History ComicBook / ThePunisherBorn

* MoralityChain: Frank tells Goodwin that his family might be his "last chance" to be something other than a BloodKnight.

* CoolGuns: One of Frank's squadmates can be seen using a M79 break action GrenadeLauncher to obliterate an unfortunate cow and a few VC/NVA soldiers.

* CoverDrop: The fourth issue gets one on the very first page with a Marine who is clutching his face, as he has just [[EyeScream lost his eyes]].

* AtrocityMontage: Certain pages of the comic detail the destructive activities and war crimes of the United States Army that made most people from America and the rest of the world demand the end of The Vietnam War, from bombing defenseless civilians and executing prisoners to spreading Agent Orange over the jungle and the Vietnamese people. The narrator also states that those actions will not help to win the war but will stain the reputation of the United States and their soldiers forever.

''Born'' is a four-issue miniseries from the year 2003, which was released through [[Creator/MarvelMAX Marvel's MAX imprint]].

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* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:Aside from Frank, there were no survivors at Valley Forge, ally ''OR'' enemy.]]

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: Marines execute incapacitated enemy combatants, use overtly cruel attack methods, and one of the Marines, [=McDonald=], actually has a bag full of human scalps that he keeps as "souvenirs". And that's not even getting in to the part where they try to gang rape a female enemy... And this is still ''mild'' by Vietnam fiction standards, had Valley Forge been anywhere near a civilian settlement it would have been far worse.

* YoungAndInCharge: Captain Frank Castle is only 21 years old and already effectively in charge of an entire Marine Firebase. Justified in that the rest of the officers in the base are either incompetent morons or apathetic idiots, not fit to run a base of this size.

* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: We get a decent amount of characterization for Castle's squad mates[[spoiler:, even though they're all going to die before the series is over.]] Goodwin and Angel arguably gets the most, since they're at least referenced in [[ComicBook/ThePunisherMax Valley Forge, Valley Forge]].

* {{Homage}}: The scene with the female Viet Cong sniper laying on her back seems to be one to the Hue City sniper in Film/FullmetalJacket, including the sniper getting a mercy kill.]]
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: At the end of the story, the NVA has completely overwhelmed the defenses of the Valley Forge Fire Base and only Castle and Goodwin are still standing. When all seems lost, an F-4 Phantom suddenly roars over Goodwin, releasing napalm on the attackers. Other American planes follow the first one and, for a brief moment, Goodwin thinks that they have been saved as nothing could have survived the air attack. Then, a North Vietnamese infantryman charges towards him through the flames, with a bayonet nested on the rifle.]]

** Col. Ottman may be an incompetent [[TheAlcoholic drunkard]] and a DirtyCoward, but he is right on one thing. [[spoiler: Had the marines simply stayed put and given up on interfering with the NVA’s lines of communication, the enemy might have decided that taking the base out was not worth the trouble (and the predictable heavy losses).]]
** The general who carries on an inspection on Valley Forge is shown as an arrogant martinet and it is implied that he decided to recommend giving a dishonorable discharge to ''all'' the personnel of the base out of spite for not having been properly given a salute from the marines. However, closing down a dangerously isolated and ineffective outpost in a remote border area infested with enemy forces is the only sensible action to take, especially considering that the Americans are drastically scaling down their involvement in the Vietnam War, and getting ready to pull out entirely.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: [[WordOfGod Writer Garth Ennis]] states that there is a possibility that the mysterious voice in Frank's head never existed. And that his so called DealWithTheDevil was a manifestation of Frank's delusions. He leaves it open for interpretation.

* MoeGreeneSpecial: One Viet Cong member is shown being shot in the eye during the Marines ambush on their supply run.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: {{Implied|Trope}}. Despite the fact that Valley Forge is isolated in the middle of enemy territory and that he can count on only one platoon of Marines due to the total collapse of the morale of the firebase’s garrison, Frank Castle is very successful in his attacks against the NVA’s supply convoys, inflicting significant casualties on the enemy. It is implied (and made explicit in a later story arc of Comicbook/ThePunisherMAX) that [[spoiler: this is the reason why the NVA decides to wipe out the marines once and for all as soon as the rainy season impairs American air power, leaving the firebase without any air support]].

* OverrankedSoldier: Frank Castle is a Captain in the United States Marine Corps at 21. It wasn't impossible to find an officer that young in the U.S. military, but a ''Captain''? [[spoiler: It's later revealed in the miniseries ''Fury: My War Gone By'' that Colonel Nick Fury recommended Castle for an early promotion to Captain after tagging along with him on a mission to assassinate NVA general Letrong Giap and proving his talent as a soldier.]] Still, though, one has to wonder how Frank became an officer in his late teens (as he is shown to be commanding a platoon as a lieutenant at Khe Sanh in 1968 in ''Punisher: The Platoon''... when he's ''18'').
* PistolWhipping: After seeing his friend Angel going to the bunker that's a hotspot for drug use, Stevie hits its boss Coltrane in the face with a butt of a rifle, and drags Angel away from the place.
* RedShirts: Castle has a whole platoon of men who still patrol with him, described as a mixture of idealists, combat junkies and people out there to watch their buddies' backs, but only James, Angel and two others actually get names, and those other two are both dead by the third issue.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Frank Castle's military rank is a curious example. He is identified as a "21-year-old Captain". The idea of someone so young holding an officer rank of that caliber is quite hard to believe. [[spoiler:It turns out that ComicBook/NickFury recommended he be promoted to Captain early after Frank proved himself on a mission to kill Letrong Giap, a North Vietnamese general.]]

* DealWithTheDevil: One of the possible explanations for the mysterious voice that Frank hears in his head throughout the series. Frank refuses to accept that the US is withdrawing from Vietnam and does everything he can to postpone shutting down his camp. [[spoiler:The NVA finally assaults the base during a storm while the US army air support is cut off, killing everyone. Frank is the last American alive, and the voice makes him an offer. Eternal war, in exchange for something. Frank accepts and survives when the U.S. air strike finally arrives. Frank comes back home and meets his family at the airport, and the voice returns to claim the price for his eternal war: Frank's family.]]

The story, set in October 1971, depicts Frank Castle's last days in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, where he leads a platoon of soldiers that operate from Firebase Valley Forge. While everyone else waits for US troops to be pulled out from the unpopular conflict, Castle clings to the war, willing to do anything to keep on fighting.

* DarkestHour: In the final issue, the [[spoiler:NVA makes a daring all-out assault on the base, killing just about every Marine stationed there, save for Captain Castle and Private Goodwin. The US air strike isn't coming anytime soon and TheCavalry is nowhere in sight. Then Castle starts hearing that mysterious voice in his head again]]...
* DealWithTheDevil: One of the possible explanations for the mysterious voice that Frank hears in his head throughout the series. Frank refuses to accept that the US is withdrawing from Vietnam and does everything he can to postpone shutting down his camp. [[spoiler:The NVA finally assaults the base during a storm while the US army air support is cut off, killing everyone. Frank is the last American alive, and the voice makes him an offer. Eternal war, in exchange for something. Frank accepts and survives when the US air strike finally arrives. Frank comes back home and meets his family at the airport, and the voice returns to claim the price for his eternal war: Frank's family]].

* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: We get a decent amount of characterization for Castle's squad mates[[spoiler:, even though they're all going to die before the series is over]]. Goodwin and Angel arguably gets the most, since they're at least referenced in [[ComicBook/ThePunisherMax Valley Forge, Valley Forge]].

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: At the end of the story, the NVA has completely overwhelmed the defenses of the Valley Forge Fire Base and only Castle and Goodwin are still standing. When all seems lost, an F-4 Phantom suddenly roars over Goodwin, releasing napalm on the attackers. Other American planes follow the first one and, for a brief moment, Goodwin thinks that they have been saved as nothing could have survived the air attack. Then, a North Vietnamese infantryman charges towards him through the flames, with a bayonet nested on the rifle]].

* NearDeathExperience: [[spoiler:At the end, during the big battle, Frank Castle apparently makes a deal with the entity that has been talking to him throughout the series. He is given the option of dying there in Nam or having supernatural protection and thusly, a guarantee to see his family again. But the latter option will have a price..]].

* SerialKiller: This is arguably the story that goes the farthest in showing the Punisher as nothing more than a brutal murderer. Not only does it depict Castle as a SociopathicSoldier in love with war to the point of not being able to cope with the fact that the American involvement in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar is coming to an end [[note]]On March 10,1972, five months after the events of ''Born'', the last US ground combat division, the 101st Airborne Division, left South Vietnam[[/note]]. [[spoiler:It also reveals that Castle was committing (more or less) random murders way before his family's massacre.]] Oh, and if the voices Frank hears in his head are just his own InnerMonologue, he is also borderline psychotic.

* ColdSniper: We don't really get to see it on-panel, but Frank is a highly-skilled sniper with dozens of kills to his name. In the miniseries ''Fury: My War Gone By'' we are told that Frank killed dozens of Viet Cong over the course of a single month (we're later shown him killing numerous NVA soldiers with a sniper rifle). This skill of his is hinted at when Goodwin describes Castle's past, referencing "an NVA general sniped just outside Hanoi."

* FamousLastWords: Angel's final words just before getting his head blown off are "There ain't no God, fool! Look around you! There ain't no muthafuckin' God!!"

* AnyoneCanDie: Like most works of military fiction, anyone not named Frank Castle is more or less fair game. The initial platoon gets smaller and smaller with each passing issue.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Despite the fact that Valley Forge is isolated in the middle of enemy territory and that he can count on only one platoon of Marines due to the total collapse of the morale of the firebase’s garrison, Frank Castle is very successful in his attacks against the NVA’s supply convoys, inflicting significant casualties on the enemy. It is [[ImpliedTrope implied]] (and made explicit in a later story arc of Comicbook/ThePunisherMAX) that [[spoiler: this is the reason why the NVA decides to wipe out the marines once and for all as soon as the rainy season impairs American air power, leaving the firebase without any air support]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Despite the fact that Valley Forge is isolated in the middle of enemy territory and that he can count only on one platoon of Marines due to the total collapse of the morale of the firebase’s garrison, Frank Castle is very successful in his attacks against the NVA’s supply convoys, inflicting significant casualties to the enemy. It is [[ImpliedTrope implied]] (and make explicit in a later story arc of Comicbook/ThePunisherMAX) that [[spoiler: this is the reason why the NVA decides to wipe out the marines once and for all as soon as the rain season will impair the American air power]].

* RedShirts: Castle has a whole platoon of men who still patrol with him, described as a mixture of idealists, combat junkies, people out their to watch their buddies backs, but only James, Angel and two others actually get names, and those other two are both dead by the third issue.

* RedShirts: Castle has a whole platoon of men who still patrol with him, described as a mixture of idealists, people out their to watch their buddies backs, and {{Blood Knights}}, but only James, Angel and two others actually get names, and those other two are both dead by the third issue.

* RedShirts: Castle has a whole platoon of men who still patrol with him, described as a mixture of idealists BloodKnights and people just out there to protect their friends, but only James, Angel and two others actually get names, and those other two are both dead by the third issue.