Punisher
The Punisher is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru.
The character is a vigilante who employs violence and killing in his campaign against crime. Driven by the deaths of his wife and two children, who were killed by the mob for witnessing a murder in New York City's Central Park, the Punisher wages a one-man war on all criminals. Castle is a veteran U.S. Marine Corps Scout/Sniper in Force Recon. The stories initially place his military service in the Vietnam War, but this was much later updated to the Gulf War and then to the fictional Siancong War. Castle is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, guerrilla warfare, and marksmanship. He is known for the skull motif on his chest. The symbol has since become widely controversial after becoming appropriated by United States military personnel and law enforcement, as well as far-right organizations. The character has been analyzed as an expression of ambivalence in American culture regarding the legacy of the Vietnam War as well as controversies about the proper response to violent crime. While he typically fights and kills networks of organized crime, his archenemy is Jigsaw. He has been depicted as Italian American.
The Punisher made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #129, originally depicted as an assassin and adversary of the superhero Spider-Man. The Punisher's brutal nature and willingness to kill made him an anomaly in mainstream American comic books when he debuted in 1974. By the late 1980s, the Punisher was part of a wave of psychologically troubled antiheroes. At the height of his popularity, the character was featured in four monthly publications: The Punisher, The Punisher War Journal, The Punisher: War Zone, and The Punisher Armory. While his popularity declined markedly in the mid-1990s, writer Garth Ennis revived interest in the character in the early 2000s, particularly in various series under the Max imprint.
In feature films, the character has been portrayed by Dolph Lundgren in The Punisher, by Thomas Jane in The Punisher, and by Ray Stevenson in Punisher: War Zone. Jon Bernthal portrays the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in the second season of Daredevil, the spin-off series The Punisher, the first season of Daredevil: Born Again, and is scheduled to return in an untitled Punisher television special and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Publication history
Creation
The Punisher was conceived by Gerry Conway, a writer for The Amazing Spider-Man. Conway was inspired by The Executioner, a popular book series created by author Don Pendleton, in which a Vietnam veteran, Mack Bolan, becomes a mass murderer of criminals after the Mafia-related deaths of his family. He also says that he was partly inspired by The Shadow, "a character who thought he was a law unto himself. "Conway said in a 1987 interview that "I was fascinated by the Don Pendleton Executioner character, which was fairly popular at the time, and I wanted to do something that was inspired by that, although not to my mind a copy of it. And while I was doing the Jackal storyline, the opportunity came for a character who would be used by the Jackal to make Spider-Man's life miserable. The Punisher seemed to fit."Conway created the unique outfit for the character along with John Romita Sr. As Conway recalled in 2002, "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." Conway had drawn a character with a small death's head skull on one breast. Marvel art director John Romita, Sr. took the basic design and blew the skull up to huge size, taking up most of the character's chest. Romita said that he was inspired by the Black Terror, a comic-book superhero of the early 1940s. Amazing Spider-Man penciller Ross Andru was the first artist to draw the character for publication.
Stan Lee, then Marvel's editor-in-chief, claimed in 2005 that he had suggested the character's name:
1970s
Appearing for the first time in The Amazing Spider-Man #129, the Punisher was initially an antagonist of the titular hero. He was portrayed as a bloodthirsty vigilante who had no qualms about killing gangsters, something which most superheroes of the time refrained from doing. In this appearance, the Punisher is determined to kill Spider-Man, who he views as an undisciplined vigilante. In this first appearance, the Punisher himself is unstable and lacking in emotional self-control. The Punisher is shown as a formidable fighter, skilled marksman, and able strategist. All he reveals about himself is that he is a former U.S. Marine. He has a fierce temper but also shows signs of considerable frustration over his self-appointed role of killer vigilante. Although he has few qualms about killing, he is outraged when his then-associate, the Jackal, apparently kills an enemy by treacherous means rather than in honorable combat.Marvel Preview #2, the fifth appearance of the character, reveals the Punisher's earlier name "Frank Castle" and the trauma of his family's murder by Mafia gangsters.
The character was a hit with readers and started to appear on a regular basis, teaming up with both Spider-Man and other heroes such as Captain America and Nightcrawler throughout the 1970s. The character also appeared in a solo story that appeared in Marvel Super Action #1, written by Archie Goodwin; the story depicts the Punisher murdering a femme fatale. Conway said the Punisher's popularity took him by surprise, as he had intended him only as a second-tier character.
1980s
The Punisher appeared in Frank Miller's acclaimed run on Daredevil. Miller contrasts the Punisher's version of vigilantism to the more social liberal approach of Daredevil. In an interview, Miller argues that Punisher is "Batman without the impurities": that, like Batman, Punisher is driven by an unquenchable need to avenge the loss of his loved ones, but that he lacks the limitation of mercy that Batman places on his actions. Miller believes that Punisher is heroic, but not a role model, because readers should not wish to emulate his behavior. In the pages of Daredevil, the Punisher is particularly cold-blooded; he kills a child involved in the drug trade, although the child has dropped his weapon and asked for mercy.In 1983, Punisher appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man, written by Bill Mantlo. He was characterized as violently insane, imposing lethal consequences on any perceived offense. The later ongoing series by Grant explained this as an involuntary drug-induced psychosis.
In the mid-1980s, writer Steven Grant and artist Mike Zeck pitched a Punisher miniseries to new Marvel editor Carl Potts, who accepted it, despite much objection from Marvel management. The miniseries, subtitled Circle of Blood, premiered with a January 1986 cover date. While it was bannered on the cover as the first of four, the series had always been intended to be five issues long. The story presents a retcon that explains that many of the Punisher's more extreme and irrational actions to this point were the result of being poisoned with mind-altering drugs, and that subsequently his behavior would be more controlled. An ongoing series, initially by writer Mike Baron and artist Klaus Janson, also titled The Punisher, premiered the next year. Beginning in The Punisher #4, the Punisher was assisted by a partner, Microchip. Serving as a Q type figure, he would supply the Punisher with high-tech vehicles and equipment such as armored combat "battle vans" specially built and customized. Under Baron's authorship, the Punisher sometimes voices right-wing political opinions.
The success of the initial title inspired an additional ongoing series, The Punisher War Journal, beginning in 1988, and a black-and-white magazine reprinting early stories, The Punisher Magazine. The character also appeared in three miniseries: Assassin's Guild, Return to Big Nothing, and Intruder.
1990s
The popularity of the Punisher led to new series: The Punisher War Zone and The Punisher Armory. The Punisher also appeared in numerous one-shots and miniseries, and made frequent guest appearances in other Marvel comics. While these were usually superhero series, he also made a two-issue guest appearance in the generally realistic Vietnam War-era comic The 'Nam. Chuck Dixon wrote a second appearance of the Punisher in The 'Nam the following year, in a three-issue storyline. In 1992, he featured in a three-issue team-up miniseries with Captain America written by D.G. Chichester and illustrated by Janson, titled Punisher and Captain America: Blood and Glory. In another story arc of 1991-1992 written by Baron appearing in The Punisher, "Final Days," Castle underwent experimental reconstructive facial surgery leading to his taking on the appearance of a Black man; he teamed up with Luke Cage to fight crack dealers in South Side, Chicago. The storyline is controversial for its association with minstrelsy, and the source of the idea is unclear; Baron claims he was following editorial directives.Over the course of the decade, the Punisher is depicted in battle with virtually every known criminal organization, including the Italian Mafia, the Russian Bratva, the Japanese yakuza, the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Chinese Triads, Jamaican Yardies, the Irish Mob, biker gangs, street gangs, and gunrunning militias; he also assaults criminal business enterprises such as drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, money laundering, and human trafficking.
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, a longtime Spider-Man and Daredevil foe, and continued his conflict with Daredevil himself, who likewise abhorred and fought against the Punisher's brutal methods. Villains such as Doctor Doom and Bullseye would be used to provide more of a challenge for the character, as well as heroes such as Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Wolverine. Often the stories would use the appearance of those heroes to provide commentary on the difference between the Punisher and those more colourful characters.
Punisher Armory was cancelled in 1994. In 1995, writer Steven Grant introduced a new ally to Castle in Punisher War Journal, Lynn Michaels. However, later in 1995 Marvel canceled all three remaining Punisher series due to poor sales. The publisher attempted a re-launch almost immediately, with a new ongoing series Punisher, under the new Marvel Edge imprint, by writer John Ostrander, in which the Punisher willingly joined and became the boss of an organized crime family, and later confronted the X-Men and Nick Fury. The series ran for 18 issues, from November 1995 to April 1997. Writer Christopher Golden's four-issue Marvel Knights miniseries The Punisher: Purgatory posited a deceased Punisher resurrected as a supernatural agent of various angels and demons. This version of the character also appeared in a four-issue mini-series co-starring Wolverine.