The Punisher
The Punisher is a Legacy Character, and his identity has been adopted as an alias by multiple people.The Punisher's
Lynn Michaels / The Punisher II
Alter Ego: Lynn Michaels
Notable Aliases: Lady Punisher
First Appearance: The Punisher War Zone (Vol. 1) #7 (July, 1992)
A ten-year veteran of the New York Police Department, Detective Lynn Michaels first crossed paths with the Punisher while the two of them were out hunting a serial rapist who was assaulting women in Central Park. After the stalker was dealt with, Lynn became the Punisher's semi-reluctant ally within the NYPD, which she eventually quit, her faith in the law shaken by both her dealings with Frank, and the acquittal of a pedophilic serial killer who she had helped arrest. When the Punisher was falsely believed to have died during the events of The Punisher: Suicide Run, Lynn was among the many who attempted to replace him, which brought her into conflict with the government-sanctioned anti-vigilante group V.I.G.I.L. and its secret backers, the Trust. Narrowly making it out of the chaos that becoming the "Lady Punisher" had caused her life to spiral into alive, Lynn realized that Frank's life was not for her and gave up vigilantism, though at some point the crime fighting itch came back, as she was later revealed to have become an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D..
- Distaff Counterpart: The very first female version of The Punisher.
- Fair Cop: Quite an attractive police officer and SHIELD agent.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Her last appearance was in Punisher War Journal vol. 2 in 2008. This is after she had been missing since 1995.
Carlos Cruz / The Punisher IV
Alter Ego: Carlos Cruz
First Appearance: The Punisher (Vol. 2) #97 (December, 1994)
A former soldier and police officer hired by Mircochip to be the Punisher.
- Superior Successor: He was hired by Microchip to be a more sane version of the Punisher.
Joe Garrison / The Punisher V
Alter Ego: Joe Garrison
First Appearance: Punisher (2023) (Vol. 14) #1 (November, 2023)
An ex-SHIELD "gravedigger" who retired from service to live peacefully with his wife and children only to turn to vigilantism when they are assassinated with a bomb that might've been meant for him.
- Appropriated Appellation: Gets mistaken for someone trying to take the exiled Frank Castle's mantle as the Punisher. Joe just shrugs and rolls with it, and the villains he fights do likewise because they can't be bothered to learn his real name or why he's interfering with their plans.
- Expy: His origin is reminiscent of Dolph Lundgren's depiction of the character, with his family being assassinated by a bomb. Additionally, Joe is blonde, Dolph's actual hair color.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Because Joe immediately went underground to hunt his family's killers, he seemed to be entirely absent from the site of the house bombing, leading to the detectives on the case to list him as a suspect for the very crime he is trying to avenge.
- Skeleton Motif: Garrison's old black-ops unit at SHIELD had gear that combined the usual iconography of the organization with a skull. However, because the skull symbol is associated so closely to Frank Castle in-universe, the media assumes Joe is trying to be a new Punisher when he digs out his old gear for his revenge quest.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Another Punisher copycat and would-be successor on this list with a comparable backstory of losing loved ones to violent crime, Joe also shares a number of commonalities with Frank during the early days of his career such as an immediately sympathetic perspective as his origin was fairly recent and a tech wiz partner who aids him from behind the scenes in the form of his old SHIELD comrade Triple-A.
