Punisher
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| The Punisher | |
|---|---|
| File:Punisher 22.jpg | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Feb. 1974) |
| Created by | Gerry Conway Ross Andru John Romita Sr. |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Frank Castle (Francis Castiglione) |
| Team affiliations | None, United States Marine Corps, Secret Defenders |
| Notable aliases | Mr. Smith, Mr. Fort, Frank Rook, Johnny Tower |
| Abilities | None; tactical expert; highly trained armed and unarmed combatant; demolitions expert. |
The Punisher (Frank Castle) is a fictional vigilante anti-hero in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr., Ross Andru and named by Stan Lee, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Feb. 1974).
Although sometimes considered a hero, the Punisher is a savage and ruthless vigilante who considers killing, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence and torture acceptable crime-fighting tactics. Driven by the deaths of his wife and children, who were caught in the crossfire of an organized crime shoot-out in New York City's Central Park, Castle wages a one-man war on the mob by using all manner of weaponry (in the original comic book series, Castle's family was murdered in their home by street thugs). A war veteran, Castle is a master of martial arts, stealth tactics, hand-to-hand combat, strategic planning, and a wide variety of weapons.
The Punisher's brutal 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 publications, including The Punisher War Journal, The Punisher War Zone, and The Punisher Armory; he even starred in a highly daring, critically lauded crossover with Archie Comics' teen-humor star, Archie Andrews. Two movie adaptations have been released, one in 1989 starring Dolph Lundgren, another in 2004 starring Thomas Jane.
Publication history
Inspiration
The Punisher is similar to Mack Bolan, a.k.a. "The Executioner", a character created in 1969 by Don Pendleton for a series of novels subtitled "War Against The Mafia". There are conspicuous differences between Bolan and Castle, however: Although Bolan's family was also devastated by organized crime, he did not have a wife or children, nor were other members of his family killed directly by criminals — Bolan's sister had been taken as a prostitute by a mob boss, and Bolan's father, driven mad by mob-related gambling debts, killed his own wife and son (Bolan's brother) before turning the gun on himself. Pendleton's character had far more numerous and intimate relationships with women than the Punisher has had, often sleeping with several in the space of one novel; Castle has had nearly no romantic attachments at all since the death of his wife, a notable departure from comic book heroes in general as well. As for methods, Castle relies more on hand-to-hand combat than Bolan does. The Punisher's early depictions and some magazine-format, mature-reader specials suggest that the conception of the Punisher character also was influenced in its early stages by Charles Bronson's character, Paul Kersey, in the movie Death Wish.
Introduction
The Punisher was created by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, then the regular writer and artist, respectively, for The Amazing Spider-Man, with Marvel art director John Romita Sr. working on the formal design. The Punisher was initially an antagonist of Spider-Man, although only due to being duped by the supervillain the Jackal. The character of the Punisher immediately became popular, and made appearances in the various Spider-Man titles and other series throughout the 1970s.
Conway also helped design the character's distinctive costume: "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" [1]
Initial series
In the early 1980s, artist Mike Zeck and writer Steven Grant proposed creating a Punisher miniseries. The company was initially uncomfortable with the idea of a protagonist who killed in cold blood. However, as crime increased nationally throughout the decade, Marvel responded by testing the market for such a character — publishing though not initially promoting a miniseries whose premiere (Jan. 1986) was bannered on the cover as the first of four. After this first issue immediately sold out, Marvel expanded the miniseries to five issues (as then bannered on the cover of #2) and began active promotion.
An ongoing series, also titled The Punisher, premiered shortly afterward. Initially by writer Mike Baron and artist Klaus Janson, it eventually ran 104 issues (July 1987 - July 1995) and spun off two additional ongoing series — The Punisher War Journal (80 issues, Nov. 1988 - July 1995), and The Punisher War Zone (41 issues, March 1992 - July 1995) — as well as the black-and-white comics magazine, The Punisher Magazine (16 issues, Nov. 1989 - Sept. 1990), and The Punisher Armory (10 issues, no cover dates, starting 1990), a fictional diary detailing "His thoughts! His feelings! His weapons!" (as stated on the cover of #1).
The Punisher also appeared in numerous one-shots and miniseries, and made frequent guest appearances in other Marvel comics, ranging from superhero series to the Vietnam War-era comic The 'Nam. 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, the longtime Spider-Man and Daredevil foe, and developed an adversarial relationship with Daredevil himself, who abhored and fought against the Punisher's methods.
Decline
In 1995, Marvel cancelled all three ongoing Punisher series due to poor sales. The publisher attempted a relaunch almost immediately, with a new ongoing series title The Punisher, by writer John Ostrander, in which the Punisher appeared to willingly join and work for organized crime, and later confronted the worlds of the X-Men and Nick Fury. Writer Christopher Golden's poorly received, four-issue miniseries Punisher: Purgatory (Nov. 1998 - Feb. 1999) posited a deceased Punisher resurrected as the Angelic Agent, a supernatural agent of various angels and demons. The vociferous Punisher fan base sent hate mail and even death threats to Golden and Marvel. [citation needed]
Revival
The 12-issue, darkly humorous miniseries The Punisher (April 2000 - March 2001) by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon, under the Marvel Knights imprint, revived the character's popularity. An ongoing series (37 issues, Aug. 2001 - Feb. 2004), primarily by Ennis and Dillon, followed, succeeded in 2004 by an ongoing Ennis series under Marvel's mature-readers imprint MAX.
Character biography
- Main article: History of the Punisher
This capsule background appeared in Punisher titles from 1987 to 1994: "When mobsters slew his family, Frank Castle vowed to spend the rest of his life avenging them. Trained as a Marine and equipped with state-of-the-art weapons, he now wages a one-man war against crime as the Punisher".
Castle has since devoted his life to eradicating organized crime, using the nom de guerre of the Punisher, using his combat experience (4 years as a Marine Captain in a special operations unit in the Vietnam War), guerrilla warfare (combat assault attacks, assassinations, ambushes, hit and runs, bombings, using the enemies' own money, weapons, and supplies against them), urban warfare (using the crowded city of New York to blend in and disappear), psychological warfare (putting fear into the hearts of criminals), using detective-like skills (talking to people, reading obtained files on the people he goes after, tracking and surveilling the enemy), always adapting to the enemy such as using the Mafia's own methods and tactics against them (interrogating and torturing criminals to death in order to get info from them) and whatever resources and means may be necessary to do so, ranging from light anti-tank weaponry to enraged polar bears.
The Punisher has fought just about every criminal organization in existence, as well as some fictional ones. He's battled the Italian Mafia, the Russian Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, the Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, the Chinese Triads, Jamaican Yardies, the Irish Mob, biker gangs, street gangs, gunrunning militias, middle-eastern terrorists, religious fundamentalists of all types, muggers, killers, rapists, psychopaths, sadists, pedophiles, and sometimes even corrupt cops. The Punisher also assaults the businesses criminals thrive on from drug and weapon dealing to money laundering, human trafficking, etc. The Punisher has been fighting organized crime for long enough that he knows their modus operandi and can often predict their actions in advance. Of course, many of these criminal organizations have tried to kill the Punisher, using both their own men and hired contract killers. But the Punisher has survived and defeated (and, most often, killed) almost every assassin, hitman, bounty hunter, and mercenary sent after him.
Frank Castle's timeline remained untouched when Marvel backslid the time frames of other Marvel characters. Frank Castle's history has never been altered or moved up; he has effectively aged in real time from the Vietnam War.
The number of criminals the Punisher has slain is enormous. Writer Garth Ennis has speculated that the death toll could be somewhere in the thousands. It is mentioned in the first issue of the story arch: "Up is Down and Black is White" under the MAX imprint that the Punisher has been linked to the murders of over 2000 criminals. Despite this, the Punisher himself has a very pessimistic view on his own activities, believing that he ultimately has little or no effect on making the world a safer place.
The Punisher is highly mobile. He has many bases of operations and does not limit himself to working only in New York city. He has been to many places in the U.S. and around the globe fighting crime such as the British Isles, Latin America (Central and South America),Europe and Russia. The Punisher has an extensive criminal record due to his activities. Law enforcement such as the police, the FBI, the CIA and even S.H.I.E.L.D. are aware of his existence and have made many attempts to capture him; however, many uniformed and plain-clothed police officers are reluctant to take any action against the Punisher because they largely agree with him. The Punisher himself has total disregard for what the police or the public think of him. In the past the Punisher has killed corrupt cops, but in doing so, has stirred the police to action against him in full force. Castle has also been caught and imprisoned (generally in Ryker's Island, a Marvel Universe model of real-life Rikers Island) many times, but has always managed to escape. The Punisher's war on crime continues unabated even while incarcerated, as he has killed up to a dozen inmates with his bare hands.
Notable differences
The Punisher is different from the standard comic book hero in many ways, largely due to his anti-hero status. He is a cold-blooded killer, as opposed to many super heroes who let the justice system handle a criminal after apprehension. This contrast in methods is especially apparent in situations where he finds himself working with other heroes, particularly Spider-Man and Daredevil, who try to enforce a no-killing rule on those occasions where fate unites them against a common enemy. The Punisher's stance as an extreme vigilante is further illustrated by the fact that law-enforcement and sometimes even other heroes (again, Daredevil in particular), have actively tried to capture him (and occasionally succeeded).
The Punisher also has no superpowers. Much like DC Comics' Batman, he is only human and succeeds solely through ingenuity and rigorous training.
Another notable exception is that Frank Castle has no prominent love-interest. He loved his wife and her death left him extremely bitter and empty, making any future romance difficult if not impossible. While Frank Castle has sexual dalliances on many occasions, he does not form any emotional bond or attachment to anyone that does get close.
The Punisher also has no dual identity. While most superheroes have lives and jobs in the "real world", Frank Castle has no hobbies, friends, romantic interests, or occupations. He spends all of his time punishing and planning his next hit, stopping only when he needs to recover from injuries or fatigue. He uses the money he takes from the criminals he kills to buy food, medical supplies, pay rent, etc.
Views on the Vietnam War
Having served in the U.S. Marine Corps during Vietnam War, Frank believes the war was ultimately meaningless. In Vietnam, Frank witnessed, first-hand, corruption and war crimes being committed such as the murder and rape of Vietnamese civilians and unarmed combatants. The Punisher once visited the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.. How Frank feels about the Vietnam War can be seen in the MAX line of The Punisher comic books.
It is worth noting that in Garth Ennis' interpretation of the character, Frank Castle in his heart, loved every minute of the war whilst being keenly aware of its evil and pointlessness. The key theme of The Punisher: Born is that Castle's later campaign against criminality might stem from his burning desire for the war not to end or from his simple wish to continue killing. This is connected to an unstated subtext that the Punisher isn't killing criminals because he hates them, but instead because he enjoys committing murder.
In the Punisher's MAX series, the character Micro, the only person close to the Punisher, believes that Castle simply enjoys killing and uses his family's death as an excuse to do it.
Regardless of this, it is also clear that the Punisher was genuinely attached to his family and still suffers anguish over their loss.
Views on the criminal justice system
Castle has contempt toward the American justice system, especially in regard to its failure in prosecute his family's homicide, due to the witnessed killer's false alibi and the mob's influence in the New York City Police Department. As a result, Frank Castle became the Punisher, and his years of crime-fighting have only made him more cynical about the capabilities of the justice system.
The way writers have approached the Punisher's response to the criminal justice system has changed many times over the years, as the audience of the character has adapted and matured. When originally conceived, his approach was hard-edged, and frowned upon by more heroic characters, such as Spider-Man. In the 1980's, particularly in response to the Death Wish and Rambo films and to America's reemerging sense of its role as a world power in the years after losing the Vietnam War, the Punisher came to represent a particularly American "might is right" viewpoint, and his actions were presented as significantly more heroic, depite the fact he was still committing sometimes quite appalling acts of murder, sometimes on an almost genocidal scale.
The 2000s have seen a more carefully considered, considerably more mature take on the character's behavior. There are repeated references to the Punisher's contradictory and paradoxical views on the criminal justice system, though in general Castle never addresses his morality in any depth; he justifies his actions through such flimsy generalizations as, "That's another monster gone". Minor characters who question his motivation sometimes reach violent ends, with Castle refusing discussion and turning violent if pressed. Even villains have sometimes pointed out the web of justifications and rationalisations that the Punisher operates within.
Throughout both the Marvel Knights and MAX run of The Punisher, the reason Castle kills those he regards his criminals (which include both circumstantially alleged and incontrovertible individuals) is presented as his desire to have others endure the kind of pain and loss that he experienced. He also has stated he does not want others else to follow his path, on the grounds that his personal war against criminals is his alone.
Not since his earliest days as a standalone character (when he would occasionally use "mercy bullets" to make his actions more palatable) has The Punisher been portrayed as a hero. This moral ambiguity is one of the key differences between the Punisher and most other Marvel protagonists.
The Punisher harbors resentment toward other (usually short-lived) vigilantes. In the Marvel Knights series, he takes exception at what he sees as the others' lack of "professionialism".
Abilities and training
The Punisher possesses the normal human strength of a 6'1", 200-pound man who engages in regular physical exercise. Frank engages in a brutal regimen of calisthenics, katas and firing range practice daily, maintaining his combat skills. He does not smoke, nor does he consume any type of drugs.
The Punisher is a seasoned combat veteran of exceptional skills. A former U.S. Marine Captain with a distinguished combat record, 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 Recon Patrol) training.
Frank is well-versed in the arts of warfare and hand-to-hand combat, his styles of choice being Nash Ryu Jiu Jutsu (the four-style martial art founded by Sensei Adam Nash, the Punisher's mentor), Ninjutsu, Shorin-Ryu, Hwarangdo, Chin Na, MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program) or the Marine Corps LINE combat system, as well as unarmed combat training received in the military. He is an exceptional knife fighter who carries up to 3 or 4 different types of edged weapons, preferring the knife he learned to fight with in the USMC: the ka-bar.
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. It is his military training and his attention to detail that allows him to achieve this. The Punisher Armoury series illustrates some of his thinking and training.
Weapons
The Punisher has employed an almost endless array of conventional arms, such as machine guns, rifles, shotguns, handguns, knives, explosives, and other weapons. Castle keeps all his weapons and supplies in warehouses and safehouses all over New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. He employs this exhaustive arsenal of weaponry in his war against criminals and organized crime on a regular basis and with considerable effect.
The Punisher often customizes his weapons for greater effect with both standard and custom items such as tactical scopes, low-light scopes, flashlights, grenade launchers, silencers, tripods, extended magazines, and custom ammunition including but not limited to hollow point or armor piercing rounds. His firearms and weapons of choice can be seen in the above-linked main article.
Costume
When the Punisher first appeared in 1974, his outfit was a form-fitting black bodysuit with a large white skull on his chest. According to the character, this draws the attention and the aim of the criminals to his heavily-armored body, instead of his more vulnerable head. (This might be a tribute to Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, in which Batman says that he uses the yellow Bat-Insignia on his chest to draw away fire from his head and towards his armored chest.)
Over the years, the Punisher's outfit transformed from the bodysuit in the 1970's and the 1980's to the costume he has worn since The Punisher series was brought back in 2000. Today the Punisher wears a distinctive costume consisting of a black t-shirt with a large white skull emblazoned on his chest, combat gear, high quality body armor, black military pants, black combat boots, and sometimes a long black trenchcoat or leather jacket. It should be noted that when the character appears in the mainstream Marvel Universe and interacts with Superheros, he is seen wearing the classic outfit (most recently in Marvel Team-Up Vol. 2, #10).
The change in the Punisher's outfit from the form-fitting costume of the 1970's to more contemporary clothing reflects the maturing of the Punisher's appearance, especially in regard to The Punisher being released through Marvel's Marvel Knights and MAX line of comics. Both lines of comics have an audience of readers that are of a more mature age and feature a far more gritty and realistic world than the standard Marvel Comics line.
The Punisher's modern-day outfit may be an overt reference to his anti-hero status and contempt of spandex-clad superheroes. His outfit, along with using a zip-up jacket or trenchcoat, allows him to conceal himself in public. In the 1980's graphic novel The Assassin's Guild, wearing a black trenchcoat over his form-fitting jumpsuit barely let him blend in with the pedestrians on the streets of New York City, with his white gloves and boots still visible.
Ultimate Marvel version
In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Frank Castle is no longer a Vietnam War veteran, but instead an ex-NYPD police officer. Only so much is known about Frank's past in the Ultimate Marvel universe before he became the Punisher due to the absence of an Ultimate Punisher comic book. Most of the information regarding the Ultimate Punisher comes from three comics (6, 7, and 8) in the Ultimate Marvel Team-Up series starring Spider-Man.
While Frank was working in the NYPD, he found corruption within the police force involving several police officers including the Captain, Artie Jillette. Frank found and took as much evidence as he could and turned it over to the department's internal affairs division. Frank's partner, Bruce Greenwood, however, ratted him out to the Captain who took a few of his officers (David, Nick, and a third who was seen but not named) with him and set out to kill Castle. Having learned that Frank took his family to New York Central Park, they disguised themselves in order to make the crime seem like a gangland killing and attacked Frank and his family there.
As he lay on the ground bleeding, Frank saw the image of a gun on one of the men's belt buckles, and he recognized it as belonging to Artie Jillette. Frank then killed David and the unnamed cop. Frank was caught afterwards and put in jail. (As to what happened in the time between Frank killing two of them, and being put in jail, this was not shown). Frank then got out and killed Nick and Bruce. He later tracked down and nearly killed Artie, but Daredevil (who had crossed paths with Punisher before, asking him to cease his mission of vengeance) stopped him and in the ensuing fight, Spider-Man appeared and knocked Frank unconscious. Spider-Man then took Frank into police custody while Daredevil pursued Jillette. When Frank was finally taken to his cell, he was put in the same cell where Jillette is already...
Since his imprisonment, there has been only one comic with an Ultimate Punisher appearance. This was in Ultimate Spider-Man #61 where he is about to kill a bank robber but is stopped by Spider-Man who apprehends the criminal. This comic was considered a poor offering of the Punisher by many fans due to his portrayal as nearly deranged and maniacal.
Adaptations
Movies
- See main articles The Punisher (1989 film) and The Punisher (2004 film)
A film adaptation, starring Dolph Lundgren, was released in 1989. It was immediately released on video in the U.S., never making it to the big screen except in other countries where it was moderately successful. The movie took some notable, heavily criticized deviations from the comics, the most obvious being the lack of the main character's signature skull logo on his shirt.
A second film adaptation, directed by Jonathan Hensleigh and starring Thomas Jane as the Punisher and John Travolta as the main villain, Howard Saint, was released in the United States on April 16, 2004. Both were received with mixed reviews by critics and fans of the comic book series, though many fans agree that Thomas Jane's performance and appearance were much more accurate due to the fact that the 2004 film was directly influenced by The Punisher: Year One series and the "Welcome Back, Frank" comic series.
The 2004 film performed weakly at the box office. The Punisher DVD was released on September 7, 2004 and sold nearly 1.8 million copies in its first five day and netted 10.8 million in rentals its first week out, making it number one in DVD sales. During October, The Punisher DVD rentals were still in the top ten and various cable and satellite providers had started to offer The Punisher as a pay-per-view feature. Between worldwide movie box office and DVD sales, it grossed US$115 million ($55 m worldwide + $60 m from DVD sales).
The DVD also came with a limited edition (10,000 produced) mini comic book written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon. It's a background story showing Frank's time in the Delta Force in the Gulf War and his time in the FBI leading up to the movie's opening. A Director's cut has been announced and talked about but no release date has been set. A sequel is also currently in the works. Filming is scheduled to start in Jan of 2007, and the release is expected in late 2007.
Television
The Punisher made appearances in Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the 1990s. He was voiced by John Beck. This version of the Punisher used non-lethal weapons and lasers due to Fox Kids guidelines on violence[2]. The Punisher first appeared in "Enter the Punisher", part two of the three-part Morbius episode saga in which he was sent to kill Spider-Man, as everyone in New York believed he was a blood-sucking vampire. He confronted a six-armed Spider-Man and knocked him into a garage, where he then transforms into the Man-Spider, a human-sized spider. In the next episode, "Duel of the Hunters", the Punisher teamed up with a reformed Kraven the Hunter, and, also with the help of Dr. Mariah Crawford, they cured Spider-Man from the Man-Spider, albeit he wasn't truly cured until the second season finale.
The crime-killer later had his last appearance in the season four episode, "The Return of the Green Goblin". The Punisher doesn't feel right about killing criminals and wants to help the innocent. He then promises Anna Watson he will find her niece, Mary Jane Watson (even though no one knew Mary Jane fell into a dimensional portal in the third season finale), by using Peter Parker as the main source, as Anna suspects that Peter knows what happened to Mary Jane. However, Peter himself didn't know what happened to Mary Jane. After a confrontation against the Green Goblin II, in which Spider-Man knocked the villain unconscious, sending them both into the New York City river, the Punisher found the Goblin first and took him away. He then realized that it was Harry Osborn, who also didn't know where Mary Jane was. When he finally had Peter with no escape, the clone of Mary Jane Watson surprisingly appears and everyone assumes it's the real Mary Jane. The Punisher returns Mary Jane to Anna and the crime-killer drives off, saying in his "War Journal" for after what he did, he feels human again.
Video games
The Punisher has also been the main character in several computer and video games. The Punisher arcade game [3] 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 [4] 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 (except for the Gameboy version, where Jigsaw is featured). The Punisher also appeared in The Punisher for the NES, a side-scrolling light-gun shooter that was similar in style to the later T2: Arcade.
The Punisher made a cameo appearance in the 2000 PlayStation Spider-Man game (with Daran Norris providing his voice). He was looking for Spider-Man but Spider-Man found him instead and the Punisher is useful enough to lead Spider-Man to Warehouse 65 where Spider-Man must stop the symbiote cloning process. After Spider-Man foiled Doc Ock's plans, the Punisher was last seen playing cards with Spider-Man, Daredevil and Captain America.
He was only mention by name at the beginning of the 2005 Xbox Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects game.
A new Punisher game was released January 18, 2005 for the XBox, PlayStation 2 and PC. It was developed by Volition and published by THQ. The Punisher in the game is voiced by Thomas Jane.
Other characters in the game include:
- Detective Martin Soap (From Soap to Kreigkopf are characters from the Punisher comic book)
- Lieutenant Molly Von Richtofen
- Spacker Dave
- Joan the mouse
- Ma Gnucci
- The Russian
- General Kreigkopf
- Bushwacker
- Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff)
- Nick Fury
- Matt Murdock (A small cameo, but not as Daredevil and not part of the story)
- Iron Man (Small cameo and not part of the story)
- Bullseye
- The Kingpin
- Jigsaw (based on the villain from the comics)
The Punisher game 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 uniquely 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. Despite having a good working relationship with the ESRB, Volition has had to implement a censorship filter in order to avoid the dreaded AO (Adults Only) rating, which basically means that certain portions of the game will appear in black and white (for obvious reasons). Certain environmental interrogations in the game are so gruesome and violent that at times the camera will usually zoom in on Frank Castle's face if the interrogation ends up with the victim driven into the environmental object. This was also the only way for Volition to maintain the M rating for the game.
Volition's adaptation of Marvel's darkest character was no doubt destined to turn heads for a number of reasons, most of which would be directly related to the astronomical level of blood, guts and gore the developer has poured into the game. While the game world has attracted plenty of negative press following the implication of Manhunt in a young man's murder, vice president of Volition, Dan Cermak, is all too aware of the issues at hand, but eager to point out that the game isn't meant to court controversy. "The goal wasn't to make a violent game," he says. "The goal was to make you feel and be The Punisher, and because of that you end up with a lot of violence." Fan support for the games included numerous attempts to hack the game (some extremely successful) to undo the censoring. One such hack succeeded in not only doing away with the zooming in on Castle's face during interrogations as well as removing the black and white filter during fatal interrogations, but also unlocked new quick kills (most notably the shooting of a criminal in the rectum).
One month after the game's release it sold over 2 million copies. Marvel and THQ have both confirmed that The Punisher will make another video game outing in 2006 possibly to coincide with the release of the film, no plot or generation details have been released though it is likely that it will appear on the next generation consoles. It is also likely that the game will continue from the ending of the first game instead of following the movie's storyline (which would be impossible since the first game was an original story and didn't follow the movie's storyline). In a short interview, Thomas Jane said that he would love to come back and voice the Punisher again.
Trivia
- Punisher usually uses "mercy bullets" (non-lethal ammunition) when guest-starring in other comics, most notably Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Captain America in the 70's and 80's.
- Was shot by Daredevil in Daredevil #184.
- Used to have a pet rottweiler called "Max" which he saved from animal poachers.
- Number plates on The Punisher's black Pontiac has "Year One" on it; reference to The Company that worked on making the 5 GTOs for the movie.
- According to Don Daley, editor of The Punisher vol.2 #98 in response to a fanmail, The Punisher's version of justice is classically based as: an eye for an eye
- The Commision appointed Johnny Walker, who donned the Captain America uniform at the time, to capture the Punisher and to bring him to the Vault, where the housed super-powered criminals.
- In the early 1990s, flagging sales drove Marvel to place the then-popular character The Punisher in several guest appearances in The 'Nam. After the series' conclusion, an epilogue of sorts was published in the form of a Punisher special, The Punisher in the 'Nam: Final Invasion.
Bibliography
Regular series
- The Punisher v7 (MAX): #1-ongoing
- The Punisher: Born #1-4
One-shots
- The Punisher Meets Archie
- The Punisher: The End
- The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe
- The Punisher: The Cell
- The Punisher: The Tyger
References
- Marvel.com - Marvel Comics' official Punisher
- ThePunisher.com
- Gangsta Punisher Army - Online Punisher Community
- MDP:Punisher - Marvel Database Project
- Force2Reckon - Punisher fan site
- The Gray Zone - Villains of Marvel Comics
- Gerry Conway interview, Alter Ego #14 (April 2002)
- Brief Bio at Insania 1998
- The Punisher
- Defenders members
- Fictional Catholics
- Fictional Italian-Americans
- Fictional mass murderers
- Fictional New Yorkers
- Fictional Vietnam veterans
- Fictional vigilantes
- Fictional widows and widowers
- Marvel Comics heroes, non-superpowered
- Marvel Comics martial artists
- Marvel Legends
- Superheroes without costumes