The Punisher has his hands on Pym Technology in his crusade against Neo-Nazis, and his latest idea uses Ant Man tech in a truly horrific way
Warning: Spoilers for Punisher War Journal: Blitz #1 ahead!
It’s no secret that Ant-Man Hank Pym has some of the Marvel Universe‘s most volatile technology, but in the hands of The Punisher, Pym Tech could be used to create a weapon so deadly and gory only Frank Castle could come up with it.
The Punisher has a reputation as Marvel’s most ruthless killer, and regardless of his morality, he’s undeniably good at what he does. Since Punisher took over as the leader of The Hand, his killing has only gotten more aggressive and effective. With a seemingly infinite army of Hand assassins at his disposal, Castle is taking to battle zone after battle zone as a ruthless general taking down opposition wherever it sprouts up. Alongside his army, Castle has begun utilizing some advanced tech to get the upper hand on his foes.
In Punisher War Journal: Blitz #1, by Torunn Gronbeckk and Lan Medina, Castle and The Hand find themselves hunting down Hate-Monger, a white supremacist war profiteer, having to tear through his citizen-killing goons in the process. Throughout the battle, Punisher uses Pym grenades to alter the terrain, using Hank Pym’s size-altering tech to enlarge a statue to turn it into a sniping post. While this is a cool moment of ingenuity, Castle takes a second to reflect on his own application for Pym technology: bullets. Containing Pym particles within, the bullets would pierce the skin and release the embiggening particles inside the body, causing internal organs and bones to expand — and explode the target from the inside-out.
This weapon is utterly gruesome, enough so Punisher even admits it would likely be banned from war zones (though, he remarks, “we’d still use them.”) Not only does this idea highlight what a vicious killer Punisher is, it also serves as a reminder of how dangerous Pym particles can be. Hank Pym’s signature invention is simple in its’ execution but has an infinite amount of possible applications aside from making the user very small or very big. The second Ant-Man, Scott Lang, used canisters of Pym particles to change the size of other objects, an early example of weaponizing the particles. Even in the MCU, where Ant-Man’s tech is often used for visual gags, the villain of Ant-Man (2015), Darren Cross, is seemingly killed by being shrunk inside his Yellowjacket suit until he was ultimately crushed by it.
Cross’s shocking death, however, still has nothing on Punisher’s idea for the atom-manipulating technology. Frank Castle’s history as a war veteran and killer vigilante, and his present as the leader of The Hand, make Punisher a prime candidate to innovate with advanced war technology, much in the same way Pym was during his Avengers days in the 60s and 70s. In the hands of the morally gray characters like Hank Pym’s Ant-Man and The Punisher, it’s easy to see that Pym particles are one of the most dangerous weapons in the Marvel Universe.
Look for Punisher War Journal: Blitz #1 available now wherever comic books are sold.
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