When war veteran Frank Castle returns home from the horrors of battle, all he wants to
do is be with his wife and kids.
But after they're gunned down in a mob shootout, Frank dedicates his life to vengeance as The
Punisher: a bad man with big guns and an enviable five o'clock shadow.
The Punisher has been one of Marvel's most compelling and complex characters for decades.
For proof, here are ten Punisher facts you may not know…
The Exterminator
The Punisher is best known these days for his interactions with Daredevil, but he began
his comic book career as a Spider-Man villain.
In The Amazing Spider-Man #129, Punisher is hired by The Jackal to hunt for the notorious
vigilante wall-crawler, claiming that Spider-Man had killed Norman Osborne in a previous fight…
when in fact Osborne accidentally killed himself.
Creator Gerry Conway always intended Frank Castle to first appear as a villain, only
to eventually become a hero.
Well, an extreme anti-hero.
Obviously, the two made amends before Spidey got completely punished.
The Assassin
Gerry Conway, Punisher's creator, originally wanted to name the character "The Assassin."
Stan Lee vetoed that idea, thinking it had too many harsh connotations for what was,
essentially, a picture book for kids.
Then Lee had an idea: years earlier he created an unmemorable robot character named The Punisher
who was one of Galactus' henchmen. Lee suggested that Conway use the robot's name.
Conway took it because, well, you don't say no to Stan Lee.
He's been the Punisher ever since.
The Executioner
He’s starred in over 600 books which have sold well over 200 million copies worldwide...except
that we’re not talking about the Punisher.
These stats belong to Mack Bolan, a fictional character created by Don Pendleton.
And if Mack Bolan didn't exist, Punisher might not have either.
Created in 1968, Mack Bolan is a Vietnam vet who comes home from war, only to watch his
family die right before his eyes at the hands of the mafia, which sparks a lifelong obsession
with vengeance.
He earns the nickname The Executioner, drives around in a weapon-filled van, and keeps a
“War Journal”.
Somehow, Marvel hasn't been sued into oblivion for copyright infringement.
Archie & Eminem get Punished
The Punisher is one of those characters who's great on his own, but even better in a team-up...like
that time he saved Eminem from an assassin hired by a group of parents who hated his
music.
Published in 2009 in a two-part miniseries creatively called Eminem/The Punisher, Frank
introduces himself by killing Eminem's entourage.
Later Eminem takes a chainsaw to the villain Barracuda, and everything was just as violent
as you’d expect.
As strange at it was, it all seemed natural compared to 1994's Archie meets The Punisher,
where our anti-hero chases a drug dealer to squeaky clean Riverdale.
Of course, the drug dealer looks almost exactly like Archie, so cue the comical mix-ups and
mishaps!
The fun and games end when the drug dealer kidnaps Veronica, but not to worry: Punisher
saves the day, and even sticks around to chaperone the school dance.
Bombing the box office
Punisher has had three big-screen adaptations, and two of them were massive financial disasters.
2008’s Punisher: War Zone and the 1989 Dolph Lundgren Punisher movie are the biggest bombs
in Marvel movie history.
How big, you say?
Even bigger than Howard the Duck, a movie universally regarded as one of the worst of
all time.
"No one laughs at a master of Quack-Fu!"
Yes.
Even worse than that.
Dirty laundry
Tom Jane turned down the role of the Punisher a couple of times because he didn't see himself
as a hero, but after finally playing him in 2004, he was hooked.
He walked away from the proposed sequel due to creative differences, but he loved playing
the character so much that he starred in an independent Punisher short film called "Dirty
Laundry."
Even washing black T-shirts is a bloody adventure for Punisher.
Captain America's secret admirer
Punisher doesn't really care about anyone in the Marvel universe…with the exception
of Captain America.
Cap was a fellow soldier, and the pureness of his moral compass is unrivaled.
Punisher actually respects Cap so much that Punisher has at times outright refused to
fight him.
When Captain America was temporarily dead in the comics, Punisher changed his costume
to a red-white-and-blue theme to honor his fallen hero.
Frank Castle kills everything
In a one-shot, alternate-universe comic titled Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe, the Punisher
did, well, just that.
In this “What If?”-type tale, Castle's wife and kids are killed during a fierce superhero
battle.
Punisher kills Cyclops on the spot for his mistake, which gets Punisher locked away...except
on the way to the prison, he meets a group of others who were disfigured during the Marvel
Universe’s countless destructive superhero fights.
Frank Castle gets everything he needs to kill every last character in the Marvel universe,
saving Daredevil for last.
When the deed is done, Punisher turns the gun onto himself.
But it’s not just super-humans that he’s got it in for.
In Punisher: The End, another non-canon story, Frank Castle is one of the last remaining
humans on earth after a nuclear holocaust.
Frank tracks down the last survivors to kill them, since they were the ones responsible
for the destruction of the human race.
Again, Punisher kills everyone, and then chooses himself as his final victim, setting himself
on fire and wandering into the wasteland, finally ending humanity's cycle of violence,
once and for all.
So, how does all of this add up?
Well, in 2011, Marvel Comics editor Stephen Wacker crunched the numbers.
From 1974 to 2011, Punisher had killed exactly 48,502 people.
Yeah.
He's kind of a monster.
In fact...
He's literally a monster
Punisher has been killed and resurrected as monstrous versions of his former self—not
once, but twice.
In the late-'90s mini-series Punisher: Purgatory, Frank Castle kills himself and is brought
back to life as a demon hunter with two guns that fire heavenly power...or something like
that.
Then in 2010, after being dismembered by Wolverine's son, Punisher's body parts fall into the hands
of the vampire and Dave Navarro look-alike Morbius, who re-assembles Frank Castle and
imbues his corpse with life...turning him into Franken-Castle.
Truly, one of the best comic book names ever.
Except for maybe Fin Fang Foom.
Iconic
The Punisher's skull logo means more to people in real-life than it does to him.
Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers wear the Punisher's signature skull somewhere on their gear.
It's a symbol they've chosen to represent their fight against ISIS.
The trend has been going on for a while, but it was reinforced by Chris Kyle, the subject
of the movie American Sniper, who wore the symbol during his tour of duty.
That cartoony, elongated skull has become a definitive rallying cry for anti-terror
forces in the Middle East.
Frank Castle would be proud.
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