Punisher
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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 won't think twice about killing hundreds of criminals. Driven by the massacre of his family, 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'. Although, it is up to the reader to decide whether The Punisher is good, bad, an anti-hero, or a mixture of all three.
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. It has also been 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 vengeance on the criminals who slew 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.
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Publication history
The Punisher was inspired by, and is 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 in 1969. There are differences between Mack Bolan and Frank Castle. Bolan didn't have a wife or kids. It was his brother and mother that were killed when his own father was driven mad by debts to the Mob for gambling and such, he killed them all and turned the gun on himself. His sister had been taken as a prostitute by the Mob boss. Unlike Frank, Bolan is a character that has sex with about five women in each Executioner book. Frank relies more on hand-to-hand combat than Bolan. The Punisher's 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 sprung from the brow of writer Gerry Conway, who had started writing for Amazing Spider-Man at the tender age of 18 in 1974. Created and developed by Gerry Conway and John Romita Sr., 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. Conway said of The Punisher, "I wanted to make a dark, street tough opponent for Spider-Man". With his skull-covered black outfit designed by artist John Romita Sr. "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 Punisher had made his debut.
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 was an instant smash. Fans loved his take-no-prisoners attitude, and he became one of Marvel's hottest guest stars.
In the past, the Punisher was primarily used in the Spider-Man books, often as an anti-hero throughout the 1970s. 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 by 1986, however, violent crimes had increased nationwide. It seemed to be the perfect time for a character like the Punisher to come in. Also 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 was 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 the successful 1986 mini-series, Marvel launched an ongoing The Punisher series in 1987. It was very popular and Marvel added a spin-off The Punisher War Journal in 1988 and another The 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.
In 1995, Marvel cancelled all three Punisher series, due to the writing of Chuck Dixon which caused sales to drop. Several unsuccessful revivals were attempted; one featured the Punisher willingly joining and working for the mob (1996/1997) by John Ostrander, while another revamped the character in a limited series called "Punisher: Purgatory" as an agent of various angels and demons (1998/1999) 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 comic 2000/2001 mini-series by writer Garth Ennis (though it wasn't the first time Ennis worked on The Punisher with Ennis writing the 1995 comic The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe) and artist Steve Dillon under the "Marvel Knights" imprint made the character 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 issues made "Issue Of The Month" in Wizard. It 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. Many fans agree that Garth Ennis has become one of the best Punisher writers ever.
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/mid fifties; he looks more like an aging mob enforcer than a traditional hero. Then again, the Punisher was never written to be a traditional hero. 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.
Character history
- Main article: History of the Punisher
"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". (this short history of Frank Castle appeared in Punisher titles from 1987 to 1994.)
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 just about killed every type of organized crime group and criminal there is. From the Italian Mafia, the Russian Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, the Colombian and Mexican Cartels, the Chinese Triads, the Jamaican Yardies, the Irish Mafia, Biker gangs, Street gangs, Gun-Running Militias, muggers, killers, rapists, psychos and sadists. And sometimes corrupt cops. The Punisher doesn't just kill the criminals, he also destroys their businesses whether they are drug dealers, weapon dealers, money launders, human trafficking, etc. The Punisher has been fighting organized crime groups for so long that he just about knows what the Mob will do. How they operate, how they fight, think, act, etc. Of course many of these crime groups have tried to kill the Punisher. When their own people can't kill him, they usually send an assassin. But the Punisher has killed almost every type of assassin, hitman, bounty hunter and mercenary they have sent. One after the other.
To give a death count of just how many criminals the Punisher has killed over the last 30 years is quite impossible. Comic book writer Garth Ennis and the fan base have guessed that the death count could be somewhere in the thousands. Maybe one or two thousand or maybe even one or two hundred thousand. We can only guess. The Punisher knows that no matter how many hundreds or thousands of criminals he kills it will never ever make a difference. If he had died in a gun-fight he knows that everything he had done would not have made the world a safer place. Not even by 1%.
The Punisher is someone who is very mobile. He has many bases of operations and he 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 American) 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 though the Punisher couldn't care less what the police or even what the public thinks of him. In the past the Punisher has killed corrupt cops, but in doing so has had the police come after him in full force. Castle has also been caught and incarcerated (generally in Rykers Island) many times, but he has always managed to escape. But even while in jail, the Punisher's war on crime still continues, where he has killed up to a dozen of inmates with just his bare hands.
One of the Punisher's famous quotes:
Frank Castle: "One nice thing about prison, though... there are lots of criminals there. Lots of them."
There is also a quote, not said by the Punisher, but one said by the fan base. This quote can be seen in the 2005 Punisher video game.
"He who does not punish evil commands it to be done." -Leonardo da Vinci
What makes the Punisher's character different from others, such as the Fantastic Four? The Fantastic Four are irradiated and devote their lives to helping mankind. Another would be The Flash; the Flash gets hit by a lightning bolt and devotes his life to helping mankind etc. Their heroic essence precedes their heroic existence. But that's not The Punisher. When Frank Castle stops being Frank Castle, he doesn't become The Punisher right away. The Punisher is something he invents, something he chooses to be. His goals aren't heroic. They aren't even vengeful, any more than a surgeon declares revenge on a tumor. The Punisher sees a world that has never existed – that 50s world of happy families going on picnics in the park and not even bothering to lock their doors, that happy time.
The Punisher is someone who sees the world for what it truly is. One example is his views towards the Vietnam War. During and even after the war, Frank knew the Vietnam War was a meaningless war where 58,000 American servicemen lost their lives for nothing while almost 2 to 3 million Vietnamese civilians and combatants (both North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese) were killed as a result. In Vietnam, Frank witnessed corruption and war crimes being committed such as murder and rape of Vietnamese civilians and unarmed combatants. Frank is a person that comes from a generation of people that grew up in the 1950s and 60s. A generation that was lied to and used by its leaders. Frank even once went to the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. How Frank feels about Vietnam can be seen in the MAX line of The Punisher comic books.
Frank Castle also has particularly strong views of contempt towards the Justice System, especially in regard to its failure to bring certain criminals to justice. Frank saw his wife and two children being killed right in front of him and even though he saw the people who did it, nothing was done about it. As a result, Frank Castle became the Punisher and spent the last 30 years of his life fighting crime and seeing what the System still can't do.
Another thing that makes the Punisher's character different from other vigilante crime fighters is that he will never be with anyone. Another woman that is. Unlike Batman or Daredevil who seem to fall in love with one woman after the other is that, the Punisher has no love and no romance to give. All of that died the day his wife was killed. The only woman that Frank will ever love will always be his wife. The Punisher has said that Frank Castle is dead, what he means is that the loving husband and father Frank Castle is dead and he is never coming back. Ironically, the closest he ever got to a woman was the female assassin sent after him by the Costa family... and that was to get rid of her and stop her becoming a problem later. But the U.S. Marine Captain/special forces soldier Frank Castle who could take anything that Vietnam could throw at him, is still alive and well.
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
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}} Image:Pun 30 800.jpg 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 is also someone who 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 include...
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
With Frank not in the Vietnam War in the Ultimate Marvel universe, Frank Castle is no longer an ex-Vietnam vet soldier, but an ex-NYPD police officer. Only so much is known about Frank in the Ultimate Marvel universe before he became the Punisher. Whether the Punisher had any type of military training is unknown.
While Frank was working on the NYPD, he found corruption within the police force. Several police officers including the Captain, Captain Artie Jillette. When Frank found and took as much evidence as he could, he turned it over to Internal Affairs. Frank's partner, Bruce Greenwood, ratted him out to the Captain. In doing so, Jillette and a few of his officers (David, Nick, a fourth was seen but wasn't named) went to kill only Frank. The Captain had learned that Frank took his family to New York Central Park. Frank's wife, Maria, saw four men approach them. They were dressed in gangster-type clothing to make it look like a gangland killing. Frank saw one of the men's belt buckle as he laid on the ground bleeding. It had a symbol of a gun on it. Frank knew it was Artie Jillette. Frank then killed David and the other. Frank was caught and put in jail (As to what happened in the time between when Frank killed two of the people who did it, and when he was put in jail was not shown). Frank then gets out and kills Nick and Bruce. Jillette however was caught by the police and so was Frank before he was able to kill him. But when Frank was being taken to his cell, he's put in the same cell where Jillette is...
He is later seen trying to kill a bank robber, but is stopped by Spider-Man, who also catches the criminal.
That story (Ultimate Spider-Man #61) didn't sit well with Punisher fans. The Punisher is seen screaming his head off and shooting his guns and almost killing others like some maniac. Many fans complained that the Punisher was purposely written out of character, simply because the writer didn't have a liking for the character.
Adaptations
Movies
- See main articles The Punisher (1989 film) and The Punisher (2004 film)
Image:Punisher dvd 2004.jpg 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 was nothing like the comics, one of many examples would be; the Punisher did not even have a skull on his costume. 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 by the fans of the comic book series, though many fans agree that Thomas Jane's performance and appearance was very much more accurate to the comics since the 2004 film was influenced by The Punisher: Year One comic series and the "Welcome Back Frank" series. This later movie was much more faithful to the Punisher comics, but there were still noticeable differences (as with all comic book adaptation films). 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 1 in the top 10 DVD sales. During October, the Punisher DVD rentals were still in the top 10 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 (10,000) 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. It leads up to the start of the movie. A Director's cut has been announced and talked about but no release date has been set. A sequel is 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 [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. 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.
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.
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). 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
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Regular series
- The Punisher v7 (MAX): #1-ongoing
Mini-series
- The Punisher: Born #1-4
One-shots
External links
fr:Le Punisher ja:パニッシャー pl:Punisher pt:O Justiceiro sv:Punisher
