In this series we spotlight comic book stories that are likely best left forgotten. Here is an archive of past installments.

Today we look at how Punisher became a black guy for a short period of time...

In 1991, writer Mike Baron (along with artists Hugh Haynes and Jimmy Palmiotti) began an epic Punisher story called The Final Days. In it, the Kingpin hires a young criminal genius to slowly tear down the Punisher. It involves Frank Castle ending up in prison, where he is brutally attacked by a group of bad guys led by Punisher's enemy, Jigsaw (one of the few Punisher enemies still alive)...

Amusingly enough, his injuries served as cover for him to escape, as he took the place of another injured prisoner whose buddies were breaking him out of jail.

Now on the run and with a heavily scarred face, Frank gets a doctor who is now a drug addict to work on his face, giving him plastic surgery so that no one can recognize him. This comes to a head in Punisher #59 (by Baron, Haynes and Palmiotti)...

Go to the next page to see how quickly they reversed this plot development!

So with that story, Baron was now off of the book, but obviously they still needed to resolve this storyline, so Marc McLaurin, writer of the then-upcoming Luke Cage ongoing series, came in to script the series over Baron's plots for the next couple of issues (Baron's credit is way low, suggesting that they only vaguely followed his plot idea). Val Mayerik and Al Williamson came on board as the artists on the title.

So the now-black Punisher goes on the run and ends up in Chicago, where he is driving erratically due to still being doped up on pain meds. This does not bode well for him, as some state troopers feel that he is violating the law against driving while black...

Punisher gives him an alias of Frank ROOK, and he then hires Cage to help him find a stash of his he hid in Chicago. Cage agrees, but only if there is no killing...

Sadly for the Punisher, the cache of weapons had been cleaned out. So he was now without much in the way of weaponry or cash, so he couldn't even pay Cage. Cage, though, was impressed by how he carried himself, so he offers him a chance to get in on a gig with him, clearing the drug element out of an apartment building - but NO killing!

It turns out some heavy crime syndicate was using the building as their base of operations, so their first try failed. The Punisher is ready to do things differently the next time...

And sure enough, when it came right down to it, it was time for him to punish some dudes...

By the end of #61, the plastic surgery is fading and Rook is starting to look more like a white guy, so he skips town on Cage..

But that criminal genius I told you about had tracked the Punisher to Chicago and tells the other syndicate that the man that is making life difficult for them is the Punisher in disguise! So they kidnap him. He is captured, but then Cage, who was following his friend because of the mysterious way he skipped town, shows up to save him. Does Cage seriously show up shouting "Head's up, Boyeeees?" Why yes, yes he does...

Now that he's free, the plastic surgery is fully worn off and the Punisher returns...

You can tell that this was also a story MARVEL wanted to forget, considering that the reveal happened in #59 and he was back to normal by the end of #62. Mike Baron later recalled that his editor on the book, Don Daley, insisted that he write the story, so that likely is why Baron left the book.

That's it for this installment! If you have a suggestion for this feature, feel free to drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com

NOTE: I did this as an I Love Ya But You're Strange years ago, but I didn't have this feature back then, so it really belongs here instead. For the record, it goes:

Dumb but fun - I Love Ya But You're Strange

Dumb but not fun - Remember to Forget

Dumb and kind of offensive - Things That Turned Out Bad