Frank Castle

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"*You have been warned!*"
This article, Frank Castle, contains MAJOR SPOILERS. -
Should you read the article without prior knowledge of the material, it will spoil a *significant* plot point, which can negatively affect your experience.

This character, Frank Castle, is 41 years old in 2022, based on his/hers birthday, which is 1981.

## Personal Info

### Alias

Frank Castle
The Punisher

### Age

35-36 (in 2017)
36-37 (in 2018)

## Details

### Occupation

Vigilante (currently)
Force Recon Marine
 First Lieutenant (both formerly)

### Powers/Skills

Firearms
Master Combatant
Master Marksman
Master Assassin
Master Tactician

### Goals

Kill his archenemy Billy Russo (successful)

### Type of Hero

Anti-Heroic Vigilante

**Francis David "Frank Castle" Castiglione Sr.** is a former Force Recon Marine-turned-vigilante. While serving in Afghanistan alongside with Billy Russo, where the duo became friends, Castle and Russo joined the black-ops team, Cerberus Squad under the command of CIA Officer William Rawlins aimed at capturing, interrogating, and executing high-value targets. Fearing he was slowly losing his honor, Castle returned to his family, only to lose them all during a brutal shooting. Castle became the **Punisher**, as he aimed to clean up New York City of all crime by any means necessary. While seeking to avenge his own family's deaths, Castle also came in conflict with Daredevil. Castle was soon arrested and, despite the efforts of Nelson and Murdock, was sentenced to life in prison. However, Castle was freed with the help of Wilson Fisk and discovered the Blacksmith was in fact the one who had been responsible for his family's murder, or at least one of them.

Abandoning his identity, Castle attempted to live the quiet life before he was found by Micro who revealed to him that more people had been involved in his family's death, and they were involved in the illegal Operation Cerberus he had performed in Afghanistan. While hunting down all of those involved, Castle then came back in contact and reunited with his best friend Billy Russo, who he eventually learned was working with William Rawlins to try to assassinate Castle. Having discovered the truth, Castle then allowed himself to be captured by Russo and Rawlins, until he eventually killed Rawlins and, in a brutal showdown, managed to disfigure Russo's face beyond repair. With Rawlins' crimes exposed, Castle was then finally allowed to regain freedom by the CIA and looked to begin a new peaceful life for himself.

Castle's attempts at his peaceful life were shattered when he discovered Amy Bendix being hunted down by John Pilgrim, before then learning that Billy Russo had also escaped from custody. With Bendix by his side, Castle returned to New York City with Dinah Madani as they attempted to stop Pilgrim and Russo from causing chaos, with the assistance of Madani and Curtis Hoyle. The Punisher eventually managed to uncover a conspiracy that linked Bendix to Anderson and Eliza Schultz, while also fighting back against Russo's Crew. Once he was certain that Bendix was safe from harm, the Punisher tracked down and finally executed the now mortally wounded Russo, before then dedicating his life to the Punisher cause, tracking down criminals wherever he could and executing them.

The Punisher firstly appears in Chapter 13 of Unity Force: Stories.

## Personality

Frank Castle is a man who has come to see the world in pure black and white terms and believes that the only way to keep the streets safe is to kill criminals so they do not harm innocents again. His sense of morality has turned to the extreme, differing greatly from what most would consider acceptable ideals of good and bad. He firmly believes that the wicked deserve to be punished and stopped permanently and that their deaths - no matter how brutal and even illegal are needed as they better the world. As a consequence, Castle is a controversial figure among the general public, with many people either praising or condemning his actions. His military past has hardened him to even the most extensive violence, as well as his iron mentality; he claims to not suffer any PTSD for his actions as a Marine nor did he claim to feel particularly disturbed when he saw his friends die or kill for the first time. However, the events left him too exhausted to even read a bedtime story to his daughter. The death of his wife and children in contrast completely traumatize him with vivid night terrors and flashbacks to the night they were murdered.

When his wife, son, and daughter were murdered, a devastated Castle turned into a violent almost sociopathic individual, determined to kill every single criminal who had a hand in his family's death. When dealing with criminals, he becomes an extremist. He is brutal, cold, and efficient. He would use extreme tactics such as torture, brutality and eventually kill them. He firmly believes that the truly evil deserve no mercy, and as such he holds no regret in the deaths of any criminal he kills.

However, despite this Castle greatly values the lives of innocents, and will do his absolute best to make sure that civilians are not harmed, as shown when he went to the hospital looking for Grotto and made sure not to harm any patients or Karen Page. Castle upholds an honor code of "One Shot, One Kill"; getting the job done as quickly as possible, whilst trying to avoid any collateral damage. As he delved deeper into Rawlins and Russo’s operations, he became increasingly more vengeful and sadistic, abandoning the honor code of his squad in pursuit of his personal vengeance especially as he realizes it was a part of his own squad that betrayed him. This led him to brutally torture Rawlins to death, prolonging his suffering for as long as possible in stark contrast to swiftly murdering the Blacksmith with a headshot when Castle also had the opportunity to torture him for his family’s death. Despite his lack of hesitation to kill, he still refused to kill Billy Russo, violently mutilating his handsome face instead. Whilst he claims this was also to prolong his miserable life with a constant punishment of his wicked deeds, it is possible he could not bring himself to kill his former closest friend. He also avoided killing Daredevil, and when presented with the chance to kill him, Castle simply resorted to knocking him out. After Billy Russo murdered several prostitutes and framed Castle for the crime, he was in disbelief and shock that he took innocent lives, leading to him losing his drive as the Punisher. However, after discovering his innocence in the matter, his drive for vengeance and to take down Russo returned and he readopted the mantle.

Despite his cold and ruthless demeanor, beneath it all, Castle is a man who strongly and deeply misses his beloved family and wishes only to make up for what he sees as his inability to protect them. Though he undoubtedly loved his family with all his heart, Castle has admitted that his true home is only at wartime and when he feels like a soldier - something which he enjoyed being more than a family man. Despite having the chance to honor their memories and accept their deaths, Castle believes his vengeance against those who murdered them is more important and ultimately what drives him to war. It is ultimately the lack of conflict in life that scares Castle rather than death and having no true home to call to. Castle also appears to believe in returning favors, since him helping Daredevil defeat the Hand ninjas can be seen as him repaying the vigilante for rescuing him from torture at the hands of the Kitchen Irish.

Castle dislikes being thought of as insane or not in control of his actions as it goes against what he believes his mission stands for. At the same time, he does not seem to care what the citizens of New York and the law enforcement think of him as he has witnessed their ineptitude in dealing with his family's murder first hand. He openly sneered at Daredevil for considering himself a "hero" as he claims that he was only "one bad day away" from being like Castle. Indeed, Castle knocks out Daredevil when he claimed that he was insane and goes into a furious rant in court when they planned to instigate him into a mental asylum, admitting he was fully sane and enjoyed killing every criminal he encountered.

Outside of “the mission,” Castle does have other interests and even a certain sense of fun, such as playing guitar. He seems to have a liking for disco and funk, commenting that he enjoyed singing along to “Shining Star” by Earth Wind & Fire so much that he nearly drove the rest of his unit crazy with it. He also enjoys reading and goes through books at a fast pace. Beyond this Castle has no interest in making friends as seen when he was working as a construction worker where he worked tirelessly without breaks for six months with almost no human contact towards his co-workers with the exception of occasionally meeting with Curtis Hoyle. Despite this, Castle has shown the capability to grow emotionally attached to people in his life regardless of his hardened exterior as seen with David Lieberman and Amy Bendix. Although he first acted cold and distant towards her, Castle eventually warmed up to and became protective of Bendix. He expressed a very genuine concern for her well being and threatened to kill a hitman if he was to harm Amy in any way. Later, when Bendix was about to leave to return to a normal life, Castle said he would miss her and even hugged her, a sign of affection that he rarely showed to others.

## Abilities

* **Master Combatant**: As a former Force Recon Marine with years of experience, Castle is an extremely skilled, dangerous, fierce, and lethal hand-to-hand combatant, making him one of the most dangerous and best fighters on the planet. He was able to go toe-to-toe against the enormously skilled Daredevil, even briefly gaining the upper hand against him in their first encounter. His fighting style includes martial arts disciplines from the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, such as Krav Maga, boxing, muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, and Taekwondo. He impressed Daredevil with his speed and ferocity, despite the latter ultimately being able to get the upper hand in the fight, with the use of his agility. Hence, Castle, while unarmed, survived being ambushed by multiple armed prison inmates at once, swiftly taking them all down in a brutal bloodthirsty fashion, greatly impressing Wilson Fisk, who claimed that Castle has a "unique talent." Castle also quickly overpowered William Rawlins, held his own against Carson Wolf, and defeated Billy Russo after a prolonged fight. Marion James stated Rawlins looked like he was "hit by a train" after he was overpowered and killed by Castle, and Sam Stein drafted an extensive medical examination after Castle killed Carson Wolf. Marlena Olin later commended his fighting skills after seeing him fight in Lola's Roadhouse. Castle possesses a high pain tolerance that allows him to continue fighting even after being beaten by crowbars, dumbbells, punched with a chain-wrapped fist, and even being shot. During his attempted attack on Billy Russo, Castle was able to kill several of Russo's henchmen even after they beat him ruthlessly with crowbars. In fact, being beat only seemed to enrage him more.
* **Knife Mastery**: Castle is highly skilled in using knives for combat. He often prefers to incorporate knife slashes into his combat style, making him all the more lethal. He has also showcased skills in knife-throwing, such as when Anvil operators ambushed Micro's Hideout.
* **Master Marksman**: Castle graduated from Marine Corps Base in Quantico of class 307. A former scout sniper and marine, Castle is an extremely skilled and accurate marksman, with tremendous expertise and experience in handling many firearms, including pistols, revolvers, automatic rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, sniper rifles, machine guns, and grenade launchers. Due to his military training, Frank Castle is a deadly shot, adhering to his unit's philosophy of "one shot, one kill," managing to shoot Ahmad Zubair, Nesbitt, Daredevil, Finn Cooley, Speed, Chaney, Ray Schoonover, the Cartel Sicario, Paulie, Moose, Tony Gnucci, Jack, Davy, Mike, Davis, Todd, and Eliza Schultz all in the head. With his devastating use in firearms, he made many criminals and police officials believe his attacks were the work of a group or "army." Hence, as the Punisher, Castle rarely misses his target, and easily avoids injuring innocent civilians, thus managing to swiftly take down the last four Hand ninjas without wounding Daredevil, all from an immense distance away. Castle later sniped the Cartel Sicario in the head with an immensely long range from across the border. Castle can also shoot his enemies in nonlethal spots to prolong their suffering or to interrogate them before they die, as he did with Marlena Olin by intentionally missing her bone by shooting through and through the meat in her thigh, leading Evans to refer to him as "one hell of a shot," meaning phenomenal. During John Pilgrim's attack on the Larkville police station, he shot a Molotov cocktail before an assassin could throw it, dousing him in flames. Outside *Tipsy Tilly's Bar*, Castle quickly gunned down six bounty hunters before five of them could pull their weapons on him. Castle can also hit his targets without actually seeing them, demonstrated when he fired his rifle from one flight of stairs above him to kill two hitmen. Finn Cooley described Castle as an "artist with the AK," and Blake Tower later said that Castle "shot the city to hell."
* **Master Assassin**: Castle is an extremely skilled assassin. His Marine Corps service enables him to locate his enemies and eliminate them with military precision. According to Blake Tower and Samantha Reyes, survivors of his brutal kill methods are certain to be found and killed by him, even if they're under assumed names. His aptitude for killing has left many astonished, including Karen Page, Grotto and Kingpin, and he is so effective he was initially mistaken to be a group of trained killers rather than a single person. He has eliminated high-profile targets with the Cerberus Squad and trained to use weapons with superb efficiency. He is surgical and precise, using all of his skills with firearms, stealth and hand-to-hand combat to kill his opponents, seen when he singlehandedly and systematically killed multiple Mujahideen in Kandahar, members of the Kitchen Irish at the Burren Club, members of the Mexican Cartel in the Meatpacking District, members of the Dogs of Hell at a Redfield Electronics garage, more of the Kitchen Irish at the Central Park carousel, an entire wing of prisoners on Ryker's Island, Ray Schoonover's henchman guarding his ship, the Gnucci Crime Family under Linello's, Mazur and his gang in their garage, a squad of Anvil agents in Micro's Hideout, Marlena Olin's mercenaries at the Tides Motel, John Pilgrim's mercenaries in Larkville, Russian thugs in Kazan's Gym, members of Jigsaw's Crew outside ReadyQuick Check Cashing, bounty hunters outside *Tipsy Tilly's Bar* and on Crescent Street, members of Jigsaw's Crew in Valhalla, and finally over a dozen gangsters in an abandoned warehouse. Castle was able to snap a neck of prisoner and Carson Wolf, and quickly draw his guns to fire at his enemies. Castle is also able to see deadly potential in objects in order to weaponize his environment against his opponents, such as when he bashed a Mujahideen's head in with a rock, bludgeoned Clint with a metal baseball bat, killed Dutton and his bodyguard with a shiv, impaled a prisoner with a sharpened wooden stick, broke a pot of coffee over Speed's head, ran over two Dogs of Hell with his van, strangled Mickey O'Hare with his own necktie, beat Paulie, Leo and Lance with a sledgehammer, hit Carson Wolf in the head with a toaster and photo frame, slammed Eddie's head through a bathroom sink, used dumbbells to defeat Kazan's henchmen, used weights to overpower and kill the Russian, and improvised scrap metal against John Pilgrim in a junkyard. Micro accurately stated that Castle was turned into a hitman, and Dinah Madani sought to recruit him directly to assist in the apprehension of a high-value target, disregarding all other agents of the CIA in favor of his skills, declaring him to be "the best" in his line of work.
* **Master Tactician**: Castle is a highly skilled, effective and experienced military tactician, since notably, during the seemingly hopeless extraction of his unit, Castle assumed command, and single-handedly cleared a helicopter landing zone of enemy combatants (that prevented his unit's escape), while the rest of his men, even Ray Schoonover, hunkered down. Castle even anticipated this conflict as a trap, despite Schoonover requesting his tactical input and Russo supporting his strategic instincts only to have Rawlins negate it. He later received the Navy Cross for his efforts. As the Punisher, Castle later used these tactics to single-handedly track and kill entire gangs of criminals with high efficiency, to the point that Castle was initially mistaken by Daredevil and the police for an entire squad of gunmen, rather than a single man.
* **Expert Interrogator**: Castle enrolled in his SERE course, and is thus well-versed in interrogation tactics, such as employing intimidation techniques to extract information from suspects. Castle was able to successfully perform a reverse interrogation on Carson Wolf which allowed him to learn the truth about his family's murder. Castle was also able to extract information from Jake Nelson, a fellow war veteran who took the SERE course, through torture.
* **Musician**: Castle can play the acoustic guitar to some extent.