Molly von Richthofen

Origin

Molly Von Richthofen is a lieutenant in the New York City Police Department who is unable to go higher in rank due to her combative personality and lack of respect for fellow police officers. She is openly gay and has refused the advances of a police commissioner which happened to become public knowledge and has been given impossible assignments to complete as punishment.

Creation

The character Molly Von Richthofen was created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon during The Punisher vol 4: Welcome Back Frank.

Character Evolution

Molly Von Richthofen originally was very upbeat believes that she can prove her superiors wrong about her and crack the impossible assignment of taking down the Gnucci Family using the Punisher to do so. After the Punisher takes down the Gnucci Family and the police commissioner she turned down no longer being the commissioner Molly is shown to be on a vacation and happy.

Years later Molly is shown to be a rough spot in her life. After hearing that the Punisher and a apparently returned from the dead Ma Gnucci were going after each other she was assigned the task of capturing them both which she despised. Her girlfriend is openly cheating on her with a man causing Molly to vent her anger towards others and become mentally unstable.

Major Story Arcs

Welcome Back Frank

Molly Von Richthofen refused to sleep with the police commissioner at press conference not knowing she was within the range of the microphone which embarrassed the entire NYPD. Molly got assigned an impossible assignment to take down the Gnucci Family leading a task force that consisted of her alone, knowing that her assignment was joke since the Gnucci Family had the majority of the NYPD on its payroll.

Molly decided to approach Detective Martin Soap who was assigned to the Punisher Task Force which consisted of himself and she proposed that the two of them team up take down the Gnucci Family and the Punisher using them both against each other. Soap agreed to Molly’s plan and the two of them teamed up together. The two of them staked out the Gnucci compound for a month waiting for the Punisher to make his assault on the Gnucci compound. During the stake out the two of them routinely played a name a movie game where one of them would name a movie and the last letter of the movie had to be used for the beginning letter of a movie.

Finally they saw the Punisher speeding into the Gnucci compound Molly cheered enthusiastically saying "Go Punisher, Go Punisher!" with glee. She pulled out her firearm and her and Soap entered the compound thinking the two of them would catch the Punisher and Ma Gnucci going out and be able to arrest both of them at the same time. When they approached the house they saw it was on fire and realized their plan had totally failed with Soap furious at Molly for believing that she wasted his time.

The Punisher then pops out of the bushes behind them and offers them a deal. The Punisher wanted information on three vigilantes that were copycatting him and in exchange would provide them with photographs he told them would be career making. Molly and Soap agreed and after they got done talking to the other police who arrived right after they made their deal with Frank Castle looked at the photographs the Punisher gave them. The two of them saw rather disturbing photos of the mayor and police commissioner. Both of them grinned and used the photos which got Molly from getting anymore bad assignments and is shown at the end of the story arc on vacation quite happy.

The Resurrection of Ma Gnucci

Several years later Molly Von Richthofen is still with the NYPD and after rumors on the street about the Gnucci Family returning has been assigned to investigate if it’s true or not. Something Molly is not thrilled by combined with the fact that she is extremely angry about her girlfriend sleeping with a man openly and knowing her girlfriend won't stop since she still likes to have sex with men. Molly angry and hurt by her lover's actions attacks the man sleeping with her kicking out his car's taillight and kneeing him in the groan. Later on at a bar sitting having a drink by herself Molly realizes she is losing it. Molly is called to investigate a recent hit made by the Punisher since one of the victims resembles Ma Gnucci. Upon arriving at the scene and examining the body Molly realizes the person was not Ma Gnucci since she lacked the scars Ma Gnucci had from being attacked by Polar Bears. Later on Molly meets her girlfriend at a gay bar and as soon as she walks in notices the bartender hitting on her girlfriend which angers her greatly.

Molly's girlfriend greets her and talks about her male lover getting beaten up by six men not realizing that it was Molly who had beaten him up asking Molly to look into it. Molly agrees to do so knowing that it won't go anywhere since she is the one who beat him up.

Just as Molly agrees to look into the matter the bartender hits on her girlfriend right in front of her before going to the bathroom. Molly follows the bartender into the bathroom where she smashes the stall door in and proceeds to viciously hit her presumably breaking her nose before Molly leaves the bar with her girlfriend. Molly then gets another call to a crime scene this time at the grave of Ma Gnucci.

At the graveyard Molly sees that a battle has taken place and it’s quite obvious that it was the Punisher who killed twelve men. Her Captain tells her she is now assigned to the Punisher task force since she has the experience of dealing with the Punisher before and that a firefight involving the Punisher took place at her grave. Molly is quite upset about this but knew it was coming. Going through the crime scene another police officer hands her a wallet of Charlie Schitti and it being her only lead she decides to go to his home and see what she can find.

At Charlie Schitti's house Molly finds there are gangsters in the house and quickly hides in the bathroom knowing she is unable to leave the house without drawing their attention and that there are too many of them try and take on by herself. Molly after hiding for several hours at the house hears gunfire and goes to see what happened. She finds the Punisher wounded along with Charlie Schitti. After a conversation with Frank Castle Molly helps patch him up and right afterwards the Gnucci Family shows up and the two of them team up to stay alive. Molly and the Punisher battle the Gnucci Family. During the battle Molly's close catch on fire and the Punisher has to rip her clothes off her to keep her from being burned. Eventually a news helicopter arrives along with the NYPD. The Punisher and Molly exit the house attacking and eradicating the Gnucci Family while they were busy engaging the NYPD in a firefight.

While they are fighting the Gnucci Family the news team takes pictures of Molly in her underwear and bra fighting alongside the Punisher which makes the front page news. The newspapers calling Molly the sexy lesbian Lieutenant, Molly’s girlfriend is pissed at her for helping the Punisher and thinks Molly is sleeping with him and leaves her. Outside Molly completely loses it seeing a dog piss on her car and pulls out her sidearm and kills the dog.

Other Media

Video Game

The Punisher (2005)

Molly appears as one of the cops that interrogates the Punisher when he is sent to Ryker's Island. In the game she is portrayed much differently than her comic book counterpart. Her personality is very strict and stern. She has no interest in working with the Punisher, and seems to only want him behind bars. She was voiced by Julie Nathanson.