The Punisher is an anti-hero who takes crime into his own hands by making sure that criminals
are put to rest for good, but who exactly is he?
Today, let’s take a look at the character and publication history of this iconic man
in black.
Frank Castle was a highly decorated member of the Marines, but he and his family were
at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Castles were accidentally shot in a Mafia execution, but Frank was the only survivor.
Yet even though Frank could identify all of the assailants, they all had rock solid alibis.
The legal system couldn’t do anything to bring justice to his family’s killers and
Frank almost ended up committing suicide.
One thing was important though.
Justice was not going to work and as such, Frank was going to carry out the one thing
that these mobsters deserved, punishment.
Frank became a one man army and singlehandedly raided the mob’s headquarters, giving birth
to The Punisher.
In the process however, Frank spared a single criminal named Billy Russo, but smashed his
face through a window to send a message to the entire criminal underground.
When Billy’s face was stitched up, it left him permanently disfigured and he took up
the name Jigsaw.
Many of you guys might be wondering why is this important and that’s because Jigsaw
ended up becoming The Punisher’s greatest nemesis, an especially unique feat considering
that Frank ends up killing most of the enemies.
The Punisher’s war on crime frequently put him at odds with Spider-Man.
In fact, many of his early appearances in comic books solely relied on a series of misunderstandings
where Frank would think that Spider-Man is a crook, get proved wrong, and then team up
with him to stop the real criminal.
The Punisher has also had frequent run-ins with Daredevil and while their missions are
usually the same, their methods are different with Daredevil opting to put criminals through
the legal system as opposed to Frank’s “Kill ‘em all” mentality.
Daredevil is not The Punisher’s biggest fan though, even going so far as to form a
team of other street level heroes to take him down.
Despite this, Frank respects Daredevil, thinking that he’s doing good work despite not killing
the bad guys.
Helping out on The Punisher’s crusade is Microchip who makes all of Frank’s gear
as well as general leet haxorz stuff.
He and The Punisher were a team for a VERY long time… until he died… and then came
back to life later…
Because nobody is allowed to stay dead in comic books even when they’re just tech
gurus.
The Punisher was an insanely popular character in the 80s and the early 90s to the point
that at one time, he had three separate series going on at once and was constantly making
guest appearances in other titles.
Yet, because of his overexposure, fans starting to get sick of Frank and in 1995, all of The
Punisher book were canceled and he was relegated to mini series, occasional guest spots, and
attempted revivals.
This is what led to events such as Frank becoming a mob boss and later being manipulated by
demons into committing suicide.
If you think that’s weird then just wait.
It gets better.
Frank was resurrected by an angel named Gadriel who gave Frank part of his angelic essence
and magic angel guns with the task of killing demons.
Not only that, but apparently a one off Punisher villain was actually a powerful demon lord
who masterminded the death of Frank’s family so that every person that Frank killed as
The Punisher would serve as a member of his demon army.
...Because 90s comics.
This was all brushed aside when The Punisher got a brand new solo series, where he more
or less said “Yeah, the angels wanted me to kill people for them, but I didn't like
it so they sent me back to Earth."
From there, The Punisher mostly lived in alternate universe of R rated comics under Marvel’s
MAX imprint, leaving the mainstream Punisher with the usual status quo, mini-series and
guest appearances.
One noteworthy example is the famous story, Civil War, where Frank rescues Spider-Man
from Iron Man’s forces after Stark hired known supervillains.
Despite all of Captain America’s resistance not being okay with having The Punisher on
their team, his bravery in rescuing Spider-Man swayed Cap to bring him on board.
Frank snuck onto Iron Man’s base of operations and stole the plans for a superhero prison,
but then murdered some villains that tried joining Cap’s team whiiiiich got him got
him locked up and taken out of the war.
Now, let’s fast forward to Dark Reign where he was killed by Wolverine’s son, Daken,
because Frank tried to kill Daken’s boss, Norman Osborne.
Now, remember the weird way that Frank came back to life last time he died?
Well this time, he was resurrected by a vampire named Morbius as a patchwork Frankenstein-like
monster.
FrankenCastle helped Morbius and a bunch of other creatures fight off a group of monster
hunters and after doing so, got restored back to his normal human form thanks to a magical
artifact called the Bloodstone.
The Punisher was back, got some more mini-series, helped out in some more crossover events,
joined the Thunderbolts where he hooked up with Elektra (and made Deadpool jealous in
the process), and even got a couple short runs as a solo series.
Honestly, Marvel keeps trying and trying to keep The Punisher relevant, but ever since
his series got canceled in 1995, no amount or relaunches, tie ins, mini series, or dramatic
publicity stunts have ever allowed him to stick around despite the fact that what a
lot of what Frank Castle has been in lately has been pretty good.
However, only time will tell.
Who knows?
Maybe Daredevil season two will make more people care about Frank Castle for the first
time in a long time, but for now, he’s a relic of the eighties past his glory days.
So which one of Frank’s resurrections is sillier?
The demon hunter or Frankencastle?
Click to cast your vote or tweet me @TrailerDrake.
If you want to learn more about The Punisher’s brief fling with Daredevil’s ex-girlfriend
though, just click that annotation right there for my video on the history of Elektra.