History ComicBook / ThePunisher

** Ditto with Barracuda from Punisher Max, who is like a bizarre fusion of Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan from ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' and Michael Clarke Duncan from ''Film/SinCity''. It can be hard to take him seriously as a villain at first [[spoiler:until he kidnaps Frank's baby daughter, murders Frank's only real friend, threatens to eat said baby daughter, and is subsequently chopped into pieces by Frank with a fire axe]].

The character himself [[DependingOnTheWriter 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.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: The Punisher is a [[SociopathicHero 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. Creator/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. Many morally dubious superheroes and even normal citizens secretly enable Frank to allow him to do the dirty work of getting rid of baddies in ways they wouldn't want to do themselves.

--->'''Frank Castle''': When you're on your own, behind enemy lines, no artillery, no air strikes, no hope of an evac, you don't fight dirty. [[UpToEleven You do things that make dirty look good]].

* InvincibleHero: Even if Frank has no powers per se (only being in peak physical condition and knowing all about fighting and using weapons), he manages to hold himself pretty well against actual Marvel superheroes - there isn't a one-shot called ''ComicBook/ThePunisherKillsTheMarvelUniverse'' for nothing. This is taken UpToEleven once the Punisher got the Comicbook/WarMachine's armor in 2017, meaning a squad led by Captain Marvel went to take him down and Frank still managed to run away.

* WifeBasherBasher: Frank is [[UpToEleven extra-cruel]] towards scum who beat women. To anyone who abuses their family, really. In the ''MAX'' series, he attacks a neighbor for having cheated on his wife. Granted, this was before he was the Punisher, and just after he'd lost his family, but still. He also snipes a woman who killed her children, even though she was already under arrest.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Frank Castle.

** Ditto with Barracuda from Punisher Max, who is like a bizarre fusion of Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan from ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' and Michael Clarke Duncan from ''Film/SinCity'', it can be hard to take him seriously as a villain at first [[spoiler: at least until he kidnaps Frank's baby daughter, murderers Frank's only real friend, threatens to eat said baby daughter, and is subsequently chopped into pieces by Frank with a fire axe]].

* AntiHero: One of the most extreme examples ever, driven by vengeance and with few if any qualms about murder. He's at best [[Analysis/AntiHero]] an UnscrupulousHero, often a NominalHero, if not a VillainProtagonist.

* AntiHero: One of the most extreme examples ever, driven by vengeance and with few if any qualms about murder. He's at best [[Analysis/AntiHero a type IV]], often a type V, if not a VillainProtagonist.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Frank easily kills normal human villains. Put him against a genuine superhuman, though, and he's in trouble. Both ComicBook/TheMightyThor and ComicBook/IncredibleHulk have curbstomped him at least once apiece.
** ''ComicBook/DarkReign'' shows what would actually happen both if Frank got on the attention list of a major super-villain AND what would happen if you pitted a guy whose "power" is "I know how to shoot people" against somebody whose power is [[HealingFactor "shooting me doesn't work"]]. Frank gets put down fatally, and would have been KilledOffForReal if PopularityPower hadn't kicked in and seen him revived by [[ComicBook/{{Morbius}} Morbius The Living Vampire]].
** ''Comicbook/TheSuperiorFoesOfSpiderMan'' viciously subverts the idea of [[NinetiesAntiHero Punisher-style anti-heroes]] somehow being better at fighting supervillains simply because they're willing to "do what it takes". In the finale, [[CurbStompBattle Shocker launches the Punisher into the horizon in a single panel]]. Frank might be TheDreaded, but he's still a normal man who found himself up against a guy who could blow apart buildings with just a squeeze of his fist.
** In one ''Marvel Knights'' storyline, the Punisher took on Ulik the Rock Troll. It didn't go very well for him, because even Frank's most powerful weapons could do little more than annoy Ulik. When you're fighting someone who regularly goes toe-to-toe with Comicbook/TheMightyThor, you've got to do a lot better than some fancy guns. The Punisher only survives the battle due to Daredevil bringing Ulik the magical artifact he had been seeking.
** A crossover with the ComicBook/{{Runaways}} has this on both sides. For most of the story, the team, despite possessing superpowers, are still just kids, so they simply attempt to flee from Frank due to being terrified by his [[TheDreaded reputation]]. But once he has them cornered, Molly takes him down with a single punch, because at the end of the day he is still only human and she has SuperStrength.
** In ''Welcome Back, Frank'', three "vigilantes" decided to join forces to continue their war on "evil" and get the Punisher to lead them. However, the three all have their own views on who is evil. Elite wants to KillThePoor, Mr. Payback wants to [[EatTheRich Kill The Rich]], and the Holy wants to KillThemAll. These leads to Elite and Payback arguing and threatening with each other since both are exactly what the other one hates, leaving the Holy as the AxCrazy OnlySaneMan of the group. Another issue is that by themselves, they don't know how to develop a crimefighting group and spend most of the time arguing and getting nothing done. On top of that, they just think the Punisher is just going to join their group and lead it, ignoring the possibility [[spoiler: that he wants nothing to do with them and that he would much rather want them dead]].
** In ''What If... The Punisher Had Killed Spider-Man?'', Frank manages to kill ComicBook/SpiderMan via an explosive trap. This results in every single superhero in New York coming after him, and none of them are holding back this time. Frank is comically outmatched by even the likes of ''ComicBook/{{Hellcat}}'', and only manages to avoid being captured/killed on the spot is by hiding and running away if he’s spotted.

* {{Misblamed}}: A plot point in ''Dead End'', where the Hood resurrects a bunch of CListFodder killed by Scourge and claims that the Punisher killed them. To be fair, Frank ''did'' kill some of them the ''second'' time.

* BerserkButton: Frank doesn't go berserk very often. If someone pisses him off or is on his list, he will go about killing them very methodically and efficiently. He can and will, however, go berserk if you hurt women or children. In addition, mocking or ridiculing or insulting Captain America means he ''will'' go insane on your ass. He respects Cap so much that he on one occasion where Cap was kicking ''his'' ass, Frank absolutely refused to fight back at all. In one story line, he saw a news story where a man dressed in a costume that was very similar to Cap's was boasting about killing illegal immigrants. Frank: "I'm stealing a car. I'm driving to New Mexico. ''And when I get there I'm going to shoot that guy in the face!''"

* KnifeNut: When met with an assassin who prefers knives, Frank's inner monologues notes that one must be either insane or really good to use knives. Then he notes that [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight knives are nothing against guns]], and blows the guy away.

* MoralDissonance: Even as he's not ''quite'' an example himself (his morality is frequently called out by other characters), Frank's a frequent source of Moral Dissonance in the Marvel Universe; among other examples, the notable one is heroes (such as Spider-Man) who don't get along with Frank usually get along a-okay with Wolverine, who is also an unrepentant killer (if of significantly differing levels of moral culpability and dangerousness).

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[[quoteright:312:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1211547464971_765.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:312:Frank Castle takes the consequences of drunk driving to [[ScareEmStraight their logical conclusion]].]]

%% Zero Context Examples are prohibited by wiki policy. Please provide context if un-commenting entries. %%

For a while, the Punisher appeared mostly in titles starring ComicBook/SpiderMan (see ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga''). 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, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, and ComicBook/{{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: ''[[ComicBook/ThePunisherCircleOfBlood Punisher]]'' [[ComicBook/ThePunisherCircleOfBlood 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, even gaining four multi-part events that ran through various titles in the nineties, said events being ''[[ComicBooksThePunisherSuicideRun Suicide Run]]'', ''Countdown'', and ''Over the Edge''.

Over the years, there have been attempts to reinvent the character in a different style. At one point he was killed and revived as a supernatural hero empowered by angels. Another storyline made him 'Franken-castle', a reanimated corpse surrounded by monsters. A third gave him a version of the Iron Man 'War Machine' armour. Each time, he’s been returned to the status quo. The upcoming ''ComicBook/Punisher2022'' series by Creator/JasonAaron also touches on this sort of change, and will see Castle becoming an assassin with the supernatural ninja clan the Hand, replacing his iconic skull symbol with a horned demonic version.

* {{Misblamed}}: A plot point in ''Dead End'', where The Hood resurrects a bunch of CListFodder killed by Scourge and claims that the Punisher killed them. Though to be fair, Frank ''did'' kill some of them the ''second'' time.

* OneManArmy: In the side materials to ''Comicbook/SecretWar'', ComicBook/NickFury compares the Punisher's destructive capabilities to that of ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk's''.

[[/folder]]

* SerialKillerKiller: Frank doesn't limit hiself to serial killers, but the trope still fits..

** Also goes for Frank's last name (sometimes his birth name is Castiglione, other times it isn't; the whole thing was a clumsy attempt to add mobbed-up relatives as part of an ExpansionPackPast) and his Vietnam service (usually shown as an officer, many stories feature him instead as an enlisted rifleman). Several attempts at an AuthorsSavingThrow have him illegally re-entering the Marine Corps under his assumed name, which only raises further questions. Castiglione was established as his birth name in the first comic that his name was mentioned in at all. It was said that his parents changed it from Castiglione to Castle when he was six years old. It's not uncommon for immigrants to Americanize their surnames, so maybe it was just to give some extra backstory originaly.

** In one ''Marvel Knights'' storyline, the Punisher took on Ulik the Rock Troll. It didn't go very well for him, because even Frank's most powerful weapons could do little more than annoy Ulik. When you're fighting someone who regularly goes toe-to-toe with Comicbook/TheMightyThor, you've got to do a lot better than some fancy guns. The Punisher only survives the battle due to Daredevil bringing Ulik the magical artefact he had been seeking.

* WhatTheHellHero: The Punisher gets this from almost every superhero (and a few supervillains) he comes across. Frank himself occasionally gets to deliver these, his most famous one occuring in his crossover with Franchise/{{Batman}} where Bats saves the Joker from him (and allows him to go scotfree), allowing him to continue killing as many innocent people as he can. Frank gives him one major calling out before he leaves Gotham.

* NormalFishInATinyPond: Inverted. Frank’s military training, combat skill, bulletproof costume and arsenal of weapons make him a OneManArmy who steamrolls standard street thugs. In RealLife or a more grounded work of fiction he’d be one of the most dangerous people in the world. In the Marvel Universe he is... a man who own some guns; he wouldn’t last thirty seconds against the likes of ComicBook/DoctorDoom, the [[ComicBook/NormanOsborn Green Goblin]] or ComicBook/{{Sabretooth}}. Which is probably why he almost never fights actual supervillains.

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

* BadassNormal: Castle has no superpowers of his own, and typically most of his foes are either just mooks or other badass normals. However, he has gone toe-to-toe with various superheroes and villains in the past.

* {{Badbutt}}: Any animated version of him will inevitably wind up as this. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XoRGgpF2qc For example]]...

* BlackAndGrayMorality: The Punisher is a [[SociopathicHero 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. Creator/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.

* ClassicalAntiHero: Some writers also throw in this, a lonely, unstable shell of a man with no future, who can only function as a killing machine.

** Later, ComicBook/{{Morbius}} the Living Vampire resurrected Frank as a FrankensteinsMonster version of himself after a fight with Daken left Frank shredded into pieces. Frank was eventually returned to normal by the healing power of the Bloodstone, and abandoned the stone when his monster allies helped him realise that its continued influence could lead to him turning on the innocent.
** In 2018, Nick Fury Jr. needs Frank to do some wetworks for him. In return, he gives Frank the location of the warehouse storing the [[ComicBook/WarMachine War Machine armour]]. So for at least a number of issues, Frank is the new War Machine.

** Criminals that are currently being processed by the system (e.g. in court or custody) he leaves alone. He also doesn't go after defendants who have been legitimately cleared by a court of law. Now, if they get off when they're clearly guilty, then they become fair game once more.

Over the years, there have been attempts to reinvent the character in a different style. At one point he was killed and revived as a supernatural hero empowered by angels. Another storyline made him 'Franken-castle', a reanimated corpse surrounded by monsters. A third gave him a version of the Iron Man 'War Machine' armour. Each time, he’s been returned to the status quo. The upcoming ''ComicBook/Punisher2022'' series by Creator/JasonAaron also touches on this sort of change, and will see Castle becoming the leader of the ninja clan the Hand, replacing his iconic skull symbol with a horned demonic version.

Over the years, there have been attempts to reinvent the character in a different style. At one point he was killed and revived as a supernatural hero empowered by angels. Another storyline made him 'Frankencastle', a reanimated corpse surrounded by monsters. A third gave him a version of the Iron Man 'War Machine' armour. Each time, he’s been returned to the status quo. An upcoming 2022 series by Creator/JasonAaron also touches on this sort of change, and will see Castle becoming the leader of the ninja clan the Hand, replacing his iconic skull symbol with a horned demonic version.

The character himself [[DependingOnTheWriter 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 [[Creator/MarvelMAX 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 Garth Ennis 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 killing a friend'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]]