Versus Compendium Wiki
Advertisement

"They laugh at the law. The rich ones who buy it and twist it to their whims. The other ones, who have nothing to lose, who don't care about themselves, or other people. All the ones who think they're above the law, or outside it, or beyond it. They know all the law is good for is to keep good people in line. And they all laugh. They laugh at the law. But they don't laugh at me." ― Punisher


Frank Castle (legally changed from Francis Castiglione) better known as The Punisher is a violent vigilante from Marvel Comics. Driven by the death of his family, he hunts down criminals and kills them in brutal ways, and is also known to use intimidation or torture.

Background[]

Born in Queens, New York to Sicilian immigrants, the young Francis Castiglione studied in the seminary for a time, married his wife, Maria, who was already pregnant with their first child, before enlisting in the United States Marine Corps having been inspired by the actions of Captain America during World War II, looking up to him as his role model. Eventually rising to the rank of Captain.

During his time in the USMC, Castiglione graduated from boot camp and then went on to United States Marine Corps School of Infantry. While still in training, Castiglione met Phan Bighawk, an American Indian scout. He was assigned to be Castiglione's guide, and through Phan, he learned how to survive in the wilderness. Following his training, Castiglione served for the Marines for four tours. Despite being one of, if not the best sniper in the corps, it is generally implied that many of his superiors didn't like him and put him in situations where they hoped he would be killed.

At one point, his friend from training, Roger Wong, was found to be running a black market supplying the locals with weapons. To keep him away from the trial Frank was sent stateside for a month, running a recruitment office. It was here that he met Linus Lieberman, who would soon become Microchip, for the first time, when he disqualified him from the draft for having flat feet and being overweight. He did not remember this meeting later, but Microchip did.

He fought in numerous engagements and was the only survivor (from both sides) of a Viet Cong assault on Valley Forge Firebase in 1971. For heroism in the line of duty, he was decorated with the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross, 3 times the Silver Star and Bronze Stars, 4 times the Purple Heart, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. After finishing his second tour of duty, he came back to the United States and had a second child with his wife. He then signed up for a third tour, for which he illegally re-entered the U.S. Marine Corps under the name of Frank Castle in order to return to battle. Castle ran Special Black op training missions for Marine Recon Commandos in the upper New York State area.

While on leave, Frank took his wife and two small children to Central Park in New York City. Coincidentally, the family happened upon the scene of a mob killing on the Sheep's Meadow green in the park. Fearing witnesses, the mobsters murdered Castle's family in cold blood and escaped. Castle managed to survive the attack but was deeply traumatized by the incident. He was going to testify in court to identify the shooters, but Castle was denied this since the New York City Police department were deeply connected with the Mafia. He decided not to return to Marine duty.

When mobsters slayed his family, Frank Castle vowed to spend the rest of his life avenging them. Now equipped with state-of-the-art weapons, he wages a one-man war against crime as the Punisher. Castle uses his combat experience, guerrilla and urban warfare techniques, as well as detective-like skills to achieve is mission. This includes using the Mafia's own tactics against them to track down and kill those responsible for the death of his family.

Stats[]

Attack Potency: Multi-City Block Level (Has gone toe to toe with the likes of Captain America and Wolverine. Evenly-matched against Daredevil and physically superior to Deadpool)

Speed: Massively Hypersonic+, with Faster Than Light reactions (Consistently tagged Spider-Man and Daredevil, two of the fastest Marvel Street Levelers to date. Fast enough to tag a speedster with a pistol shot)

Durability: Multi-City Block Level (Survived strapping a land mine to his chest and self-detonated, Grenades exploding in his face, Grenade exploding in his feet, Being pushed by Sentry and sent flying away, Being punched through a wall by Spider-Man, Survived being hurled into the sky, and the fall that followed, Survived this explosion, Survives blast from Skrull RPG with minor damage)

Hax: None Notable.  

IntelligenceHighly Intelligent. Multi-disciplinary military training from the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Army and Navy. Proficient in basic infantry skills, special operations, including the use and maintenance of specialized firearms and explosive ordnance. Highly trained in infiltration into heavily-guarded enemy territories and structures for the purpose of assassination, captures, and military intelligence, in addition to an intimate knowledge of criminal movements and behavior, as well as keen tactical and strategic abilities, he is also thoroughly trained and experienced in unconventional ("guerilla") warfare. He is an armorer, a gunsmith, and an expert in field medicine.

StaminaSuperhuman.

Powers, Techniques, and Equipment[]

Powers[]

Maximum Human Conditioning: The Punisher is in peak physical condition. Through his rigorous training & exercise regimes, he developed strength, speed, endurance, stamina, longevity, reflexes and agility near the limits of a super-soldier’s inhuman capabilities.

  • Peak Human Endurance: Castle's endurance is unbelievably high. He frequently performs surgery on himself without pain medication

Master Martial Artist: Castle is a very thoroughly seasoned veteran in multiple forms of armed and unarmed combat. Becoming highly adept in Nash Ryu Jujutsu, Ninjutsu, Shorin-ryu Karate, Hwa Rang Do, and Chin Na. His styles of choice being Nash Ryu Jujutsu.

Weapons Master: As an authority on modern warfare, the Punisher is a recipient of multi-disciplinary military knowledge from the United States Armed Forces. Thanks to this and continued training, the Punisher is a master of many weapons, favoring daggers and long-range shooting weapons. The Punisher's ever-changing arsenal of weaponry includes various automatic and semiautomatic rifles, and an array of handguns, fragmentation and tear gas grenades, other explosives, and combat knives. A personal favorite is his ballistic knife, which can launch its blade with lethal force. He commonly uses M16 .223 caliber automatic rifles, Sterling Mark 6 9 mm, semiautomatic rifles, 9 mm Browning Llama automatic pistols, .45 caliber automatic frame re-chambered for 9 mm ammunition, .223 caliber Derringers, and Gerber Mark 2 combat knives.

  • Blade Weapons Training: Castle has extensive knowledge of blade weapons from his years of training in various martial arts disciplines as well as his military training. He tends to carry with him up to 3 or 4 different types of edged-weapons, preferring the knife he learned to fight with in the USMC: the Ka-bar.
  • Master Marksman: He is a sharpshooter and exceptional marksman with many types of firearms, often depicted as being ambidextrous and rarely missing his target. Trained as an elite sniper, he's skilled enough to hit a target from 4 km. He is skilled in knife throwing as well.

Expert Pilot: Castle received helicopter training with the U.S. Army and U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command. He has been shown flying both helicopters and airplanes.

Interrogation Master: Castle uses his skills at interrogation to get information from people linked to criminals through creative use of torture as well such as water boarding, electrocution, suffocation, sleep deprivation, starvation etc.

Extensive Special Operations Training: As part of his Marine Force Recon training, Castle completed U.S. Navy SEAL (SEa Air Land), UDT (Underwater Demolition Team) and LRPA (Long Range Patrol) training, EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) training, graduated the Army's Ranger School, completed the U.S. Army Airborne School (AKA "jump school"), graduated the U.S. Army Special Forces Qualification Course, and LRRP (Long Range Recon Patrol) training. He also took part in cross-training with the Australian Special Air Service Regiment. He's also a qualified HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) jumper.

Master Tactician: Armed solely with conventional weapons and motivated by a fanatical hatred for criminals like those who murdered his family, the Punisher has single-handedly incapacitated up to a dozen well-armed and experienced opponents in a single encounter and escaped uninjured. It is his military training and his attention to detail that allows him to achieve this.

Indomitable Will: Frank has complete control of his mind and consciousness, providing a strong resistance against telepathic powers that are used against him. When Letha tries to control Frank's mind, he scoffs at their attempt saying "It doesn't feel different from any other day."

Equipment[]

  • Punisher's Body Armor: Castle chose not to utilize any costume outside of a black shirt with a white skull splashed across the front. His other clothing, which sometimes included combat boots, blazers, leather jackets, trench coats, bulletproof vests, body armor, black battle dress uniforms, and camouflage outfits was worn for the sake of protection or camouflage in urban and wilderness areas. Each tooth of the skull was actually spare ammunition for firearms. His Kevlar uniform protects him from most gunfire, though he can still suffer concussive injury or penetration from sufficient or repeated impacts. The armory locations house everything from common guns and ammunition to modernized blowguns capable of piercing a 15 layer Kevlar vest, light anti-tank weapons like the AT-4, grenades and other explosives of various sizes, and crossbows, which offer a combination of silence and precision.
  • Firearms: Frank possess a large arsenal of firearms ranging from pistols, sub-machine guns, shotguns, assault rifles, grenade launchers, and heavy artillery weapons.
  • Explosives: Other then firearms, Punisher also carries various hand grenades and bombs at his disposal.
  • Exotic Weapons: When he began working with Henry Russo they began to collect custom gear from both heroes and supervillains such as Green Goblin's Pumpkin Bombs and Goblin Glider, Ant-Man's Pym Particles Helmet, Baron Strucker's Satan Claw, Doctor Octopus' Tentacles, Spider-Man's Web-Shooters, Hawkeye's Bow and Trick Arrows, Captain America's Shield, etc. He also later stole a prototype Iron Man Armor and booby-trapped it to snare Iron Man after blasting Spider-Man and flying Rachel Cole-Alves to safety.

Minor Feats[]

Attack Potency/Strength[]

  • Can press lift 400 lbs
  • Can lift a full grown man with one hand
  • Punches down Daredevil in one of their many fist fights (Daredevil can take hits from Bruiser, who is a multi-tonner)
  • Can break bones with a couple of punches
  • Breaks out of steel handcuffs (Steel handcuffs require at least 800 lbs to pull apart)
  • Knocked down Bullseye with a single punch
  • Took down a group of SHIELD Agents with nothing, but his fists
  • Fought on par with a held back Moon Knight
  • Swung a fully grown man around by the tip of a whip
  • Removed a man's mechanical hand right out of it's socket
  • Snapped a large wooden pole that was tied to his back
  • Punched down Black Panther in a fist fight
  • Ripped off a man's arm
  • Has restrained and staggered Wolverine (Wolverine can snap dinosaur necks and survive being kicked a very long distance)
  • A single kick from Frank was able to splinter a wooden door
  • Restrained and held down Spider-Man underwater
  • Was able to punch and throw Deadpool around
  • Can toss and slam a man around like a ragdoll
  • Slammed the mutant Death Adder on a urinal so hard, the urinal broke into two (Frank was also restraining and holding down Death Adder)
  • Was able to shatter a concrete wall by casually throwing someone into it
  • Even when injured, lifted up and slammed a television on Deadpool's head
  • Can push back an entire group of people jumping on his back
  • His punches usually knock several teeth out
  • Can wrestle and kill a crocodile with his bare hands
  • Was strong enough to hurt and injure US Agent (US Agent can go toe to toe with Captain America)
  • Staggered Kingpin with a elbow to the face
  • Jumped and broke through a concrete wall
  • Restrained and choked down an enraged Tiger Shark
  • Injured Electro with several rifle smacks
  • Gouged out Barracuda's eyes
  • Easily lifted a Hand ninja over his head
  • Broke Wolverine's nose with a single elbow
  • Can rip apart a wooden plank and smash it over a bull's head
  • Punched a Polar Bear
  • Took on nine guys with his only his fists (He took down six of them and the other three retreated)
  • Shatters a glass shard
  • Traded blows and restrain Winter Soldier
  • Killed a Jaguar with his fists

Speed/Reactions[]

  • Casual bullet-timer
  • Surprisingly quick and agile
  • Dodges a point blank assault from Captain America
  • Was able to block Cap's shield toss with his gun
  • Kept up and slashed Daken several times
  • Disarms someone with an already attached hook in less than one second
  • Deflected a shot from Black Widow's Widow Bite
  • Used a body to block incoming bullets
  • Does not have any trouble with keeping up with Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Black Panther
  • Raised up his rifle in the time lightning traveled down from the sky
  • Dodged and weaved through machine gun fire from one of Microchip's robots
  • Has jumped from rooftop to rooftop
  • Evaded a bomb explosion
  • Dodged Electro's electric blasts
  • Shot out Hawkeye's bow faster than he could react
  • When he was in front of three armed soldiers who opened fire, was able to outmaneuver and kill them all
  • Reacted to Nightcrawler teleporting directly in his face (He kicked him away afterwards)
  • Has often leaped and jumped over rooftops
  • Can keep track and see Daredevil's movements
  • Even while tired and exhausted, Punisher was able to dodge a surprise assault from Wolverine
  • Outran one of the Hand's most trained assassins
  • Evaded a heat-seaking missile
  • Was able to waste one of High Evolutionary's hencheman while showing off an afterimage
  • Can punch and take down the agile and nimble Black Widow
  • Dodges a hi-tech missile and manages to save a girl at the same time
  • Backflipped through a spike trap
  • Can evade through laser fire
  • Dodged a harpoon shot, in underwater, at point blank range

Durability/Endurance[]

  • Has extreme tolerance for pain
  • Has repeatedly been shot, stabbed, slashed and lived (Even blasts and punches from superhumans who are more than strong enough to kill a human being)
  • Survived encounters with the Russian, who can charge through walls and punch concrete
  • Took a gut punch from Molly Hayes, who can topple monsters as large as skyscrapers
  • Tanked a massive amount of slashes from Daken, Wolverine's son
  • Withstood a point black shotgun blast
  • Took several hits from Kraven the Hunter (Kraven is someone who can wrestle gorillas and rhinos)
  • Can keep on fighting when he has a broken rib
  • Survived being thrown around by the Sentry
  • Taken hits from an enraged Captain America (Even survived having been crushed between Cap's shield and leg)
  • Took a direct kick to the face by Daredevil
  • Only stood up after being thrown into Spider-Man by Sabretooth
  • Survived a chop to the neck by Bullseye
  • Endured a shock of 11,000 watts of power
  • Survived being shot in the head
  • Stood up from having his ribs crushed and being beaten into a concussion
  • Survived a kick to the gut from Deadpool (Deadpool can kick off steel doors and knock out Taskmaster with a single kick)
  • Withstood several slashes from Vulture
  • Survived a building exploding near him (The only injury he got was a scratched up shoulder
  • Survived being rammed by Ghost Rider's bike
  • Survived getting electrocuted by Electro
  • Took three rubber bullets to the face
  • Survived a rubber bullet straight through his head (Rubber bullets were able to heavily injure Electro)
  • Lived after Shocker shot him in the torso with his gauntlet
  • Survived a fall from a building that was higher than 67 stories (And he fell on top of a car but he just shrugged that off)
  • Stood up after Kingpin backbreaked him
  • Took blows from US Agent, a man who can more than hold his own against Captain America
  • Get back up after getting smacked by a rifle over his head
  • Took the full explosion of two grenades and was still standing
  • Survived having his hand broken after punching Wolverine in the face
  • Fell off the roof of a building and got back up just fine.

Skill/Intelligence[]

  • One of the finest and tactical minds in the Marvel Universe, easily rivaling Captain America
  • His marksman skills rival that of Hawkeye and Bullseye
  • A master of various martial arts styles, weaponry, stealth tactics, espionage, guerrilla warfare, and psychological warfare
  • Figured out where Captain America's secret base was during the Civil War
  • Has retooled superhero and supervillain tech such as Green Goblin's Goblin Glider and The Satan Claw
  • Microchip can't unscramble a lock that Frank installed (Microchip is a professional hacker and is responsible for creating some of Frank's weapons)
  • Stark, under the correct circumstances, has called Frank a genius
  • Took down a good part of the Howling Commandos while he was in Los Angeles
  • Maintained and managed multiple safehouses in New York
  • Used rubber bullets in his fight against Electro
  • Using his quick thinking, outwitted Sentry by setting up a bomb
  • With preparation, took down the Thunderbolts (Which included Red Hulk and Ghost Rider)
  • Deceived the Avengers by baiting them
  • Has extensive knowledge of the human anatomy
  • During the Civil War, Cap chose to go along with Punisher's plan instead of his
  • Once built a knock off of Captain America's shield
  • Planned out an attack on Wolverine, Daredevil and Spiderman at the same time
  • Has outwitted Captain America on occasions
  • Survived run-ins with superhumans who are well out of his league
  • Single-handedly taken down several crime organizations
  • Can detect people in perfect camouflage
  • Managed to infiltrate in the White House and get away with threatening the President

Powerscaling[]

Thanks to the harsh and intense physical training he part took in during his time in the United States Marine Core. Punisher has pushed his body to the absolute human peak perfection, and being trained in a wide variety of forms of armed and unarmed combat followed by stealth tactics, espionage, guerrilla warfare, and psychological warefare. It has shaped him into one of the most proficient and battle-hardened soldier and killer in the Marvel Universe, second to only Wolverine.

It has provided him the necessary training and tactics to go up against the top tier Street Levelers of Marvel which include Captain America, Wolverine, Daredevil, Deadpool, Black Panther, Elektra, Winter Soldier, Taskmaster, and so on. Even able to continuously take a huge amount of physical punishment from them and still continue on fighting due to his extremely high pain tolerance.

In spite of appearing to be a gun toting vigilante that appears to do nothing, but charge into situations guns-blazing. Punisher has shown to be quite a tactical genius, able to plan ahead of his foes to put them in a position where they are at a disadvantage and should the situation not turn in his favor, he is more then capable of thinking quickly and improvising on the fly to outwit his opponents.

Besides his firearms and explosives. Punisher also owns a wide assortment of exotic weapons and gadgets such as Green Goblin's Pumpkin Bombs and Goblin Glider, Ant-Man's Pym Particles Helmet, Iron Man's Repulsor Gauntlet, Baron Strucker's Satan Claw, Doctor Octopus' Tentacles, Spider-Man's Web-Shooters, Hawkeye's Bow and Trick Arrows, Captain America's Shield gives him further additional weaponry which he can use to great effect to cripple his enemies.

Weaknesses[]

  • Kevlar can only hold up so much damage
  • His firearms require ammunition
  • Still only human

Source[]

Versus Compendium's Conclusions[]

Notable Wins:

  • None

Notable Losses:

  • None

Inconclusive Matches:

  • None
Advertisement