History ComicBook / ThePunisher

* LeftForDead: In the Punisher MAX continuity, you can NOT count on this trope to save your bacon. One particularly noteworthy example was when Castle drove Cavella out to some abandoned woods and shot him low in the gut with the intention of slowly killing him over several hours/days while he walked away. Perfect setup for Cavella to come back, right? Well, just to shoot down any ideas of him returning some mooks talk about how they found his corpse with the eyes eaten out. Just as well, as VillainDecay had wrung out any threat he had to begin with.

* LeftForDead: In the Punisher MAX continuity, you can NOT count on this trope to save your bacon one it. One particularly noteworthy example was when Castle drove Cavella out to some abandoned woods and shot him low in the gut with the intention of slowly killing him over several hours/days while he walked away. Perfect setup for Cavella to come back, right? Well, just to shoot down any ideas of him returning some mooks talk about how they found his corpse with the eyes eaten out. Just as well, as VillainDecay had wrung out any threat he had to begin with.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: The mainstream incarnation of The Punisher never succeeds at dispensing his own brand of justice to significant supervillains he encounters, even those who badly screw with him personally, like [[PsychoForHire Bullseye]]. Probably that's why he mostly goes for mundane mobsters, who don't have JokerImmunity (and superpowers, for that matter).
** He did bag Stilt Man. With a bazooka to the groin. The saddest aspect of all is that this probably was the high point of Stilt Man's career - getting offed by the Punisher.
** The second Punisher MAX series applies this trope to Frank's war on crime in general, with a common theme in the series being Frank's inability to effect any lasting change on New York's crime scene, where new criminals keep popping up every time Frank offs the old ones. MAX!NickFury, who is revealed to have shadowed Frank for much of his war, laments at the end of the series that Frank murdered, suffered [[spoiler:and ultimately, died]] all for nothing.

Possibly the most enduring DarkerAndEdgier AntiHero ever to appear in a comic, the Punisher is one of [[MarvelUniverse Marvel's]] most reliable [[CashCowFranchise cash cows]], a VigilanteMan whose only passion is finding and executing criminals in the most brutal (and sometimes [[CruelAndUnusualDeath imaginative]]) ways possible. The Punisher first appeared in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #129 (February, 1974), created by writer Gerry Conway, along with artists John Romita, Sr. and Ross Andru.

For a while the Punisher appeared mostly in titles starring Comicbook/{{Spider-Man}}. He received his first origin story in ''Marvel Preview'' #2 (April, 1975), again written by Conway. He received another solo story in ''Marvel Super Action'' #1 (January, 1976), a one-shot publication. After that Punisher returned to making appearances in titles featuring Spider-Man, CaptainAmerica, and {{Daredevil}}. In the [[TheEighties 1980s]], Steven Grant and Mike Zeck campaigned for a Punisher mini-series. But Marvel editors were reportedly reluctant. The series eventually did materialize: ''Punisher'' vol. 1 (January-May, 1986). It sold well and consequently Punisher gained his first ongoing series in 1987. The Punisher has since starred in various magazines over the years.

There were also several Punisher video games with the most notable being a BeatEmUp by {{Capcom}} also featuring NickFury, and a ''VideoGame/ThePunisher'' third-person action game, which is rife with TheJoysOfTorturingMooks

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:The infamous comic of Frank traveling back in time to kill Al Capone is just Frank having a dream.]]

* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: The Punisher is modeled very closely on the character of Mack Bolan, who also lost his family to mob violence and becomes a vigilante with the nickname "TheExecutioner". Mack Bolan was featured in a series of books that were first published in 1968, and new books in the series [[PrintLongRunners still come out today]].

* AmbiguouslyEvil: This has mostly do with inconsistent writing, but it's still debatable whether Frank is an AntiHero or a [[VillainProtagonist psychotic serial killer.]]

* BaitTheDog: General freaking Zakharov. In his first appearance, while there's some whispering of his reputation and he does use the {{We Have Reserves}} trope (though he was trying to dislodge terrorists from a nuclear silo), Zakharov in the end did stop a nuclear confrontation and showed '''way''' more patience with {{The Starscream}} than he had a right to. Later, when we see him again, we find out [[{{Moral Event Horizon}} just how he]] [[{{Infant Immortality}} fought in]] [[{{Subverted Trope}} in Afghanistan]].

* ChronicallyCrashedCar: The Battle Van tended to get wrecked every time Frank brought it out.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: General Zahrakov, again. He uses {{Mook Chivalry}} ''twice'' to catch Frank unprepared. He's the only one in Russian intel to guess that the Americans would attempt a {{Moral Event Horizon}} for their {{False Flag Operation}} (though it takes a {{Complete Monster}} to know one). Finally, he anticipates a {{Defensive Feint Trap}} the Punisher had planned for him and even when warned by Rawlins and Dolnovich that he was heading into a trap, outwits all three of them and captures the Punisher. His only mistake really was taking {{Smug Snake}} Rawlins at his word when he said that he searched The Punisher properly. And we have this gem:
-->'''Rawlins''': For God's sake, why not [[[{{Psycho For Hire}} give me a job]]]?
-->'''Zahrakov''': Because I am a soldier and you are something else. It is in your [[{{The Starscream}} nature to betray]], a small child could tell you that. You would betray me and I would be forced to kill you--and why would I create that much trouble for myself?

-->'''Frank''': I'm not really dating right now.

* TheDogBitesBack: Zahrakov and Dolnovich get bitten back in the worse way by {{Smug Snake}} Rawlins after attacking his groin several times, wiping blood on his shirt, and generally kicking him around. Granted, Rawlins is such a bastard that they probably would've gotten a knife in the back regardless but at least don't give the guy ammunition.

* TheDreaded: Frank himself. The white skull on his chest has become such a terrifying icon of death that just the sight of it can make men from EASTERN EUROPEAN DEATH SQUADS fall to their knees and sob for mercy.

* EverythingIsEvenWorseWithSharks: A couple of mobsters thought that a big shark in equally big (and not bulletproof) glass fish tank would be a great addition to their opulent mansion. They eventually learn their lesson just before their messy demise.
** Barracuda was thought to have met his end by one in his first arc in the MAX series.

** The second Punisher MAX series applies this trope to Frank's war on crime in general, with a common theme in the series being Frank's inability to effect any lasting change on New York's crime scene, where new criminals keep popping up every time Frank offs the old ones. MAX!{{Nick Fury}}, who is revealed to have shadowed Frank for much of his war, laments at the end of the series that Frank murdered, suffered [[spoiler:and ultimately, died]] all for nothing.

** Maginty, who is otherwise one of the most {{Dangerously Genre Savvy}} villains in the comics, cheerfully walks into his hideout without an armed escort after mentally torturing a {{Retired Monster}} and leaving him in the room by himself. It's a good thing his {{Mook}}s came back to check on him--of course getting his fingers sliced off by said murderer didn't do much to dissuade him from walking into Nesbitt's {{BatmanGambit}}, making him doubly Genre Blind.

* GunPorn: ''The Punisher Arsenal'' is an entire line devoted to loving descriptions of the guns and tactics he uses.

** Frank's S.A.S. pal Yorkie is the master of these. He'd probably have the {{Trope Namer}} weeping for forgiveness after a few minutes with him.
*** DoubleSubversion Barracuda [[{{Shut Up Hannibal}} laughs off one of these]] after killing Yorkie, but true to form his dying speech echoes in his head at a most inopportune moment and gets under his skin -- allowing the Brit to punk him from the grave. (It's possible that Yorkie did it in the hopes that this would actually happen.)

* [[spoiler: [[TheHeroDies The]] [[AntiHero (Anti-)]][[TheHeroDies Hero Dies]]]]: The second Punisher MAX series.
* {{He Who Fights Monsters}}: BIGTIME

* HighAltitudeInterrogation: Frank uses this among other interrogation techniques. Like most typical [[AntiHero Anti-Heroes]], he often does go through with the threat of letting them plummet to death.
** Dolnovich used this trope on Rawlins to give him a last-minute attempt to come up with the {{Batman Gambit}} of his life. Notably he didn't even want to let Rawlins live in the first place and even tried to shoot down the latter's attempt to save his life.

* ILoveThisTown: Officer Soap, who was promoted to Chief Inspector at the end of the ''Welcome Back Frank'' series, proudly looks out of his office to the Golden Sunset of New York..... only to have a passing pidgeon defecate on his head. Nevertheless, he warmly quotes this trope, for compared to all the hardships he endured trying to catch The Punisher, he was not going to let something as trivial as bird poop rain on his parade.

** One issue involved Castle assaulting an office building that was being used for snuff films. Security was ultra-tight, so he couldn't bring guns inside. Instead, he ended up killing the guards one by one with increasingly bizarre and brutal uses of office equipment. He started with [[ThePenIsMightier pens and pencils]], worked his way up to computer monitors as blunt instruments, [[EyeScream staplers to the eyes]], smashing a man's head to pulp in a copier machine....

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Frank is homicidal towards criminals and is very cold to innocents he comes across, but he does geniunely show concern for innocents. He does have a softer side that comes out on ''very'' rare occasions, too-he was notably a perfect gentleman towards Miss Grundy in ''Archie Meets The Punisher''.

** Microchip was killed because he was turning a blind eye to government-funded drug operations to get his dough, making it a {{Kick the Dog}} moment for himself as well. He was also given the chance to escape. They were holed up in a warehouse awaiting an attack from the mob. Frank told Micro to run but Micro decided to stay. Apparently he didn't quite understand what Frank meant.

** Dolnovich, who was otherwise portrayed as a loyal, level-headed hardass kills a reporter who wrote an unflattering book about his boss. Even then, he probably didn't deserve to die believing that his only son was going to be raped to death his his {{Smug Snake}} killer.
* KnightTemplar: The question is not "How far?" The question is "How fast will he get there?"

* LeftForDead: In the Punisher MAX continuity, you can NOT count on this trope to save your bacon one it. One particularly noteworthy example was when Castle drove Cavella out to some abandoned woods and shot him low in the gut with the intention of slowly killing him over several hours/days while he walked away. Perfect setup for Cavella to come back, right? Well, just to shoot down any ideas of him returning some mooks talk about how they found his corpse with the eyes eaten out. Just as well, as {{Villain Decay}} had wrung out any threat he had to begin with.

*** [[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail Black Knight? Is that you?]]

* MookHorrorShow: Happens a lot.

* MoralityChain: Frank's family was this to him. In his origin story set in 'Nam he says to a fellow soldier that they might be his "last chance" to be something other than a BloodKnight.

* OhCrap: The closest Castle has ever gotten to doing one of these was when he was fighting Pittsy, a balding fatso of at least 60 years old. Halfway into the fight, he tore off Pittsy's bandage where he received an {{Eye Scream}} and broke his fingers. Pittsy gave him a {{Cluster F Bomb}} in defiance and popped all of his fingers in place, ready to fight. Frank looked on in disbelief.

* OneManArmy: In the side materials to ''Secret War'', NickFury compares the Punisher's destructive capabilities to that of ''{{The Incredible Hulk}}'s''

* TheParagon: At the end of the second MAX series, Frank becomes this in a dark, FamilyUnfriendlyAesop-[[BuffySpeak y kind of way]]. [[spoiler: His latest skirmish with MAX!Kingpin has proven fatal for the both of them, and after over 30 years, Frank Castle's war is finally over. As MAX!{{Nick Fury}} cleans up the carnage left by Frank's last battle, he muses that Frank's war was [[WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife ultimately useless in the big picture]]. Cue news reports of citizens across New York banding together in Punisher-themed gear and exacting vigilante justice on local criminals. Even Fury had to crack a smile.]]

* PowerArmor: Frank had Micro whip up a suit in order to combat a bunch of cybernetic mutant hunters. He broke it, and had in repaired in order to assault a gang boss who was selling a modified version of PCP...and then broke it again.

* SerialKillerKiller: Frank's more of a Mass Murderer Murderer but he still fits.
* SeriesContinuityError: Oddly, Frank's daughter has had at least three different names, while the name of his son (Frank Jr) is always consistent. Also Microchip's real name was originally "Bartholomew", but was changed to "Linus" later.

* SlidingScaleOfAntagonistVileness: Subverted repeatedly. Killing {{Anti Villain}}s and {{Harmless Villain}}s accounts for the majority of Frank's {{Kick the Dog}} moments.

** Nicky Cavella was downgraded from {{Magnificent Bastard}} to this as the start of his {{Villain Decay}}.

* SuperheroPackingHeat
* SympathyForTheDevil: Averted or subverted repeatedly. The closest Frank has ever done this trope was listening when general Zakharov gave a {{Motive Rant}} detailing why he [[{{I Did What I Had to Do}} did all of those horrible things]]--and not smashing his face in mid-sentence. He waits until the end. It was a {{Mercy Kill}}, but after hearing what Frank did about the general it's doubtful that he would've spared him even if he wasn't dying. But Zakharov's final words ''do'' to seem to touch a nerve in Frank, given how he's a veteran of TheVietnamWar, in which he did more than a few horrible things himself.

** The ONLY person Frank feels sorry for when he guns down a cadre of swamp-dwelling cannibals is the {{Psychopathic Manchild}} banished to the edge of the community, kinda-sorta blaming himself for pissing the poor bastard off.

** Another special mention goes to the Westies/Maginty/River Rats/Cooley for actually believing that their {{Retired Monster}} boss actually wanted to give them his fortune. Frank and Yorkie couldn't help but think that this was odd and they didn't even know him.

** The comics rarely miss an opportunity to show Frank talking to other vets as well. Frank loses respect for his pal Iceman after the latter is revealed to be a {{Sour Supporter}}/{{Knight in Sour Armor}} who (misjudging Frank's motives) tells him to 'we all got messed up in the war: get over it'. Yorkie (actually British S.A.S.) has changed into a {{Hannibal Lecture}}-spewing {{Blood Knight}} who despite bouncing from that to patrols against the IRA to fighting in Afghanistan shows no signs of stopping. [[{{The Woobie}} And poor, poor Walter]]...

* WouldNotShootAGoodGuy: Frank doesn't kill honest cops ({{Dirty Cop}}s aren't so lucky). In fact, the final run of Garth Ennis' take on The Punisher involved Frank being in the sights of a cabal of Corrupt US Army Generals... who use their connections to send a group of honest US Soldiers after him. Frank doesn't kill them, but the soldiers learn the hard way that [[ThouShaltNotKill non-lethal force]] [[GoodIsNotNice doesn't mean gentle force.]]
** That said, he had no problems with shooting up Russian soldiers in a missile base. WhatMeasureIsAMook?
** Naturally he avoids lethal force against superheroes as well. (except in {{Elseworld}} ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe]]'' but that's another story)

* WeHaveReserves: Subverted spectacularly at one point; Nicky Cavella, desperate to finish off the Punisher, attempts to bully his ''capo'' underlings into giving him their men. Not only do they tell him to get bent, they also rant at how they're not going to serve as cannon fodder for an obvious {{General Failure}} [[{{Crowning Moment of Awesome}} complete with his mooks giving him a Hannibal Lecture on how much of a fuckup he is]]. This took major brass on their end, since Nicky was known for among other things chopping up a preteen and serving him to his father.

* {{What A Drag}}

** Played with in one of the Punisher[=/=]{{Comicbook/Batman}} crossovers. Frank corners the Joker, who jokes about it, thinking that Frank is just going to take him off to Arkham Asylum. When he realizes Frank is perfectly content to blow his head off, Joker gives one of the best OhCrap faces in comics history.

* WeaponizedCar: The Battle Van, which Frank had a tendency to trash every time he used it. He also once had what was basically a go-cart from Hell. It was destroyed in its second appearance.
* XanatosGambit: Overlapping with ThanatosGambit, Old Man Nesbitt gave each of his {{Psycho for Hire}} {{Inadequate Inheritor}}s a piece of a code that they would have to put together in order to get at his inheritance. After they almost kill each other trying to steal the other pieces of the code, as they expected, they decide to call a truce. [[spoiler: When they all come together to collect, it's revealed that the secret location for his funds has no money in it at all, just an extremely powerful explosive with an expletive scrawled on it]]. That'll get 'em.

* BoisterousBruiser: The Russian. Just... the Russian.

Frank Castle is a [[TheVietnamWar Vietnam War veteran]] who saw his wife, son and daughter slaughtered in a Mafia hit gone wrong. So he got himself a black shirt with a scary white skull on the front and a whole [[MoreDakka lot of guns]], and started a one-man war on crime.

** His fifth ongoing series, ''The Punisher'', ran for 37 issues. It was written by Garth Ennis very successful and popular. It was collected in trade paperbacks, save for issues 8-12 which weren't written by Ennis. The paperbacks are out of print. It was released in hardcovers but the hardcover line is incomplete with no sign of Marvel continuing. The hardcovers that do exist are also out of print. Finally, it was collected in one massive omnibus, which also collected the ''Welcome Back, Frank'' storyline. This is also out of print. As a final kicker, an issue included within the omnibus is ''The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe.'' This is a very collectable issue and was collected in a trade paperback with ''Welcome Back, Frank''. ''Welcome Back, Frank'' has gotten a new trade edition. ''Kills the Marvel Universe'' is not included.

* DeathByNewberyMedal: Frank's old guard dog, Max, which was killed off in the same arc it was introduced in. It's shot by a gangster trying to raid one of Frank's hidehouts. When Frank sees that he's dying, he [[ShootTheDog puts him down]] with a knife. Frank's ''crying'' when he does this.

* DeathByNewberyMedal: Frank's old guard dog, Max, which was killed off in the same arc is was introduced in. It's shot by a gangster trying to raid one of Frank's hidehouts. When Frank sees that he's dying, he [[ShootTheDog puts him down]] with a knife. Frank's ''crying'' when he does this.

There have been three Punisher movies: 1989's ''The Punisher'' (starring DolphLundgren), 2004's ''The Punisher'' (starring Thomas Jane), and 2008's ''Punisher: War Zone'' (starring Ray Stevenson); YourMileageMayVary with all three. (It should be noted that ''War Zone'' is not a direct sequel to the 2004 ''Punisher'' film.)

* SociopathicHero: [[YourMileageMayVary Depending on the reader and writer]] Frank is either this or a VillainProtagonist.

** Special mention goes to Nicky Cavella, a jackass of a mob dude who got the [[SarcasmMode astoundingly bright idea]] to dig up the remains of Frank's family and ''urinates on them''. And then release the footage to the news media in the hopes of getting Castle [[IncrediblyLamePun pissed off]] and go berserk. Yeah. It's been nice knowing you, Nicky.

* ILoveThisTown: Frank Soap, who was promoted to Chief Inspector at the end of the ''Welcome Back Frank'' series, proudly looks out of his office to the Golden Sunset of New York..... only to have a passing pidgeon defecate on his head. Nevertheless, he warmly quotes this trope, for compared to all the hardships he endured trying to catch The Punisher, he was not going to let something as trivial as bird poop rain on his parade.

----

* WifeBasherBasher: Frank is [[BeyondTheImpossible extra-cruel]] towards scum who beat women.

** Ma Gucci mentions Namor the SubMariner by name in the midst of all her snarking.

** [[spoiler:Frank gets one in "Dark Reign", when Daken quite literally tears him apart piece by piece. Then Morbius the Living Vampire brings him back as a pachtwork monster (Frankencastle?).]]

The character has the ignoble distinction of ranking highly in various UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny debates, thanks to a combination of PopularityPower and the comic entitled "The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe" (coincidentally written by Ennis years before his more regular work with the character). He also has the distinction of being one of the two titular stars of what is undoubtedly [[StoryBreakerTeamUp The Single Weirdest]] [[IntercontinuityCrossOver Comics Crossover Known To Humankind]]: ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Meets_The_Punisher Archie Meets The Punisher]]''.

Possibly the most enduring DarkerAndEdgier AntiHero ever to appear in a comic, the Punisher is one of [[MarvelUniverse Marvel's]] most reliable [[CashCowFranchise cash cows]], a VigilanteMan whose only passion is finding and executing criminals in the most brutal (and sometimes imaginative) ways possible. The Punisher first appeared in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #129 (February, 1974), created by writer Gerry Conway, along with artists John Romita, Sr. and Ross Andru.

** Barracuda, despite being a treacherous PsychoForHire and even a self-admitted cannibal, managed to reach status through being the ever-optimistic, constantly cheerful source of BlackComedy. He not only [[spoiler: [[IGotBetter got better after being iced by Punisher at the end of his first arc]],]] but even starred in his own mini-series, which was unprecedented for MAX villains.

* AuthorAppeal: Garth Ennis' run prior the MAX print of series, his distaste for catholicism is shown with the psycho priest, his deslike for popular masked super heroes is shown in a fight with Frank vs. The Russian where SpiderMan steps in, all spidey does is get [[TheWorfEffect the shit kicked out of him]] and act like a human shield for Frank.

Possibly the most enduring DarkerAndEdgier AntiHero ever to appear in a comic, the Punisher is one of [[MarvelUniverse Marvel's]] most reliable [[CashCowFranchise cash cows]], a VigilanteMan whose only passion is finding and executing criminals in the most brutal (and sometimes imaginative) way possible. The Punisher first appeared in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #129 (February, 1974), created by writer Gerry Conway, along with artists John Romita, Sr. and Ross Andru.