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It has been suggested that this article be merged with History of the Punisher. (Discuss)

The Punisher (Frank Castle) is a Marvel Comics anti-hero. Created by Gerry Conway, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974).

Although sometimes considered a hero, the Punisher is a savage and ruthless vigilante who considers violence and murder to be acceptable crime-fighting tactics. Driven by the murder of his family, Castle wages a one-man war on organized crime using all manner of weaponry. The Punisher is a master of close combat and a skilled marksman. Recognized by the white skull icon on his chest, the Punisher is feared by all criminals.

The Punisher's brutish nature and willingness to kill made him a novel character in mainstream American comic books in 1974. By the late 1980s, he was part of a wave of psychologically troubled anti-heroes and was featured in several monthly series. His popularity has since cooled, but he remains a popular Marvel property and was adapted into two films released in 1989 and 2004. It was recently announced that a sequel to the 2004 Punisher film will be released in 2006.

The Punisher can be seen as the revenge genre taken to an extreme as he not only takes his vengence on the criminals who killed his family but all criminals full stop. There is no final villain as is the case with many revenge sagas, the Punisher's war with crime continues without end.

Publication history

The Punisher was inspired by, and is similar to, Mack Bolan, "the Executioner," a character created by Don Pendleton for a series of novels called "War Against The Mafia", that were published in 1969. There are some conspicuous differences between Mack Bolan and Frank Castle. Firstly, although Bolan's family was also devastated by organized crime, he did not have a wife or kids, nor were members of his family killed directly by criminals as in the case of Frank Castle. His sister had been taken as a prostitute by a mob boss, and his father, driven mad by the pressure of the gambling debts he had accumulated to the mob, killed his own wife and son, Bolan's brother, before turning the gun on himself. In the course of the books, Pendleton's character had far more numerous and intimate relationships with women than the Punisher has had, often sleeping with several in the space of one novel. On the other hand, Frank Castle has had nearly no romantic attachments at all since the death of his wife, a notable departure from comic book heroes in general as well. As far as methods are concerned, Frank relies more on hand-to-hand combat than Bolan does. The Punisher's early depictions and some magazine-format adult-oriented specials suggest that the Punisher character was influenced in its early stages by Charles Bronson's character Paul Kersey in Death Wish.

The Punisher was created by writer Gerry Conway, who had previously written for the Amazing Spider-Man as a teenager, and developed by Gerry Conway and John Romita Sr. as an enemy for Spider-Man. The first Punisher story involved the Punisher's hunt for Spider-Man, whom Castle believed to be Gwen Stacy's murderer due to the deceptions of the Jackal. The character of the Punisher was immediately popular, and made appearances in the Spider-Man books and other series throughout the 1970s.

In the early 1980s, popular artist Mike Zeck and writer Steven Grant together pitched the idea of a Punisher limited series to Marvel Comics. Some of Marvel's employees were uncomfortable with the idea of featuring a "hero" that killed people in cold blood. However, as crime increased throughout the early part of the decade, the readership seemed more receptive to a character like the Punisher. Marvel decided to approve the series, in part to retain Zeck, who was said to be in talks with DC Comics. However, although Marvel approved the series, they refused to promote it. The series would be produced and put on the shelf, and that would be it.

In three hours, The Punisher #1 (limited series) was sold out nationwide. Marvel reversed its earlier stance and actively promoted the remaining issues, and later gave the Punisher his own regular series, simply called The Punisher.

It was highly popular and Marvel added a first spin-off (The Punisher War Journal) in 1988, and another spin-off (The Punisher War Zone) in 1992. The Punisher also made numerous guest appearances in other Marvel comics, ranging from superhero comics to the Vietnam War-era comic The 'Nam. Due to the Punisher's homicidal nature, few of his foes became recurring antagonists, the most notable of these being the severely scarred enforcer called Jigsaw. The Punisher also acquired a nemesis in the form of the Kingpin, the longtime Spider-Man and Daredevil foe.

In 1995, Marvel cancelled all three Punisher series due to poor sales, which was blamed on the writing of Chuck Dixon. Several unsuccessful revivals were attempted: one featured the Punisher willingly joining and working for organized crime by John Ostander, while another reviled revival ("Punisher: Purgatory") presented the Punisher as an agent of various angels and demons by Christopher Golden. That story was very much hated by much of the fan base. Hate mail and even death threats were sent to the writer and Marvel.

A dark Punisher mini-series by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon under the "Marvel Knights" imprint made the Punisher popular once again. Issue #1 of the "Welcome Back, Frank" series sold 115,000 copies and made "Book Of The Month" in Wizard magazine, as did many of the subsequent issues. It was soon followed by an ongoing Punisher series from the team of Ennis and Dillon. In 2004, the Punisher was again relaunched as a "mature readers" title under Marvel's "MAX" imprint, still helmed by Ennis. Many fans consider Garth Ennis to be one of the best Punisher writers ever.

The Punisher's appearance evolved under artist Tim Bradstreet, whose cover art depictions of Frank Castle (and subsequently, his work on the 2004 film version's posters) have become one of the more popular conceptualizations of the character.

Character history

Main article: History of the Punisher

This short history of Frank Castle appeared in Punisher titles from 1987 to 1994: "When mobsters slew his family, Frank Castle vowed to spend the rest of his life avenging them. Trained as a U.S. Marine and equipped with a state-of-the-art arsenal, he now wages a one man war on crime".

Castle has devoted his life to destroying organized crime, using the nom de guerre of the Punisher, using his combat experience (4 years as a Marine Captain in a special forces unit in the Vietnam War), guerrilla warfare (combat assault attacks, assassinations, ambushes, hit and runs, bombings, using the enemies' own money, weapons, and supplies against them), urban warfare (using the crowded city of New York to blend in and disappear), psychological warfare (putting fear into the hearts of criminals), using detective-like skills (talking to people, reading obtained files on the people he goes after, tracking and surveilling the enemy), always adapting to the enemy such as using the Mafia's own methods and tactics against them (interrogating and torturing criminals to death in order to get info from them) and whatever resources and means may be necessary to do so, ranging from light anti-tank weaponry to enraged polar bears.

The Punisher has fought just about every criminal organization in existence (as well as some fictional ones that aren't). He's battled the Italian Mafia, the Russian Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, the Chinese Triads, Jamaican gangs, the Irish Mafia, biker gangs, street gangs, gunrunning militias, muggers, killers, rapists, psychopaths, sadists, and sometimes even corrupt cops. The Punisher also assaults the businesses criminals thrive on from drug and weapon dealing to money laundering, human trafficking, etc. The Punisher has been fighting organized crime for long enough that he knows their modus operandi and can often predict their actions in advance. Of course, many of these criminal organizations have tried to kill the Punisher, using both their own men and hired contract killers. But the Punisher has survived and defeated (and, most often, killed) almost every assassin, hitman, bounty hunter and mercenary sent after him.

The number of criminals that the Punisher has slain is enormous. Comic book writer Garth Ennis and the fan base have speculated that the death count could be somewhere in the thousands. However, despite this, the Punisher himself has a very pessimistic view on his own activities, believing that he ultimately has little if any effect on making the world a safer place. This is somewhat revealing as to the real motives for his activities, illustrating a notable departure from many other comic book heroes.

The Punisher is someone who is very mobile. He has many bases of operations does not limit himself to working only in New York city. He has been to many places in the U.S. and around the world fighting crime with the Punisher going to places like the British Isles (namely Scotland and Northern Ireland), London, Africa, Latin America (Central and South America),Europe and Russia. The Punisher has an extensive criminal record due to his activities, and law enforcement such as the police, the FBI, the CIA and even S.H.I.E.L.D. are aware of his existence and have made many attempts to capture him; however, many uniformed and plain-clothed police officers are reluctant to take any action against the Punisher because they largely agree with him. On the other hand, the Punisher himself has total disregard for what the police or the public thinks of him. In the past the Punisher has killed corrupt cops, but in doing so, has stirred the police to action against him in full force. Castle has also been caught and imprisoned (generally in Ryker's Island, a Marvel Universe model of real-life Riker's Island) many times, but he has always managed to escape. The Punisher's war on crime continues unabated even while incarcerated, as he has killed up to a dozen of inmates with just his bare hands, in regards to which the Punisher gives one of his more famous quotes, "One nice thing about prison, though... there are lots of criminals there. Lots of them".

Notable differences

The Punisher is different from the standard comic book hero in many ways, largely due to his anti-hero status. Firstly, he is a cold-blooded killer, as opposed to many super heroes who let the justice system handle a criminal after apprehension. This contrast in methods is especially apparent in situations where he finds himself working with other heroes, particularly Spiderman, who enforces a no-killing rule on those occasions where fate unites them against a common enemy. The Punisher's stance as an extreme vigilante is further illustrated by the fact that law-enforcement and sometimes even other heroes (again, Spiderman in particular), have actively tried to capture him (and occasionally succeeded).

The Punisher also has no notable superpowers. Much like DC Comics' Batman, he is only human and succeeds only through ingenuity and rigorous training.

Another notable exception is that Frank Castle has no prominent love-interest. He loved his wife dearly; her death left him extremely bitter and empty, making any future romance seem difficult if not impossible. Ironically, the closest he has ever been with a woman was a female assassin sent after him by the Costa family.

Views on the Vietnam War

Having been part of the Vietnam War himself, Frank believes the war was ultimately meaningless. In Vietnam, Frank witnessed, first-hand, corruption and war crimes being committed such as the murder and rape of Vietnamese civilians and unarmed combatants. Frank once visited the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. How Frank feels about the Vietnam War can be seen in the MAX line of The Punisher comic books.

Views on the criminal justice system

Frank Castle also has particularly strong contempt towards the justice system, especially in regard to its failure in bringing his family's murderers to justice. Frank saw his wife and two children killed right in front of him and even though he witnessed the people who did it, nothing was done about it because of the murderer's "iron-clad" alibis and the mob's influence in the police department. As a result, Frank Castle became the Punisher, and his years of crime-fighting have only made him more cynical about the capabilities of the justice system.

Abilities and training

The Punisher possesses the normal human strength of a 6'1", 200 lb. man of his age and build who engages in intensive aerobic and weight-lifting exercising. The Punisher is a thoroughly seasoned combat veteran of exceptional skills. A former U.S. Marine Captain with a distinguished combat record, Frank Castle underwent sniper and recon training while in the Corps. He also received SEAL (Sea, Air, Land), UDT (Underwater Demolition Team), and LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) training. Frank Castle is well-versed in the arts of warfare and hand-to-hand combat, his styles of choice being Ninjutsu, Shorin-Ryu, Hwarangdo, and Chin Na as well as unarmed combat training received in the military. He is an exceptional knife fighter who carries up to 3 or 4 different types of edged weapons. Armed solely with conventional weapons and motivated by a fanatical hatred for criminals like those who murdered his family, the Punisher has single-handedly incapacitated up to a dozen well-armed and experienced opponents in a single encounter and escaped uninjured.

Weapons

The Punisher has employed an almost endless array of machine guns, rifles, shotguns, handguns, knives, explosives, and other weapons throughout time. The Punisher keeps all his weapons and supplies in warehouses and safehouses all over New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. The Punisher employs this exhaustive arsenal of weaponry in his war against criminals and organized crime on a regular basis and with considerable effect.

The Punisher also customizes his weapons with items such as tactical rifle scopes, sniper scopes, flashlights, grenade launchers, silencers, tripods, bigger ammo or magazine clips and powerful bullets such as hollow point or armor piercing bullets. His firearms and weapons of choice can be seen in the above-linked main article.

Costume

When the Punisher first appeared in 1974, his outfit was a form-fitting black bodysuit with a large white skull on his chest. Over the years, the Punisher's outfit transformed from the bodysuit in the 1970s' and the 1980's to a pair of black jeans to black military cargo trousers, a black t-shirt with the white skull on the front, black combat boots, and a black leather motorcycle jacket or a black leather trench coat which have been used since The Punisher series was brought back by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon in 2000/2001 with the "Welcome Back, Frank" series.

The change in the Punisher's outfit from the form-fitting costume of the 1970's to more contemporary clothing shows the maturing of the Punisher's appearance, especially in regard to The Punisher being released through Marvel's Marvel Knights and MAX line of comics where the readers of these two lines are more of a mature age and that these two comic lines are far more gritty and realistic than the standard Marvel Comics line which called for the Punisher's clothing to be divorced from the comic world and closer to the real world.

As the Punisher (since 2000, the picture at the top of the page), he wears a distinctive costume consisting of a black military outfit, a black long or short sleeve t-shirt, combat gear, body armor with a large white skull as a chest symbol, black military pants, black combat boots and sometimes wears a long black trenchcoat or leather jacket where he hides some of his weapons. Nobody knows exactly what type of body armor the Punisher uses, but one would think that he uses the top of the line of Kevlar vests.

Ultimate Marvel version

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Frank Castle is no longer a Vietnam War veteran, but instead an ex-NYPD police officer. Only so much is known about Frank's past in the Ultimate Marvel universe before he became the Punisher due to the absence of an Ultimate Punisher comic book. Most of the information regarding the Ultimate Punisher comes from three comics (6, 7, and 8) in the Ultimate Marvel Team-Up series starring Spider-Man.

While Frank was working in the NYPD, he found corruption within the police force involving several police officers including the Captain, Artie Jillette. Frank found and took as much evidence as he could and turned it over to the department's internal affairs division. Frank's partner, Bruce Greenwood, however, ratted him out to the Captain who took a few of his officers (David, Nick, and a third who was seen but not named) with him and set out to kill Castle. Having learned that Frank took his family to New York Central Park, they disguised themselves in order to make the crime seem like a gangland killing and attacked Frank and his family there.

As he lay on the ground bleeding, Frank saw the image of a gun on one of the men's belt buckles, and he recognized it as belonging to Artie Jillette. Frank then killed David and the unnamed cop. Frank was caught afterwards and put in jail. (As to what happened in the time between Frank killing two of them, and being put in jail, this was not shown). Frank then got out and killed Nick and Bruce. He later tracked down and nearly killed Artie, but Daredevil (who had crossed paths with Punisher before, asking him to cease his mission of vengeance) stopped him and in the ensuing fight, Spider-Man appeared and knocked Frank unconscious. Spiderman then took Frank into police custody while Daredevil pursued Jillette. When Frank was finally taken to his cell, he's put in the same cell where Jillette is already...

Since his imprisonment, there has been only one comic with an Ultimate Punisher appearance. This was in Ultimate Spider-Man #61 where he is about to kill a bank robber but is stopped by Spider-Man who apprehends the criminal. This comic was considered a poor offering of the Punisher by many fans due to his portrayal as nearly deranged and maniacal.

Adaptations

Movies

See main articles The Punisher (1989 film) and The Punisher (2004 film)

A film adaptation, starring Dolph Lundgren, was released in 1989. It was immediately released on video in the U.S., never making it to the big screen except in other countries where it was moderately successful. The movie took some notable, heavily criticized deviations from the comics, the most obvious of which being the lack of his signature skull logo on his shirt. A second film adaptation, directed by Jonathan Hensleigh and starring Thomas Jane as the Punisher and John Travolta as the main villain, Howard Saint, was released in the United States on April 16, 2004. Both were received with mix reviews by critics and fans of the comic book series, though many fans agree that Thomas Jane's performance and appearance were much more accurate due to the fact that the 2004 film was directly influenced by The Punisher: Year One and "Welcome Back Frank" comic series. The Punisher DVD was released on September 7th, 2004 and sold nearly 1.8 million copies in its first five days. It also netted 10.8 million in rentals its first week out. It was number one in DVD sales. During October, the Punisher DVD rentals were still in the top ten and various cable and satellite providers had started to offer the Punisher as a Pay-per-view feature. Between worldwide movie box office and DVD sales, it grossed US$115 million ($55 m worldwide + $60 m from DVD sales). The DVD also came with a limited edition (10,000 produced) mini comic book written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon. It's a background story showing Frank's time in the Delta Force in the Gulf War and his time in the FBI leading up to the movie's opening. A Director's cut has been announced and talked about but no release date has been set. A sequel is also currently in the works. Filming is scheduled to start in February 2006, and the release is expected in late 2006 (Fall) or early 2007.

Television

The Punisher made appearances in Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the 1990s. A series is rumored to be in the making.

Video games

The Punisher has also been the main character in several computer and video games. The Punisher arcade game was a side-scrolling beat 'em up in the vein of Double Dragon in which the Punisher and/or Nick Fury would engage various foes in hand-to-hand combat, occasionally drawing firearms in lieu of melee combat. The Punisher computer game for the Amiga and PC featured three different modes of gameplay: driving the Punisher's "Battle Van", gunplay on foot, and scuba diving. A Punisher game was also released for the Game Boy; this game featured a cameo appearance by Spider-Man. All of these games used the Kingpin as the final boss. The Punisher also appeared in "The Punisher" for the NES, a side-scrolling, first-person shooter that was similar in style to the later "T2: Arcade"

The Punisher made a cameo appearance in the 2000 PlayStation Spider-Man game, and another at the beginning of the 2005 X-Box Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects game.

A new Punisher game was released January 18, 2005 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. It was developed by Volition and published by THQ. The Punisher in the game is voiced by Thomas Jane.

Other characters in the game include

• Detective Martin Soap (From Soap to Kreigkopf are characters from the Punisher comic book)
• Lieutenant Molly Von Richtofen
• Spacker Dave
• Joan
• Ma Gnucci
• The Russian
• General Kreigkopf.
• Bushwacker
• Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff)
• Nick Fury
• Matt Murdock (A small cameo, but not as Daredevil and not part of the story)
• Iron Man (Small cameo and not part of the story)
• Bullseye
• The Kingpin
• Jigsaw (Not the villain from the comics)

The Punisher game is extremely violent, and directly draws upon the character's more recent comic book outings. Some critics and long-time Punisher fans gave it positive reviews, praising the script and several innovative features, including several uniquely brutal interrogation/torture sequences. Other reviewers and fans have criticized the game's use of obscuring effects (such as removal of color to create a black-and-white image) during violent scenes to retain an ESRB rating of M for Mature. Despite having a good working relationship with the ESRB, Volition has had to implement a censorship filter in order to avoid the dreaded AO (Adults Only) rating, which basically means that certain portions of the game will appear in black and white (for obvious reasons). Certain environmental interrogations in the game are so gruesome and violent that at times the camera will usually zoom in on Frank Castle's face if the interrogation ends up with the victim driven into the environmental object. This was also the only way for Volition to maintain the M rating for the game.

Volition's adaptation of Marvel's darkest character was no doubt destined to turn heads for a number of reasons, most of which would be directly related to the astronomical level of blood, guts and gore the developer has poured into the game. While the game world has attracted plenty of negative press following the implication of Manhunt in a young man's murder, vice president of Volition, Dan Cermak, is all too aware of the issues at hand, but eager to point out that the game isn't meant to court controversy. "The goal wasn't to make a violent game," he says. "The goal was to make you feel and be The Punisher, and because of that you end up with a lot of violence."

One month after the game's release it sold over 2 million copies. Marvel and THQ have both confirmed that The Punisher will make another video game outing in 2006 possibly to coincide with the release of the film, no plot or generation details have been released though it is likely that it will appear on the next generation consoles. It is also likely that the game will continue from the ending of the first game instead of following the movie's storyline (which would be impossible since the first game was an original story and didn't follow the movie's storyline). In a short interview, Thomas Jane said that he would love to come back and voice the Punisher again.

Bibliography

Regular series

• The Punisher v7 (MAX): #1-ongoing

Mini-series

• The Punisher: Born #1-4

One-shots

• The Punisher Meets Archie
• The Punisher: The End
• The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe

Awards

Both the series and character have received recognition from the fans and the industry. Issue 11 of the third volume was a part of the Onslaught storyline which was a top vote getter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Comic-Book Story for 1997.

External links

• Punisher War Zone
• Official webpage at Marvel.com
• MDB:Punisher
• Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards

• Anti-heroes
• Defenders members
• Fictional mass murderers
• Fictional vigilantes
• Marvel Comics heroes, non-superpowered