Foolkiller #2
Marvel Comics, December 14, 2016
Writer: Max Bemis
In our review of Foolkiller #1, we compared the character Foolkiller in passing to American publisher Marvel Comics’ gun-toting antihero Punisher. In the second issue of the series, it would appear that the similarity between the two fictional characters is not lost on the fictional spy agency, SHIELD. (We have written about SHIELD many times in our reviews, and in a future article we will look at the histories of these sorts of organisations.) SHIELD is the employer of Greg Salinger, the alter ego of Foolkiller.
In the story, Salinger’s SHIELD handler reacted positively to news that the “Foolkiller” persona has returned and massacred a group of neo-Nazis. Apparently, SHIELD has always wanted their own version of the Punisher, but since the Punisher is a lone wolf-type character which cannot be controlled and would never work a government agency, SHIELD employed Foolkiller instead. In their proposed system, SHIELD sends various bad guys to Salinger in order to see if they can be rehabilitated. On the event that they are deemed hopeless, Salinger pays them a visit as Foolkiller.