I really don’t get it. I realize this is likely a me thing. I’ve never read any his comics. He doesn’t have any powers. He just shoots people. I think he shoots only bad guys, right? Seeing people get what they deserve is nice but you could also do that with a robot mech suit or giant green imaginary weapons or laser beams from your eyes. I could go on. He wears all black, so he’s emo, and shoots people. I just don’t get it.
I didn’t get to get a lot of comics as a kid. I got punisher because they tended to be more insular. I borrowed friends/relatives Carnage comics but never got to finish the run. I couldn’t get into fantastic 4 partly because there were so many iterations, and some of those I would get the lecture of ‘well you really gotta start here and this references this story line from 5 years ago’.
Punisher was simple action and tended to have shorter story lines.