Punisher & Bushwacker

A rogue assassin known as Bushwacker is on a mission to eliminate all mutants when he clashes with the crime-fighting vigilante, Punisher. Yeah, Bushwacker's a weird one. Despite his gimmick being "anti-mutant," he first appeared in Daredevil #248, and him fighting Punisher was only part of the "Acts of Vengeance" crossover, when all the villains traded heroes on the belief that they'd have a better chance of winning against someone who hadn't already defeated them dozens of times. That's when Thor fought Juggernaut, for instance, or Wolverine had to deal with Mandarin. Pitting Punisher against a DD villain doesn't seem like much of a shift, especially since Daredevil's new foe in all this was freaking Ultron, but that story was in Punisher War Journal; the main book saw Frank having to fight Doctor Doom. Carl Burbank was an American soldier who eventually joined the CIA. At some point his right arm was replaced with a cybernetic version that could morph into any kind of gun. Eventually he grew disillusioned with that life and studied to become a priest, but got mad about drug dealers operating in his neighborhood, and quit to become a contract killer. His targets were mutants, specifically ones involved in the arts - he felt that using their talents gave them an unfair advantage over hormal humans, but he considered his killings a new kind of art. Bushwacker's murder spree ayytacyed the attention of Wolverine, who wanted to kill him; meanwhile, his wife, Marilyn, had asked Matt Murdock to help get her husband committed before he ended up dead. While the two heroes fought each other, a tanker truck of gas spilled, and rather than face imprisonment, Bushwacker ignited it, setting himself on fire. That's what the pits sculpted on the side of the toy's face are supposed to represent: his plasticine skin pulling away from his burn scars. Because he's more of a regular villain than a supervillain, Bushwacker doesn't wear any kind of costume, just regular street clothes: in this case, jeans and an admittedly silly shirt that leaves his arms bare. That chest is the only new part, and is sculpted with a closure of some sort all the way down the front, and a notch so the big popped collar can be glued in. Because that stands up so high, his braided rat-tail has to hang around to the front of the neck. What a classy design! Because the shoulders are molded from the same blue as the shirt, and the skin on them just painted, that portion of arm doesn't match the pink of the rest of the skin. At one point Bushwacker claimed he was a mutant and all the CIA had done was activate his X-gene, but... no. There are too many stories where the arm is clearly mechanical, where other cybertnetic characters recognize it as mechanical, for him to be a mutant. He was always kind of delusional, and the idea that he was secretly a mutant all along was just another delusion. Originally it was just his right arm that could change, but eventually writers forgot that and suddenly he could morph both his arms. To show his powers, this figure gets a new right hand, with the index finger turned into a gun barrel, and another alternate hand that's designed to look like he's morphed his entire forearm into a five-barrelled blaster. That one is able to fit onto either arm, and just has the grossest, most unsettling sculpt possible, with thick wrinkles absolutely everywhere and prominent veins running along its length. Both these have holes in the end: the finger-gun sized for blasts and smoke effects, the arm just for appearance. Bushwacker was sold in a two-pack with Punisher, which I only found out existed after it had sold out. And annoyingly, the price on the secondary market just kept going up up up, which meant I was unlikely to get it. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that the boring Punisher figure is apparently what's driving the price, and you can get Bushwacker with his accessories for the cost of a regular Marvel Legend! This Punisher, it turns out, is where the Gamerverse one's balljointed chest mold originated! Other than that it's the same as the Jim Lee Punisher, which is fitting, since this set is based on Punisher War Journal, the book Lee was doing at the time (though issue #13, the specific one that inspired these figures, was drawn instead by David Ross). The thing that sets this Punisher apart from all the others is the lack of color on his costume - the squinty skull is (off-)white, of course, but the boots and gloves are black, as are his belt and the harness he wears around his chest. It's kind of a goofy look, so why is it the thing that's making the price so high? "War Journal" Punisher gets two heads: the one in the package has him wearing a white bandana (a holdover of that Jim Lee influence) and looking entirely dour, while the alternate drops that headband and has him yelling angrily. That's a really nice piece, and certainly has more influence on the continued demand for this figure than the paint does. We can always use more expressions. Gamerverse Punisher also gets his hands from this toy: fists, trigger fingers, two-fingered point, clawing. The guns are all reused pieces as well, and the set includes a grenade and a small explosion. Hasbro's really been getting its mileage out of that latter mold lately, haven't they! Bushwacker was the only half of this set I was really interested in, so it's wild that you can get him for about $20 while the MiSB set is over $100. I honestly cannot fathom why fans are so hot for a mundane, unimpressive Punisher like this. It makes no sense. But hey, it worked out nicely for me! And also for you if you don't care about what color Punisher's gloves are. You can just buy the half of the set that matters and ignore the rest. -- 08/24/26 What is it that makes this Punisher, specifically, so expensive? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.