The comic book character the Punisher has appeared in many types of media. Since his first appearance in 1974, he has appeared in television, movies, and video games each on multiple occasions, and his name, symbol, and image have appeared on products and merchandise.
Punisher made three appearances in the 1990s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, voiced by John Beck. He first appears in the seventh and eighth episodes of the second season, and later appears in the eighth episode of season four. Due to the requirements for children's programming, Punisher was restricted to using non-lethal weapons which took the form of concussion blast energy weapons or gimmick guns such as electrified net launchers.
In the 1992 X-Men TV series episode "Days of Future Past part 1", two children are seen holding a video game cartridge called Assassin, with the Punisher on the cover of the video game. The game was produced by "Marbles", an obvious play on "Marvel".[citation needed] A robot duplicate of the Punisher also appeared in the season two episode entitled "Mojovision", attacking Wolverine and Jean Grey.[1]
The Punisher appears in the The Super Hero Squad Show episode "Night in the Sanctorum" voiced by Ray Stevenson.[2] He appears in his van where he is letting the Squad stay over until they can find a new place to stay. During his appearance, he creeps out the squad with a speech about how criminals are like "brussels sprouts" and innocent people are like "macaroni and cheese", and how the sprouts ruin the whole meal. He kicks the squad out when they accidentally set off his weapons causing them all to discharge inside the van (during which he didn't even flinch while everyone was panicking). The Super Hero Squad found Punisher's van cramping anyway.
In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes micro-episode "Enter the Whirlwind", the Punisher is mentioned by a taxi driver who is reading a newspaper article that stated "Vigilante "Punishes" Again".
A second film adaptation was directed by Jonathan Hensleigh (who wrote Die Hard: With a Vengeance) and starred Thomas Jane for the lead role with John Travolta as the main villain Howard Saint. This movie adaptation was more faithful to the comic book and was loosely based on the Welcome Back, Frank comic. It was released in the U.S. on April 16, 2004. It was met with mixed reviews by critics and earned $54.7 million at the box office, plus a further £60 million in DVD sales. Lionsgate came with a limited edition (10,000 produced) mini-comic book written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Steve Dillon, chronicling Castle's time in Delta Force in the Gulf War, and later in the FBI. An extended cut was released on November 21, 2006.[3] It includes 17 minutes of additional footage, as well as a new animated introduction sequence known as the "Kuwait scene" with illustrations of Tim Bradstreet.
The Punisher PlayStation 2 gameThe Punisher for Arcade and Sega Mega Drive, developed by Capcom, was a side-scrolling beat 'em up in the vein of Double Dragon in which the Punisher and/or Nick Fury would engage various foes in hand-to-hand combat, occasionally drawing firearms in lieu of melee combat.
The Punishercomputer game for the Amiga and PC[5] featured three different modes of gameplay: driving the Punisher's battle van, gunplay on foot and scuba diving.
A Punisher game was also released for the Game Boy system. It played in a manner similar to Operation Wolf, and featured a cameo appearance by Spider-Man. The Kingpin was the final boss in all versions except for Game Boy, which used Jigsaw.
For the NES system, the Punisher starred in a titular, side-scrolling action game that allows players to control an aiming cursor in an over-the-shoulder shooting-gallery environment.
The Punisher makes a cameo appearance in the 2000 PlayStationSpider-Man game voiced by Daran Norris. The Punisher leads Spider-Man to "Warehouse 65" where Spider-Man must stop the symbiote cloning process. After Spider-Man foils Doctor Octopus, the Punisher is last seen playing cards with Spider-Man, Daredevil and Captain America.
He was mentioned by name at the beginning of the 2005 multiplatform game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, and a torn piece of his shirt can be seen hanging in the cinematic opening. The non-canon storyline depicts that Brigade had killed the Punisher.
On January 18, 2005, a new The Punisher game was released for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC with Thomas Jane reprising his role of the Punisher. It was developed by Volition, Inc. and published by THQ. Extremely violent, it directly draws upon the character's 2000s comic books. Some critics have praised the script and such innovations as brutal interrogation/torture sequences.[citation needed] Others have criticized[citation needed] the game's use of obscuring effects (such as removal of color to create a black-and-white image) during violent scenes to retain an ESRB rating of M for Mature. By one month after the game's release, it had sold over 2 million copies.[citation needed]
The Punisher was left out of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance because the character was still licensed to THQ at the time of the games release. The PC version of the game features a modded, playable Punisher. He also briefly appears, albeit heavily obscured, in the Doom's Day cutscene, having been defeated by Doctor Doom alongside several of the X-Men and Hulk.
The Punisher: No Mercy, an arena-based first-person shooter, developed for the PlayStation 3, was released exclusively on the PlayStation Network July 2, 2009.[6]
The Punisher is referred to in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. During a conversation between Captain America and Luke Cage, the player talks about why the Punisher was not recruited onto the Anti-Reg side.
The Punisher appears in the Marvel Legends toy-line in series 4,6 and 8, modeled after his movie appearance, the Urban Legends boxed set, in the Face Off two-pack series in his classic outfit, and a variant similar to Tim Bradstreet's design.
The Punisher was given an action figure in the second series of Hasbro 12-inch Icons. The figure's design was based on Bradstreet's art.
Another figure in series 4 of Hasbro's Marvel Legends as been announced, this one also based on Bradstreet's art with a camouflaged variant similar to his appearance in a level of the PlayStation 2 game.
The Punisher was also produced as an action figure in the Marvel Select toy line. His appearance is again modeled after Tim Bradstreet's art.
In professional hockey, the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins 2009 playoffs t-shirts and sweatshirts worn by the players off the ice feature the Punisher skull on its left sleeve.
