Nrama: The big shocker of all of this is Frank Castle in the War Machine armor. Guiu, how are you drawing it?
Guiu Vilanova: Isn't it! It's mad! Probably one of the most dangerous man in the whole Marvel universe and now he has the War Machine armor! This's going to be really fun! And about War Machine's armor, well. I'm going to focus on trying to make it looks more expressive and dynamic. I also added some pretty cool gadgets to the armor and I'm going to try to have fun drawing it!
Nrama: Frank Castle with the War Machine armor - seems like he'd be a kid in a candy story. How did this unique pairing come about?
Rosenberg: Kid in a candy store is right. Or maybe giant monster that eats candy in a candy store. In a way, this is Frank in his idealized form. It's one of those crazy ideas that everyone recoils from at first and then they let it sink in and it makes people ask "Why didn't this happen sooner?". It just makes logical sense that Frank would want the armor.
As for where the idea came from, my editor Jake Thomas brought it to me. It took me a second to really get it. I love War Machine and Rhodey. I love him as a character and what he stands for. In a lot of ways, he is this optimistic view of what our government and our military stand for. Like Cap, he is the best of us going above and beyond to keep all of us safe and free. And obviously, he is much more than that too.
But none of that is what Frank is.
Frank is the inverted nightmare version of that. He is all the anger and hatred and vengeance that is built into our society, personified. The Punisher brings up a lot of uncomfortable questions about who we are as a society and what we are willing to let happen and what we'd like to see done. So, putting Frank in Rhodey's armor felt so wrong to me at first. It felt almost blasphemous. It wasn't until I realized this wasn't a superhero story anymore that I got it. This isn't a celebration of the Punisher taking on the mantle of War Machine and becoming a hero. This is a look into how easily War Machine can become overshadowed by the Punisher when it falls into the wrong hands.