Punisher

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The Punisher (Frank Castle) is a fictional vigilante anti-hero in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Feb. 1974).

Although sometimes considered a hero, the Punisher is a savage and ruthless vigilante who considers killing, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence and torture acceptable crime-fighting tactics. Driven by the deaths of his wife and children, who were caught in the crossfire of an organized crime shoot-out in New York City's Central Park, Castle wages a one-man war on the mob by using all manner of weaponry. A war veteran, Castle is a master of martial arts, stealth tactics, hand-to-hand combat, strategic planning, and a wide variety of weapons.

The Punisher's brutal 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 publications, including The Punisher War Journal, The Punisher War Zone, and The Punisher Armory; he even starred in a highly daring, critically lauded crossover with Archie Comics' teen-humor star, Archie Andrews. Two movie adaptations have been released, one in 1989 starring Dolph Lundgren, another in 2004 starring Thomas Jane.

Publication history

Inspiration

The Punisher is similar to Mack Bolan, a.k.a. "The Executioner", a character created in 1969 by writer Don Pendleton for a series of novels subtitled "War Against The Mafia". There are conspicuous differences between Bolan and Castle, however: Although Bolan's family was also devastated by organized crime, he did not have a wife or children, nor were other members of his family killed directly by criminals — Bolan's sister had been taken as a prostitute by a mob boss, and Bolan's father, driven mad by mob-related gambling debts, killed his own wife and son (Bolan's brother) before turning the gun on himself. 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; Castle has had nearly no romantic attachments at all since the death of his wife, a departure from comic book heroes in general as well. Castle relies more on hand-to-hand combat than does Bolan.

Introduction

The Punisher was created by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, then the regular writer and artist, respectively, for The Amazing Spider-Man, with Marvel art director John Romita Sr. working on the formal design. The Punisher was initially an antagonist of Spider-Man, although only due to being duped by the supervillain the Jackal. The character of the Punisher immediately became popular, and made appearances in the various Spider-Man titles and other series throughout the 1970s.

Conway also helped design the character's distinctive costume: "In the '70s, when I was writing comics at DC and Marvel, I made it a practice to sketch my own ideas for the costumes of new characters — heroes and villains — which I offered to the artists as a crude suggestion representing the image I had in mind. I had done that with the Punisher at Marvel" [link]

Initial series

In the early 1980s, artist Mike Zeck and writer Steven Grant proposed creating a Punisher miniseries. The company was initially uncomfortable with the idea of a protagonist who killed in cold blood. However, as crime increased nationally throughout the decade, Marvel responded by testing the market for such a character — publishing though not initially promoting a miniseries whose premiere (Jan. 1986) was bannered on the cover as the first of four. After this first issue immediately sold out, Marvel expanded the miniseries to five issues (as then bannered on the cover of #2) and began active promotion.

An ongoing series, also titled The Punisher, premiered shortly afterward. Initially by writer Mike Baron and artist Klaus Janson, it eventually ran 104 issues (July 1987 - July 1995) and spun off two additional ongoing series — The Punisher War Journal (80 issues, Nov. 1988 - July 1995), and The Punisher War Zone (41 issues, March 1992 - July 1995) — as well as the black-and-white comics magazine, The Punisher Magazine (16 issues, Nov. 1989 - Sept. 1990), and The Punisher Armory (10 issues, no cover dates, starting 1990), a fictional diary detailing "His thoughts! His feelings! His weapons!" (as stated on the cover of #1). The Punisher also appeared in numerous one-shots and miniseries, and made frequent guest appearances in other Marvel comics, ranging from superhero series 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 Jigsaw. The Punisher also acquired a nemesis in the form of the Kingpin, the longtime Spider-Man and Daredevil foe, and developed an adversarial relationship with Daredevil himself, who abhorred and fought against the Punisher's methods.

Decline

In 1995, Marvel cancelled all three ongoing Punisher series due to poor sales. The publisher attempted a relaunch almost immediately, with a new ongoing series title The Punisher, by writer John Ostrander, in which the Punisher appeared to willingly join and work for organized crime, and later confronted the X-Men and Nick Fury. Writer Christopher Golden's four-issue miniseries (Nov. 1998 - Feb. 1999) posited a deceased Punisher resurrected as the Angelic Agent, a supernatural agent of various angels and demons. The vociferous Punisher fan base sent hate mail and even death threats to Golden and Marvel. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Revival

The 12-issue, black comedy miniseries The Punisher (April 2000 - March 2001) by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon, under the Marvel Knights imprint, revived the character's popularity. An ongoing series (37 issues, Aug. 2001 - Feb. 2004), primarily by Ennis and Dillon, followed, succeeded in 2004 by an ongoing Ennis series under Marvel's mature-readers imprint MAX. Marvel announced that in late 2006 it will publish Punisher War Journal: Volume 2, by writer Matt Fraction and artist Ariel Olivetti. Set during Marvel's Civil War, it involves Castle taking on supervillians rather than his traditional criminal antagonists.

Character biography

Main article: History of the Punisher

This capsule background 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 Marine and equipped with state-of-the-art weapons, he now wages a one-man war against crime as the Punisher".

Castle has since devoted his life to eradicating organized crime, using the nom de guerre of the Punisher, using his combat experience (four years as a United States Marine Corps Captain in a special operations 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 suspects to death in order to get information 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 virtually about every known criminal organization, as well as fictional ones, including the Italian Mafia, the Russian Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, the Chinese Triads, Jamaican Yardies, the Irish Mob, biker gangs, street gangs, gunrunning militias, religious fundamentalists of all types, muggers, killers, rapists, psychopaths, sadists, pedophiles, and corrupt cops. The Punisher also assaults such criminal business enterprises as money laundering and human trafficking. The Punisher has been fighting organized crime for long enough that he knows their modus operandi and can often predict their actions. Many of these organizations have tried to kill the Punisher, using both their own men and hired contract killers.

As of the mid-2000s, Castle's timeline remained untouched when Marvel adjusted the time frames of other characters. His history has never been altered or moved up; he has effectively aged in real time from the Vietnam War.

Writer Garth Ennis has speculated^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} that the number of individuals the Punisher has killed could be somewhere in the thousands. The first issue of the MAX imprint title gives 2,000 has the number of murders to which the Punisher has been linked.

The Punisher is highly mobile. He has many bases of operations and does not limit himself to working only in New York city. He has been to many places in the U.S. and around the globe fighting crime such as the British Isles, Latin America (Central and South America),Europe and Russia. The Punisher has an extensive criminal record due to his activities. 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 rank-and-file officers are reluctant to take action against the Punisher because they largely agree with him. The Punisher himself disregards what police and the public think of him. The Punisher has killed cops he considered corrupt, but in doing so stirred police into heightened action against him. Castle has also been caught and imprisoned (generally in Ryker's Island, a Marvel Universe model of real-life Rikers Island) many times, but has always escaped.

Notable differences

The Punisher is different from the majority of comic book protagonists. He is a cold-blooded killer, a contrast that is especially apparent when he finds himself forced to work alongside such heroes as Spider-Man and Daredevil, who try to enforce a no-killing rule on him. Law-enforcement and superheroes have occasionally tried to capture him, sometimes succeeding.

The Punisher also has no superpowers. He is only human and succeeds solely through ingenuity and rigorous training.

Unlike most comic-book heroes, Castle also has no love-interest, no dual identity, no "real world" job, no known hobbies, and few friends. He spends nearly all of his time punishing and planning his next hit, stopping only when he needs to recover from injuries or fatigue. He uses the money he takes from the criminals to buy food, medical supplies, pay rent, etc.

Views on the criminal justice system

Castle has contempt toward the American justice system, especially in regard to its failure in prosecute his family's homicide, due to the witnessed killer's false alibi and the mob's influence in the New York City Police Department. As a result, Castle became the Punisher, and his years of crime-fighting have only made him more cynical about the capabilities of the justice system.

The way writers have approached the Punisher's response to the criminal justice system has changed many times over the years, as the audience of the character has adapted and matured. When originally conceived, his approach was hard-edged, and frowned upon by more heroic characters, such as Spider-Man. In the 1980's, particularly in response to the Death Wish and Rambo films and to America's reemerging sense of its role as a world power in the years after losing the Vietnam War, the Punisher came to represent a particularly American "might is right" viewpoint, and his actions were presented as significantly more heroic, despite the fact he was still committing sometimes quite appalling acts of murder.

The 2000's have seen a more carefully considered, considerably more mature take on the character's behavior. There are repeated references to the Punisher's contradictory and paradoxical views on the criminal justice system, though in general Castle never addresses his morality in any depth; he justifies his actions through such generalizations as, "That's another monster gone." Minor characters who question his motivation sometimes reach violent ends, with Castle refusing discussion and turning violent if pressed. Even villains have sometimes pointed out the web of justifications and rationalisations that the Punisher operates within.

Throughout both the Marvel Knights and MAX run of The Punisher, the reason Castle kills those he regards as criminals (which include both circumstantially alleged and incontrovertible individuals) is presented as his desire not to see others (i.e. average people) becoming victims of crime and enduring the same kind of pain and loss that he experienced when he lost his wife and children at the hands of criminals. He also has stated he does not want others to follow his path, on the grounds that his personal war against criminals is his alone.

Not since his earliest days as a standalone character (when he would occasionally use "mercy bullets" to make his actions more palatable) has The Punisher been portrayed as a hero. This moral ambiguity is one of the key differences between the Punisher and most other Marvel protagonists.

The Punisher harbors resentment toward other (usually short-lived) vigilantes. In the Marvel Knights series, he takes exception at what he sees as the others' lack of "professionialism."

Abilities and training

The Punisher possesses the normal human strength of a 6'1", 200-pound man who engages in regular physical exercise. Frank engages in a brutal regimen of calisthenics, katas and firing range practice daily, maintaining his combat skills. He does not smoke, nor does he consume any type of drugs. He does drink alcohol however, though this element of the Punisher is small, and has only been seen in rare occurances.

The Punisher is a seasoned combat veteran of exceptional skills. A former U.S. Marine Captain with a distinguished combat record, 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 Recon Patrol) training.

Frank is well-versed in the arts of warfare and hand-to-hand combat, his styles of choice being Nash Ryu Jiu Jutsu (the four-style martial art founded by Sensei Adam Nash, the Punisher's mentor), Ninjutsu, Shorin-Ryu, Hwarangdo, Chin Na, MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program) or the Marine Corps LINE combat system, 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, preferring the knife he learned to fight with in the USMC: the Ka-bar.

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. It is his military training and his attention to detail that allows him to achieve this. The Punisher Armoury series illustrates some of his thinking and training.

Weapons

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

The Punisher often customizes his weapons for greater effect with both standard and custom items such as tactical scopes, low-light scopes, flashlights, grenade launchers, silencers, tripods, extended magazines, and custom ammunition including but not limited to hollow point or armor piercing rounds. His firearms and weapons of choice can be seen in the above-linked main article.

As of the Marvel MAX printing of The Punisher, Frank Castle prefers the use of a shotgun for close quarter encounters and a M-60 for large amounts of targets in most situations. When performing reconnaisance work, he will employ a high-powered sniper rifle. Traditionally, under the Tim Bradstreet covers, Frank Castle has usually been outfitted with a M-16A2, Uzi, and different varieties of handguns.

Costume

The Punisher's first outfit was a form-fitting black bodysuit with a large white skull on his chest. According to the character, this draws the attention and the aim of the criminals to his heavily armored body, instead of his more vulnerable head. The teeth of the skull is actually spare ammunition for firearms.

The Punisher's outfit gradually transformed to his 2000s uniform of a black t-shirt with a large white skull emblazoned on his chest, combat gear, body armor, black military pants, black combat boots, and sometimes a black trench coat, duster, or leather jacket.

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, outside mainstream Marvel continuity, a version of the Punisher has appeared in the Spider-Man series Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #6-8, followed by Ultimate Spider-Man #61. This Castle is not a Vietnam War veteran but an ex-NYPD police officer. Upon finding corruption within the force reaching up to his captain, Artie Jillette, Castle gathered evidence that he turned over to the department's internal affairs division. Castle's partner, Bruce Greenwood, however, informed the captain, who sent a handful of officers to kill Castle. They ambushed Castle and his family at Central Park, making the attack look like a gangland killing. Castle, surviving, recognized Jillette's belt buckle, and eventually killed all his attackers except Jillette. Stopped from doing so by Spider-Man and Daredevil, Castle was taken into police custody, and given the same cell as the also incarcerated Jillette.

While the Punisher depicted in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up maintains his almost emotionless and cold-hearted persona, Frank Castle is presented as almost insane, due in part to the fact he screams as he kills a bank robber during his appearance in Ultimate Spider-Man #61.

Adaptations

Movies

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

A film adaptation — directed by Mark Goldblatt (later the film editor of , written by Boaz Yakin and starring Dolph Lundgren, Louis Gossett Jr. The movie's deviations from the comics included the lack of the Punisher's signature skull logo on his shirt.

A second film adaptation, directed by Jonathan Hensleigh (who wrote ) and starring Thomas Jane as the Punisher and John Travolta as villain Howard Saint, was released in the U.S. on April 16, 2004. It was met with mixed reviews by critics, and performed weakly at the box office. Released on DVD Sept. 7, 2004, it sold nearly 1.8 million copies in its first five days.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} Worldwide movie box office and DVD sales totaled US$115 million.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

A director's cut DVD was announced^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}, as was a sequel is also currently scheduled for release in late 2007.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

The DVD came with a limited edition (10,000 produced) mini-comic book written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon, chronicling Castle's time in the Delta Force in the Gulf War, and later in the FBI.

Television

The Punisher made appearances in in the 1990s. He was voiced by John Beck. This version of the Punisher used non-lethal weapons and lasers due to Fox Kids guidelines on violence[link]. The Punisher first appeared in "Enter the Punisher", part two of the three-part Morbius episode saga in which he was sent to kill Spider-Man, as everyone in New York believed he was a blood-sucking vampire. He confronted a six-armed Spider-Man and knocked him into a garage, where he then transforms into the Man-Spider, a human-sized spider. In the next episode, "Duel of the Hunters", the Punisher teamed up with a reformed Kraven the Hunter, and, also with the help of Dr. Mariah Crawford, they cured Spider-Man from the Man-Spider, albeit he wasn't truly cured until the second season finale.

The crime-killer later had his last appearance in the season four episode, "The Return of the Green Goblin". The Punisher doesn't feel right about killing criminals and wants to help the innocent. He then promises Anna Watson he will find her niece, Mary Jane Watson (even though no one knew Mary Jane fell into a dimensional portal in the third season finale), by using Peter Parker as the main source, as Anna suspects that Peter knows what happened to Mary Jane. However, Peter himself didn't know what happened to Mary Jane. After a confrontation against the Green Goblin II, in which Spider-Man knocked the villain unconscious, sending them both into the New York City river, the Punisher found the Goblin first and took him away. He then realized that it was Harry Osborn, who also didn't know where Mary Jane was. When he finally had Peter with no escape, the clone of Mary Jane Watson surprisingly appears and everyone assumes it's the real Mary Jane. The Punisher returns Mary Jane to Anna and the crime-killer drives off, saying in his "War Journal" for after what he did, he feels human again.

Video games

The Punisher has also been the main character in several computer and video games. The Punisher arcade game [link] 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 [link] 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 (except for the Gameboy version, where Jigsaw is featured). The Punisher also appeared in The Punisher for the NES, a side-scrolling light-gun shooter that was similar in style to the later .

The Punisher made a cameo appearance in the 2000 PlayStation Spider-Man game (with Daran Norris providing his voice). He was looking for Spider-Man but Spider-Man found him instead and the Punisher is useful enough to lead Spider-Man to Warehouse 65 where Spider-Man must stop the symbiote cloning process. After Spider-Man foiled Doc Ock's plans, the Punisher was last seen playing cards with Spider-Man, Daredevil and Captain America.

He was only mention by name at the beginning of the 2005 multiplatform- game .

A new Punisher game was released January 18, 2005 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 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
• Damage
• Spacker Dave
• Joan the mouse
• 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 based on the villain from the comics)

The Punisher game is extremely violent, and directly draws upon the character's 2000s comic book outings. Some critics have given it positive reviews^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}, praising the script and such innovations as brutal interrogation/torture sequences. Other reviewers^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} 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. Dan Cermak, vice president of the game's producer, Volition, said, "The goal was to make you feel and be the Punisher, and because of that you end up with a lot of violence".^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

By one month after the game's release, it had sold over two million copies.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} Marvel and THQ have each said a new Punisher video game will be released in 2006.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Trivia

• Punisher usually uses "mercy bullets" (non-lethal ammunition) when guest-starring in other comics, most notably Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Captain America in the 70's and 80's.
• Was shot by Daredevil in Daredevil #184.
• Used to have a pet rottweiler called "Max" which he saved from animal poachers.
• Number plates on The Punisher's black Pontiac has "Year One" on it; reference to The Company that worked on making the 5 GTOs for the movie.
• According to Don Daley, then editor of The Punisher Vol. 2, #98, in his response to a fan mail, he stated that the Punisher's version of justice is classically based as "an eye for an eye".
• The Commission appointed Johnny Walker, who donned the Captain America uniform at the time, to capture the Punisher and to bring him to the Vault, where they housed super-powered criminals.
• In the early 1990s, flagging sales drove Marvel to place the then-popular character The Punisher in several guest appearances in The 'Nam. After the series' conclusion, an epilogue of sorts was published in the form of a Punisher special, The Punisher in the .

Bibliography

Regular series

• The Punisher v7 (MAX): #1-ongoing

• #1-4

One-shots

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

References

• [Marvel.com] - Marvel Comics' official Punisher
• - Marvel Database Project
• [The Punisher Archives]
• [Force2Reckon] - Punisher fan site
• [Gangsta Punisher Army] - Online Punisher Community
• [The Gray Zone] - "Villains" of Marvel Comics

 

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