The Punisher/Nightmare Fuel

• High Octane Nightmare Fuel: The MAX series does a decent job at this, but if you're after high octane may I recommend "The End".
  • Good god, "The Slavers" is full of High Octane Nightmare Fuel. Viorica's backstory. What Frank does to the three ringleaders of the slaving gang. The sickening image of Viorica's murdered baby. Jen Cooke's accounts of what happened to other girls/women, which are Truth in Television.
  • Punisher POV towards the end.
  • MAX Bulleye's attempts to get inside Frank's head. See Complete Monster spoilers above.
  • Frank Castle's own death during the Marvel Dark Reign also counts. Being sliced up by Daken is exactly as messy as it sounds.
  • The Valley Forge Massacre. The N.V.A. launched an assault on Firebase Valley Forge where Frank was the top dog. Due to bad weather and other problems they couldn't recieve reinforcements. After the battle ended and the smoke cleared 700 men were dead, including 200 US troops. Frank was the only survivor, he was found still standing, surrounded by 20 enemy soldiers with their heads smashed in, holding a broken rifle and riddled with bullet holes. The story arc Valley Forge, Valley Forge has typed interludes that are excerpts from the book of the brother of one of the men who died, featuring interviews with those involved (the sister of his brother's friend, the man on the radio and one of the men who first arrived at the aftermath). All three of them combined paint a picture of the events surrounding the massacre and its effect on Frank Castle, and its a very scary picture. The massacre itself is detailed in the Born miniseries and reveals why Frank survived: He made a deal with either The Devil or Death.
• Punisher one shot The End. It begins with Castle in Sing Sing after a horrific nuclear war. A year later Frank and another prisoner escape, heading to New York City through the irradiated wasteland. Past burning skies, assisted suicides and Terminator style mountains of skulls, we learn that the other prisoners were cannibalistic and the nukes were detonated in mid air to kill more people. As they reach New York, Frank collapses and wakes up in the care of the Coven, who were responsible for what happened. He escapes and kills everyone, knowingly condemning the human race to extinction. The comic ends with Castle burning from radiation and fire as he walks to Central Park to, in his mind, be with his family.
  • The Punisher arc Up Is Down and Black Is White, has Frank driven off the deep end by a vicious mob boss. After a night of him going ballistic on the New York underworld, the next issue opens on Frank sitting silently on a Police car...surrounded by the corpses of civillians, hoods and cops. He starts to hear a ghostly voice calling to him...

"Frank...Frank...[he sees the silhouette of a young woman and two children]...we're still dead Frank." {{[[[Catapult Nightmare]] Frank jerks awake}}]

• • Every. Single. Thing. About "The Slavers" arc. From what Viorca tells Frank about her baby to what the horrific things the titular slavers did to their prisoners to - most disturbing of all - the apathetic response to what happened, it is all horrifying and disturbing. This is not to mention the extreme lengths Frank Castle goes to in order to destroy the slavers in question.