The Punisher: Difference between revisions

* [[Black and Grey Morality]]: The Punisher is a [[Heroic Sociopath|sociopathic,]] cruel, [[Knight Templar]], [[Blood Knight]], [[One-Man Army|mass-murderering]], [[Vigilante Man]], but is recurrently put against [[Up to Eleven]] versions of the worst sorts of [[Complete Monster|CompleteMonsters]] reality has to offer. Most Punisher villains don't seem to even ''have'' any character traits besides malice, greed, sadism, and selfishness. [[Garth Ennis]] writes the character as 100% aware of this, often repeatedly stating that his only reason to continue living is to punish those worse than himself.

* [[Black Comedy]]: Shows up from time to time throughout the character's history, but Ennis's 90s run is built on it.

* [[Blood Knight]]: Why does Frank kill? 33% for revenge, 33% for justice, and 33% because he likes it; the remaining 1% is just plain crazy.

* [[Boisterous Bruiser]]: The Russian. Just... the Russian.

* [[Cold Sniper]]: Castle himself. His second tour of duty in 'Nam was spent performing sniper work and recon. Its never said exactly what went on (and the men he led on his third tour only knew rumours too grisly to be true) but Microchip knows about it and apparently it was when he first started to love violence.

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: The following quote from "Welcome Back, Frank" sums it up:

* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: When Ma Gnucci says she wants to kill the one who crippled her, one of her mooks says, "You want us to put a hit on the ''bear?"''

* [[Comic Book Fantasy Casting]]: The MAX version is a beefy Clint Eastwood. This particularly evident in the first arc {{spoiler|when he's held prisoner by Microchip}}.

* [[Crusading Widower]]

* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: General Zahrakov, again. He uses [[Mook Chivalry]] ''twice'' to catch Frank unprepared. He's the only one in Russian intel to guess that the Americans would attempt a [[Moral Event Horizon]] for their [[False-Flag Operation]] (though it takes a [[Complete Monster]] to know one). Finally, he anticipates a [[Defensive Feint Trap]] the Punisher had planned for him and even when warned by Rawlins and Dolnovich that he was heading into a trap, outwits all three of them and captures the Punisher. His only mistake really was taking [[Smug Snake]] Rawlins at his word when he said that he searched The Punisher properly. And we have this gem:

'''Zahrakov''': Because I am a soldier and you are something else. It is in your [[The Starscream|nature to betray]], a small child could tell you that. You would betray me and I would be forced to kill you--and why would I create that much trouble for myself? }}

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Though pretty mainstream by today's standards, the first Punisher miniseries (''Circle of Blood'') was a far cry from most other Marvel Comics products of the mid 1980s. Today, ''The Punisher: Frank Castle'' (the MAX imprint title) is the epitome of this trope for Marvel.

** [[Depending on the Writer]]. A lot of the time he practically qualifies as a [[Villain Protagonist]].

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: It's rare for him to make a joke, but when he does, Frank's shows he's got a very dark and cynical sense of humor.

'''Frank''': I'm not really dating right now. }}

* [[Deal with the Devil]]: In the MAX-continuity miniseries ''Punisher: Born'', which shows Frank during his last tour in Vietnam, he appears to talk with a mysterious voice in his head. Frank refuses to accept that the US is withdrawing from Vietnam and does everything he can to postpone shutting down his camp. {{spoiler|The Vietcong finally assault the base during a storm while the US army air support is cut off, killing everyone. Frank is the last American alive, and the voice makes him an offer. Eternal war, in exchange for something. Frank accepts and survives when the US air strike finally arrives. Frank comes back home and meets his family at the airport, and the voice returns to claim the price for his eternal war: Frank's family.}}

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Frank himself arguably qualifies, if you accept Ennis' version, in that he's a monster who knows he's a monster and has a strict code against harming innocents.

* [[Everything Is Worse With Bears]]: One of the earlier stories had Frank stranded in Alaskan wilderness and picking a fight with a bear. And there is the infamous moment when he deliberately angered a bunch of polar bears to kill mobsters in a zoo.

* [[Everything Is Even Worse With Sharks]]: A couple of mobsters thought that a big shark in equally big (and not bulletproof) glass fish tank would be a great addition to their opulent mansion. They eventually learn their lesson just before their messy demise.

** Barracuda was thought to have met his end by one in his first arc in the MAX series.

* [[Exiled From Continuity]]: First MAX series. Second is completely in [[Alternate Universe]] with it's own versions of Kingpin and Bullseye.

** [[Broad Strokes]]: While the second MAX series is set in a different continuity from the first, it often references characters and events present in the first one, up to and including the appearance of [[Garth Ennis]]' version of [[Nick Fury]]. These are often treated as [[Backstory]] for Frank, and will certainly seem that way to fans who follow the second series but not the first.

* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: The mainstream incarnation of The Punisher never succeeds at dispensing his own brand of justice to significant supervillains he encounters, even those who badly screw with him personally, like [[Psycho for Hire|Bullseye]]. Probably that's why he mostly goes for mundane mobsters, who don't have [[Joker Immunity]] (and superpowers, for that matter).

** He did bag Stilt Man. With a bazooka to the groin. The saddest aspect of all is that this probably was the high point of Stilt Man's career - getting offed by the Punisher.

* [[Gangsta Style]]: Subverted in one of the Ennis comics. A gang member fires at Castle like this multiple times, but misses every shot. Frank calmly says "[[Pre-Mortem One-Liner|They put the sights on top for a reason]]" before downing the gangster with pinpoint accuracy.

* [[Genre Blind]]: The numerous gansters, mobsters and other crooks who think that ''they'' [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|will be the one to finally bring Frank down]]. A few are [[Genre Savvy]] enough to know that the best course of action is to just try to avoid him like the plague.

** Maginty, who is otherwise one of the most [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] villains in the comics, cheerfully walks into his hideout without an armed escort after mentally torturing a [[Retired Monster]] and leaving him in the room by himself. It's a good thing his [[Mook|Mooks]] came back to check on him--of course getting his fingers sliced off by said murderer didn't do much to dissuade him from walking into Nesbitt's [[Batman Gambit]], making him doubly Genre Blind.

* [[Genre Savvy]]: During the whole "Kills the Marvel Universe" issue, Frank manages to kill [[The Hulk]]. How? By following him undetected until he turns back into Banner. [[Combat Pragmatist|And then killing Banner.]]

* [[Handy Cuffs]]: Frank was captured by a minor gang leader named Machete, who insisted on killing a cuffed Castle in a machete duel. Castle rejects the machete, and kills the guy with his bare hands.

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: Frank doesn't do this often, being [[The Stoic]], but he completely destroys the last shreds of dignity Nicky Cavella has with one.

'''Castle''': You won't shoot him. You're a coward. ...[[Complete Monster|Psycho rep only takes you so far]]. After that, you've nothing. Hurt the boy and you die bad. You know that. But there's a part of you that still thinks that if you let him go, you've got a chance. And that part of you just won't shut up. }}

** Frank's S.A.S. pal Yorkie is the master of these. He'd probably have the [[Trope Namer]] weeping for forgiveness after a few minutes with him.

*** [[Double Subversion]] Barracuda [[Shut UP, Hannibal|laughs off one of these]] after killing Yorkie, but true to form his dying speech echoes in his head at a most inopportune moment and gets under his skin -- allowing the Brit to punk him from the grave. (It's possible that Yorkie did it in the hopes that this would actually happen.)

* [[Hero Antagonist]]: Any superhero that shows up is likely to become this. Especially [[Daredevil]] who is the superhero most determined to put a stop to the Punisher.

* {{spoiler|[[The Hero Dies|The]] [[Anti-Hero|(Anti-)]][[The Hero Dies|Hero Dies]]}}: The second Punisher MAX series.

* [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]]: Often justified, as most of the mook criminals he faces don't really have much skills or experience in real combat.

** Averted in the case of "The Slavers", when {{spoiler|Frank loses his self-discipline and breaks his cover by attacking a 'straggling' gunman, alerting his fellows}}...who ''are'' infantry veterans, aim down their weapons' sights, and use small unit tactics such as (effective) suppressing fire and flanking. End result: although he's able to swim away, non-powered gunmen ''actually defeat Frank Castle in combat and force '''him''' to flee for his life''.

* [[Implacable Man]]: Thorn, an older villain. Originally the brother of a mob boss, he was nearly killed when Frank threw him into a frozen lake. He barely survived, but now shows no reaction to pain, and has no memory beyond knowing who tried to kill him. Also Roc, who survived being shot in the head and having his neck broken and the Russian, who's just a large man.

** Frank himself qualifies.

* [[Joker Immunity]]: Most notably, the Kingpin. The biggest gang boss in New York, but it's been explained that Frank can't kill him because if he does, New York will be devastated by gangs trying to take his place. Also Jigsaw, who Frank has let live numerous times {{spoiler|except in the 2008 movie, where Frank impales him with a metal rod, then pushes him onto a large torch}}.

** Lampshaded in his crossover with Batman. Frank has cornered the [[Trope Namer]] himself, who immediately starts cracking jokes about going to Arkham. Frank just coldly cocks his handgun and prepares to blow off the Joker's head, until Batman intervenes.

* [[The Joys of Torturing Mooks]]: The video game was basically built on this.

* [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]]: Tons.

**** Which is very much a [[Berserk Button]] for old Frank...he goes absolutely batshit insane on the Mongolian when he pictures Galena as his daughter, and the death count (which is actually higher than the stated 68 as he hits a drug den afterwards) after Nicky Cavella's actions.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: The aforementioned split in The Punisher's portrayal as regards to his interactions with the rest of the Marvel characters is lampshaded in ''Secret War: Secret Files'' (written in the voice of Nick Fury as entries in the SHIELD database); it comments on how it seems like Castle lives in "two different worlds," one where he interacts with the other heroes and one where he never crosses paths with them.

* [[Large Ham]]: Dominic West as Jigsaw. ''Lordy.''

* [[Left for Dead]]: In the Punisher MAX continuity, you can NOT count on this trope to save your bacon one it. One particularly noteworthy example was when Castle drove Cavella out to some abandoned woods and shot him low in the gut with the intention of slowly killing him over several hours/days while he walked away. Perfect setup for Cavella to come back, right? Well, just to shoot down any ideas of him returning some mooks talk about how they found his corpse with the eyes eaten out. Just as well, as [[Villain Decay]] had wrung out any threat he had to begin with.

** He states in one comic devoted to showing his equipment and methods that he orders the shirts by the gross (gross = 144).

* [[Made of Iron]]: Especially in MAX, but even in mainstream continuity Castle's a tough bastard. By human standards, anyway.

** {{spoiler|In "The List", he continues trying to stab Daken after - in less than a half hour - having being shot, hit with grenades, punched around, cut across the chest by Daken, broke a leg, getting his throat slashed, lost (and I do mean LOST) an arm and about 3 gallons of blood. He probably would still be fighting him as a disembodied head!}}

*** [[Monty Python and The Holy Grail|Black Knight? Is that you?]]

* [[Noodle Incident]]: We catch the tail end of [[Butt Monkey|Soap]] describing how he was once handcuffed to a dead sheep.

* [[Oh Crap]]: The closest Castle has ever gotten to doing one of these was when he was fighting Pittsy, a balding fatso of at least 60 years old. Halfway into the fight, he tore off Pittsy's bandage where he received an [[Eye Scream]] and broke his fingers. Pittsy gave him a [[Cluster F-Bomb]] in defiance and popped all of his fingers in place, ready to fight. Frank looked on in disbelief.

* [[Omniscient Morality License]]: Quite common, particularly in issues written by Garth Ennis; Frank seems to know without fail whether any given person is a criminal who deserves death or not. Or he's just extremely good at self-justification.

* [[Once Killed a Man with A Noodle Implement]]: One mook is called Inky because he killed a man with a pen. [[Eye Scream|Subverted when they describe, in great detail, how it happened]].

* [[Squashed Flat]]: One of the stories has Wolverine coming after Frank, mistaking that recent mutilations are his doing. Due to Wolverine's [[Healing Factor]], Frank uses a steamroller to get him off his tracks.

* [[The Stoic]]: Frank is either calm, detached, and homicidal, or (much more rarely) [[Tranquil Fury|pissed off and homicidal]]. That's it. To quote the videogame (written by Garth Ennis):

* [[Story-Breaker Team-Up]]: ''[[Archie Comics|Archie]] Meets The Punisher''.

* [[Super Detailed Fight Narration]]

* [[Superhero Packing Heat]]

* [[Sympathy for the Devil]]: Averted or subverted repeatedly. The closest Frank has ever done this trope was listening when general Zakharov gave a [[Motive Rant]] detailing why he [[I Did What I Had to Do|did all of those horrible things]]--and not smashing his face in mid-sentence. He waits until the end. It was a [[Mercy Kill]], but after hearing what Frank did about the general it's doubtful that he would've spared him even if he wasn't dying. But Zakharov's final words ''do'' to seem to touch a nerve in Frank, given how he's a veteran of [[The Vietnam War]], in which he did more than a few horrible things himself.

** The ONLY person Frank feels sorry for when he guns down a cadre of swamp-dwelling cannibals is the [[Psychopathic Manchild]] banished to the edge of the community, kinda-sorta blaming himself for pissing the poor bastard off.

* [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork]]: Force Frank to team up with another hero, and this trope is the result. While he tends to dislike the rest of the hero community, and the feeling is mutual, he's at least willing to work with them against the real villains.

* [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]: Extremely averted to the point of inversion.

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Quite a lot of villains. One minor gangster was dumb enough to brag about how he would take over his boss' territory and "business" when Frank (who had just offed said boss) was still right there; this was met with the predictable results:

'''Frank:''' Yeah. Well. ''* shoots him* '' Just in case. }}

** Special mention goes to Nicky Cavella, a jackass of a mob dude who got the [[Sarcasm Mode|astoundingly bright idea]] to dig up the remains of Frank's family and ''urinates on them''. And then release the footage to the news media in the hopes of getting Castle [[Incredibly Lame Pun|pissed off]] and go berserk. Yeah. It's been nice knowing you, Nicky.

* [[Wife-Basher Basher]]: Frank is [[Up to Eleven|extra-cruel]] towards scum who beat women.

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Frank Castle to General Zakharov in the Mother Russia arc, as he explains after Frank {{spoiler|successfully escapes the nuclear missile silo by setting one of the missiles to defuse at 8000 feet, stowing away inside, launching it and parachuting to safety.}} Especially notable because it came after spending the whole arc insisting to his disbelieving inferiors that they were under attack from Americans and not Arab terrorists.

* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: When he finds out that {{spoiler|Vera}} was actually the brains behind the human trafficking operation (i.e. was the one who told the mooks to "break" their victims by gang rape) in "The Slavers," he {{spoiler|repeatedly throws her face-first against a shatterproof window, reasoning correctly that the frame would give before the windowpane did}}.

* [[Weaponized Car]]: The Battle Van, which Frank had a tendency to trash every time he used it. He also once had what was basically a go-cart from Hell. It was destroyed in its second appearance.