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Punisher

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Punisher
File:Punisher-cover2.jpg
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceAmazing Spider-Man #129 (February 1974)
Created byGerry Conway
Ross Andru
In-story information
Alter egoFrank Castle (born Francis Castiglione)
Team affiliationsnone, United States Marine Corps
Abilitiesno superhuman powers, but the Punisher is a highly trained specialist in both armed and unarmed combat, an expert with guns and demolitions, has extremely high tolerance for pain and is a remarkably resourceful tactician

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 superhero, the Punisher is a savage and ruthless vigilante who slaughters hundreds of criminals at will. Driven by the massacre of his family in a gangland crossfire, Castle wages a one-man war on organized crime, using all manner of conventional and state of the art weaponry. The Punisher is a master of unarmed and armed combat and marksmanship. Recognized by the white skull icon on his chest, the Punisher is feared by criminals, while most superheroes oppose his extreme methods.

It is often brought up both in the comics and by fans whether The Punisher is a 'good guy' or 'bad guy'. Athough it is up to the reader to decide whether The Punisher is good or bad or is an antihero or a mixture of all of them.

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, in 1989 and 2004.

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


Origin story

Francis Castiglione was a U.S. Marine Captain who served in the Vietnam War in a special forces unit as a point man. For heroism in the line of duty, he was recognized with the Congressional Medal Of Honor, twice with the Bronze and Silver stars, and four times with the Purple Heart. Frank was even going to receive The Presidential Medal Of Freedom. After finishing his first tour of duty in Vietnam, he illegally re-entered the U.S. Marine Corps under the name of "Frank Castle" in order to return to battle. After this second tour of duty was over, he came back to the United States and, now legally going by the name of Frank Castle, had a son and daughter with his wife Maria. Frank Castle served a third tour in the Vietnam War (1968 to 1971). Several years later after the American involvement in Vietnam ended (1976), Castle ran special training missions for Marine commandos in the upper New York State area. Shortly thereafter, Castle, his wife, Maria and their children were in New York's Central Park for an afternoon picnic when they witnessed a Mafia execution. Seeking to eliminate all witnesses, the Costa crime family murdered them on the spot (In the mid 70's the Costa Mafia were the second most powerful Mod family on the East cost of New York city). A gangland execution; an informant had been hung from a tree. His captors, still in the grove, spotted the Castles before they realized what was happening. Frank was powerless to protect his soul mate and children as bullets raked their fragile bodies. He blacked out. Castle was believed to be dead at the scene. Voices surrounding him, Castle awoke in a dark bag; a body bag. A medic, noticing Castle was still alive, unzipped the bag and was the first to feel the animal fury of the confused and tormented Frank Castle. It took all the police on the scene and several tranquilizers to incapacitate him. Castle was hospitalized. The gang that was responsible for the massacre sought to silence the informer, who had survived his hanging and dangled in critical condition, as well as finish off the wounded Frank Castle. Two armed men (assassins) attacked Castle. Frank was able to kill off one the hitmen while of other tried to get away but was caught by Frank and was nearly beaten to death. Even thou Frank was in his disconnected and delusional state his incredible combat ability transcended his mental condition.

Even though Frank was able to pick out one of the shoots the police were unable to help Castle in his quest for justice; they were tied in too deeply to the powerful Costa crime family. Frank turned to the media in the form of a news reporter, who in his greedy ways had attempted to use Castle as a news-scoop cash cow, but saw the righteousness in Castle's cause and changed his goal. The crime family brought in Billy "the Beau" Russo to clean up the mess. He killed the failed assassin and the news reporter. He attempted to kill Castle in a firebomb at his house, but fruitlessly Castle had noticed the trampled flowers in his yard and escaped just in time.

He decided that the only punishment criminals might receive is that which is meted out in this life and, consequently. Natural justice; quickly summed up, the physical destruction of aggressors. There were no other options left in Frank Castle's mind. Using his military training, he observed the routines of the Costa family's thugs and those of the Beau himself. Castle armed himself with several mines, a shotgun, and two pistols; but his most formidable weapon was on his very clothing. Frank emblazoned his body armor with a symbol which has terrorized criminals for nearly thirty years: a death's head skull, sharp and bright against the darkness of the armor.

Castle assaulted the night club the criminals were celebrating at (the assault itself a criminal act,) and killed all but the Beau. Frank kicked the Beau through the window, allowing him to live so that he would serve as a messenger to the Costa family. His irreparrably damaged face earning him the sickening nickname "Jigsaw," the Beau would loathe Frank Castle for the rest of his life. From then on, Frank Castle would be known as the deliverer of payment for crimes comitted, the balancer of justice for murderers... The Punisher.

Castle ventured to the Costas' home in the Florida Everglades, and killed the rest of the Costa Mafia including Frank Costa the leader of the Costa crime family. All except for Bruno, the leader of the Central Park slaughter and the brother of Frank Costa. Castle later discovered that it was a female assassin in disguise as a prostitute that killed Bruno for the other families and thus robbed Castle of his vengeance. He played the fool and asked the prostitute to a hotel room, acting as if he did not know who she was. Upon her attempt to kill him, he revealed his gun hidden under the pillow and fatally shot her.

Since then, Castle has devoted his life to destroying organized crime, using the nom de guerre of the Punisher, and using his combat experince and whatever resources and means may be necessary to do so, ranging from light anti-tank weaponry to enraged polar bears. As the Punisher, he wears a distinctive costume consisting of black and white body armour with a large white skull as a chest symbol. 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. The Punisher has been caught and put in jail many times but he has always manage to escape.

Abilities and training

The Punisher possesses the normal human strength of a 6', 200 lb. man of his age and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. 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 also an exceptional knife fighter. 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.

Publication history

The Punisher was inspired by, and is very similar to, Mack Bolan, known as the Executioner, a character created by Don Pendleton for a series of novels called War Against the Mafia that were published since 1969. His early depictions and some magazine-format adult-oriented specials make it clear that the early Punisher was heavily influenced by Charles Bronson's character in Death Wish.

The Punisher sprang from the brow of writer Gerry Conway, who had started writing for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN at the tender age of 18. He was created as an enemy for Spider-Man, he explains. "He was a pawn of another character, the Jackal. Punisher was going to be a one-issue villain, to be defeated at the ending." Instead, something strange happened. The writer became fond of his villain. "The character voice was stronger than I thought, so I made him a more man than I had planned him to be", Conway admits. "As I did with every character I created in those days, I made a rough pencil sketch of my ideas for the Punisher’s outfit as a guide to the artist. I never expected the artists to follow my notions except in a general way; they usually had better visual ideas. My original sketch for the Punisher showed him in an all-black jumpsuit much like the one John Romita Sr. designed, but with a small skull mid-chest. John’s brilliant design contribution was in expanding the skull and turning the skull’s "teeth" into an ammo belt.

The story involved the Punisher stalking Spider-Man, whom Castle believed to be the murderer of Gwen Stacy due to the deceptions of Spider-Man's foe, the Jackal. The character was immediately popular, and made appearances in other series, primarily Daredevil, usually clashing with the hero of the piece over his methods.

The Punisher in the past was primarily used in the Spider-Man books, often as an anti-hero throughout the 70's. Two individuals, popular artist Mike Zeck and writer Steven Grant wanted to do a Punisher series. They teamed up and pitched the idea of a Punisher limited series. Marvel Comics was not comfortable with the idea of having a "hero" that killed people in cold blood. Some of the people in Marvel were morally put off by the idea. But at the time, Mike Zeck was talking with Marvel's competitors, DC, about working for them. Because Marvel didn't want to lose Mike, they allowed him to do the Punisher series, though they refused to promote it. The series would be produced and put on the shelf, and that would be it.

That is all it needed. In three hours, The Punisher #1 (limited series) was sold out around the country. Marvel then wisely chose to reverse their earlier stance and promoted the book, and later gave the Punisher his own regular series, simply called The Punisher.

After a successful 1985 mini-series, Marvel launched an ongoing The Punisher series in 1987. It was very popular and Marvel added a spin-off Punisher War Journal in 1988 and another Punisher War Zone in 1992. The Punisher was also used in numerous guest appearances in other Marvel series at the time, ranging from superhero comics to the Vietnam War-era comic The 'Nam, appearing in issues 52,53,67,68 and 69. Due to the character's homicidal nature, few of his foes became recurring antagonists, the most notable of these being the severely scarred enforcer called Jigsaw. He also acquired a nemesis in the form of the Kingpin, the longtime Spider-Man and Daredevil foe. He also found an enemy in Mafia Princess Rosalie Carbone. He often worked alongside the hacker and machinist Microchip, and drove the heavily armed and armored "Battle Van".

In 1995, Marvel cancelled all three Punisher series due to low sales. Several unsuccessful revivals were attempted; one featured the Punisher working for the mob ,while another revamped the character in a limited series called "Punisher: Purgatory" as an agent of various angels and demons . A darkly comic 2000/2001 mini-series by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon under the "Marvel Knights" imprint made the character popular once again, and was soon followed by an Ennis/Dillon ongoing series. In 2004 the series was again relaunched as a "mature readers" title in Marvel's "MAX" imprint, which allows the series (still helmed by Ennis, but with different artists) to feature profanity,extreme violence and sexuality.

The Punisher is one of the few Marvel characters who has aged at a rate equivalent to real time. He is still portrayed as a Vietnam vet and is illustrated as a muscular, heavily scarred Italian in his mid/late forties to early fifties; he looks more like an aging mob enforcer than a traditional superhero. Then again the Punisher was never written to be a traditional superhero. His appearance evolved further with the involvement of artist Tim Bradstreet, whose depiction of Frank Castle on the covers (and subsequently, his work on the 2004 film version's posters) has become one of the more popular conceptualizations of the character.

Adaptations

Movies

See main article: The Punisher (movie)

A film adaptation, The Punisher, starring Dolph Lundgren, was released in 1989. A second film adaptation, 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. Neither were exceptionally well-liked either by critics or by fans of the comic book series, though many fans agree of Tom Jane's performance of the Punisher and the film's faithfulness to the source of the material. The Punisher dvd was release on September 7, 2004 and sold nearly 1.8 million copies in its first five days. It also netted 10.8 million in rentals it's first week out. Between worldwide boxoffice and dvd sales it grossed 115 million (55 worldwide + 60 dvd). A Director's-Cut has been announced but no release date has been set. A sequel is currently in the works, and is expected to be released in late 2006 or 2007.

Video games

The Punisher has also been the main character in several computer and video games. The Punisher arcade game [1] 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 [2] 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.

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 game, scripted by Jimmy Palmiotti and Garth Ennis, The Punisher in the game is voiced by Thomas Jane. 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 comically 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). The ending of the game shows that there may be a sequel, possibly on one of the Next-Gen consoles.

Bibliography

Regular series

  • The Punisher v1 (Limited Series) #1-5
  • The Punisher v2 (regular series) #1-104
  • The Punisher War Journal #1-80
  • The Punisher War Zone #1-41
  • Punisher #1-18
  • The Punisher: Purgatory (Marvel Knights) #1-4
  • The Punisher v3 (Marvel Knights): #1-12
  • The Punisher v4(Marvel Knights): #1-37
  • The Punisher v5 (MAX): #1-ongoing
  • The Punisher 2099 #1-34

Mini-series

  • The Punisher: Born #1-4
  • The Punisher/Captain America: Blood and Glory #1-3
  • The Punisher P.O.V #1-4
  • The Punisher Year One #1-4
  • Wolverine/Punisher: Damaging Evidence #1-3
  • Wolverine/Punisher (Marvel Knights) #1-5
  • Marvel Knights Double Shot (Marvel Knights) #1,4
  • The Punisher: Origin of Microchip #1-2
  • The Punisher: Ghost of Innocents#1-2
  • Spider-man/The Punisher: Family Plot #1-2
  • Daredevil vs. The Punisher: Means and Ends (Marvel Knights) #1-6
  • Punisher vs. Bullseye

One-shots

  • The Punisher Meets Archie
  • The Punisher: The End
  • Batman/Punisher: Lake of Fire
  • Punisher/Batman
  • The Punisher: The Cell
  • The Punisher: Red X-mas
  • The Punisher 2099 (Marvel Knights)
  • The Punisher/Painkiller Jane
  • The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe
  • The Punisher Invades the 'Nam: Final Invasion
  • The Punisher: Die Hard in the Big Easy
  • Classic Punisher
  • The Punisher: No Escape
  • The Punisher: The Prize
  • The Punisher: G-force
  • The Punisher: Bloodlines
  • The Punisher: Assassin's Guild
  • The Punisher: Blood on the Moors
  • The Punisher: Intruder
  • The Punisher: Return to Big Nothing
  • The Punisher: A Man Named Frank
  • The Punisher: Kingdom Gone
  • The Punisher: Empty Quarter
  • Double Edge Alpha
  • Double Edge Omega
  • Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Hearts of Darkness
  • Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Punisher: Dark Design
  • Spider-man/The Punisher/Sabretooth: Designer Genes
  • Black Widow/Punisher: Spinning Doomsday's Web

Special Issues

  • The Punisher Summer Special #1-4
  • The Punisher Annual #1-7
  • The Punisher War Zone Annual #1-2
  • The Punisher Holiday Special #1-3
  • The Punisher Back to School Special #1-3
  • The Punisher Armory #1-10

Important Guest Appearances

  • The 'Nam #53,54,67,68,69
  • Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #6,7,8
  • Deadpool #54,55
  • Captain America #241,19
  • Daredevil #181-184 307-309,344,
  • Dr. Strange #81
  • Incredible Hulk #433,434
  • Ghost Rider #5,6,65
  • Terror, Inc. #6,7
  • Venom: Funeral Pyre #1-3
  • Amazing Spider-man #129,284,285,288,330,331,353-358
  • What If? #2,10,24,26,44,51,57,58
  • Nomad #4-6
  • Bullseye: Greatest Hits

A lackluster & small-time fan-page

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