Real Name: Frank Castle
Identity/Class: Extradimensional/alternate reality
(Earth-58627) human
Occupation: Vigilante;
former police detective
Group Membership: Formerly NYPD
Affiliations: Jake Berkowitz
Enemies: New York mafia (Gianni Franco,
Dino Moretti, other unidentified mobsters), Yakuza (Lady Tanaka/Hideko
Tanak, Lady Tanaka's unidentified step-daughter, other unidentified
mobsters)
Known Relatives: Julie Castle (wife, deceased), Felice Castle (daughter, deceased), Annie Castle (daughter, deceased), unidentified mother/mother-in-law
Aliases: "Psychotic Ex-Cop"
Base of Operations: New York City, New York, USA
First Appearance: The
Punisher film (October 5, 1989)
Powers/Abilities: The Punisher is an incredibly well-trained hand-to-hand combatant and an expert in the use of firearms and explosives.
Height: 6'5" (by approximation) (see
comments)
Weight: 245 lbs. (by approximation) (see comments)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
History: (The
Punisher film (fb) - BTS) - Happily married with two daughters,
police detective Frank Castle and his partner Jake
Berkowitz were the best of friends and Frank's
family considered Jake part of their family.
When Frank and Jake began causing trouble for
mobster Gianni Franco and his crime family, Franco decided to eliminate
Frank with a car bomb.
(The Punisher film
(fb))
- Though Franco had not intended to cause any collateral damage, when
the bomb detonated Castle's wife and daughters were in the car and were
all killed.
(The Punisher film (fb) - BTS) - Though officially declared dead too, with the lack of a corpse put down to a mob theft of the remains, Frank survived and took refuge in the sewers. Meanwhile Berkowitz refused to accept the official explanation for what had happened to Frank's remains.
Wanting to avenge his family, Frank
became a vigilante under the moniker "the Punisher," and started a war
against criminals. Over the subsequent five years,
the Punisher killed 125 mobsters; conversely, in his spare time, Frank
meditated, trying to speak with God. At some point during his continued
his one-man war against organized crime, Castle enlisted the help of his
sole ally, Shake, a stage performer turned derelict who typically spoke
in rhyme.
(The Punisher
film) - The underworld crime families became so weakened by the
Punisher's guerrilla warfare that Gianni Franco was forced out of
retirement. As his first new action, Franco sent
his
right-hand man, Dino Moretti, to the United States but Moretti
was killed by the Punisher on the day after arrival when the Punisher
blew up his house. An arriving Franco planned to unify the decimated
families via a shared common drug deal but it was disrupted by Yakuza
mobs, whose attention was apparently attracted by Franco's unification
plans. The Punisher learned of
the drug deal with Shake's help and participated in shootout between
the mafia and Yakuza, only to be seriously injured in the shootout.
Led by Lady Tanaka and her American step-daughter, the Yakuza decided to take over the assembled mafia families and all of their interests. In order to sway the mobsters to their cause, they kidnapped their children, unconcerned about the Punisher because theu believed he had died from wounds suffered in the shootout. In actuality, Castle was nursing his wounds out of sight and when he overheard the dialogue between Lady Tanaka and the crime families' leaders, he decided not to interfere, hoping to let the Yakuza and mafia kill each other. However Shake reminded him of the kidnapped children, so the Punisher attacked Yakuza businesses, warning that for every day the mob's children were held in captivity, he would inflict heavy costs on the Yakuza in property damage. These attacks ironically convinced the police that the Punisher was the prime suspect in the mob child kidnappings, as they were unaware of the Yakuza involvement, but Berkowitz refused to believe this. The Yakuza later captured the Punisher and Shake and attempted to torture them but the Punisher broke free and decided the only course of action was a direct rescue.
Rescuing the children, the Punisher hijacked a bus to transport them to safety but was forced to leave behind Franco's son Tommy when the Yakuza attacked. After turning the children over to the police, Castle was arrested for the murders he had committed as the Punisher. While in custody, Frank met with Berkowitz, who warned him about possible execution as a punishment for his crimes, but the unwavering Frank claimed his actions were still a "work in progress." Castle was subsequently broken out of jail by Franco's men and taken to their boss. Franco admitted he had brought the Punisher's attacks on himself by unintentionally slaying Castle's family in the earlier mob hit, and asked the Punisher to help him save his son in exchange for any request. After the Punisher's refusal, Franco kidnapped Berkowitz, giving Castle no choice but to agree.
Together Franco and the Punisher raided the Yakuza headquarters,
fighting and killing all Yakuza members in the process,
including Lady Tanaka and her step-daughter. Upon being
reunited with his son, Franco,
feeling as if Castle would ultimately kill him anyway, betrayed the
battle weary Punisher by attacking him but Castle defended himself,
shooting Franco to death. Tommy threatened the Punisher for
killing his father but could not bring himself to hurt him. Castle
warned Tommy not to follow in his father's footsteps, adding that he
would return if the boy committed any crimes.
After freeing himself, Berkowitz
returned with the police while the Punisher made his escape.
Returning to his lair in the sewers, a meditating Castle swore to punish
every guilty person until God finally answered him.
Comments: Created
by Boaz Yakin and Peta Lawson.
The role of the Punisher in the film was
performed by Dolph Lundgren.
The Punisher's height and weight are
approximated from that of Dolph Lundgren's.
The
Punisher film was the second live-action cinematic movie based
on a Marvel Comics property (after the Howard
the Duck film of 1986) and was loosely based on the titular
comic character. There's no characters from the comics except the
Punisher himself in the movie. His signature skull logo was rejected as
they felt him not wearing a costume would make the character more realistic. Ironically, the movie itself
is full of unrealistic moments such as a fight scene with Tanaka's
step-daughter stopping the Punisher's motocycle at high speed with a
chain. The film never received a wide theatrical release in the
United States due to New World International's financial difficulties
and its new owners not having an interest in theatrical distribution.
During the production of the film, there were
scenes about the Punisher's origin that were filmed. Originally, the
movie began with Frank Castle and Jake Berkowitz's failed attempt to catch Dino Moretti in the act
of selling drugs then there was a scene of Frank Castle giving
Moretti and Gianni Franco a subpoena right before
his family's death in the car explosion. Along with these deleted
scenes, the dialogue of the Punisher and Sam Leary was extended (Frank
asked her to call Berkowitz
and ask him to bring a pie). Although these scenes
don't directly contradict the theatrical cut of the film and some of the
footage was even used as flashbacks, there was also one alternate final
scene. In it, Castle stabbed Franco while Tommy
tried to talk his father out of killing the Punisher, then Tommy swore
to learn how to use a gun (whereas, in the final cut, Tommy had already
learned how to use it) and kill Castle. In response, Frank put the gun
in Tommy's hands and told him to shoot but the boy didn't.
In 1990, the film was adapted into a comic, the Punisher Movie Special. It was based on the film's Director's Cut so there's a lot of scenes in the comic which were deleted from the movie such as the Punisher's origin and the aformentioned alternate finale. There were also other contradictions that were added to the comic by writer Carl Potts. In the comic book, prior to the last fight with the Yakuza, Frank painted the Earth-616 signature skull logo on his bulletproof vest. Also, Berkowitz wasn't kidnapped in the comic book, which contradicts both the theatrical and director's cut of the movie.
This profile was completed 9/21/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Sasasych.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Earth-58627's Punisher has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
The Punisher film, movie logo
(Punisher, profile logo)
The
Punisher
film, movie poster image (Punisher, main)
The Punisher
film, Dolph Lundgren photo session still (Punisher on motorcycle)
Punisher Movie Special, front cover (Punisher film comic adaptation)
Appearances:
The
Punisher film (October 5, 1989) - Boaz Yakin (writer),
Peta Lawson (art director), Mark Goldblatt (director)
First Posted: 09/30/2021
Last updated: 09/29/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!