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, eventually rising to the rank of Captain. 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 his mission. This includes using the Mafia's own tactics against them to track down and kill those responsible for the death of his family.
Powers and Abilities
Powers -As the Punisher, he has no superhuman powers. Although, Nick Fury's intel classified him as being power level 6 or greater due to his fighting skills, his weaponry, and his use of lethal force.
Abilities
-Maximum Human Conditioning: The Punisher is in peak physical condition. Through his rigorous training & exercise regimes, he developed levels of strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, healing, longevity, metabolism and immune system efficiency near the absolute limits of human capability.
-Peak Human Endurance: Castle's endurance is unbelievably high. He frequently performs surgery on himself without pain medication. -Peak Human Durability: Castle's durability is unbelievably high. He was hit by Black Widow, a Russian super-soldier, and Captain America so strongly that it passed through a thick wall and is shown only with minor wounds.
-Master Martial Artist: Castle is a thoroughly seasoned veteran in multiple forms of armed and unarmed combat. Specifically, he is highly adept in American-style CQC (close-quarters combat), Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Systema, ninjutsu, Shorin-ryu Karate, Hwa Rang Do, Chin Na and Nash Ryu Jujutsu, his style of choice being the latter.
-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."
-Bilingual: As well as English, Frank is able to speak Spanish.
Physical Strength
-The Punisher's body functions at the peak of human condition, granting him peak human strength. Black Widow, a Russian super-soldier has even stated that Frank was stronger than herself. He can press lift twice his own body weight or about 550lbs. Frank engages in a brutal regimen of calisthenics, katas and firing range practice daily, maintaining his combat skills and he does not drink alcohol or do drugs.
Weaknesses
-Non-Superhuman Physical Conditioning: Castle is as susceptible to physical injury and disease as any other normal human, often having to rely more on strategy than strength when up against a superhuman opponent. However, different characters like Nick Fury have commented on how extraordinarily high his pain tolerance is. Frank does not even take over-the-counter painkillers, believing that their benefit of dulling pain isn't worth the side effects of drowsiness or slowed reflexes.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
-Punisher's Equipment: In the vast majority of cases, Castle utilizes a wide variety of modern military equipment that is specifically curtailed to each situation as needed, although he has also been shown to be highly adaptable and make the most of whatever may be at his current disposal.
-Punisher's Clothing: Castle most often chooses not to wear any sort of costume beyond a black shirt with a white skull splashed across the front. His other clothing, which normally includes combat boots, blazers, leather jackets, trench coats, bulletproof vests, body armor, black battle dress uniforms and camouflaged outfits, are worn for the sake of protection or subterfuge in urban and wilderness environments. His body armor protects him from most gunfire, though he can still suffer concussive injury or penetration from sufficiently powerful or repeated impacts. In regard to his earlier costumes, each tooth of the skull on his chest was actually a spare magazine for one of his firearms.
-Punisher's Battle Van: Castle has utilized a number of vehicles, both standard and customized, as a means of transport, refuge, and supply storage, most commonly gravitating toward large vans that can hold a great deal of firearms and ammunition, as well as be used as a ramming device.
-Punisher's Arsenal: Castle employs a truly expansive array of conventional firearms and weaponry, including machine guns, rifles, shotguns, handguns, knives and explosives, a great many of which have been culled from both common and organized criminals, as well as military sources during his operations. He often customizes these weapons for greater effectiveness, with both standard and custom attachments including magnified optics, reflex sights, night vision scopes, flashlights, grenade launchers, sound and flash suppressors, bipods/tripods, drums and high-capacity/extended magazines, including non-standard types of ammunition such as hollow-point or armor-piercing bullets. His secret armory locations house everything from common guns and ammunition to modernized blowguns capable of piercing 15-layer Kevlar vests, light anti-tank weapons, explosives of various types, and even crossbows, which can offer a combination of silence and precision.
