Punisher
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The Punisher (Frank Castle) is a Marvel Comics anti-hero. Created by Gerry Conway, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974).
Although sometimes considered a superhero, the Punisher is a savage vigilante who slaughters criminals at will. Driven by the massacre of his family in a gangland crossfire, Castle wages a one-man war on organized crime, using all manner of conventional and state of the art weaponry. The Punisher is a master of unarmed and armed combat and marksmanship. Recognized by the white skull icon on his chest, the Punisher is feared by criminals, while most superheroes oppose his extreme methods.
The Punisher's brutish 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 series. His popularity has since cooled but he remains a popular Marvel property and was adapted into two films, in 1989 and 2004.
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Origin story
Francis Castiglione was a U.S. Marine who served in the Vietnam War in a special forces unit. After finishing his first tour of duty in Vietnam, he illegally re-entered the U.S. Marine Corps under the name of "Frank Castle" in order to return to battle. After this second tour of duty was over, he came back to the United States and, now legally going by the name of Frank Castle, had a son and daughter with his wife Maria. However, several years later, Maria and the children were killed in a gangland crossfire orchestrated by the Costa crime family. Frank was believed dead at the scene, but survived, and for his revenge he hunted down and killed or mutilated the Costas and their men. Since then, Frank has devoted his life to destroying organized crime, using the nom de guerre of the Punisher, and using whatever resources and means necessary to do so. As the Punisher, he wears a distinctive costume consisting of black and white body armour with a large white skull as a chest symbol. The Punisher has an extensive criminal record due to his activities, and law enforcement is aware of his existence, regular cops are reluctant to take any actions against him because they largely agree with him.
Abilities and training
The Punisher possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. The Punisher is a thoroughly seasoned combat veteran of exceptional skills. A former U.S. Marine Captain with a distinguished combat record, Frank Castle underwent sniper and recon training while in the corps. He also received SEAL (Sea, Air, Land), UDT (Underwater Demolition Team), and LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) training. Frank Castle is well versed in the arts of warfare and hand-to-hand combat, his style of choice being Ninjutsu, Shorin Ryu, Hwarangdo, and Chin-Na as well as unarmed combat training received in the military. He is also an exceptional knife fighter. 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 uninjured.
Publication history
The Punisher was inspired by, and is very similar to, Mack Bolan, known as the Executioner, a character created by Don Pendleton for a series of novels published since 1969. His early depictions and some magazine-format adult-oriented specials make it clear that the early Punisher was heavily influenced by Charles Bronson's character in Death Wish.
The Punisher was originally conceived as a one-issue antagonist for Spider-Man. The story involved the Punisher stalking Spider-Man, whom Castle believed to be the murderer of Gwen Stacy due to the deceptions of Spider-Man's foe, the Jackal. The character was immediately popular, and made appearances in other series, primarily Daredevil, usually clashing with the hero of the piece over his methods.
After a successful 1985 mini-series, Marvel launched an ongoing The Punisher series in 1987. It was very popular and Marvel added a spin-off Punisher War Journal in 1988 and another Punisher War Zone in 1992. The Punisher was also used in numerous guest appearances in other Marvel series at the time, ranging from superhero comics to the Vietnam War-era comic The 'Nam. Due to the character's homicidal nature, few of his foes became recurring antagonists, the most notable of these being the severely scarred enforcer called Jigsaw. He also acquired a nemesis in the form of the Kingpin, the longtime Spider-Man and Daredevil foe. He often worked alongside the hacker and machinist Microchip, and drove the heavily armed and armored "Battle Van".
In 1995, Marvel cancelled all three Punisher series due to low sales. Several unsuccessful revivals were attempted; one featured the Punisher working for the mob, while another revamped the character as an agent of various angels and demons. A darkly comic 2000/2001 mini-series by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon under the "Marvel Knights" imprint made the character popular once again, and was soon followed by an Ennis/Dillon ongoing series. In 2004 the series was again relaunched as a "mature readers" title in Marvel's "MAX" imprint, which allows the series (still helmed by Ennis, but with different artists) to feature profanity and occasionally extreme violence.
The Punisher is one of the few Marvel characters who has aged at a rate equivalent to real time. He is still portrayed as a Vietnam vet and is illustrated as a wiry, heavily scarred Italian in his late fifties to early sixties; he looks more like an aging mob enforcer than a traditional superhero.
Adaptations
Movies
See main article: The Punisher (movie)
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, Howard Saint. It was released in the United States on April 16, 2004. Neither were exceptionally well-liked either by critics or by fans of the comic book series, though many approved of Thomas Jane's performance as the Punisher and the second film's faithfulness to its source material. The 2004 movie performed poorly (compared to other contemporary comic-book films but wasn't the only comic-book film to do so) in its theatrical release, however the Punisher DVD sold nearly two million copies in its first five days. A sequel is currently in the works, and is expected to be released in late 2006 or 2007.
Video games
The Punisher has also been the main character in several computer and video games. The Punisher arcade game [1] (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=P&game_id=9156) 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 [2] (http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/p,2/gameId,120/) 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; this game featured a cameo appearance by Spider-Man. All of these games used the Kingpin as the final boss.
A new Punisher game was released January 18, 2005 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. It was developed by Volition and published by THQ. The game, scripted by Jimmy Palmiotti and Garth Ennis, is extremely violent, and directly draws upon the character's more recent comic book outings. Some critics and long-time Punisher fans gave it positive reviews, praising the script and several innovative features, including several comically brutal interrogation/torture sequences. Other reviewers and fans 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. The ending of the game shows that there may be a sequel, possibly on one of the Next-Gen consoles.
Bibliography
- Regular Series
- The Punisher: #1-18 Volume 3
- The Punisher: #1-37 Volume 4 (Marvel Knights)
- The Punisher: #1-now Volume 5 (MAX (comics))
- Special Issues
- The Punisher: The End (One Shot)
- The Punisher: The Cell (One Shot)
- The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe (One Shot)
- Maxi-Series
- The Punisher: Born #1-4
External links
- Official webpage at Marvel.com (http://www.marvel.com/publishing/showcomic.htm?id=1)
- MDB:Punisher (http://www.marveldatabase.com/wiki/index.php/Punisher)
- A comprehensive fan-site thePunisher.com (http://www.thepunisher.com)
- Read The Punisher Video Game Review on FileFront.com (http://articles.filefront.com/The_Punisher_Review/;376;;;/article.html)
- Visit the Gangsta Punisher Army Web Forums (http://www.phpbbforfree.com/forums/gpunisherarmy.html)ja:パニッシャー