While there's much to make of Frank Castle's lethal tendencies (the dude is a fan of guns, after all), he didn't always used to kill his enemies - preferring instead to pelt them with volley after volley of subsonic ammunition.
Dubbed 'mercy bullets', rubber ammunition was Castle's weapon of choice during the formative moments of his crimefighting career, and he even continued to use them when collaborating with other heroes like Daredevil and Spider-Man too. Frank was actually using the ammo in 2014, where he managed to take down Electro with nothing more than some topically applied rubber.
And while yes, live ammo is and always will be the Punisher's weapon of choice, it's important to remember that he's not as rigid as some would say. If he needs help from a hero, and the mandate is not to kill, then you can bet he'll leave the FMJ in his locker. Considering he's just as effective without it as he is with it, it's not as big a distinction as one would initially think.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
