The Punisher: Frank Castle MAX (2004) # 75

"Dolls"

Writer: Tom Piccirilli; Artist: Laurence Campbell; Colorist: Lee Loughridge

The Punisher prepares to kill Maxwell Hawthorne, but a lost girl, Becky, interrupts him. Punisher pauses his mission to help Becky find her father. While they search, Punisher buys Becky a Sally Stylish doll, which he recalls his daughter Lisa had years ago. They find Becky's father, and Punisher uses him to steady his shot to kill Hawthorne. Punisher warns the father to never let Becky out of his sight.

"Gateway"

Writer: Gregg Hurwitz; Artist: Das Pastoras

Gateway meets with Drago family Consigliere George Apostolo and brings Tommy Drago's order to kill Francesco Drago to Enzo Gaucci. In Central Park, the Castle family is caught in the crossfire when Enzo attacks Francesco and the Germaine twins. Later, a fellow Marine visits Frank in the hospital, telling him that Gateway passed on the information that led to the Castle family deaths. Frank returns home where a half-eaten family breakfast is still on the table. Castle grabs his shotgun, travels to Gateway's home, and kills the information courier.

"Ghoul"

Writer: Duane Swierczynski; Artist: Tomm Coker; Colorist: Dan Freedman

Sgt. Hickey sells the shirt Frank Castle Jr. was wearing the day he was killed on an auction site for a five figure sum. He leaves to meet someone selling the Castle family picnic blanket, but is ambushed. Hickey wakes up in his apartment where the Punisher cuts off one of his fingers. Punisher tells Hickey to buy back all of the items he's sold over the years and document their destruction, or Hickey will lose his arm next. Punisher leaves a bag of money to pay for the items. later, Hickey prepares to destroy Frank Jr.'s toy police car.

"Father's Day"

Writer: Peter Milligan; Artist: Goran Parlov; Colorist: Lee Loughridge

In a motel room, the Punisher sews his wounds closed while he recalls a letter his daughter Lisa wrote to him entitled "I feel safe when you are with me" on the day she was killed.

Title: "The Smallest Bit of This"

Writer: Charlie Huston; Artist: Ken Lashley; Inker: Rob Stull; Colorist: Edgar Delgado

Surrounded by dead mobsters in a burning bar, the Punisher and the only surviving mobster, both armed with knives, scramble for a gun. As they struggle, Punisher imagines his family surviving the attack in Central Park and growing old. When the mobster stabs Punisher the vigilante imagines dying along with his family. When Punisher kills the mobster, he imagines his family surviving alone. Punisher is satisfied when he emerges victorious.

The Punisher (2004) # 50

"Long Cold Dark" Part 1

Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Howard Chaykin; Colorist: Edgar Delgado; Letterer: VC's Cory Petit; Editor: Axel Alonso; Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada; Cover Artist: Tim Bradstreet

Barracuda has invaded the home of Yorkie Mitchell in England, having severely injured Yorkie and killed his wife as he searches the house safe for leverage against Frank Castle. He finds what he's looking for and prepares to kill Yorkie, who explains to Barracuda that Castle is the most dangerous man who's ever lived and if he goes against him Barracuda will die like everyone else who has tried. Barracuda laughs and executes Yorkie.

In New York City, Castle awakens from a dream, in which his family had lived and he'd grown into an old man content with his life. To shake off the effects of the dream, Frank travels to land he'd purchased into the remote region of the Poconos to take in some target practice and reflect on his weapons of war. Meanwhile, in California, Barracuda walks into a day care and kills a woman working there.

Two weeks later, Frank is in the ceiling of a high-rise hotel suite, watching a meeting of many different mob bosses from across the city. Eventually, the mobsters realize that none of them called this meeting, which causes Castle to hesitate from his assault. Suddenly, Barracuda steps out of the elevator with an M-60 machine gun and begins killing the mobsters. Frank notices a claymore mine in the ceiling, forcing him to jump down into the room as he realizes Barracuda has wired the floors above and below the suite with explosives. While Barracuda continues killing the bosses, Frank tries to find an exit, only to be hit by an exploding claymore in the stairwell. Barracuda finds him and renders him unconscious, then takes him to the roof where he escapes across a zipline with Castle.

Later, Barracuda has Castle tied to a chair in a run-down tenement building. Barracuda explains how he had been looking for a way to get his revenge when he received an e-mail from an unknown benefactor that contained a list of Castle's known associates. One of those on the list was Yorkie, who had learned of a secret when he had written to the sister of Kathryn O'Brien to express his condolences on her death. O'Brien's sister wrote back, asking if Mitchell knew how to contact Frank Castle. Barracuda leaves the room for a moment, and when he returns he's holding a baby, the daughter of Kathryn O'Brien that Frank had fathered without his knowledge.

The Punisher (2001) # 27

"Elektra"

Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Tom Mandrake; Colorist: Matt Milla; Letterer: Dave Sharpe; Editor: Joe Quesada; Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada; Cover Artist: Tim Bradstreet

Monday: The Punisher is sitting in a tree with a rifle, getting ready to shoot Figsy Goleano, a strip-club owner that also deals heroin. Before Frank can pull the trigger, he sees a woman in red approach from behind Goleano. She stabs the drug dealer through the head with twin sais, smiles at Frank and laughs before disappearing. Back at his home, Frank thinks about who he saw: Elektra Natchios, who he knows could have killed him easily if he had been her target instead of Figsy. Castle shrugs and goes to sleep.

Tuesday: Frank goes into an empty bar to eliminate Anthony Balbo and his mob crew during the gangster's birthday party. When he enters, however, he finds the mobsters all dead, sliced to pieces without any of them having time to fire their guns. He then sees Balbo standing up in the back of the bar, but when Castle attempts to question him Balbo's limbs fall off of his torso one by one, sliced through just deep enough to barely stay together until disturbed. The Punisher turns and sees Elektra behind him with her sword, hears her laugh again, and after turning his attention back to the dying Balbo realizes she's again disappeared. Later, at Lucky's Bar, Castle has a meeting with Lieutenant Soap, who is scared to death of the file he's read on Elektra. Frank reads through the file, which includes reports from a SHIELD operation in the 1980s that describes "telepathy, body-swapping, mind-control, and for want of a better word, magic". Still, Frank thinks, it doesn't tell him what she wants him.

Wednesday: Castle finds the Dell'Oro brothers dead in their pool.

Thursday: He finds Jimmy the Gun stabbed through with a sword.

Friday: The Dutchman has been drowned in his cooking pots.

Saturday: Don Alberto Luigi Pariani is found by Castle decapitated while sitting on the toilet. Frank sees Elektra standing outside the house, and hears her laugh yet again before vanishing.

Sunday: The Punisher is on a ledge of a high-rise building, staking out Skinny Vic Strega, a mobster who on Sundays always buys a hooker and rents the penthouse suite at the Remington Hotel. Frank has decided that Elektra is out to kill him, her beating him to his targets must be a tactic to screw with his mind. He doesn't know how she knows who his targets are or how she gets to them first, but tonight is where he ends it. He's wired every access point into the suite with explosives, leaving only the front door and the window where Castle is waiting. Inside, Strega goes into the penthouse alone with the hooker and tells his men not to come up no matter what. While Frank waits for Elektra, he almost misses the hooker stabbing Strega in the chest with a sword. Frank shatters the window, alerting the guards on the floor below. Elektra, disguised as the hooker, has cut out Strega's heart and is standing there seemingly unarmed while Frank holds a gun on her. He tells her to explain what she's been doing, and she admits that it was easy to beat him to his targets; he's fast, but not that fast, a fact she demonstrates by taking the rifle out of his hand before he can react. Then the guards enter, Elektra tosses Castle back his rifle, and he unloads a full magazine of rounds into them. He then asks Elektra "why?", and she laughs before answering "I was bored. I do things like this when I'm bored." Elektra turns to leave, but deciding to take a dangerous chance Frank tells her to wait. She turns back to him, and he asks her if she'd like to have dinner tomorrow night.

The Punisher (2011) # 4

Writer: Greg Rucka; Artist: Marco Checchetto; Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna; Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth; Editor: Stephen Wacker; Editor in Chief: Axel Alonso; Cover Artist: Bryan Hitch

Sitting in the Lion's Head Pub, reporter Norah Winters is working on a story about the Punisher, his history and motivations for his war on crime. She stops and calls her editor, Ben Urich, who meets her at the pub. She asks him for advice about something important she's recently learned. Three hours earlier, Norah rescued the Punisher after his mid-air fight with the Vulture, which left Castle gravely wounded. He directs her to drive, not to a hospital but to Queens, where they eventually arrive at his safe-house. She helps him inside, and is stunned when she sees the amount of weaponry that Castle possesses. When she asks him about it, he orders her to leave.

Back at the pub, Urich tells Norah that years ago he learned a secret about a superhero that would have made him famous and rich had he revealed it. But he realized that the only person that story would have served was himself, and he advises her to think about whether revealing her secret would be serving the public or herself. At the safe-house, Castle bandages his wounds and creates a makeshift splint to support his broken leg, and then he leaves with a bag of supplies.

In the South Bronx, police detectives Bolt and Clemons investigate the Vulture's dead body on a rooftop. Clemons discovers where Castle landed and realizes that he survived the fall, possibly with help. When his partner, Bolt, questions why they're investigating this instead of the Cole-Alves shooting Clemons says the cases are related. He chastises Bolt by saying just because they don't weep for the people he kills doesn't make Castle a hero. At a closed animal shelter, Frank is stitching up his numerous wounds when he hears a fight happening outside. Two drug dealers are beating up a boy who had informed the cops on them, but before they can hurt him Castle comes out and shoots both of the men. He then orders the boy to follow him inside, to hold the mirror for him.

At St. Vincent's hospital, Norah visits Rachel Cole-Alves, the only survivor of the "Wedding Day Massacre". Later, back at the Lion's Head Pub, Norah is visited by Detective Clemons, who has received Norah's description by someone who saw her helping the Punisher. He wants to know where Castle is, because helping the Punisher makes Norah an accessory. She tells Clemons that she's on a deadline and will talk to him later, refusing to give him the information he wants. Norah has changed her story from the Punisher to one about Rachel Cole-Alves and the tragedy she has lived through. While Norah finishes her report, the Punisher leaves the animal hospital.

Punisher: Year One (1994) # 1

"Family Business"

Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning; Artist: Dale Eaglesham; Inker: Scott Koblish; Letterer: Bill Oakley; Colorist: Marie Javins w/ Electric Crayon; Editor: Don Daley; Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Vince Evans

At Central Park in New York City, an alcoholic newspaper reporter named McTeer wakes up on a bench to the sound of gunshots coming from the Sheep's Meadow area of the park. He stumbles toward the sounds and finds a grisly scene: a man hanging upside down from a tree, and a family consisting of a husband, wife, son, and daughter laying dead from multiple gunshot wounds. After the police arrive, Detective John Laviano and his partner Stan Witts go over the crime scene. They've identified the family as Frank and Maria Castle, and the only witness they've found is McTeer, who Laviano has a bad relationship with. While the detectives question McTeer, the EMTs realize that Frank Castle isn't dead yet - and then Frank wakes up in a psychotic rage, screaming loudly and attacking anyone he sees. The police aren't able to stop him until, when Frank reaches the body of his wife, the EMTs are able to inject him with a sedative that causes him to pass out. The medics then take both Castle and McTeer to Mount Sinai Hospital for treatment.

At the hospital, the detectives go over Castle's file, which says he's a Captain in the Marine Corps with numerous medals that's only recently come home from war. They're unaware that McTeer is listening to their conversation, ready to turn the situation into a newspaper story. Outside Castle's room, the detectives meet Dr. Miles Warren, who is actually a college professor called in to help with the hospital being short-staffed. Warren informs Laviano that the other victim of the park shooting, Forrest Hunt, is still alive as well; Laviano tells the doctor and his partner to keep this information from Castle when he wakes up, afraid the Marine might go vigilante on them. Meanwhile, at a bar, Mcteer is working on the story of Frank Castle and his family.

Later that night, Forrest Hunt has died and the detectives leave to get some sleep. Two men dressed as doctors threaten the cop guarding Castle's door, and he lets them inside. Frank wakes up in his room, and at first he thinks he's back in Vietnam during the war before he remembers what happened to his family. When the two assassins enter the room, Frank is kneeling down on the floor, distraught from the memories of what happened and oblivious to the men getting ready to shoot him.

The Punisher (1987) # 3

"The Devil Came From Kansas!"

Writer: Mike Baron; Artist: Klaus Janson; Letterer: Ken Bruzenak; Colorist: Klaus Janson; Editor: Carl Potts; Editor in Chief: Jim Shooter; Cover Artist: Klaus Janson

Operating under the name Arnold Groetsch, the Punisher has come to Marion, Missouri to buy a house and take a break from his war on crime. While talking with a real estate agent, he witnesses a group of gunmen robbing a bank and gives chase after them. After killing a truck-load full of killers, he loses the van carrying the bank robbers, and when he stops he is nearly shot by a sniper. Castle takes out the sniper with a blowgun and forces him to give up information on his group, the Army of the New American Revolution, a hate group led by Joseph Fryer, a retired Army colonel. Frank gets Fryer's location from the sniper and leaves him in the woods, then blows up his own van and escapes detection on motorcycle.

The next day in Sherrill, Kansas, the Punisher tracks down Fryer, who is working as a realtor. Using his false identity as Groetsch, Castle convinces Fryer that he's there looking to buy commercial property for a company that builds specialized vehicles. Fryer and Castle leave to take a look at a compound, with Fryer explaining to "Groetsch" that America has been overrun with "mongrel races", specifically the Jewish. They arrive at the New American Revolution compound, where Fryer attempts to recruit his new friend, only for Castle to pull a gun on him. However, some of Fryer's men get the drop on Castle and manage to disarm him, only for one of them to be bit by a nest of rattlesnakes. Frank suits up and follows the escaping Fryer, only for the racist to get the upper hand after tossing a grenade. Fryer believes "Groetsch" is a Jewish assassin there to kill him, and he chases Castle to a nearby bulldozer. Frank busts open the vehicle's gas tank and tricks Fryer into stepping into the puddle of gasoline, which the Punisher then lights on fire, killing Fryer where he stands.

Marvel Preview Presents: The Punisher (1975) # 2

"Death Sentence"

Writer: Gerry Conway; Artist: Tony DeZuniga; Letterer: Uncredited; Editor: Marv Wolfman; Editor in Chief: Roy Thomas; Cover Artist: Gray Morrow

From a rooftop overlooking Wall Street, the Punisher watches a politician give a speech. The Punisher had received a tip that the politician would be assassinated, and sure enough he finds a sniper on an adjacent building. Castle shoots the sniper and quickly makes his way to the other rooftop to interrogate the man, only to discover that the sniper is a Vietnam veteran named Mike Hauley that served with Frank during the war. Hauley tells Castle that he was bitter from the attitudes of people after he came home from Vietnam, and he had been contacted by someone offering him a job as their assassin. Before Castle can extract any more information, a helicopter flies by and drops a napalm bomb on Hauley, incinerating him while the Punisher manages to dive to safety. Later, back at his safehouse, the Punisher records his latest War Journal entry, stating that he's going to Evanston, Illinois to speak with Hauley's wife in hopes of finding answers.

Back on Wall Street, police are taking away Hauley's body while an F.B.I. agent named Dave Hamilton tells his partner that this assassination attempt is the third he's seen in recent months, with both of the other two assassins being killed by police during their escape. All of the men were Vietnam soldiers that had been discharged, none of them with criminal records. In Chicago, Frank meets an informant named Grundy and tells him he needs information on the assassinations, but a bullet that is meant for Castle instead kills Grundy. The Punisher chases the shooter down, who accidentally blows himself with what he believes to be a secret weapon provided by his employer.

Meanwhile, on a plane to Chicago, Agent Hamilton and his partner have learned that the Punisher is involved and are looking at his military file that explains how his wife and two children were killed. In his van, Castle thinks back to the day in Central Park when he and his family stumbled upon a mob execution and were gunned down to keep them from being witnesses. The Punisher arrives at Mike Hauley's home and is invited in by his children, but is recognized by Mrs. Hauley as the man believed to have killed her husband. While Frank tries to explain the situation, a napalm bomb is thrown through the home's window, catching it afire. Frank manages to rescue the Hauley family, and in return the mother tells him the name of a man her husband had recently been in contact with. Hamilton arrives with the fire department, but the Punisher had already left the scene.

Later, at the isolated mansion home of Mark Christanson, the Punisher discovers an army of personal guards surrounding the compound. He kills a guard and slips into his uniform, arriving in time to listen to Christanson as he explains his plan to his partners. Christanson's company has developed the Mark VI Laser Cannon, which they will use to overthrow the United States Government in the name of their organization, the International Industrial Alliance. The Alliance has been using ex-service men to act as their agents and as decoys for their own army. Suddenly, Christanson points at the Punisher as a spotlight opens on him, the group having led him into a trap. He fires at the Alliance, but a force-field blocks his shots while a group of guards enter to apprehend him. Castle beats down the guards and leaves to find the house's power generator, which he finds located under the tennis court. He places a time bomb on the generator and runs for the tree-line, escaping just as the house explodes, killing the Alliance and their men. Afterward, the Punisher is in his van listening to news reports on the explosion, and an interview with Dave Hamilton reveals Castle's involvement, ending with Hamilton vowing to track down the vigilante.