Punisher Facts You May Not Know

The Punisher is one of those characters who's great on his own, but he's at his best when he appears alongside another superhero. Or, even a real-life rapper from Detroit, like that time he saved Eminem from an assassin hired by a group of parents who hated his music. Yeah, that happened, and it was as violent as you'd expect. Published in 2009 in a two-part miniseries called Eminem/The Punisher, our boy Frank introduces himself by killing Eminem's entourage, and later Eminem takes a chainsaw to the assassin, the Punisher villain Barracuda, sawing off his fingers in the process.

In the 2004 Hollywood adaptation of The Punisher series, famed professional wrestler Kevin Nash landed the role of a fan favorite villain, The Russian. Getting to play a big mean comic book villain like that must be fun...until you get stabbed, which is exactly what happened to Nash. Nash and Tom Jane were shooting a knife fight scene, and Jane had forgotten to swap out the real knife they use for close ups for the fake one they use for fights. Nash is 6'9", and is nothing but muscle and power. Jane accidentally stabbed the blade into Nash's flesh in the flurry of their choreographed melee. Nash didn't even feel it.

In Punisher volume 3, #17, Wolverine and Punisher are separately investigating the mysterious disappearance of mob thugs, and they suspect each other of being behind it all. When they finally come face-to-face, things go south for Wolverine—quickly and violently. Punisher shoots him point black in the face, exposing Wolvie's adamantium-plated skull. Then, he shoots Wolverine point blank again, this time in the old family jewels. And then the coup de grâce: Punisher flattens Wolverine with a steamroller, but not all the way. He stops at the elbows, leaving him pinned to the floor of a warehouse. That's bad. But it could have been much worse. Between blowing his face off and blowing his manhood to bits, Punisher had doused Wolverine in gasoline and was about to set him on fire, but his Wolverine BBQ was cut short when a gang of thugs interrupted the proceedings. Marvel, 20th Century Fox; make this into a movie, please...posthaste.

Jerry Conway, Punisher's creator, originally wanted to name him "The Assassin." Stan Lee vetoed that idea, thinking it had too many harsh connotations for what was, essentially, a picture book for kids. Then Lee had an idea: years earlier he created an unmemorable robot character named The Punisher who was one of Galactus' henchmen. Lee suggested that Conway use the robot's name. Conway took it because, well, you don't say no to Stan Lee. He's been the Punisher ever since.

The Punisher is best known these days for his interactions with Daredevil, but he began his comic book career as a Spider-Man villain. In The Amazing Spider-Man #129 Punisher is on the hunt for the notorious vigilante wall-crawler. He even got J. Jonah Jameson to call him "the most newsworthy thing to happen to New York since Boss Tweed." Conway always intended Frank Castle to first appear as a villain, only to eventually become a hero. Well, an extreme anti-hero.

The 2005 Punisher video game was so true to the character's violent tendencies that it was nearly slapped with the dreaded and sales-killing AO rating, meaning only adults would be been able to purchase it. Then again, would you want to play a Punisher game made for children? No.

Kurt Sutter, the creator of Sons of Anarchy, wrote a dark, gritty, realistic draft of Punisher: War Zone. The studio wanted to do more comic booky version instead. Sutter didn't want his name attached to an overtly comic booky script, so he had it removed from the movie, leaving no trace of his involvement.

The Punisher once killed every hero and villain in the Marvel universe in a one-shot comic titled Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe. In this alternate universe tale, Frank Castle's origin story changes slightly. His wife and children are killed during a fierce battle involving the Avengers, the X-Men, and an alien race called the Brood. After Cyclops refuses to own up to his team's mistake, Punisher kills him on the spot, which gets Punisher locked away for life. Well, not really. See, on the way to the prison, his transport van drops him off at a mansion filled with people who had been handicapped and disfigured in the collateral damage of superhero fights. This organization gives Frank Castle everything he needs to kill every last hero and villain in the Marvel universe. And then he does. He saves Daredevil for last. When the deed is done, Punisher turns the gun onto himself. Frank is a real bummer.

The Punisher has been punishing since the early-1970s. That's a lot of bodies piled up over the years. How many? Well, in 2011, Marvel comics editor Stephen Wacker crunched the numbers. From 1974 to 2011, Punisher had killed exactly 48,502 people. Yeah. He's kind of a monster.

In Punisher: The End, an alternate universe, non-canon story, Frank Castle is one of the last remaining humans on earth after a nuclear holocaust kills most of the human race. Frank tracks down the last group of people alive. Not to live with them and help rebuild humanity into something greater than it ever was. He's the Punisher! Of course he wants to kill them! Why? Because this small group of humans were the ones responsible for the near-extinction of the human race. And Punisher gonna punish, even in end of the world. Echoing the end of Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe, Punisher tracks down these evil men and eradicates them, and then chooses himself as his final victim. He sets himself on fire and wanders into the lonely wastelands, finally ending humanity's cycle of violence, once and for all.