History ComicBook / ThePunisher

* 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.

** 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 there never an end to the criminals no matter how many Frank offs. 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.

The character himself often suffers from inconsistent writing. Many writers have portrayed him as a good man at heart who sincerely does want to help people and keep them from suffering the same way he did, while other writers have portrayed him as a psychopath with no pity for anyone and no motivation beyond killing criminals. There are two notably different Punisher series: the main Marvel Universe series and a second series created for Marvel's adults-only MAX imprint (originally titled ''The Punisher'' and referred to as ''Punisher MAX'', before changing to ''The Punisher: Frank Castle'' and then [=PunisherMAX=]). This latter version, written almost exclusively by GarthEnnis for four years, features no superheroes and is deeply rooted in "mundane" crime -- TheMafia, Irish terrorist cells, Eastern European sex slavers, gangsters and real-life wars are prominent. It is also considerably less funny than the mainstream Marvel series, though there are touches of black humor here and there. The MAX series is written much more consistently than the mainstream version, due to being almost entirely shaped by Garth Ennis' vision of the character; this series is also notorious for its moral absolutism. The Marvel Universe version may be willing to excuse himself for [[spoiler:killing Stuart Clarke's girlfriend while under the influence of a "hate ray"]], but the first post-Ennis MAX issue sees Frank on the edge of killing himself after believing that his instinctive shooting had led to an innocent girl's death, declaring to himself that "I must be punished."[[note]]Realizing the possibility of a setup is the only thing that lets him live long enough to exhume the body, which he finds was slain with a bullet of a different caliber from what he had been carrying. Turned out that [[DrivenToSuicide it was a setup]] to get him out of the way of a local crime syndicate.[[/note]]

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). (It should be noted that ''War Zone'' is not a direct sequel to the 2004 ''Punisher'' film.)

* AvengingTheVillain

* BrooklynRage

* CarnivalOfKillers

* CrusadingWidower

* GiveChaseWithAngryNatives

* HannibalLecture: Frank doesn't do this often, being TheStoic, but he completely destroys the last shreds of dignity Nicky Cavella has with one.
--> '''Cavella''': Either I walk outta here or I blow this little fuck all over you. It's your call.
--> '''Castle''': You won't shoot him. You're a coward. ...Psycho rep only takes you so far. After that, you've nothing. Hurt the boy and you die bad. You know that. But there's a part of you that still thinks that if you let him go, you've got a chance. And that part of you just won't shut up.
** Frank's S.A.S. pal Yorkie is the master of these. He'd probably have the TropeNamer weeping for forgiveness after a few minutes with him.
*** DoubleSubversion Barracuda [[ShutUpHannibal 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.)
--->'''Yorkie''': He's going to kill you. Not over me. You're going up against him, so he'll kill you. Because you're a ''joke'', in spite of it all...and he's the most dangerous man who ever walked this Earth.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: BIGTIME

* ItWorksBetterWithBullets

* MookHorrorShow: Happens a lot.

* MugglesdoitBetter: He has fought many super powered heroes and villains, often beating them or at least fighting to a draw, with nothing more than his wits, aim, and guns.

* NeverHurtAnInnocent: This is one of the reasons the Punisher is an [[AntiHero Anti]] ''[[AntiHero Hero]]''. He takes great pains to avoid civilian casualties while he's gunning down dozens of [[{{Mook}} goons.]]
** In a small variation, Frank has on occasions been shown to dislike killing animals, because an animal can't truly be guilty.

* NoNonsenseNemesis: Frank.

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Jigsaw.

* ScopeSnipe

* SerialKiller: Arguably so, with vigilante tendencies. He tries to present himself as the Mission-Based type, but in later stories, he's shown to be more of the Hedonistic type; subconsciously obsessed with the idea of a never-ending war to sate [[ColonelKilgore the bloodlust he developed in Vietnam]].
** In the Young Masters arc of YoungAvengers, Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) notes that the superhero community of the MarvelUniverse only sees the Punisher as a serial killer and any real hero would bring him down as hard as any villain if nessessary.

* ShoutOut: The late, great, Puerto Rican rapper "Big Punn" (he had a heart attack; dude was 400 pounds).

* SmugSnake: The conspiracy of generals in the MAX arc "Valley Forge, Valley Forge" is perhaps the best example, as it consists of eight incompetent [[SmugSnake Smug Snakes]] (who cause a great deal of death and suffering nevertheless), but it is far from the only example. The Punisher's opponents in general are no criminal masterminds, even if they aren't totally...

* SuperDetailedFightNarration
* SuperheroPackingHeat
* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: Recently avoided by having the DarkerAndEdgier Punisher relegated to his own MAX title while the Marvel Universe Punisher took up Captain America's costume and had some LighterAndSofter (by comparison) adventures.

* SympathyForTheDevil: Averted or subverted repeatedly. The closest Frank has ever done this trope was listening when general Zakharov gave a MotiveRant detailing why he [[IDidWhatIHadToDo did all of those horrible things]]--and not smashing his face in mid-sentence. He waits until the end. It was a MercyKill, 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.
-->'''Zakharov''': ''Kill ([[SmugSnake Rawlins]]), Castle. Our world is bad, but we are soldiers. He is a '''parasite'''; he would make the world this way forever.''

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Force Frank to team up with another hero, and this trope is the result. While he tends to dislike the rest of the hero community, and the feeling is mutual, he's at least willing to work with them against the real villains.
** Averted more often than most people might assume, at least in the nineties. Frank had quite a few crossovers, and most of the people he worked with were either okay with him or felt he was a good man at heart. There were only a few who outright hated him.

* ThemedAliases: The Punisher often uses aliases that are linked to Castle, his real last name: Charles Fort, McRook, Frank Rook, Francis Stronghold, Johnny Tower, Frankie Villa, etc.

* TooDumbToLive: Quite a lot of villains. One minor gangster was dumb enough to brag about how he would take over his boss' territory and "business" when Frank (who had just offed said boss) was still right there; this was met with the predictable results:
--> '''Gangster''': I-I-I...I mean I'm gonna leave all this shit behind me. Get a job. Leave town.
--> '''Frank:''' Yeah. Well. ''* shoots him* '' Just in case.

* TheVietnamWar: Frank served in Vietnam, and certain actions he did during the war are brought up in his appearances occasionally.
** In the 2004 movie, this is changed to Operation Desert Storm / the first war with Iraq.
** Frank will often bring up and compare his experiences in conversations with veterans of other wars, like CaptainAmerica.
** 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 SourSupporter / KnightInSourArmor 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 HannibalLecture-spewing BloodKnight who despite bouncing from that to patrols against the IRA to fighting in Afghanistan shows no signs of stopping. [[TheWoobie And poor, poor Walter]]...

* VigilanteMan: He's actually been ''called'' "Vigilante Man" a couple of times.

* VillainousBreakdown: Cavella and Barracuda break down spectacularly, the first turning into a simpering pants-wetter and the latter turning into a raving lunatic. Finn Cooley's breakdown is more physical than mental, as his face continues rotting with each appearance. Surprisingly averted with Rawlins, though, because even as things repeatedly go to hell for him he can't help but act the smug little weasel he is.

* WhatADrag

* BadassAbnormal: There was a brief period of time in the [[TheDarkAgeofComicBooks nineties]] when Castle was given a supernatural bent. He became a divine assassin on behalf of god, using angelic firearms to smite demons in return for a chance to be reunited with his family in heaven. Predictably this didn't turn out to be a popular development. When Ennis began his run in "Welcome Back Frank", he pays lip service to it by saying: "It didn't work out".

* EverythingIsWorseWithBears: One of the earlier stories had Frank stranded in Alaskan wilderness and picking a fight with a bear. And there is the infamous moment when he deliberately angered a bunch of polar bears to kill mobsters in a zoo.
--> '''Punisher''': Cuddly. Lovable. Docile. *POW* That won't do at all.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: The Punisher is a [[HeroicSociopath sociopathic,]] cruel, KnightTemplar, BloodKnight, [[OneManArmy mass-murderering]], VigilanteMan, but is recurrently put against UpToEleven versions of the worst sorts of people reality has to offer. Most Punisher villains don't seem to even ''have'' any character traits besides malice, greed, sadism, and selfishness. GarthEnnis writes the character as 100% aware of this, often repeatedly stating that his only reason to continue living is to punish those worse than himself.

* AntiHero: [[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes Originally type IV in the Marvel universe]], but DependingOnTheWriter slides into type V. Remains at type V in the "MAX" series. Of course, others see him more as a VillainProtagonist.
** Some writers also throw in Type I (Anti Hero as loser) into the mix, a lonely, unstable shell of a man with no future, who can only function as a killing machine.

* SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes: Most of the time, Frank sits firmly at Type 4.

** In the Marvel 'verse there are some superheroes that semi-regularly tussle with Frank, like Captain America, Daredevil and Spiderman being three common ones. It should also be noted, however, that they are, just as often, on the same side.

* DependingOnTheWriter: How much Frank fights to help innocents and how much because he likes killing, as well as how sane he is in general.

* ImplacableMan: Thorn, an older villain. Originally the brother of a mob boss, he was nearly killed when Frank threw him into a frozen lake. He barely survived, but now shows no reaction to pain, and has no memory beyond knowing who tried to kill him. Also Roc, who survived being shot in the head and having his neck broken and the Russian, who's just a large man.

* 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.

** His second ongoing series, ''The Punisher Journal'', ran for 80 issues. There is a single trade paperback collecting the series and it only has the first eight issues.

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

The big difference between him and, say, {{Batman}}? Castle kills criminals. A lot. Often ''several dozen'' at a time (his confirmed "high scores" to date are approximately 2,000 in the Marvel Universe with a nuke, and 68 in one night, with 32 in a single location in the MAX continuity. Wizard magazine also had his death count as slightly above 1,000, pre-Ennis and later in MAX, this is mentioned to have climbed to 2K. Combine all that together, and the total death toll comes around to an astounding ''four thousand bad guys''.) He uses machine guns, explosives, a certain amount of [[IKnowKarate martial arts]], knives, and on occasion, wildlife (most notably, the time that he punched a polar bear in the face to get it riled enough to eat some Mafia hitmen). He can be very, very sadistic. He tends not to get on with Marvel's actual superheroes, especially when he's written by comic-book scribe GarthEnnis; many fans think Castle and Ennis were a match made in heaven.

** 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.

The tone of the stories vary from violent pitch-black comedy to intensively grim-and-gritty noir tales to attempts to make him a full-on SuperHero... who just so happens to kill people. His enemies have ranged from sex slavery rings (the MAX arc "The Slavers" being possibly one of the single darkest stories in comics history) to gigantic Russian hitmen augmented with cyborg body parts and enormous breasts...both of them written by Ennis.

* AxCrazy: Many of villains and arguably Frank himself.
** "Arguably"? ''Punisher: Born'' firmly cements his status as Ax Fucking Crazy.
*** ''Punisher: Born'' also takes place in a continuity outside of mainstream Marvel canon.

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