The Punisher is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Fantastic Four #49 (April 1966), and was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby.
Publication history
A robot created by the cosmic entity Galactus, the Punisher debuted in Fantastic Four #49 (April 1966), by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby. The Punisher fought the Fantastic Four superhero team and returned in issue #74 (May 1968) to battle Galactus' former herald, the Silver Surfer. The robot was later reprogramed by the extraterrestrial Colonizers of Rigel to fight the heroes Iron Man and Jack of Hearts in Iron Man #110 and 112. Galactus retrieved the Punisher and uses it to defend his vessel from an attack by the Elders of the Universe and the cosmic entity the In-Betweener, who appeared to destroy the Punisher with a lethal blast, in Silver Surfer vol. 3, #17. The Punisher returned, however, to battle the Silver Surfer in issue #109. The supervillain the Wizard later found the Punisher adrift in space and reprogramed it to serve as part of the supervillain team the Frightful Four in Fantastic Four vol. 3, #29. Galactus used several dozen Punishers against the supervillain Thanos in Thanos #4-5 (2004).
Stan Lee recalled in 2005 that he had suggested the character's name be repurposed for writer Gerry Conway's new antihero, the Punisher, who debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Feb. 1974):
Gerry Conway was writing a script and he wanted a character that would turn out to be a hero later on, and he came up with the name the Assassin. And I mentioned that I didn't think we could ever have a comic book where the hero would be called the Assassin, because there's just too much of a negative connotation to that word. And I remembered that, some time ago, I had had a relatively unimportant character ... [who] was one of [the cosmic antagonist] Galactus' robots, and I had called him the Punisher, and it seemed to me that that was a good name for the character Gerry wanted to write â€" so I said, 'Why not call him the Punisher?' And, since I was the editor [sic; Lee had been named publisher in 1972], Gerry said, 'Okay.'
In other media
Video games
- The Punishers appear in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. They are shown as foot soldiers to Galactus when he is attacking the Skrull Homeworld.
References
External links
- Punisher at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
- Marvel.com wiki: Punisher (robot)