The Punisher wasn't your typical hero. He wouldn't just knock out or tie
up the bad guys and let the police handle the problem. No, the Punisher
felt that today's justice system was nothing more than a revolving door
for criminals. They would go in, serve their time, and later they would
come out and commit more crimes. This was prevalent in comic books as well
as in society.
So what was the Punishers solution? Kill them.
The Punisher was once a family man named Frank Castle. One day, he and
his family went for a picnic in Central Park, where they stumbled upon a
group of mobsters killing someone. Not wanting any witnesses, the mobsters
shot the Castle family, killing Frank's wife and kids. Frank was the
only one to survive. Since then, he's been on a war to stop crime by
killing the criminals. But the Punisher was more than that--he was a
strategist, a military fighter that was always planning ahead and
assessing every situation. The writers for the Punisher added a sense of
realism. They used real weapons in the comic and also came up with real
cities and believable military attack strategies.
What's more interesting is how his solo book got started. The Punisher
in the past was primarily used in the Spider-Man books, often as an
anti-hero throughout the 70's. Two individuals, popular artist Mike Zeck
and writer Steven Grant wanted to do a Punisher series. They teamed up
and pitched the idea of a Punisher limited series. Marvel Comics was not
comfortable with the idea of having a "hero" that killed people in cold
blood. Some of the people in Marvel were morally put off by the idea.
But at the time, Mike Zeck was talking with Marvel's competitors,
DC, about working for them. Because Marvel didn't want to lose Mike,
they allowed him to do the Punisher series, though they refused promote
it. The series would be produced and put on the shelf, and that would be
it.
That is all it needed. In three hours, The Punisher #1
(limited series) was sold out around the country. Marvel then wisely chose
to reverse their earlier stance and promoted the book, and later gave the
Punisher his own regular series, simply called The Punisher. Then
came The Punisher's War Journal, The Punisher's Armory
(that described his weaponry), and The Punisher's War Zone.
A Punisher movie was also done (I highly suggest you rent it!).
I should note that The Punisher idea was inspired from a novel called War Against the Mafia that debuted in 1968. The book was writen by Don Pendleton and the main character was called Mack Bolan. In the book he calls himself the Executioner, and like Frank Castle he is a Vietnam vet who after seeing his family slaughtered by the Mafia, takes up a war against the mafia. The book series also show the Executioner keeping a "War Journal" and having a friend with high tech resources that eqiups him with a fantastic battle van.
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