| “ | How much longer before innocent people start getting caught in his cross-fire? | „ |
| ~ Matt Murdock regarding Castle's penchant for violence |
| “ | You hit them they get back up, I hit them, they stay down!! | „ |
| ~ Frank to Daredevil |
The Punisher, also known as Frank Castle, was a New York City-based vigilante whose wife, daughter, and son were murdered in a drug sting gone wrong. In contrast to Daredevil, the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, the Punisher leaves none of his targets alive. He appears in the Netflix-exclusive TV series Daredevil as the tertiary antagonist/anti-villain in Season 2.
With his military background and training, the Punisher is precise, tactical, and hard to capture or contain. Only in cases of extreme torture or having no other options will he get captured or imprisoned.
His use of murder and extreme violence caught the attention of the other vigilante of Hell's Kitchen, Daredevil and the two engaged in a war between their ideologies to achieve justice and peace. After being tortured by the Kitchen Irish and subsequently imprisoned due to his crimes, Castle underwent a trial but purposefully botched it to go to prison and gain information on his family's death.
After successfully eradicating the Mexican Cartel, the Kitchen Irish and the Dogs of Hell, the three gangs that partook in the murdering of his family and killing the man behind the shootout, the Blacksmith, Castle burnt down his family house, painted a skull on his chest and accepting himself as the Punisher before leaving to locate the mysterious figure Micro and perhaps, end crime forever.
He is portrayed by Jon Bernthal.
Personality
Frank Castle is a cynical, brutal man with a black-and-white attitude for the world and a lack of distinction, or even care for right and wrong, good and evil and even morals. He does not expect criminals to change and believes the only way people can be safe is for them to be put down, less they come back and cause more harm. He mocks Daredevil for leaving criminals alive and his beliefs of hope.
When his family were killed in a gang war it transformed Castle into a brutal and determined vigilante with the mind of an almost sociopath. In dealing with criminals, he is efficient but with little remorse or ethical boundaries to cross. Due to his military background he is highly desensitized to the violence he inflicts others and is able to kill with tactical precision which results in him finishing the job with as minimum or maximum casualties as he wishes. Because of his violent fashions and nature, many people believe he possesses sadistic attraction to his profession. This might be true, however Castle appears more driven out of love for his family and rage over their deaths. If he believes there is a small chance a mugger would become like the criminals who took his children from him he will take it seriously and eradicate them without a second hesitation. He obviously loves his family, even years after their deaths, viewing his crusade as the Punisher as a way to make up for his inability to save them. He avenges their deaths by destroying the three gangs who partook in killing them and repeats his daughter's favorite book before pulling a trigger to honor her.
Despite his ruthless nature, Castle does genuinely care for the lives of the innocent and is careful towards civilian casualties. He lives by the same code he learn while in the military; "One Shot, One Kill", getting the job done with as little casualties as possible. He has a strong dislike towards unnecessary violence, knowing a soldier finishes the enemy quickly despite how much he may or may not deserve it. Though he will use violence as means to his end and torture to gain information, and on one occasion hanged the Mexican Cartel on meat hooks to die, whilst pondering how to torture the Blacksmith, the man who inadvertently caused his family's death, in a shed he remembers the motto Schoonover taught him in the idea and kills him with a swift shot to the head.
Frank dislikes being thought of as insane or not in control of his own actions, knocking Daredevil out when he says otherwise and screaming during his trial when they state he needs mental help. He also refused to accept a plea for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, claiming he didn't suffer from any of the sort and it was insult to soldiers who did. It's unknown if this is true as the trauma of war and guilt of his family's deaths could be a contributing cause of his mental state.
