The Punisher

The Punisher (Frank Castle) is a comic book character in the Marvel Comics universe, generally considered to be an anti-hero. It is also the title of several comic book series starring the character. The Punisher has at his disposal all manner of conventional and state of the art weaponry. Frank Castle is a master of many forms of unarmed combat, armed combat, and is a phenomenal marksman. The Punisher's arsenal and resourcefulness have made him infamous to organized crime while most other superheroes object to his extreme methods.

The Punisher was a novel character in mainstream superhero comics when he debuted in the 1970s in that he was willing to use lethal force to accomplish his aims, without actually being a supervillain.

History

Frank Castle was a U.S. Marine who served in the Vietnam War in a special forces unit. After his tour of duty was over he came back to the United States and started a family. His family was killed in a gangland crossfire. Since then, Frank has devoted his life to destroying organized crime, using the nom de guerre The Punisher with the distinctive costume of a black and white body armour with a large white skull as a chest symbol, and using whatever resources and means necessary to do so. The Punisher has a criminal record due to his activities, and law enforcement is aware of his existence.

The Punisher first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974). The story was written by Gerry Conway, who originally conceived the character as a one-issue antagonist for Spider-Man (the story involved the Punisher stalking Spider-Man, whom Castle mistakenly believed to be a murderer). The character proved immediately popular, and made appearances in other series (usually clashing with the hero of the piece over his methods) and eventually gaining a series of his own in the mid-1980s.

The Punisher is very similar to Mack Bolan, a character created by Don Pendleton for a series of "Executioner" novels published since 1969.

Television & Movies

A film adaptation, The Punisher, starring Dolph Lundgren, was released in 1989. A second film adaptation, starring Thomas Jane as the Punisher and John Travolta as the main villain, was released in the United States on April 16, 2004.