Punisher
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The Punisher is a fictional vigilante and 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 as acceptable crime-fighting tactics. Driven by the deaths of his wife and children, who were killed by the mob when they witnessed a Mafia gangland execution in New York City's Central Park, Frank 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 and another in 2004.
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[edit] Publication history
[edit] Introduction
The Punisher was created by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, who was then the regular writer and artist, respectively, for The Amazing Spider-Man, with then-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 known as 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, stating: "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". [1]
[edit] Initial series
In the early 1980s, artist Mike Zeck and writer Steven Grant proposed creating a Punisher series. The company was initially uncomfortable with the idea of a protagonist who kills 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 the next year. 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 (vol.1) (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.
[edit] 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 The Punisher: Purgatory (Nov. 1998 - Feb. 1999) posited a deceased Punisher resurrected as the Angelic Agent, a supernatural agent of various angels and demons.
[edit] 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 November 2006, it will publish a new The Punisher War Journal (vol.2), by writer Matt Fraction and artist Ariel Olivetti which is set during Marvel's Civil War. It involves Castle taking on supervillains rather than his traditional criminal antagonists.
[edit] Marvel MAX imprint
The Marvel MAX version of the Punisher is set in the Marvel Universe world but with no superheroes. In the miniseries Born, by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, Castle's background is that he became psychotic due to his long campaign in Vietnam, during the war. The one-shot Punisher: The Tyger, by Ennis and John Severin, went even further and showed that Castle had lived with murders, deaths and criminals his whole life. The MAX version of the Punisher is also older than that of mainstream Marvel; he is nearly sixty in this series, but his physical condition and health are in extremely good states. This version of the Punisher has been an active vigilante for almost thirty years and has killed thousands of people, according to Ennis.[citation needed]
[edit] Fictional character biography
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), guerilla 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, piranhas, and to a hydrogen bomb.
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, muggers, killers, rapists, other psychopaths, sadists, pedophiles and corrupt cops. The Punisher also assaults such criminal business enterprises as drugs, weapons smuggling, 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.
While the Punisher most often fights normal criminals, he has also had run-ins with some of Marvel's superhuman villains, including Bushwacker, The Reavers and Bullseye. Circumstances have even led him to battle and occasionally attempt to kill Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine, in addition to Marvel superspy Nick Fury. 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.
Frank had a sidekick named Microchip who was a techno-geek who could hack anything. He constantly rescued Frank from his mistakes (poor judgement and planning at times). Microchip ended up returning years later to Frank's amazement.
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, creating an unaddressed chronological anomaly.
The MAX-imprint's issue #19 states in a news report that the Punisher has been linked to the deaths of over 2,000 people.. This figure does not include the number of military people he has killed. The number does not include deaths in another story in which the Punisher causes an hydrogen bomb to be dropped onto a Pacific island called Grand Nixon, where a General Kriegkopf has gathered 2,000 of the world's most dangerous mercenaries, including The Russian.
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. The 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 him because they largely agree with his tactics.
The Punisher disregards what police and the public think of him. The Punisher has been known to kill corrupt cops. 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 he has always escaped.
[edit] Notable differences
The Punisher differs from the majority of comic book protagonists. He is a cold-blooded killer; a contrast especially apparent when he finds himself forced to work alongside heroes like Spider-Man, the Hulk and Daredevil, who try to enforce a "no-killing" rule upon him.
The Punisher has no superpowers. He is only human and succeeds solely through ingenuity and rigorous training combined with an extensive arsenal of more or less exotic weaponry.
Unlike most comic book heroes, Castle also has no dual identity, no "real world" job, no known hobbies and has 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 money he takes from criminals to buy food, medical supplies, weapons, ammunition, pay rent, etc.
[edit] Views on the criminal justice system
Castle's years of vigilantism have made him increasingly cynical about the capabilities of the American justice system, especially in regard to its failure to successfully 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. Throughout both the Marvel Knights and MAX run of The Punisher, the given reason Castle kills those he regards as criminals (which include both circumstantially alleged and incontrovertible individuals) is his desire not to see average people becoming victims of crime and enduring the same kind of pain and loss he experienced.
The way writers have approached the Punisher's response to the criminal justice system has changed many times over the years, though 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. When originally conceived, his approach was hard-edged, and frowned upon by more heroic characters, such as Spider-Man. While that much remains true, the 2000s have seen a more considered 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 within which the Punisher operates.
Castle has also stated he does not want others to follow his path, on the grounds that his personal war against criminals is his alone (which can explain his desire not to see average people becoming victims of crime), and harbors resentment toward other (usually short-lived) vigilantes. In the Marvel Knights series, he takes exception at what he sees as their lack of "professionalism". In the first The Punisher miniseries, he battles an organization known as The Trust, which equipped brainwashed criminals with Punisheresque clothing and sent them out to kill mobsters. Castle resents the Trust's lack of discipline, as several innocents had been killed by Trust operatives. He shows the same resentment in the 2000 Marvel Knights 12-issue series, in which he encounters three vigilantes known as The Holy (a psychotic priest who uses vigilantism as an excuse for murder), Elite (a fascist suburbanite) and Payback (a man who targets greedy and corrupt corporations, but gets innocent people killed in the process).
[edit] Abilities and training
The Punisher possesses the normal human strength of a 6'1" 200-pound man, who engages in rigorous regular physical exercise. Frank engages in a brutal regimen of calisthenics, katas and firing range practice daily, maintaining his combat skills.
The Punisher is a seasoned combat veteran of exceptional skills. A former U.S. Marine Captain with a distinguished combat record, Castle underwent sniper (his second tour in Vietnam was served as a sniper, as implied in "In the Beginning") and recon training while in the Corps. He also received SEAL (Sea, Air, Land), UDT (Underwater Demolition Team), LRRP (Long Range Recon Patrol) training and airborne training with Army and Navy special forces. It has also been revealed in both the Marvel Knights and MAX imprints of The Punisher that Frank Castle did receive training, skills and expertise from the Australian Army's Special Air Service Regiment when he was on exchange with Australian military forces operating in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War (It is also noted that while Castle was on exchange with the Australian SAS in Vietnam, he met Yorkie Mitchell, a British SAS soldier who was on exchange with the Australians at the same time. Mitchell would later become an agent for the British intelligence agency, MI6 and he would cross paths and work with Castle on a number of occasions during the Marvel Knights and MAX runs of The Punisher).
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, Tai Chi, 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 (in the movie he killed Harry Heck with a ballistic knife).
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 almost uninjured. It is his military training and his attention to detail that allows him to achieve this. He is an exceptional marksman who is sometimes depicted as being ambidextrous in this respect. The Punisher Armory series illustrates some of his thinking and training.
[edit] Weapons
The Punisher has employed an almost endless array of conventional firearms, 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, Connecticut 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 effectiveness with both standard and custom items such as magnified optics, reflex sights, night vision scopes, flashlights, grenade launchers, sound and flash suppressors, bipods, high-capacity magazines and drums, and ammunition types such as hollow point or armor piercing bullets.
As of the Marvel MAX printing of The Punisher, Castle typically prefers the use of a shotgun for close-quarter encounters and an M-60 for multiple targets. When performing reconnaissance work, he employs a high-powered sniper rifle. Traditionally, under the Tim Bradstreet covers, Frank Castle has usually been outfitted with an M-16A2 rifle, an Uzi sub-machine gun, a Heckler & Koch 33 rifle, two Desert Eagle handguns, an L1A1 SLR and different varieties of handguns.
Throughout the Punisher's crusade against criminals, he occasionally used a number of high-tech transportations. During his early series, he used battle vans specially built and customized by his then-partner, Microchip. These vans were heavily armored, loaded with high-powered ammunition and with advanced telecommunication capabilities. Castle used the vans for surveillance and weapons transportation. He has also used motorcycles, helicopters, speed boats, or whatever he can find and use. In the Marvel MAX Punisher series, Castle resorts to basic equipment to track down his targets, and drove a black Hummer H2 SUV.
[edit] Costume
The Punisher's first outfit was a form-fitting black Kevlar 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. Each tooth of the skull is actually spare ammunition for firearms. Castle has used this costume on occasion in mid-2000s stories outside of the Marvel MAX imprint.
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.
[edit] Other versions
[edit] 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.
In Ultimate Spider-Man #61, Spider-Man interrupts a brawl between the Punisher and the Boomerang; the Punisher was trying to kill the villain for holding up a bank. Spider-Man was left with no alternative but to catch both Frank and the Boomerang and leave them for the police.
He resurfaced in the second annual of Ultimate Spider-Man, where he escaped from prison and moved in to take out the Kangaroo. However, three other crimefighters - Spider-Man, Daredevil and Moon Knight - were also on the scene, and in the chaos, all bar Daredevil fought with each other. Daredevil took out the Kangaroo, while Spider-Man trapped the other two in his webs. As he went to talk to the police, both broke free - Moon Knight fled the scene while the Punisher killed corrupt cop Jeanne De Wolff. Spider-Man brutally attacked him again, unaware of De Wolff's loyalties to the Kingpin, but soon left him be. Daredevil expressed his disdain for the Punisher's methods on this occasion. The Punisher's fate was unknown.
[edit] Other media
[edit] Film
A film adaptation was produced directed by Mark Goldblatt (later the film editor of X-Men: The Last Stand) and written by Boaz Yakin. It starred Dolph Lundgren as the Punisher with Louis Gossett, Jr. The film's most recognizable deviations from the comics was the fact that the Punisher is a former cop, and the lack of the signature skull logo on his shirt.
A second film adaptation was directed by Jonathan Hensleigh (who wrote Die Hard: With a Vengeance) and starred Thomas Jane for the lead role with John Travolta as the main villain Howard Saint. It 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. [citation needed] Worldwide movie box office and DVD sales totaled US$115 million. [citation needed]
A director's cut DVD was announced and a sequel is also currently scheduled for release in late 2007. An extended cut is due out on November 21, 2006. [2] 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 Delta Force in the Gulf War, and later in the FBI.
[edit] Television
The Punisher made appearances in Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the 1990s, voiced by John Beck. He first appeared in the seventh episode of the second season, in part two of the Morbius three-part introduction. The Punisher later appeared in the eighth episode of season four.
[edit] 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 [3] 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. It featured a cameo appearance of Spider-Man. The Kingpin was the final boss in all versions except for Game Boy, which used Jigsaw. The Punisher also appeared in The Punisher for the NES, in a side-scrolling, light-gun shooter that was similar in style to the later T2: Arcade.
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 leads him to Warehouse 65, where Spider-Man must stop the symbiote cloning process. After Spider-Man foils Doctor Octopus' plans, the Punisher is last seen playing cards with Spider-Man, Daredevil and Captain America.
He was mentioned by name at the beginning of the 2005 multiplatform - game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects a torn piece of his shirt can be seen hanging in the cinematic opening.
On January 18, 2005, a new The Punisher game was released for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC. It was developed by Volition Inc. and published by THQ. The Punisher in the game is voiced by Thomas Jane.
The Punisher game is extremely violent, and directly draws upon the character's 2000s comic book outings. Some critics have given it positive reviews [citation needed], praising the script and such innovations as brutal interrogation/torture sequences. Other reviewers [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". [citation needed]
By one month after the game's release, it had sold over two million copies. [citation needed] Marvel and THQ have each said a new Punisher video game will be released in 2006. [citation needed]
[edit] Trivia
- The Punisher at one point had a pet rottweiler, "Max", which he had saved from animal poachers.
- According to then-Punisher editor Don Daley, the Punisher's version of justice is the Middle-Eastern dictum "an eye for an eye". [4]
- The Punisher was not in the game Marvel Ultimate Alliance because the video game license for the character is with THQ.
- Dave Mustaine, frontman of the heavy-metal band Megadeth, noted that the hit song "The Punishment Due" was inspired by the Punisher, which Mustaine afterward stopped reading, stating "it's been commercialized". [5]
- The character Big Shot, from the animated TV series The Tick, is a parody of the Punisher.
[edit] Bibliography
For complete listing, please see The Punisher Bibliography
[edit] References
- ^ Alter Ego articles to Gerry Conway.
- ^ DVD The Man Room.
- ^ Moby Games.
- ^ (January 1995) The Punisher (1987 series) #98 letter column. Marvel Comics.
- ^ Megadeth Rockmetal interview.
[edit] External links
- Marvel.com - Official webpage
- Marvel Database Project: Punisher
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