The Punisher Magazine # 3
"Final Solution" Part 1

Having barely survived the Trust's betrayal, the Punisher rushes to find the Ryker's Prison warden and his aide, who were the ones that brought Castle into the Trust to begin with. Frank busts into the aide's apartment only to find him dead at the hands of a Punisher look-alike under the Trust's control that manages to get away. Castle checks the aide's files and looks for information on Alaric but comes up empty, so he settles for the name and address of the warden. At the warden's apartment two blocks away, the Punisher look-alike is getting ready to murder him under orders from Alaric, but Frank gets there in time to kill the assassin and save the warden. The warden tells the Punisher that Alaric has been "brainwashing" criminals to become his army of killers, and he wanted Castle out of prison to lead this death squad. The warden tells Castle where to find Alaric, at an estate in upstate New York, and then he pulls a pistol and shoots himself in the head. Before he can leave, however, two police officers arrive and take the Punisher into custody.

Castle tries to explain the Trust's plan to the cops while they drive him to their station, but they naturally don't believe him. Then, the driving officer is shot and the car is run off the road by the Trust's Punisher assassins, forcing the surviving officer to free the Punisher in order to save their lives. After he kills the assassins, Castle escapes and forces Tony Massera - who has been watching the Punisher in preparation to kill him - to drive him to Alaric's estate. At his headquarters, Alaric and his lover Angela are reporting to another senior member of the Trust named Tex, who is skeptical of Alaric's plan to take over the mobs and eliminate organized crime. This gives Alaric an opportunity to show off the procedure he uses to brainwash criminals into false "Punishers".

Two hours later, Castle and Massera arrive at Alaric's compound, and Frank knocks Massera out and tosses him out of the car. Castle uses the car to ram the estate's gate, which the guards shoot at and cause to explode. But the Punisher wasn't in the vehicle, and he manages to sneak his way onto the grounds, which is guarded by the Trust's Punisher Squad. There he encounters the brainwashed Jigsaw, who upon seeing Frank begins to break his mental conditioning. Back to his normal state of mind, Jigsaw fires upon the Punisher while Alaric is alerted of the attack. Tex takes this as evidence of Alaric's failure, so Alaric elects to sic his guard dog on him, which chases Tex back to his helicopter. Alaric then orders Angela to escape in the jeep before the Punisher finds and kills her for betraying him. Outside, Frank hitches a ride on Tex's helicopter, but after Castle jumps to the roof of the building the helicopter explodes, killing Tex. Inside the house, Alaric taunts the Punisher via television monitors, trying to convince Castle to finally join up with the Trust. When Frank refuses, a trap-door opens in the floor, dumping him into the mental-conditioning chamber that first electrocutes and then gasses him.

"Final Solution", Part 2

The Punisher has been trapped inside Alaric's conditioning chamber, which he uses to brainwash criminals into becoming Punisher clones for the Trust via gas and electrical shocks. Before he succumbs to the gas, Frank is able to block the gas vent and cause an explosion, which frees him from the room. When he steps out, however, he's ambushed by Jigsaw, who has broken the Trust's conditioning and has returned to his true personality. Jigsaw savagely beats Castle, but Frank is able to stab his foe in the leg and gain the upper hand. He beats Jigsaw into unconsciousness in front of a group of Punisher clones, and when they see what Frank has done they all drop their weapons and run away.

Alaric is left alone in his control room, having been abandoned by all of his brainwashed soldiers. When Castle enters the control room, Alaric ambushes him and beats him to the floor with a rifle, then runs into his bedroom to pack his clothes and escape with his lover Angela. But the Punisher isn't dead, and he confronts Alaric, resulting in a stand-off with both men pointing guns at each other. The stand-off is broken when Alaric's dog attacks, but Frank is able to shoot Alaric and knock out the dog before either could harm him. Alaric begs Castle not to kill him, cowering on the floor like an animal, so Frank orders Alaric to call up as many press organizations as he can and to reveal all of the Trust's secrets. If he doesn't do this, the Punisher will return and kill him. Alaric agrees and is left crying in his room, while Castle leaves confident that Alaric will do as ordered because he's a coward.

Before he can leave the house, Frank is confronted by Tony Massera, the son of a mobster that the Punisher had killed. Tony has a gun and is there to kill Castle out of revenge, but Frank is able to convince Massera that he shouldn't throw his life away for vengeance. Tony ultimately gives in and lowers the gun, allowing Castle to walk past him. When Frank gets outside, he begins to cross the bridge from Alaric's compound and is seen by Angela, who has been waiting in a car for her lover Alaric. When she realizes that it's the Punisher and not Alaric, she believes that her lover is dead and out of revenge she drives onto the bridge to run Castle down. Frank shoots the car's engine, and the rain causes her to skid into the railing of the bride, leaving the car teetering over the edge. Angela pleads for the Punisher to save her, but Frank instead decides to follow the advice he gave to Massera, "sometimes the best thing is to just do nothing," and he walks away to leave Angela to her fate.

Annotations:
The Punisher Magazine was a monthly, black-and-white, magazine-sized reprint series. This issue reprints The Punisher (1985) # 4 and The Punisher (1985) # 5.

Review:
Read the review for The Punisher (1985) # 4.

Read the review for The Punisher (1985) # 5.

Grade: B- (# 4), C+ (# 5)
Review Date: 01/15/12