History Trivia / ThePunisher

* ExecutiveVeto: There's one type of story that will never be published in the 616 Continuity: a story where Frank Castle kills an innocent by accident, gets full of angst, and retires. Many authors wrote drafts for several variants of this plot twist, they are all archived and have never been published. Non-616 continuities however do have this story, such as in ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' where during the ''Death of Spider-Man'' arc, there was a mini-civil war between different factions of the Ultimates, Ultimate Punisher siding with Fury's team battles Captain America's team and in the course of that Frank Castle shoots at Steve Rogers but Spider-Man [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] and a horrified Frank Castle immediately drops his weapons and cries out to be arrested or shot because he shot a child. The wound that Peter suffers played a part in weakening him before Norman Osborn and the Ultimate Six attack Spider-Man and in the course of which battle Ultimate Peter Parker dies [[spoiler:though he does get better in later issues]].
** This almost happens in the MAX continuity, before he realizes the girl wasn't shot with a bullet from his gun, the drug runners had killed her and set up her corpse where he'd be sure to find her.

* QuietlyCancelled: [[https://www.gamesradar.com/missing-marvel-titles-2020/ Among the many projects had haven't seen the light of day]] even after Marvel resumed production following the couple of months halt caused by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic is a ''Punisher vs. Barracuda'' miniseries, where the titular Barracuda from ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' would finally become a CanonImmigrant to Earth-616.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: As mentioned above, a planned miniseries would seen Barracuda finally become a CanonImmigrant to the classic Marvel Universe.

* FollowTheLeader: Almost single-handedly kick-started the DarkerAndEdgier trend of the late 80s and on through the 90s, and remains one of the few such series/characters to have retained his popularity and effectiveness after it died out (though Lord knows he's had his share of {{Dork Age}}s).

--> '''Iron Man:''' Although recently Castle has escalated his war on crime [[UpToEleven even further, with record-breaking body counts]], he is paradoxically now rarely encountered in the field by any superhero save Daredevil. (...) [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall It's almost like he inhabits two worlds, one where heroes can capture him and one where they can't, and he can slip from one to the other with ease]].

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The Punisher came into his own during the decade of the crack epidemic, Bernie Goetz, David Dinkins, and John Gotti. Metaphorically speaking, he's never left.

* CharacterSpecificPages: [[Characters/ThePunisherMAXThePunisher Earth-200111 Frank Castle / The Punisher]]

!!The game

* RoleReprise: Creator/ThomasJane reprises his role from [[Film/ThePunisher2004 the 2004 film]] as the title character.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Creator/SteveDillon died in October 2016, when he was the book's current artist.

* {{Vaporwave}}: [[https://www.gamesradar.com/missing-marvel-titles-2020/ Among the many projects had haven't seen the light of day]] even after Marvel resumed production following the couple of months halt caused by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic is a ''Punisher vs. Barracuda'' miniseries, where the titular Barracuda from ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' would finally become a CanonImmigrant to Earth-616.

* RoleReprise: Creator/ThomasJane reprises his role from [[Film/ThePunisher2004 the 2004 film]] as the title character.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: As mentioned above, a planned miniseries would seen Barracuda finally become a CanonImmigrant to the classic Marvel Universe.

* {{Vaporwave}}: [[https://www.gamesradar.com/missing-marvel-titles-2020/ Among the many projects had haven't seen the light of day]] even after Marvel resume production following the couple of months halt caused by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic is a ''Punisher vs. Barracuda'' miniseries, where the titular Barracuda from ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' would finally become a CanonImmigrant to Earth-616.

* Vaporwave: [[https://www.gamesradar.com/missing-marvel-titles-2020/ Among the many projects had haven't seen the light of day]] even after Marvel resume production following the couple of months halt caused by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic is a ''Punisher vs. Barracuda'' miniseries, where the titular Barracuda from ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX'' would finally become a CanonImmigrant to Earth-616.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The Punisher came into his own during the decade of the crack epidemic, Bernie Goetz, David Dinkins, and John Gotti. Metaphorically speaking, he's never left.

* ExiledFromContinuity: The MAX series for obvious reasons. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Creator/IronMan in the ''Civil War Handbook''

* ExiledFromContinuity: The MAX series.
--> '''Marvel ComicBook/CivilWar Handbook On Punisher:''' Although recently Castle has escalated his war on crime [[UpToEleven even further, with record-breaking body counts]], he is paradoxically now rarely encountered in the field by any superhero save Daredevil. (...) [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall It's almost like he inhabits two worlds, one where heroes can capture him and one where they can't, and he can slip from one to the other with ease]].

* ExecutiveVeto: There's one type of story that will never be published: a story where Frank Castle kills an innocent by accident, gets full of angst, and retires. Many authors wrote drafts for several variants of this plot twist, they are all archived and have never been published.

*** The non-MAX Ennis issues are now being republished in a series of [=TPBs=] as part of a general twentieth-anniversary repackaging of the Creator/MarvelKnights sub-imprint.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Steve Dillon died in October 2016, when he was the book's current artist.

** 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 collectible 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.