Marvel Comics Just Brought Back a Long-Dead Villain and He’s Making The Punisher Look Soft

Image Courtesy of Marvel$MRVL Comics The Punisher$PNSH might be the most famous lethal vigilante targeting New York City’s criminal underbelly, but Marvel$MRVL Comics just brought back another self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner who makes the Punisher$PNSH look tame by comparison. Spider-Woman #1 has changed everything for the titular heroine who is now forced to host the notorious Carnage$CRNG Symbiote. Although Spider-Woman still has managed to maintain control over the sadistic Symbiote, her newest villain may challenge her like never before. For after 40 years since his apparent death, the Hangman has returned to dispense lethal judgment, and he won’t stop until the entire mafia is dead. In Spider-Woman #1, Spider-Woman is working as a professional investigator for the Daily Bugle. Her latest case involves a series of brutal murders of gangsters who are hanged. Naturally, Spider-Woman deduces that the culprit is an underrated Marvel$MRVL villain named Harlan Kruger, aka the Hangman who was thought to be long dead. This reintroduction perfectly shows what makes the Hangman such a twisted villain that will undoubtedly challenge Spider-Woman’s already fracturing sense of morality. Hangman is a Version of the Punisher$PNSH with Even Fewer Morals Image Courtesy of Marvel$MRVL Comics Hangman first appeared in 1973’s Werewolf by Night #11, where he battled the feral villain. Wielding a noose and a scythe, Hangman brutally murdered numerous criminals. However, while that initial description makes him simply sound like a version of the Punisher$PNSH who uses more medieval forms of execution, Hangman’s origin, motivations, and targets paint a far darker picture. Instead of being a force for justice, Hangman is a genuine monster who had deluded himself into thinking that he’s a hero. Growing up, Kruger idolized the heroes he watched in classic movies and developed a simplistic black-and-white concept of morality. As an adult, he was court-martialed and tossed from the army because of his sadistic treatment of prisoners of war. Kruger proved to be so brutal that not even the police wanted him. This led Kruger to don the Hangman hood and start killing criminals. However, his ideas about “evil people” and how to punish them were far more twisted and broader than the Punisher$PNSH’s. Along with criminals, Hangman would kill actors and movie producers for supposedly corrupting the youth. He would imprison female criminals in dungeons until they starved to death. That cruelty led Hangman to battle heroes like Werewolf by Night, Iron Man$IM:IRON-MAN, and Spider-Woman. Hangman had stayed dead for 40 years after he was supposedly killed by a movie producer that he had tried to execute. However, Spider-Woman #1 retconned it so that he faked his death and had stayed under the radar by becoming a hired killer. All his actions and beliefs show why Hangman is a dark reflection of the Punisher$PNSH. Whereas the Punisher$PNSH began his crusade out of grief and anger over the loss of his family, Hangman did so out of a deluded sense