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"My own list of troublemakers? Let's just say it's getting shorter all the time. However, some of them seem to keep coming back, like the pain from an old wound..."
The Punisher, The Punisher Annual Vol. 2, #5 ("The Punisher's Top Ten Villains!")

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Villains

    Jigsaw 

Jigsaw

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/354ff43523868cc2ea8eeb840ec069ae.jpg

Alter Ego: Billy "The Beaut" Russo

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1, #161 (1976)

"See, guy, see—before I get to the punchline I gotta back up a second. Let me tell you about Frank—let me tell you about the Punisher. Because he's—he's my—see, the first time we met, I was just this guy, y'know? I was this, I was this guy, I had my things goin' and he—well, he's got his thing goin' too. And our things, they don't go together so well. So the guy—the guy who kills so many, so often—me he decides not to kill. Me he decides to just put through a window. Again and again and again. Frank Castle just kinda drives me a little crazy. See? Just you look at what that maniac brings out of me. We scrap. We tussle. Loads of times, me and him. And you know what? I can't never seal the deal and he—he always lets me live. A little worse for wear, of course. I'm tellin' you, Irish, he's like a kid what pulls off the wings off flies just to watch 'em wiggle. He digs the torture. I mean, what kind of sick, sad, insane—what kind of lunatic—"

A hitman for the Maggia and the Costa crime family, pretty-boy Billy "The Beaut" Russo had his face mangled when the Punisher shoved him through a plate glass window. Left with a tattered mess of a face, Billy took the name Jigsaw, and set about doing his best to ruin Castle's life.


  • Abusive Parents: Billy abused his son Henry, even forcing him to kill kittens that Henry had let inside by telling him that he'd kill his mother if he didn't. They seemingly start to reconcile in In the Blood, which implies that deep down Jigsaw actually does love his son... just not enough to try and save him from burning to death during an instance of Friend-or-Idol Decision.
  • Affably Evil: In War Journal Vol. 2, he's extremely personable (if still a psychotic sociopath). Probably because he's tired of the whole "try to kill the Punisher" circus and wants to move on with his life.
  • Arch-Enemy: He's the closest thing that Castle has to one, being one of his few recurring enemies, his Evil Counterpart and, in his mind, The Only One Allowed to Defeat You. The two don't particularly care for the classification, however, with Jigsaw seeing himself as a Diabolical Mastermind who is supposed to be above the notion of having a nemesis, while the Punisher merely regards Jigsaw as nothing more than another hood, albeit one who "won't stay dead".
  • Ax-Crazy: It gets particularly bad in War Journal Vol. 2, though even before that he had done things like try to snipe Jessica Jones and her baby and gun down police officers while half-jokingly hailing Satan.
  • Bait the Dog: Jigsaw's one potentially redeeming quality was that, even though he abused his son, Henry, horribly, deep down he still seemed to love and want to reconcile with him. But, when faced with a Friend-or-Idol Decision, Jigsaw shows his true colors when he chooses attacking a momentarily dazed Punisher over taking a few seconds to save his own flesh and blood from a raging inferno.
    Henry: Help me, dad!
    Jigsaw: *koff* Dad is it? *koff* I'm suddenly your favorite, right?
    Henry: Please! Just help me up! I don't want you dead, I don't—I saved you from that knife, saved you—
    Jigsaw: You chose the wrong guy. I tell myself, I'm a good dad. But that's just the crazy, right? See, situation like this, it'll clear things up.
  • Big Bad: He's typically either this or The Dragon.
  • Butt-Monkey: In New Avengers (though Mood Whiplash occurred) and sections of War Journal Vol. 2.
  • Chest Insignia: When dressed in his knockoff of the Punisher's costume.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: He and the Hood beat Tigra to near-death, and he's also mutilated the Punisher twice, and attempted to do the same to his own son, Henry.
  • Costume Copycat: Dressed as Paladin after joining Kingpin and Zemo's newest Thunderbolts. As noted elsewhere, he's also noted to have dressed like the Punisher.
  • Create Your Own Villain: Year One revealed that it was Jigsaw who the Costas had hired to tie up all of the loose ends connected to the massacre of the Castle family. After surviving the bomb that Billy planted in his house, Frank (now the Punisher) tracked down and cut him up, turning him into Jigsaw. Of course, the Punisher being the Punisher, this is so ordinary for him that he doesn't even remember it.
    Punisher: When I do my job, it gets done. No screw-ups, no errors, no mistakes. So yes, you are going to die. But not tonight. You'll die next time I see you. Tonight, you're going to live, so you can tell the Costas face to face how they're going to die. Tell them there is a soldier after them. An instrument of justice. A punisher. Tell them I won't be long. Now look at that.
    Billy: What? The cops outside?
    Punisher: No... your reflection, "Beaut" Russo. Remember it.
  • Death Is Cheap:
    • He was gunned down in Jigsaw Puzzle, but was resurrected one issue later by the Rev and Belasco.
    • He was shot in the head and knocked off of a ledge in John Ostrander's run, but was revealed to have survived when he was noted as being among the convicts imprisoned in the Raft in Alias.
    • He was shot in the head (again) near the end of War Journal Vol. 2, but was revealed to have survived yet again in In the Blood.
    • In the Blood ended with him falling through the roof of his own lair, which then exploded, but then he made a cameo in Thunderbolts Annual and popped up Civil War II: Kingpin.
  • Evil Counterpart: He's worn copies of the Punisher's costume several times, with the first instance being in Circle of Blood, where he was brainwashed by the Trust into becoming a member of their Punishment Squad. During War Journal Vol. 2, his outfit was a color inverted (white suit with a black skull) version of the Punisher's, while in the John Ostrander series it had normal coloration, but with a grey-ish tint to the white and lots of sutures.
  • Evil Is Petty: When he and several others villains took the Geraci family (which included a child and a priest) hostage, Jigsaw was all for executing them on the spot, on the off chance that the Punisher had survived the encounter that led to their capture. That way, even if the Punisher defeated them, he'd have still lost because his allies would be dead.
  • Genre Savvy: Depending on the Writer, during The Punisher: Suicide Run he laughs at the idea of using a mob summit to lure Punisher into a trap and refuses to attend (which saves his life) but other times he does make mistakes in that vein.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: His scars are about as evil as you can get, horribly disfiguring his face.
  • The Heavy: The most active foe against the punisher appearing in the most story arcs.
  • Impersonating an Officer: A SWAT uniform in World War Frank. The helmet was the only way such a disguise can work.
  • Informed Deformity: He looked 99% fine in the John Ostrander series, where he was depicted as having a couple of extra lines (and this was the 1990s, when that was in vogue) on an otherwise entirely normal face.
  • In-Series Nickname: Before his run-in with Frank, he was known as Billy "the Beaut".
  • I Was Quite a Looker: Billy had good looks that earned him the name "The Beaut". But then the Punisher threw him against a glass pane, and his face was jumbled enough to be rebuilt akin to a jigsaw.
  • Joker Immunity: Jigsaw even lampshades this, and the Punisher justifies letting him live since Jigsaw is more of a danger to his fellow criminals than innocents.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: The other reason he's stayed alive as long as he has, despite his usual competition. Jigsaw is usually smart enough to get out while the getting's good and wait for a more favorable opportunity to strike again. A prominent example is Suicide Run where he's one of the bigger fish summoned to fight the Punisher, but once he realizes that his inexperienced partners have effectively made themselves sitting ducks, he makes a quick exit.
  • Mad Eye: The reconstruction of his face left his left eye larger in appearance.
  • Made of Iron: If the Punisher can survive it, more than likely Jigsaw can too. And since Frank's been Back from the Dead twice, you can probably see where we're going with this.
  • Nightmare Face: He's been mutilated to a grotesque degree, to the point that his surgeons were forced to reconstruct his features from scratch.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: When he heard that Castle had been fried in an electric chair, he started killing those responsible while ranting about how inappropriate it was that he didn't get to kill him.
  • Power Armor: His first appearance had him wearing an exoskeleton said to increase his strength.
  • Professional Killer: Was an assassin for the Maggia before reaching his current station in life. His clientele has expanded to include Kingpin, The Hood, and more recently, Baron Zemo.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Like the Punisher, he was an antagonist in The Amazing Spider-Man (1963), although he was introduced with his grudge against Frank already established. When Frank got his own book, Billy's villainy was taken there, and he's rarely fought anyone else since.
  • The Sociopath: Ax-Crazy, possessing such a staggering Lack of Empathy that he regarded the feeling of caring for his son as inherently wrong to him, and taking the time to psychologically mess with his victims, Jigsaw is one of the most evil baseline humans out there in the Marvel Universe.
  • Taught by Experience:
    • In his second ever storyline, he's realized his limitations in a world of superheroes, and so only commits low-level and out of the way crimes that he hoped would be beneath their notice. It hit the fan for him when he tried to rob a midnight cruise that Peter Parker happened to be aboard.
    • He and Rosalie Carbone are the only invitees to opt out of The Punisher: Suicide Run, Jigsaw due to his (correct) belief that no matter how foolproof the plan seemed, it was still doomed to fail for the sole fact that it was the Punisher that they were dealing with.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Has gone from a failed assassin to one of the few criminals who can match the Punisher's combat skills.
  • Unknown Rival: Frank only sees him as just a mid-level Mafiosi. In fact, he doesn't even remember their initial meeting.
  • Useless Accessory: He had some kind of neck cast/brace in his early appearances. One would assume that it was part of the strength-enhancing exoskeleton that he wore under his clothes, though him being allowed to keep it in prison casts doubt on that theory.
  • Villain in a White Suit: Favors white suits, and a color-inverted Punisher costume much of the time. Fitting as he's Frank's Evil Counterpart.
  • Western Terrorists: As of World War Frank he's thrown in his lot with HYDRA. However, as shown with War in Bagalia, he is doing so for a paycheck, not out of ideology.

    Hitman 

Hitman

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Alter Ego: Lieutenant Burt Kenyon

First Appearance: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1, #4 (1977)

"Point, click, kill — the Hitman knows how to do his job."

A Marine in Vietnam, where he saved the life of Frank Castle, Burt Kenyon became a costumed assassin for the underworld after the war, bringing him into conflict with Spider-Man and the Punisher.


    Bushwacker 

Bushwacker

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bushwacker_marvel_comics_daredevil_bushwhacker.jpg

Alter Ego: Carl Burbank

First Appearance: Daredevil Vol. 1, #249 (1987)

"I'm a true artist! I never leave a job undone. I always execute my art to the highest aesthetic possible."

Carl Burbank was originally a Catholic priest who abandoned the priesthood following the drug related deaths of young parishioners. Struggling to suppress violent urges inadvertently awakened in him by confessions, Burbank agreed to a top secret military experiment that replaced his arms with cybernetics capable of transforming into various weapons - also replacing his skin with a malleable plastic that can stretch into a variety of shapes around his transformable musculature. After performing numerous covert operations for the CIA, Burbank went rogue, using his newfound abilities to become a hitman and criminal enforcer. Gifted with superhuman strength of an unrevealed limit, and able to take more punishment than any normal human, Bushwacker is frequently on the short-list of those who can afford to Summon Bigger Fish against the Punisher.


See here for more.

    The Rev 

The Rev

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b5ac0715e1f9fbc285c93e59c8d1703c.jpg

Alter Ego: Samuel Smith

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 2, #4 (1987)

Punisher: Oh yeah. The Rev. A heavyweight—sending off vibes like crazy. Crazy vibes. Like a psycho, con and holy man all mixed into one.

Sam Smith was the leader of a would-be suicide cult called Church of the Saved, whose zealousness was stopped by the Punisher. He struck a deal with Satan note , and returned later with a plan to sterilize the American populace.


  • Alliterative Name: Just like his real life counterpart.
  • Ambiguously Human: The source of his powers are unknown, though the Punisher theorized that he was a deluded mutant.
  • Beard of Evil: Sports and old-fashioned.
  • Big Bad: Of two separate storylines.
  • The Corruptor: To many of his cultists.
  • Dark Messiah: Fashions himself as a savior of his people, while being completely insane.
  • Evil Redhead: Until it turned black partway through Jigsaw Puzzle.
  • Good Powers, Bad People: He is a crazy cult leader who has Healing Hands, which he notably uses to resurrect Jigsaw when he was working for him.
  • Hollywood Satanism: After his cult fell apart, he became a worshipper of Satan.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Rev's based on Jim Jones, the leader of People's Temple cult whose base of operations was also in South America.
  • Siblings in Crime: He initially worked alongside his sister, but he very clearly hated her, and presumably only kept her around because she was useful.
    • Ironically, the feeling didn't seem to mutual, as she tried to save him from the Punisher.
  • Sinister Minister: They don't call him "The Rev" for nothing.
  • Would Hurt a Child: After the Punisher destroys his shipment of drugs, the Rev vents his frustration over this by dismembering a random suburban family.

    Sniper 

Sniper

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Alter Ego: Rich von Burian

First Appearance: The Punisher War Journal Vol. 1, #4 (1989)

"I know that slippery *#%&# as well as I know myself. I know how he feels - what he thinks. That makes him predictable to me. I'm ready to nail his hide."

Von Burian was part of Frank's military unit in The Vietnam War. After the conflict, he was hired by the DEA for illegal drug operations. He later became a mercenary whose brand of work made him a target to the Punisher.


  • Adaptation Name Change: He was likely the basis for Gosnell from Season Two of Daredevil.
  • Cold Sniper: As his mercenary-name suggests, he is quite handy with the sniper rifle.
  • Creepy Blue Eyes: Sports some of the creepiest in the series.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has some serious facial scarring in his last appearance, even missing his lips.
  • Hired Guns: He's loyal to anyone who pays him enough.
  • It's Personal with the Dragon: Tends to hire himself out to other people, but has a personal beef with the Punisher due to having remorselessly murdered several men they served together with in Vietnam.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Takes out Damage when he has the advantage over Punisher so that he can fight him personally. Their next fight is Burian's last.
  • Oddly Shaped Sword: He uses a triangular punch-knife as a melee weapon.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: He feels that the Punisher owes him big time, and is not happy when the "honor" of killing him is given to someone else.
  • Sadistic Choice: He holds a woman at knife-point and a child at gunpoint, and attempts to force the Punisher to choose which one he should kill in front of the other.
  • The Von Trope Family: And definitely part of the evil side of the trope.

    Damage 

Damage

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/damagepunisher.jpg

Alter Ego: Jaime Ortiz

First Appearance: The Punisher War Journal Vol. 1, #8 (1989)

"Geez! That would've hurt if I was still all flesh and blood. Now I'll just have to order a spare from the shop!"

Damage was a gang member who was mangled by the Punisher's Battle Van's defense-mechanisms. In an act of Cruel Mercy, Frank decided to let him continue to live in agony, and dropped his crushed body off at a nearby hospital. He was then recruited by a project of the Kingpin's that rebuilt him into a killing machine.


  • All There in the Manual: His real name was revealed in the Marvel Knights Encyclopedia.
  • Ax-Crazy: He's introduced frenziedly machine-gunning down a defiant shopkeeper in the streets in broad daylight, not noticing or simply not caring that a woman and her baby are in the way.
  • Cutscene Boss: He's the owner of the crack house that makes up the tutorial level of the 2005 game. The confrontation with him at the end of the stage consists of an interrogation mini-game that ends with the Punisher throwing him off of a multi-story ledge and into the path of a car.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Was a tough gang leader willing to make a pre-emptive strike at the Punisher, before his mutilation and augmentation.
  • Evil Knockoff: He is turned into a duplicate of the Punisher so that Frank can be framed for killing innocents.
  • Fire-Breathing Weapon: One of his weapons is a flamethrower.
  • Gangbangers: Former member of the Bunsen Burners.
  • Implacable Man: Granted, he does have the advantage of cybernetics, but he takes a lot of damage, including missing limbs, at the hands of the Punisher and Wolverine, and keeps on coming.
  • Pet the Dog: A thoroughly unpleasant individual, when he's first testing his new abilities, he's seemingly attacked by the Punisher, who he kills. Afterwards, the Kingpin's assistant informs him that it wasn't the real Punisher, but a disobedient employee of the Kingpin's who was told he'd be forgiven if he could beat Damage, or his family would be compensated as long as he put up a good fight. When she asks Damage if he thinks he put up a good fight, he says "He was pitiful—but he tried. What the hell!"
  • Porn Stache: Sported a fairly thin one as a human.
  • The Power of Hate: He would have departed from life when he was comatose if it wasn't for the Kingpin's lackey questioning him about the person he hated the most.
  • Shock and Awe: He can use his cybernetic features to generate electricity.
    Damage: You look tired... no energy left? I can fix that! *TZZZAPP*
  • Shoulder Cannon: It's a minigun.
  • We Can Rebuild Him: He was rebuilt into a Cyborg with the Kingpin's money and Reaver technology, with a variety of tricks up his sleeve. After his defeat at the hands of the Punisher and Wolverine, it is suggested that he can be rebuilt again, if he ever was.

    Saracen 

Saracen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/237542-80984-saracen_199.jpg

Alter Ego: Muzzafar Lambert

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 2, #22 (1989)

"You're an interesting man... life will be duller without you."

A mercenary and terrorist-for-hire of Middle Eastern extraction, Muzaffar Lambert, alias Saracen, brooked no interference with his operations. When Frank Castle destroyed one of his missions, Saracen took it personally, kicking off a rivalry that would result in the deaths of Castle's only remaining relatives, and Lambert himself.


  • All There in the Manual: His real name was revealed in the Marvel Knights Encyclopedia.
  • Badass Normal: Like most of Castle's enemies, Saracen had no superhuman powers. He earns points, however, for being one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, in a 'verse where a sizable portion of the population can shoot lasers out of their orifices and throw cars around like dolls.
  • Characterization Marches On: In his two-part First Appearance he spoke slightly broken English, and displayed none of the traits he would later possess. Adding to the oddity is the fact that neither he nor the Punisher bring up their previous encounter when they meet face to face again in The Sicilian Saga.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He kills without remorse, but he refuses to be unfaithful to his wife.
  • Good Counterpart: His equivalent on Earth-1009 is a hero, and a member of the Royal Avengers.
  • Good Hair, Evil Hair: Has a classically evil moustache.
  • Greed: His primary motivation.
  • Happily Married: Apparently, given his refusal to betray her.
  • Highly-Visible Ninja: Highly visible assassin anyway. Saracen's purple and red costumes are pretty obvious.
  • Hired Guns: Lambert has no particular allegiances, save to his money.
  • It's Personal: He kills the Punisher's aunt and uncle, Frank's last remaining family members.
  • Killed Off for Real: The Punisher hacked him to bits in a Sword Fight.
  • Manly Facial Hair: He's got a pretty impressive mustache, which goes well with his general manliness.
  • Master Swordsman: Saracen was very proficient with his scimitar.
  • The Mole: Castle first met Saracen when they were both infiltrating a so-called ninja school. They allied at the time, with neither aware of the other's real goals or reasons for being there.
  • Only in It for the Money: Saracen was loyal only to his paycheck.
  • Professional Killer: As a terrorist-for-hire, assassination is certainly within his purview.
  • Recurring Character: Made nine appearances, which for a Punisher villain is pretty good.
  • Sinister Scimitar: As part of his stereotypically Arab persona.
  • Sleeves Are for Wimps: As seen in the picture, Saracen's uniform is void of sleeves.
  • Terrorist Without A Cause: A terrorist-for-hire to be exact, with his only cause being enriching himself.
  • You Killed My Father: You killed my aunt and uncle, actually. There's a reason Castle wanted this guy dead.

    Colonel De Sade 

Colonel De Sade

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First Appearance: The Punisher Summer Special #1 (1991)

"The fact I derive pleasure from cruelty doesn't make me feel guilty, Frank... guilt is ridiculous. There is no "good" or "bad". There is only pleasure and pain... with no heaven or hell at the end of it!"

A sadistic former interrogator for "the company" during The Vietnam War, De Sade later caught the Punisher's eye when he went into bank robbing business and, after their first confrontation, directing snuff movies.


  • Bad Boss: Puts his own assistant in one of his snuff films just because he ran out of extras.
  • Bait-and-Switch: During a bank robbery, it looks like he is going to do something horrible to a bystander, but he instead just... gives her a haircut.
  • Combat Sadomasochist: His weapons put more emphasis on causing pain (i.e. a bazooka that shoots barbed wire) than permanently neutralizing his targets. He also enjoys being in the receiving end of Punisher's hurting during their confrontations.
    De Sade: Oh this is beautiful Punisher... so sadistic!
  • Dirty Coward: Willing to use a Human Shield when he's cornered.
  • Dual Wielding: He dual-wields two whips in his second and final appearance.
  • Shout-Out: He is obviously nicknamed after Marquis de Sade, whose controversial literary works inspired the use of the term "sadism".
  • Torture Technician: His job in the Vietnam conflict was to torture locals for answers.

    Thorn 

Thorn

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Alter Ego: Salvatore "Sal" Carbone

First Appearance: The Punisher War Zone Vol. 1, #1 (1992)

"Cannot rest until the stone-face man dies. Cannot rest until I stand over him. Until I see him breathe his last breath."

Sal was the younger brother of mob boss Julius Carbone, who was nearly killed when Frank (who was infiltrating the Carbone organization as Johnny Tower) chased 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.


  • The Bad Guy Wins: Sort of. He never succeeds in getting revenge against the Punisher, but does kill his treacherous brother Julius, and survives all of his run-ins with the Punisher.
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Develops these when he turns into what can be described as a walking corpse.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Before his transformation into Thorn, dialogue hints that Sal gets along well with his niece Rosalie. He's also upset when his Red Shirt nephew Marco (the son of an otherwise unmentioned third Carbone sibling) is killed while Julius cares more about how Marco and his companions accomplished their objective before dying.
  • Evil Uncle: Zigzagged. He does try to kill his niece Rosalie, contributing to her Start of Darkness, but due to his amnesia he didn't know she was his niece.
  • Feel No Pain: Sal doesn't register any pain, no matter how often he's shot or hit.
  • Functional Addict: Revealed to be a heavy drug user, which serves as a form of Acquired Poison Immunity when Frank and Mickey drug him before trying to kill him.
  • The Gunslinger: His last appearance shows him easily wielding dual assault rifles.
  • Hot-Blooded: Back when he was normal.
  • Identity Amnesia: He doesn't (initially) know who he is, but he knows whom he's out to get.
  • Implacable Man: After his dip in the lake, Thorn would push through bullets, shark-infested waters, and even more bullets to get his revenge.
  • Line-of-Sight Name: When a trucker who is giving him a lift asks about his name, he gives out "Thorn", a word which he saw on a passing road sign.
  • Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Thorn refuses to sleep while preying on his targets. This extends to refusing to die from his wounds and exhaustion.
    Thorn: I was killed so long ago. But I cannot rest. Not until I have destroyed those who destroyed me.
  • Pet the Dog: IN a somewhat twisted sense: he does occasionally pay innocent bystanders for a ride whenever he has something to offer rather than just kill them (although if they reject his offer, then killing them is back on the table).
  • Properly Paranoid: The only Carbone to be suspicious of Frank when he was undercover in the family.
  • The Quiet One: Speaks only when he has to, the rest is left to Inner Monologue.
  • Revenge Before Reason: He only wants to take revenge on those who left him for dead, nothing else.
  • The Stoic: His near-death experience left him devoid of any emotion.
  • That Man Is Dead: Even when he learns about his past, he rejects it and continues his quest.
    Thorn: Name is Thorn now. Not Sal. Thorn.
  • We Have Reserves: Averted, before he became Thorn, he was appalled at one point by some losses they'd taken, which his brother Julius considered acceptable losses. The fact that one of the dead men was their nephew probably had something to do with it.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: After his last encounter with the Punisher, he lands on a moving vehicle which takes him into Newark. Presumably, he is still there.

    Rosalie Carbone 

Rosalie Carbone

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First Appearance: The Punisher War Zone Vol. 1, #2 (1992)

"You stupid #$%@! Stop #$%@ing around and come kill this #$%@!!"

Rosalie was the spoiled daughter of Julius Carbone, who had a fling with Frank during his infiltration of her organization. After the death of her father, she swore revenge on the Punisher due to his part in knocking the Carbone family from top of the food chain.


  • Action Survivor: Given the number of times Punisher or her rivals come after her she got to be good at running and dodging bullets, or sometimes staring down assailants, and on a few occasions she's willing to take up a gun herself and lead her men in an attack (although not necessarily with any great competence).
  • Aesop Amnesia: Zigzagged, she does stop trying to kill The Punisher after that turns out badly several times and he spares her life, trying to just lay low for a while. But then, repeated attempts on her life by Carlos Cruz while wearing a Punisher costume cause her to start trying to kill the actual Punisher again, which in turn causes the real punisher to put her back on his list of targets.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Rosalie's last appearance emphasizes how it was hatred for Frank that turned her into a crime lord. She shows a willingness to die if she can take Frank with her, while acknowledging that she did love him once (and still might, to some degree) and wondering if the two of them deserve each other.
  • Ambiguously Christian: She wears a crucifix necklace in some issues but is a hardened criminal and it may just be for decoration.
  • Arranged Marriage: She was arranged to marry an Italian Mafioso's son, but the massacre at the Island of the Sleeping Sharks put a stop to that.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Her Villains Out Shopping tendencies and angry outbursts are often a source of comedy. However, she sends some pretty tough hitmen after the protagonists on occasion, can fight back fiercely when cornered, and maintains a strong position in a male-dominated criminal culture due to having lots of well-earning unsavory rackets and being willing to kill rival gangsters who don't take her seriously.
  • Daddy's Little Villain: Even though she was just a pawn for her gangster father, she still wants to avenge him.
  • Defiant Captive: To Frank at one point, when he's using her as bait to draw out the assassins she sent after him.
  • Disney Villain Death: Meets her presumed end by being wounded with a shot in the back and falling off a roof.
  • Feminine Women Can Cook: Despite her privileged lifestyle, she is able to cook her own food and at one point while she's being held captive by Frank he describes a meal she made for them as not bad.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: She wasn't directly involved in her families crimes until The Punisher showed up, her father, uncle, fiancé, and a whole lot of other people got killed in front of her, and then before leaving The Punisher admitted he'd never cared about her. Her next issue has her walking into a meeting of the family, having a man who objects to her presence killed and preparing to seek revenge. This gets lampshaded by Leslie Geraci, who went to High School with Rosalie.
  • Killed Off for Real: Since Frank sometimes has an aversion to killing women, it took a while before she met her end at the hands of Leslie Geraci.
  • Little "No": During The Punisher: Suicide Run, Rosalie utters a soft but firm "No" when her men urge her to send assassins after Frank during a rare period where she's trying to avoid making him angry at her. When they persist, she repeats the word much louder and throws a wet sponge at them.
  • Lonely Together: She briefly has a moment of this with Enrico, the subject of her Arranged Marriage, during a walk on the beach. At the time Rosalie was still hung up on Johnny Tower (the Punisher's disguise) while Enrico admitted that he isn't planning on succeeding his father as Don (which was the whole point of the marriage/merger), and instead wants to be an actor. the moment was broken by the simultaneous arrivals of the Punisher and his allies, and her uncle, with Enrico being one of the first casualties.
  • Mafia Princess: Was one before Punisher became part of her life.
  • Ms. Fanservice: A lot of her appearances had her bathing or in a bikini.
  • Nerves of Steel: She faces down Bullseye in her panties and a T-shirt, armed with just a pistol, with several dead bodyguards at her feet when he attacks her mansion in the middle of the night demanding payment for his failed attempt to kill The Punisher. Even after he points out how little protection her gun is against someone like him, she stands firm and manages to talk him down.
  • Never Found the Body: She takes a fall off a roof in her last appearance and is never seen again but plenty of Marvel villains have survived worse and some sources just list her as "presumed deceased".
  • The Queenpin: Rosalie starts out as a Mafia Princess before wresting the leadership of the Carbone crime family away from the male capos after her male relatives are all apparently killed. She isn't one of Frank’s more successful enemies, but she doesn't hesitate to put hits out on people.
  • Serendipitous Survival: A few times. Most notably, at one point when she is on Frank's list, while he's cleaning out scores of local gang lords he could never touch before thanks to some new intelligence he got, he blows up her penthouse with a rocket launcher as we hear her giving orders to her security detail from outside, only for the next panel to reveal that she was giving them orders over the phone and was out of town on vacation at the time, making her the only one of Frank's targets aside from the Kingpin to survive that night.
  • Villains Out Shopping: Quite often, a lot of her scenes have her just relaxing by a pool, or buying new clothes.
  • Woman Scorned: A decent part of her vendetta against Frank in particular, and descent into villainy in general comes from how he slept with her during his infiltration of the family, then casually said that it didn't mean anything while contemplating whether or not to kill her right after she saw her father die and left her here, crying.

    Rapido 

Rapido

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rapidofeariself.jpg

Alter Ego: Roussel Dupont

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 2, #65 (1992)

"Would you look at this. I have seen some terrible things in my day, but this... this is the work of a true master!"

A former member of the French Foreign Legion turned mercenary-for-hire, with a chain-gun in place of his right arm.


    Roc 

Roc

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rocsoff.jpg

First Appearance: The Punisher War Zone Vol. 1, #8 (1992)

"I'm gonna kill you, Castle. With my bare hands— like I always kill."

Roc was one of the six mercenaries hired by Rosalie Carbone to kill the Punisher after he offed her father, and the only one to survive to challenge him for the second time.


  • Born in the Wrong Century: As he's beating the Punisher up, he claims that he should have been a gladiator in the Roman colisseum.
  • The Brute: He's the muscle among the killers hired by Rosalie Carbone, specializing in close combat with his strength and size.
  • Depending on the Writer: He's a lot more chatty in his second appearance than he was in his original one.
  • Feel No Pain: He was born with dead nerve endings, making him unable to register any pain inflicted upon him.
  • Genius Bruiser: He's quite clever, if him harassing Frank by calling the cops to the places that he's about to hit to screw up his attacks is any indication.
  • Hired Guns: He's a mercenary who prefers to kill with his bare hands.
  • Implacable Man: Given that he's Made of Iron. He just keeps on coming in a fight.
  • Made of Iron: First of all he survived being shot in the head, and during his final fight against Punisher, he keeps on going even after his neck is snapped and has his head is twisted sideways.
  • No Kill like Overkill: Punisher manages to defeat him by ripping out his throat, but to make sure he stays dead, he puts Roc's body on a barge, fills it with plastic explosives and blows him up.
  • Spanner in the Works: Before attacking Punisher again directly, he follows him and keeps calling cops to the places he's about to hit to mess with his war.
  • Villain Team-Up: Worked with two other assassins, Cane and COMbat, while trying to collect the bounty on the Punisher.

    Recoil 

Recoil

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_cartoonpe.jpg

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 2, #71 (1992)

"It's wabbit, duck and Punisher season."

Recoil was an enforcer working for a drug pusher calling himself The Master of Crack (MC for short), who was fond of cartoons.


  • The Dragon: For his boss MC.
  • Perpetual Smiler: He's constantly smiling through carnage and destruction. He stops doing it when he completely loses it while trying to kill the Punisher.
  • Pop-Cultured Badass: Recoil is an efficient cartel gunman who loves talking about cartoons.
  • Sinister Shades: He wears a pair of round specs.
  • Spikes of Villainy: He wears a longcoat that has spiked shoulderpads.
  • Villain Respect: Recoil is impressed by Frank's Made of Iron perseverance during their first fight.
  • Villainous Breakdown: He treats his encounters with the Punisher as a game until he ends up taking a faceful of his employer's product by force and goes completely out of his mind.

    Mondo Pain 

Mondo Pain

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/83adea10168dd914defcd81e534955ff.jpg

Alter Ego: Edmondo Paina

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 2, #85 (1993)

"You don't know who I am, do you? They call me Mondo Pain. I like to think there's a reason for that. Go ahead. Pick it up. Of course, if you shoot and miss... well... I'd barely be able to contain my rage. I might hurt you—without thinking about it—and I much prefer to think about it..."

A demented psycho who was contracted to deal with The Punisher. After Castle humiliated him, Pain forced his way into another group that he knew The Punisher was targeting, in order that he might gain his revenge.


  • Always Camp: A bit of a dandy, to the point that he could be perceived as Ambiguously Camp Gay were it not for scenes like the one where he implies that he wants to rape Lynn Michaels.
  • Ax-Crazy: A bloodthirsty sadist with a penchant for inflicting pain, both on himself and others. He at one point chastises a client for hiring him and expecting him to not kill people should the opportunity to do so present itself.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Happily betrays both Mr. Ballard, his first employer, and Rosalie Carbone.
  • Combat Sadomasochist: Getting hurt just gets him in the mood for more.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: While laying low, the Punisher had the misfortune of running into Mondo's sister, Viva, who was also an assassin, albeit a far more professional one.
    Viva: There's no price for him! He's nobody! When someone pays us to kill him, then we kill him.
    Goose: Okay. Yeah, okay. You're right, but your brother would've done him.
    Viva: And that's why my brother's a--
  • Karma Houdini: He survives his run-ins with the Punisher and the Lady Punisher, and is last shown padding his pockets with the money that he blackmailed Rosalie Carbone into forking over in exchange for a War Journal containing compromising information about her fling with Frank.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: If the info boxes are to be believed, Pain is his actual surname.
  • Nightmare Face: He likes to psyche out his opponents by displaying a rictus grin, which coupled with his scarred face is enough to give them a pause. Except for the Punisher, who has seen worse with the likes of Jigsaw and proceeds to simply shoot Mondo.
  • Psycho for Hire: And sometimes he won't even bother to wait for that pesky "hiring" part, he just walks up to someone and forces himself into their organization.
  • Unexplained Recovery: Like many Marvel villains (although not to many Punisher ones) he's left for dead at the end of his first appearance with a chest wound but shows up later as good as new.

    Olivier 

Olivier

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ae0a3899b2355819731b3cacd138efe6.jpg

First Appearance: Marvel Super-Action #1 (1976, as Frank Costa); The Punisher Vol. 4, #1 (1998, as Olivier)

"The others... the big guys... the devils, they thought I got a little too big for my britches. So they threw me out. Trapped me in a stillborn baby, purged of my memory of Hell, and my ambition... they thought. Mephisto. Satannish. Lucifer. Satan. Murray. I'll bet they thought that was really funny. They didn't count on me being born into a mob family. They didn't count on me killing. They didn't count on the blood giving me back my memory. If I was going to go back, I needed an edge. I needed power. An engine of death and sacrifice. I made you that engine, and all it cost was your family's blood."

The Prince of the Archangels, Olivier sided with Lucifer in his rebellion against God, and as such was cast down to the netherworld, where he became a Hell-lord. The other devils, disapproving of Olivier's ambitions and methods, temporarily banded together to banish him to Earth, where he was trapped in the body of the stillborn Frank Costa. After committing murder, Olivier's memories of his previous life returned, and he subsequently used his powers to become the head of the Costa branch of the Maggia, and to manipulate a young Frank Castle into becoming the Punisher as apart of a complex plan that would see Olivier very nearly conquering both Earth and Hell.


  • Big Bad: Of The Punisher: Purgatory miniseries.
  • The Cameo: His only appearance subsequent to Purgatory was as an attendee to the Devil's Advocacy during Fear Itself, though he and a bunch of other high-level demons were apparently working behind the scenes in the Nightcrawler storyline "The Devil Inside".
  • Fallen Angel: He's one of the few Marvel demons that is one, and not just an interdimensional entity or an Elder God spawn.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: For the franchise in general, being the one who created the Punisher. Khonshu implies that the two are still connected, in spite of their attempts to sever ties in Purgatory.

    Revelation 

Revelation

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/revelationpun.jpg

First Appearance: Wolverine/The Punisher: Revelation #1 (1999)

"I'll reach paradise. Somehow. And then I can see my parents again, in Heaven. I can finally tell them I'm sorry."

The second major threat during the Punisher's "angelic" phase, Revelation was a Morlocknote , who was put into cryogenic sleep some time ago due to her mutant power that slowly caused everyone close to her to die. After she is accidentally woken up, she starts making her way to the surface without realizing that her mutant power is still causing people to get sick.


  • Big Bad: Of Wolverine/Punisher: Revelation crossover miniseries, though not out of malice.
  • Doom Magnet: Her power is to weaken, sicken or even kill almost anyone in a certain radius to her.
  • I Want My Mommy!: A tragic, dramatic example. She's confused and trying to reunite with her parents, but in a destructive way.
  • Obliviously Evil: Due to her Christian upbringing, she started to hallucinate her time being cryogenically frozen as being in Hell. Once she is freed, the hallucinations continue and she sees the underground surroundings around her as being Hell as well, and she thinks that her journey to surface is one to Heaven. Because of that, she also sees any living creature in her way as a demon trying to stop her.
  • Typhoid Mary: After being woken up from her cryogenical sleep, she starts making her way up to "Heaven" (actually the regular surface) through "Hell" (the underground tunnels), without realizing that the death field around her is still hurting living beings.

    Ma Gnucci 

Ma Gnucci

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c3786ac70369c7d4bbfb9e4f2fc12163.jpg

Alter Ego: Isabella Carmela Magdalena Gnucci

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 5, #4 (2000)

"You scum! You vicious, evil scum! You're no better than I am, Punisher! You think you're better, you think you're on the side of justice, but you're wrong! You're a serial killer, Punisher! You're insane! It's mass murder, whatever you want to call it! It's genocide! What'll you do, keep going 'til we're all dead? Will that make you happy, you sick, twisted creep?! You should put a bullet in your own head, Punisher! That's the only way you'll get any peace! And you know, it too! You're a dead man walking, Punisher! You are damned!"

The cantankerous head of the Gnucci crime family, which rivaled the Maggia, Ma and her organization became the Punisher's primary targets when he returned to combating mundane crime following the events of Purgatory and Revelation. After eliminating her three sons and her brother, the Punisher sicced a sleuth of zoo polar bears on Ma, but she survived (sans her limbs and scalp) and pooled all of her resources into taking down Castle.


  • Back from the Dead: Years after her fiery death at the hands of the Punisher, Ma supposedly came back from the dead seeking revenge, but this turned out to merely be an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the second Elite.
  • Bad Boss: She's pretty nasty to her employees. After her cousin offends her by asking how she's doing after she loses her limbs. She orders one of her henchmen to shoot him. When he refuses, she tells another mook to shoot them both. When he refuses, she finally gets another goon to kill all three of them. She also makes of her men throw up after he sees her without her wig, purely for the fun of it.
  • Determinator: She vows that no matter how long it takes or how much money it costs, one day she'll walk again. That picture you see is of her throwing herself out of her burning house, and then trying to attack Frank by biting his ankle.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Zigzagged. She takes losing her sons and brother pretty hard, but is willing to kill her cousin in a fit of pettiness and put her nephew in harms way with the terms of her will
  • Evil Cripple: Lost all of her limbs to polar bears, but that didn't stop her from running her organization.
  • Evil Matriarch: Being an old woman didn't stop her from becoming an utterly ruthless crime boss. Not even her relatives are safe from her wrath.
  • Expy Of Marie L'Angelle from Garth Ennis's other comic Preacher being an axe crazy evil matriarch confined to a wheelchair who she also bears a passing resemblence too.
  • On One Condition: She left everything to her nephew, but a clause in her will meant that he could only claim the inheritance in the event of the Punisher's death. Deadpool gets wind of this, and convinces the nephew to hire him to rub out Frank. Hilarity predictably ensues.
  • Outliving One's Offspring: Frank killed all three of her sons. In one issue. From what we see, she didn't take it well.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The recipient of. After Castle kills The Russian and shows up with his head in tow, he announces he's only interested in Ma Gnuccie at the moment. Her remaining henchman are quick to take Castle up on his offer and walk out the door.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: When she orders a hit put on the animal who mutilated her, one of her henchman asks if she means the polar bear Castle sicced on her. Ma Gnucci clarifies through gritted teeth, "The Punisher!"
  • Villain Has a Point: See her page quote regarding her "Reason You Suck" Speech towards Frank.

    The Russian 

The Russian

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/punruss.jpg

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 5, #8 (2000)

"Dosvidanja, Big Boy! The Russian really has to hand it to you!!"

A hulking giant from Smolensk with strength and durability bordering on the superhuman, the relentlessly cheerful Russian exists to mock Frank Castle's ability to kill people. Initially hired by Ma Gnucci, the Russian has clashed with the Punisher on several occasions, and despite seemingly dying a number of times, always comes back.


  • Affably Evil: Murderous, violent and psychopathic. He is, nonetheless, incredibly friendly to his enemies, actively complimenting and joking with them mid-fight.
  • Ascended Fanboy: He is a huge fan of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and Spider-Man, and is the president of his local chapter of the Daredevil: Man Without Fear Fan Club.
  • Ass Shove: Implied. When reviewing photos of the Russian's handiwork, Detective Soap comes across one that nearly makes him vomit while stammering, "How...how did he get his head up his...?"
  • Badass Normal: Can take an absurd amount of punishment and dish it out as well for a non-enhanced mortal.
  • Berserk Button: His affable persona shatters when Frank burns his hand, causing him to lash out in a rage, and cluing Frank into the fact that the Russian can't stand heat.
  • Blood Knight: He went to Afghanistan for a vacation and is described as taking jobs for either money or fun.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Subverted. Cracks a joke about Ma Gnucci losing all four of her limbs to her face but it's more out of good natured ribbing than actual malice. Ma Gnucci tolerates it as she realizes the Russian is the one person she does NOT want to make an enemy out of, especially since he's the one person who can possibly kill Frank Castle.
  • Came Back Wrong: A side effect of the process that brought him back as a cyborg gave him ridiculously huge breasts, but he's the only one not to care. In fact, he likes them.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: Arrived late to Ma Gnucci because during his flight, he remembered he was wanted in multiple states. (As the Russian claims, his memory hasn't been so great after they took a bullet out of his head.) So he decided to exit the plane-while it was still in flight-causing it to crash. The Russian walked away with only temporary amnesia.
  • Comedic Sociopath: He may be an inhuman killer, but damn if the Russian isn't fun to read.
  • Creepy Cross Dresser: After coming back from the dead, and growing a pair of mammoth boobs as a side effect, his first rematch against Frank has him dressed in drag.
  • Cyborg: Was rebuilt from the ground up after Castle smothered and beheaded him through a combination of cybernetics, genetic alteration, and organ transplants including three hearts and a pair of gorilla lungs.
  • Dirty Commies: Expresses some Communist sentiments, though he's also a big fan of capitalism and consumer society.
  • Dumb Muscle: Huge, incredibly strong yet not particularly intelligent.
  • Foil: The always happy Russian makes for an effective comedic foil to the grim and serious Punisher.
  • Go Out with a Smile: Frank finally kills him for good by tying him to a nuclear bomb just as it's deployed during the climax of the Grand Nixon Island arc, obliberating him alongside the Big Bad and every other living thing on the island. The Russian can only grin as he falls to his doom.
  • Husky Russkie: Eight feet tall, five hundred pounds, and hailing from Smolensk, Russia.
  • Immune to Bullets: Doesn't react at all when shot.
  • Joker Immunity: He's been stabbed, shot, beaten, burned, decapitated, and nuked. Only the last one seems to have taken, and even that may be temporary.
  • Kick the Dog: Upon noticing the Punisher's neighbors, he exclaims, "Ah! These are your little friends, yes? When the Russian gets through with you, imagine the terrible things that will happen to them!"
  • Made of Iron: To the point that some even doubt he's even human. Later becomes Made Of Titanium after he's brought back as a cyborg.
  • Nuke 'em: His most recent exit was at the hands of an atomic missile.
  • No-Sell: Completely ignores everything Frank throws at him at first, without so much as a flinch. Until Frank manages to burn his hand with a stovetop burner, that is.
  • Off with His Head!: The Punisher tore off his head and presented it to Ma Gnucci. This wasn't what killed him though, as he'd been smothered to death by Frank crushing him under his neighbor Mr. Bumpo, who was massively obese.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: He's never called anything other than "The Russian", and he always refers to himself as such.
  • Super-Strength: The Russian's strength crosses into the metahuman. He can punch through walls, ripped a toilet out of the floor and swung it like a club, and once crushed a man while trying to hug him.
  • Supervillain: Possess superhuman strength and durability.
  • There's No Kill like Overkill: It took being chained to a dropped atomic bomb to kill him for good. Maybe.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: As it turns out, his skin is extremely sensitive and has a low tolerance for heat. A hot pizza thrown in his face is enough to leave him exposed long enough for the kill.

    Medallion 

Medallion

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/medohwhy.jpg

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 6, #9 (2002)

"I shall embark upon nothing less than a thorough cleansing... an organized, self-escalating campaign... a war of the taxicabs! Drivers killing drivers! Passengers in the crossfire! Big weapons giving way to bigger! Body counts climbing! Valor! Cowardice! Women in mourning! Orphans in the street! And songs! Great songs!"

An oddball criminal mastermind who has a tendency of coming up with various bizarre evil plans against the populace of New York before even finishing the previous one. He gets Punisher's attention when he is amidst of making taxicab drivers wage a war against each other.


  • Cloud Cuckoolander: He insists on being nude while scheming with his cohorts. He also habitually abandons said schemes when he comes up with a crazier one.
  • Expy: His face is similar to Goldfinger from the James Bond movie of the same name. To hammer this in, he even has a butler who serves mint juleps and a mook refers to him as a person "who thinks he's Goldfinger".
  • Fat Bastard: He's very fat, and unfortunately insists upon being in little clothing as possible most of the time.
  • Fat Comic Relief: He's deliberately as bizarre and ridiculous as possible to the point where it's easy to say that he's genuinely out of his mind, and his schemes are absurd as ridiculous as he is as a character.
  • Large Ham: No pun intended. But he has a very dramatic and theatrical way of speaking, as shown in his quote above.
  • Laughably Evil: He is a weirdo who comes up with bizarre plans like making taxi drivers fight each other for no apparent reason, insists on being naked while coming up with said plans, and will abandon them for even crazier plans, like making ambulance drivers fight each other for no reason.
  • Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: He clearly has great amounts of wealth to sink into pointless schemes, but it is never revealed where it comes from.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is unknown, he's just known as The Medallion.
  • Squashed Flat: How he finally buys it.
  • Zany Scheme: He comes up with bizarre evil plans, then abandons them when he comes up with even crazier ones.

    Man Down Below 

Man Down Below

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mdbpun.jpg

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 6, #24 (2003)

"You bring me people like you and I give you lots of money. And then you can buy stuff, like clothes to wear and food to eat. Then the strong ones can stay with you... and the weak ones can stay with me...."

An unnamed man who had homeless people bring him corpses so that he could hide under them.


  • Beyond Redemption: Throughout the whole arc, social worker Jen Cooke shows contempt for the Punisher's lethal methods, going on about how the homeless are being manipulated, even pointing out how the Man Down Below is clearly mentally ill instead of pure evil (although she showed utter disgust at the bodies he had stashed and how her friend Paul had been critically wounded by his abductors). Once she and the Punisher return to try and rescue Paul, they unfortunately discover that he has already bled out from his wounds and that the pile of bodies is even bigger than initially thought. When the man attempts to make off with Paul's body, treating her friend as nothing more than an object, Jen snaps and proceeds to furiously beat him to a pulp, even giving the Punisher the okay to burn him alive after.
  • Buried in a Pile of Corpses: The source of his Freudian Excuse, though it was only a single corpse, that of his mother, but she was large enough this still counts.
  • Eye Scream: During Jen's brutal beatdown of him, she punches him so hard that his right eye pops out of its socket.
  • Freudian Excuse: Because he was trapped for days under his grossly overweight mother's corpse when she died from a heart attack as a child and had to eat his way out, he developed a fixation of lying under corpses and eating them so that he can be reminded of her.
  • Kill It with Fire: His final fate at the hands of the Punisher, who roasts him and his mass grave pile with a flamethrower. And to ensure the horrible mess is gone for good, Castle jams the fuel-tank of said flamethrower into the guy's chest, shoving him deep into the burning bodies before he and Jen escape. Cue one massive explosion a few panels later.
  • King of the Homeless: By paying the homeless of New York, he orders them around to kill and collect the weaker members among themselves to provide corpses to the pile he likes to be under of. He is discovered when one of them attacks a social worker who is then rescued by the Punisher, who then finds about his operation.
  • Minor Injury Overreaction: He barely reacts to Jen decking out his eyeball, instead embracing her with a smile as he fondly reminiscences about his mother, much to her horror and disgust.
  • Momma's Boy: He was heavily doted by his mother as a child, and after her death, he started to become sickly dependent on their last moments together.
  • No Name Given: He and his mother are never named.
  • Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: No real explanation is given for where he's getting the resources (especially the money) that he uses to keep his minions content, especially since it's insinuated that he spends all of his time lounging around in his mountain of festering carcasses.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: It's noted that he talks and sounds like "a little boy or something".

    Lady Gorgon 

Lady Gorgon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gorgon_frankencastle.jpg

Alter Ego: Tanya Adrian

First Appearance: Punisher War Journal Vol. 2, #20 (2008)

"Stubborn little soul. You hold too tightly—oblivious to the inevitable conclusion. You can't run from a telepath, Frank. You shouldn't run at all. Death is but the first step and once through you will be more powerful than you can imagine. You needn't be afraid. I'm going to show you, Frank. Show you how glorious the release will be. It's so easy, Frank. Swimming in the Land of the Dead will liberate you of all you were or ever will be. Return to me. Accept me as your Jonin. You will rise from the darkness. You will carry my mark and serve the holy cause of the Hand."

An assassin for the ninja organization The Hand.


    Robert Hellsgaard 

Robert Hellsgaard

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b93328ace794d73be56e495f81a40813.jpg

First Appearance: Punisher Vol. 8, #12 (2010)

"His brutal kind massacred my family. So I hunted and killed his. Though gruesome, our families died for a reason: To set us on our crusades. With their lives torn away—we are left empty. And only a man who is wholly vacant can effectively wage war."

A monster hunter who was the Punisher's first major villain during his days as Franken-Castle.


  • The Call Knows Where You Live: Despite his genius in engineering, he just wanted to live happily with his family doing common work. Then he was forced to kill werewolves that were attacking his village, including his now-transformed family. After being recruited by Ulysses Bloodstone, he dedicated his craft to coming up with effective ways to slay monsters.
  • Evil Counterpart: Much like the then-current incarnation of Frank, he is an undead guy who is kept alive artificially. However, he is evil because he wants kill all monsters, while Frank seeks to protect them.
    Henry: Figures since his family was killed by monsters he's within his rights to kill whoever he sees as a... um... anyway...
  • Eyepatch of Power: He lost his right eye during his days with Ulysses Bloodstone, and covered it with an eyepatch.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Happened to him twofold when he first donned his trademark battle-suit; first he was fried by the suit's internal workings when Dracula cut off the tubes that protected him from that, and then he was thrown into the dimension that he had intended to use to get rid of unkillable monsters.
  • Hunter of Monsters: His modus operandi, with a hefty dose of Van Helsing Hate Crimes. He even worked with Ulysses Bloodstone, one of the most famous incarnations of this trope in Marvel.
  • Remember the New Guy?: His former partner Ulysses Bloodstone has appeared in Marvel titles since the seventies; Hellsgaard's contributions to his work weren't mentioned until his appearance in The Punisher.
  • Van Helsing Hate Crimes: He hunts all monsters, even the sapient and docile ones that are no danger to anyone. Henry also mentions that he's begun targeting mutants and baseline humans who just happen to be physically abnormal in some way.

    The Exchange 

The Exchange


Doctor Stephanie Gerard

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2149876-punisher_v_8__5_9831.jpg

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 9, #2 (2011)

"If you want attention, feel free to dust off your costumes and go back to being beaten bloody by the likes of the Avengers. I'm sure A.I.M. or Hydra or even Hive will be glad to have you back. They're always looking for fresh cannon fodder. Meeting is adjourned. Happy Thanksgiving."

A former AIM scientist, Stephanie Gerard left her parent organization to set up a new criminal organization, the Exchange. Wearing civilian clothes instead of spandex, she and her allies recruit former AIM and Hydra personnel in the interests of creating a new force in the underworld.


  • Anti-Villain: At least when compared to most of the Punisher's other foes. Stephanie has no interest in hurting innocent people (executing the sole surviving one of her thugs who shot up Rachel's wedding), tries to run her organization with a minimum of casualties, and in general tries to get things accomplished with a minimum of bloodshed and fuss.
  • Big Bad: Of Greg Rucka's sixteen issue run.
  • The Chessmaster: She plans out her conflicts with the Punisher and rivals gangs, and lasts a decent time against them as a result.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Is friends with Chris Poulsen, and may be starting to return his crush by the end.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Reads the henchmen who shot up Rachel Cole-Alves' wedding the riot act before executing him for his sloppiness.
  • Evil Genius: A capable tactician and weapons maker who uses her talents for crime.
  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Downplayed. She wears glasses and while she does have some standards, but doesn't agonize over the deaths her organization causes.
  • Mad Scientist: She used to be.
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: She's "Doctor" Gerard, used to work for AIM, and is now going into organized crime.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: Stephanie's not a fighter, which is why she keeps Chris Poulsen on the payroll.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Gerard wants to get things done as efficiently as possible, with no unnecessary violence. The reason she left AIM was because she felt that status as borderline Card Carrying Villains was preventing them from accomplishing anything.
  • Spanner in the Works: Despite all her plans, one group of trigger happy Henchmen leads to the Punisher and Cole-Alves gunning for her.
  • Tranquil Fury: When she's ordering Molloy killed.
  • Underestimating Badassery: Gerard was so confident in her technology and superior planning, she let Cole-Alves (posing as a weapons dealer) right into her office despite knowing who she was and who she was working with. She even shoots down Poulsen's warnings and orders him to stay in his office while she decides to gloat at Cole-Alves. This leads to her getting garroted.
  • Villainous Friendship: Type I with Chris Poulsen.
  • You Have Failed Me: Had Liam Malloy killed for shooting up the Cole-Alves wedding and leading the Punisher to them.


Christian "Chris" Poulsen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chris_poulsen_4018.jpg

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 9, #2 (2011)

"I know you saw that, Frank... you and your girlfriend, you saw that and you couldn't do anything about it. I called the police, you know, right after you killed Stephanie... called the N.Y.P.D. and told them you were in the building, that you were murdering all these people... they're coming in any second, now, coming with gas and guns to put you down like the rabid dog you are... you killed her, Frank. She never looked at me until twice today, but I loved her, and you killed her... and when you did that, you killed me, too. So we'll all die together. You and me and the missus... all of us like the bastards we are... like we deserve..."

A one-time operative for SHIELD, Chris Poulsen is Stephanie Gerard's partner, confidante, and muscle. He handles the wet work for the Exchange, and has a massive crush on Stephanie.


  • Affably Evil: Chris was an easy going guy prior to Gerard's death, spending most of his time counseling caution or flirting with Stephanie.
  • Antivillain: There was nothing particularly nasty about Poulsen, at least prior to his Villainous Breakdown.
  • Ax-Crazy: By the end.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: He's generally well-dressed and is formidable with his fists and guns.
  • Badass Longcoat: Usually wore a trench coat over his suit.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Chris' killing spree in issue fifteen gets him everything he wanted, leaving the Punisher and Cole-Alves on the run from the police, their relationship with law enforcement apparently ruined.
  • Berserk Button: Hurting Stephanie. When Alves kills her, Chris goes on a rampage that results in a double-digit body count.
  • Bodyguard Crush: On Stephanie
  • The Coats Are Off: Ditches his Badass Longcoat and his suit during his last battle with Castle and Cole-Alves.
  • Cop Killer: Guns down two police officers, and, as a bonus, sets up the events that result in Rachel Cole-Alves killing Detective Walter Bolt.
  • Death Seeker: by his final appearance. See Villainous Breakdown.
  • The Dragon: To Stephanie, whom he allows to take the lead in most of their operations, while serving as her muscle.
    • Dragon Ascendant: Following Stephanie's death, Chris goes on a massive rampage that caps off the arc, and kicks off the events of War Zone.
    • Dragon Their Feet: He was absent during Gerard's last confrontation with Castle and Cole-Alves, and as such he blames himself for her death.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Towards Stephanie. She was just starting to reciprocate when Rachel killed her.
  • Elite Mooks: He used to be one, having been one of the nameless SHIELD agents who normally get killed off in droves by villains of the week, despite their status as elite law enforcement. Here, against non-powered adversaries, Chris shows that SHIELD's boasts about the quality of their agents aren't just for show.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His crush on Gerard.
  • Frame-Up: Calls the police, claims Castle and Cole-Alves are attacking his office building, then proceeds to slaughter them all himself. The resulting shootout leaves sixteen dead, including Poulsen and three cops, and sees Castle and Cole-Alves hunted for murder (though Cole-Alves really did kill Detective Walter Bolt).
  • Hand Cannon: His modified nine millimeter, with which he's able to hit police officers on the street from several stories up in an office building.
  • Handicapped Badass: He's walking with a leg brace during his final confrontation with Castle and Cole-Alves, courtesy of injures from their first clash, and the subsequent torture he endured at the hands of Black Spectre. It doesn't slow him down much, and he's still more than Frank and Rachel can handle by themselves.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes on a killing spree after Dr. Gerard is killed, ending with his own death.
  • Sanity Slippage: After Stephanie Gerard's death.
  • Suicide by Cop: Suicide by Frank Castle. With Stephanie dead, Chris doesn't have much to live for.
  • Taking You with Me: The purpose of his final rampage. He rants to The Punisher that he, Frank, and Cole-Alves are "going to die together. Like the bastards we are."
  • Unstoppable Rage: When Gerard dies, he flips out and goes on a rampage. The only thing ceasing it being his death.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Undergoes a massive one when Stephanie dies, gunning down every civilian he can find to pin it on Frank and Rachel. However, he remains outwardly calm during it all.
    Chris Poulsen: I know you saw that, Frank... You and your girlfriend, you saw that and you couldn’t do anything about it. I called the police, you know, right after you killed Stephanie. Called the N.Y.P.D. and told them that you were in the building, that you were murdering all these people... They’re coming in any second, now, with gas and guns to put you down like the rabid dogs you are. You killed her, Frank. She never looked twice at me until today, but I loved her, and you killed her... and when you did that, you killed me, too. So we'll all die together. You and me and the missus, all of us like the bastards we are. Like we deserve.
  • Villainous Friendship: Type I with Stephanie Gerard.
  • We Have Reserves: Baits a trap for Castle with The Exchange's less competent henchmen.


Dove

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dove_earth_616.png

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 9, #2 (2011)

One of Gerard and Poulsen's top-ranking henchwomen, Dove is a vicious, red-headed woman who handles the violence whenever Poulsen isn't available.


  • Battle Butler: Her official cover story is that she's Gerard's secretary and personal assistant.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Blew off Liam Malloy's head with a shotgun blast from millimeters away. His head was completely removed from his body.
  • The Brute: She's the Exchange's main muscle and field operations leader when Poulsen isn't around.
  • Dark Action Girl: Acts as bait for Punisher and handles herself well under fire. She later leads Gerard's goons against both Frank and Rachel during the climactic confrontation between the vigilantes and The Exchange.
  • Evil Redhead: Flaming red hair.
  • Icy Blue Eyes: Dove's got a very cold stare from those blue eyes.
  • Ironic Name: A violent felon named after a symbol of peace.
  • Only One Name: If Dove is really her first name, her last name is unknown.
  • You Have Failed Me: Gerard gave the order, but it was Dove who actually executed Liam Malloy, lecturing him on his incompetency and his failures in the eyes of the organization.

    Red Vulture 

Red Vulture

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_vulture.jpg

Alter Ego: James "Jimmy" Natale

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1, #592 (2009)

"You'll tire out before I do... and then I'll feast off your bones."

Originally a Spider-Man villain, the fourth Vulture, Jimmy "The Fixer" Natale, was a freak science experiment gone horribly, horribly wrong. Contracted by The Exchange to put Frank Castle out of their misery, Jimmy was killed in aerial combat with The Punisher above the streets of New York.


  • Ax-Crazy: He doesn't have much in terms of sanity, if at all.
  • Absurdly Sharp Claws: To the point of punching through Kevlar.
  • Beast Man: Incredibly bestial, and barely capable of speech.
  • Character Death: Castle inflicted a mortal wound on him with his knife, which caused him to plummet to the streets and his untimely death.
  • Clean Up Crew: Dispsoed of dead bodies for the mob before he became the Vulture, and was transformed due to feeling overworked in this job and complaining about it in the wrong way.
  • Color Animal Codename: To differentiate himself from Adrian Toomes, he changed his codename to Red Vulture.
  • Eye Scream: Deals a nasty injury to one of Castle's eyes, which remains bandaged for the remainder of the arc.
  • Flight: Thanks to his wings.
  • Hired Guns: Worked for The Exchange as one.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Spider-Man first found him eating the dead body of a mobster.
  • Obviously Evil: A slavering, red-eyed beastman dressed all in black and red and drooling acid? Pretty obviously evil.
  • Oblivious to His Own Description: He convinced the mob boss he worked for to test a dangerous super serum on someone, describing the ideal traits of a test subject without realizing they applied to him.
  • Psycho for Hire: A cannibalistic monster hired to take out Frank Castle.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: A Spider-Man villain who was hired to deal with the Punisher and died fighting him.
  • Super Spit: Acidic spit to be precise.
  • Supervillain: One of the few bonafide supervillains Castle has clashed with.

    Johnny Nightmare 

Johnny Nightmare

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_2864691_johnnynightmarefirstsplash.jpg

Alter Ego: Jake Niman

First Appearance: Punisher: Nightmare #1 (2013)

"I'm Johnny Nightmare... and everybody is my enemy."

Niman was a special forces soldier whose family was gunned down in Central Park, much like with Punisher's family. As Punisher works with him to avenge them, he learns that Niman was part of a goverment project to create super soldiers, which is turning him into an unstoppable monster.


  • Adaptive Ability: Every time he is killed, he comes back stronger.
  • Ax-Crazy: His wartime experiences have eroded his sanity to the point that by the end of it, only a sociopathic madman was left.
  • Big Bad: Of the Nightmare miniseries.
  • Blood Knight: While he was fighting in Afghanistan, he started to enjoy fighting little too much. Scared of this development, Niman eventually got himself discharged so he wouldn't completely become a bloodthirsty monster. Unfortunately, he and his family being gunned down eventually brings this mindset back, and as he turns more monstrous both figuratively and literally, Punisher has to stop him.
  • Came Back Strong: Thanks to the experiments done to him, his body can regenerate, and become physically bigger and stronger each time he comes back from death.
  • Evil Counterpart: Both him and Punisher were soldiers in a war that turned them into hardened killers, but who still managed to hold on to some shred of their humanity afterwards. The deaths of their respective families however drove them over the edge, and now they both kill people, albeit for different reasons: Nightmare is a monster waging a war against everyone for its own sake while Punisher is an anti-hero vigilante who thinks himself as a monster while shooting bad guys.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: The people behind the super soldier project that gave Niman his regenerative powers tried to have him assassinated so he wouldn't become a hard-to-kill murder monster. The opposite happens.
  • Healing Factor: He can heal back from fatal wounds, like headshots and falls from skyscrapers, and become stronger each time.
  • Implacable Man: The effects of the faulty serum in his blood have transformed Niman into one. Not only will he just simply get back up again when he's killed, but the side effects of said serum also ensure that he gets back up even stronger and tougher, with each death and resurrection gradually building him up into a hulking mass of violently insane muscle that easily overpowers Frank in a straight-up brawl. Only blowing him to kingdom come with nine bricks worth of C4 was enough to overpower his Healing Factor-induced Resurrective Immortality and put him down for good.
  • Laughing Mad: As the picture shows quite nicely. It even clues Jake himself in on how badly he's starting to slip during his tour in Afghanistan, when one of the natives he was talking to told Niman how he was laughing while fighting the nearby insurgents.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: After "Johnny" takes control, he's out to kill every poor soul he lays his sight upon, straight-up admits to it himself as the quote on the top of his folder shows, and then acts on that desire by trying to blow up Times Square For the Evulz before Frank shows up and stops him.
  • No Kill like Overkill: Since normal firearms are not enough to kill Nightmare permanently, Punisher uses trickery to place nine bricks of C4 on Nightmare's back, which upon exploding leave nothing left of him to regenerate from.
  • Psycho Serum: The result of yet another attempt at recreating the Super Soldier Serum (incidentally, Frank had previously fought another botched SSS exposé in The Punisher P.O.V.)
  • Reluctant Psycho: Jake eventually realised how dangerously violent and unhinged he was becoming and made a great effort to halt his psychological decline, even going so far as to literally dig a grave to symbolically kill off his psychotic alter ego. This worked for a time, but after losing his entire family and being shot in the head, "Johnny" returns in full force. And although there was enough of Jake left initially to continue working with the Punisher in hunting down the men who killed his loved ones, the sociopathic "Johnny" would eventually cement his control over Niman's mind for good.
  • Split-Personality Takeover: In Afghanistan, he developed two personalities: J., a soldier who tries his best to win local populace over, and Johnny, a Sociopathic Soldier who relishes in killing the enemy, and eventually, the innocent. Jake tried to get rid of his "Johnny" side for the sake of his family, but the loss of them and the fatal wounds he received in the process eventually brought that side of him back big time, which ended up taking him over mentally.
  • That Man Is Dead: Upon being shot in the head, the little humanity that Jake Niman had left was gone and "Johnny" took over him mentally.
    Nightmare: Jake and me were two guys. But Jake's dead, I'm alive.
  • Tragic Monster: He does try to fight what he's become for a while, and has no control over his Split-Personality Takeover. Ultimately, when he loses it completely and Frank is forced to kill him, he thinks of Niman not as a criminal, but as a tragic casualty of war that needs to be put out of his misery.
  • Vigilante Man: He joins Punisher to avenge the deaths of his family; one death and return from it later and he's an enemy to every man.

    Condor Private Military Company 

Condor Private Military Company


Condor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/condor_8.png

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 11, #3 (2016)

"I know an overworked workforce is a sloppy workforce, but could I trouble you to take some time out of your busy schedule to kill the Punisher?"

Condor is a Private Military Contractor that has recently graduated into drug trafficking. The Punisher targets his organization when he starts selling EMC, a performance enhancing drug based on a flawed version of the serum that created Captain America.



Olaf

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/olafpun.jpg

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 11, #1 (2016)

"A gun this old, seen as much action as this one, if it’s still around, there’s only one thing you know for sure: it works. So treat it with a little respect, or you might find yourself on the wrong end of it."

A Marine who served alongside Frank, Olaf now works for Condor, providing security for his drug trafficking operation.


  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Was with Condor's PMC since they started, but he has reached the glass ceiling, as younger, more ruthless associates have eclipsed him.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: After witnessing Frank singlehandedly take out two amped-up mooks, he decides to cut his losses and leave.
  • Leave Behind a Pistol: Does this to a Condor associate on the Punisher's hitlist, telling her that it's the only surefire way to avert a Cruel and Unusual Death. It's later revealed to be sabotaged, exploding in her face.
    Punisher: Let me guess... Olaf gave you that gun? With friends like him, huh?
  • Perma-Stubble: Adds to his grizzled look.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Is not a particularly evil man, he's working for Condor mainly just to pay the bills. Though over time it becomes apparent that he really is a shitty person; when his wife and infant son (who he abused verbally and possibly physically) are killed by a booby trap that he had left in their home, Olaf casually shrugs it off with, "Well, that takes care of one headache."
  • Shadow Archetype: A Marine like Frank turned mercenary turned criminal who kills his own family.
  • The Starscream: While it initially looked like he was secretly sabotaging the EMC operation simply to stick it to Face, he eventually reveals that he resents that his boss has decided to revamp Condor into an organization that merely deals drugs on the sidelines instead of directly engaging in warfare, so he kills him and takes over, beginning his New Era Speech with, "We aren't pharmacists. We are soldiers. We were born to fight."
  • Still Wearing the Old Colors: Still wears his Marine Corps dog tags, and, as quoted above, still swears by his old M9 Service pistol.


Face

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/facepun.jpg
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/newface.jpg

First Appearance: The Punisher Vol. 11, #1 (2016)

"This time, Castle, I came prepared. And now, you're dead."

The Face is Condor's second-in-command. He is also a "grade A psycho", infamous for the Creepy Souvenir he takes from each of his kills.



Alternative Title(s): The Punisher Villains

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