Frank, who was unarmed, but before being shot, the last remaining people smuggler was stabbed from behind by a large pitchfork. And the man fell. Frank cannot tell reality or the dream, asking the girl her name, and she replied. It was the same name as his dead wife.

Comments: The best part about the Punisher volume two series, at least in its early inception is the reality based stories, and the current social commentary of the day. It gets intertwined with Punisher's action stories and you get the best of both worlds. No superheroing cape stories. This was the appeal to the readers back then. And this Punisher can communicate with others, and not just ultra-violently killing everyone with no communications skills with other non-enemy people. So by somewhat humanizing the Punisher in this series, readers can somewhat sympathize with the character. If he couldn't communicate with people, readers would've easily gotten tired of the non stop violence.

I was going to ask this over on the 'Ask anything' thread, but since Sabongero of all people has a question over there I don't want to step on, I thought I'd ask it here instead.

Did Frank Castle have a job when he came back from Vietnam at the time of his family's murder or was he unemployed?

I believe there'll be an upcoming arc (around about issue 14) in which Castle plays the role of a teacher and while it's just a disguise, he does a good enough job of it that it made me wonder just what his occupation was when he came back home.

The only time I saw Frank Castle with a job when his family was alive, was in a second volume of the What If...? series. He came back from the Vietnam War, and then he became a cop and the mob didn't kill his family, it was corrupt cops and corrupt law enforcement officials. So instead of the Punisher killing criminals, it was the Punisher going after and killing corrupt law enforcement officials to get revenge for his family's murder.

Warmonger have you read The Punisher Kills the World? Was that entertaining and worth looking up to purchase? How much would you pay up to for it if you found it?

The first volume had some phenomenal stories. The second volume lasted 114 issues from the late 80's to the late 90's. I've come across some of the late 80's issues up to a few very early 90's issues. Fantastic run as well with key issues on a different set of results of the superhero went "left" instead of "right" in a particular event or key life-changing decision on his life.

In the one you mentioned, Spider-Man was out of character and what a smart way for Frank to kill him. Unfortunately, Kingpin killed Frank, but only because Spider-Man brutalized him and he still went to face Kingpin. But that ending with the bomb package killing Kingpin, that was slick, and only the best way to kill a crime lord to end the gang war.

Punisher #14

“Social Studies”

1.00 USD @ December 1988

Script: Mike Baron
Pencils: Whilce Portacio
Inks: Scott Williams
Letterer: Ken Bruzenak
Colors: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Carl Potts & Marc MacLaurin
Editor-In-Chief: Tom DeFalco

Synopsis: The Punisher goes undercover as a substitute teacher in this public school where there are many student hoodlums, as he tries to find the Kingpin's representative who's teenaged gang is responsible for drug dealing and arms dealing in the school.

Gang members weren't scared of the substitute teacher disguise of the Punisher and as he was taking attendance, one of them pulled a knife on him, and Punisher easily disarmed him and threw him out the window. He warned the rest of the students to forget about a lawsuit as he's only there a couple of days and does not care. Another gang member politely opened the door and asked for another gang member to be excused. And Punisher was about to prevent him from leaving the classroom, until the gang member pulled out a gun pointing at the Punisher, who let him leave the classroom. When the Punisher excused himself to leave the classroom, a student pulled a gun, and Punisher told him to hand it over and he'll try to return it back to him. He asked one of the bright students, Roxanne to take over the class for him while he's gone.

As Punisher was making his way down the hallway, a teacher asked him if he needed help and if he should call the police, which the Punisher told him that he is the police and to go back to his classroom. Punisher went to the furnace room in the basement and witnessed gang members, and Kingpin's representative. They were making deals to blow up the school for the Libyan terrorists. The teacher and the student that gave him his gun arrived behind him to give him backup. But before the Punisher can convince them to leave, the gang members spotted them, and a gun battle ensued. There were too many, and Punisher ordered the two men to retreat upstairs. The Punisher grabbed the teacher's gun and kicked the student back up in the face, and told him to haul the teacher away. Punisher went down to the furnace room again to see that the gang members are gone, and Punisher did not think it was prudent to chase them in the sewers.

Punisher put on his costume and went down several blocks, then went to the sewers to find the teenaged gang. He found them and tossed a concussion grenade at them. The explosion knocked the Kingpin's representative to the sewer waters where he drowned. Punisher punched out one of the kids and told him to go back to school. The Punisher is getting soft.

The Punisher went back to his classroom where he found Roxanne doing a good job taking over the teaching duties for him. He taught the rest of the period. And after class he found out from Roxanne that the guidance counselor quit six months ago, and he'll have them prepared for the S.A.T. exam for their college entrance, but Roxanne was scared for the Punisher coming back to class because the gang member will kill him for what he did. The student that gave Punisher his gun was also outside and asked the Punisher for the gun back because he paid a lot of money, but Punisher told him it wasn't happening and asked how much did he pay for the guns.

Comments: Even though the story is exaggerated and over the top, Mike Baron is tackling real urban problems in the public school systems in the 1980's where criminal teenaged gang members were in school premises and selling drugs and guns, which were a big problem.

What schools used to do was conduct a fire alarm drill a lot of times. And as the students and teachers go through the motions of the fire alarm drill and walk outside the school and clear the school premises of all students, the principal then calls in the fire department, who goes through the lockers at the gym and hallway with giant locker-clippers at hand and clips all the lockers and confiscate all the guns and knives found in the lockers. And they did this routine every month. Aside from metal detectors in the front door entrances, this is how they got rid of guns in schools. I am sure they confiscated any drugs they found in the locker rooms as well as the fire department would sometime be accompanied by a K-9 police officer and his dog. But it was an ongoing battle.