In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Reader Jose B. wrote in to ask, "A friend of mine has been reading a lot of Spider-man lately and he's gotten to the introduction of Punisher and numerous subsequent appearances, He seems to always use mercy bullets. So do a lot of other villains. I only read the Punisher when he was straight up killing dudes. So when did the Punisher start killing everyone even low level mob guys? My friend thinks he did in some Miller Daredevil. I'm not sure. Maybe this could work for When we First met."

A number of years ago, I did a When We First Met on when the Punisher first killed someone in a comic book. It was amazingly not until his FOURTH comic book appearance that the Punisher actually killed someone. Here is the thing, though, I was surprised to learn (or rather, I should say, "I was surprised that I didn't recall") that the Punisher didn't actually use mercy bullets in those early appearances.

When we first meet the Punisher in Amazing Spider-Man #129, he is using some sort of weird "concussive" rifle...

You might think, "Well, maybe 'concussive rifle' means the same thing as mercy bullets? Maybe it is some sort of non-lethal weapon?" However, as seen when he takes a shot at Spider-Man, it is far from non-lethal...

Daaaang, Punisher!

Spider-Man catches up with the Punisher, and he sure seems like he is about to just use a normal pistol on him, right?

Later, when the Punisher is temporarily tricked into thinking Spider-Man killed his ally, the Mechanic (a precursor to Microchip), he shoots at Spider-Man with what sure appears to be a regular pistol...

Okay, the Punisher next popped up five issues later, at the end of an issue where Spider-Man tries to save a ferry from terrorists and the Punisher believes that Spider-Man is working with the terrorists...

Again, the gun sure seems real...

Later in the story, Spider-Man and Punisher team-up with each other and here's a really weird bit. There's nothing that says that the Punisher is using "mercy bullets" in this fight scene, but I suppose you could argue that it really doesn't make sense if he is NOT using mercy bullets, as he's just jumping in there, blasting away with a machine gun...

Still, since they don't say one way or the other, I think we have to assume that they are real bullets and he's just, like, super-careful with his aim.

We finally see the Punisher actually KILL someone in Giant-Size Spider-Man #4, when the Punisher uses a sniper rifle to kill a crook before he has the chance to kill Spider-Man...

Later, he uses a tranquilizer dart on Spider-Man. Not the same thing as a mercy bullet!

Then he kills a bunch of dudes...

So the answer to the question is really "right away." He stopped using mercy bullets right away.

Of course, though, that leads us to the alternate question, which is "Okay, so when did he START using mercy bullets?"

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The Punisher also appeared in a couple of black and white magazines, but those were even LESS likely to have anything but real weapons, since they were not Comics Code approved.

Len Wein was the first writer to write the Punisher outside of Gerry Conway and in Amazing Spider-Man #161, the Punisher was still using regular weapons...

The next issue, though, he uses rubber bullets...

Rubber bullets, of course, are still extremely dangerous. So the next time that the Punisher and Spider-Man teamed up in Amazing Spider-Man #175, the Punisher now uses special "mercy bullets" when teamed up with Spider-Man...

He then typically began using "mercy bullets" while teaming up with non-killing superheroes.

Thanks for the suggestion, Jose!

If anyone else has a suggestion for a notable comic book first, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!