The Punisher

The Punisher

Frank Castle Jr (son, deceased)

Mario Castiglione (father, deceased)

Louisa Castiglione (mother, deceased)

The Avengers

Vigilante

Hand-to-hand and firearms expert

Guerilla warfare expert

John Romita Snr.

> *The following information comes from Punisher*
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The **Punisher** (**Frank Castle**) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Gerry Conway and artist John Romita Sr., with publisher Stan Lee green-lighting the name. The Punisher made his first appearance in *The Amazing Spider-Man* #129 (cover-dated Feb. 1974).

The Punisher is a vigilante who employs murder, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence, and torture in his war on crime. Driven by the deaths of his wife and two children, who were killed by the mob for witnessing a killing in New York City's Central Park, the Punisher wages a one-man war on the mob and all criminals in general by using all manner of conventional war weaponry. His family's killers were the first to be slain.[5] A war veteran and a United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper, **Frank Castle** (born **Francis Castiglione**) is a master of martial arts, stealth tactics, guerrilla warfare, and a wide variety of weapons.

The Punisher's brutal nature and willingness to kill made him a novel character in mainstream American comic books in 1974. By the late 1980s, he was part of a wave of psychologically troubled antiheroes and at the height of his popularity, was featured in four monthly publications, including *The Punisher*, *The Punisher War Journal*, *The Punisher War Zone*, and *The Punisher Armory*. Despite his violent actions and dark nature, the Punisher has enjoyed some mainstream success on television, making guest appearances on *Spider-Man: The Animated Series*, and *The Super Hero Squad Show*, where the depiction of his violent behavior was toned down for family viewers. In feature films, Dolph Lundgren portrayed the Punisher in 1989, as did Thomas Jane in 2004, and Ray Stevenson in 2008. Jon Bernthal portrays the character in the second season of *Marvel's Daredevil* and his own standalone series *The Punisher* as a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In The Spider-Man: My Own Worst Enemy he is portrayed by Lewis MacKenzie.

## Powers and Abilities

**Military training** - Castle trained for the United States Marine Corps but also received training from the United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance, Airborne School and U.S. Navy SEALs as well as cross-training with the Australian Special Air Service Regiment then training for the Special Weapons And Tactics or SWAT units all of which he's used to update and expand his skills to combat crime

**Weapons expert** - Through his military and SWAT career, Castle has mastered all types of firearms and often carries one of everything on himself when on mission

**Marksman** - Frank is one of the deadliest shots in the world, an expert in the art of sniping a target, a point he proved many times

**Hand to hand combat** - Frank is skilled in multiple forms of martial arts, boxing, wrestling as well as blades

**Strong minded** - Because of his experiences, Frank has shown a resistance to mind control and brainwashing and is able to resist all forms of physical and mental torture which makes him one of the most trustworthy allies and deadliest enemy

**Other** - Castle has taught himself to tolerate high levels of pain that would normally cripple a man mentally and physically, this allows him to shrug off a gunshot wound like it was nothing, he also refrains from painkillers as they slow down his reflexes significantly, he is also quick to assess situations, master of guerilla warfare, stealth operations and is an expert tactician

### Equipment

While he may not use them all, Frank has managed to get his hands on every type of firearm in existence and whenever he is on a mission he usually always has at least one of every type on him along with enough ammunition for them. Due to his wartime experience, he steers clear of using Russian made Kalashnikov weapons such as the iconic AK-47 though he is aware of their reliability and ruggedness in combat. Frank sticks to German and American made weapons such as various weapons from Heckler and Koch and his trusty M4A1 because of the fact that they have never let him down before. Despite offers from Tony Stark, Frank does not use a specialised suit or armour or any hi-tech gadgets instead he uses standard issue military gear including a bullet proof vested with his distinctive white skull painted on as a tribute to his dead son. Wherever he goes, he has a secret safehouse set up which is filled with replacement gear, weapons and ammunition as well as various vehicles he uses allowing him to be ready no matter what the location.

## Behind the Scenes

As with most of the cast, Moore only ever envisioned one person to play the Punisher and that was Lewis Mackenzie. Moore described Lewis as being as huge of a Punisher fan as he is of Spider-Man, knowing so much about the character and knowing what makes him who he is. Of the audition Moore said "Lewis knew his American accent wasn't of the highest quality but that was okay, we had the mentality of he would be able to work on it once he got his lines. He also put forward the inner turmoil of the character and so we were satisfied with what we had and cast him right there." Mackenzie joined the cast on January 15th.

In December 2017, Moore announced the reboot of the movie with My Own Worst Enemy but that the character would return with a planned production start in 2019. Moore had approached Mackenzie after spending a day filming on The Spider-Man about reprising his role as Punisher for The Spider-Man: My Own Worst Enemy and the subsequent sequel to which Mackenzie accepted.