One would think that The Punisher could be the most straightforward character to write. He is a stone-cold killer who lost his family to the mafia and believes that the legal system in the United States lets too many criminals slip through the cracks. Instead of allowing a criminal to get off with a good lawyer, Frank Castle is judge, jury, and executioner.
However, despite that simple origin and story, so many people have tried different things with Frank Castle. Some of the creators have done amazing things, and others have versions of the antihero that are better left forgotten. Here are the five best versions of The Punisher and the five worst.
10 BEST: GARTH ENNIS' PUNISHER
In 2004, Garth Ennis and Laurence Campbell recreated The Punisher with a more realistic and gritty vision in mind. Ennis didn't care about supervillains, and he put Punisher back on the streets hunting down scary criminals that usually slipped through the cracks.
It made Frank Castle dangerous again. The series also took an interesting slant since it aged Frank in real-time. In 2009, a new Punisher Max series launched with Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon in control.
9 WORST: FRANKENCASTLE
Frank Castle died in the Dark Reign storyline. His death came at the hands of Daken, the son of Wolverine. Not only did Daken kill Castle, but he chopped off his arms and head. After this, Morbius and the Legion of Monsters found him and had him brought back to life as a Frankenstein-styled monster. FrankenCastle then led the League of Monsters into action. It would have been cool with other characters, but this was not a good version of The Punisher.
8 BEST: DIRTY LAUNDRY
Thomas Jane might be the best Punisher on the big screen. However, the movie he starred in (2004's The Punisher) received critical bashing and was a box office disappointment. With that said, Jane knew that fans loved him in the movie, and he loved playing the role. As a result, Jane made a short film called Dirty Laundry. While the film never called him Punisher or Frank Castle, it was clear that he was, and it was precisely what the movie should have looked like.
7 WORST: GUARDIAN ANGEL
If there is a version of the Punisher worse than Frankencastle, it is his stint as the Guardian Angel Punisher. Once again, it started the exact same as FrankenCastle, as Frank died. The death here was worse, though, as Frank took his own life.
This was in The Punisher: Purgatory series, and it saw Frank return from the dead with a sigil on his forehead and guns that were supernatural in nature.
6 BEST: WAR ZONE (COMICS)
For years, Frank Castle was a supporting character. When he got his own comics, they were decent enough, but then things took a major jump when Punisher War Zone started in 1992. The series saw Chuck Dixon and John Romita Jr. revitalize the character and turn Punisher into one of Marvel's most popular and successful characters. While still made during the comic code, the books popularized what most fans know today about Punisher and his history.
5 WORST: DOLPH LUNDGREN
The first time that Punisher made it to the big screen was in 1989, making him one of the first Marvel characters to get a major movie, following Howard the Duck. The movie had Dolph Lundgren as Frank Castle, and the film made him a police officer whose family was killed, making him a mercenary. The Punisher symbol was never used, and the film reimagined rather than bringing the character to the big screen.
4 BEST: RAY STEVENSON
When it comes to Punisher: War Zone, the 2008 movie received poor reviews from critics and was a box office bomb. However, the Lexi Alexander directed movie brought one of the best big-screen versions of Punisher to the big screen.
Ray Stevenson played an older Frank Castle, as he was still in his war against organized crime while avoiding the police who considered him just as dangerous as the villains he killed. The downfall of the movie was the representation of Jigsaw, but Stevenson was fantastic as Frank Castle.
3 WORST: JAKE GALLOWS
Jake Gallows was an alternate version of The Punisher. This character is from the Marvel 2099 world. In this world, Frank Castle is long dead and left behind his war journal. Gallows is a private police officer who lost three family members to crime lord Tyler Stone, a Spider-Man 2099 bad guy.
Gallows then took the words that Castle wrote and became the new Punisher. Unlike Frank, he doesn't just kill bad guys, but he created his own prison where he tortured prisoners.
2 BEST: JON BERNTHAL
The most recent portrayal of The Punisher came via Netflix when Jon Bernthal, The Walking Dead actor, signed on to play Frank Castle. This version of Punisher first appeared in the second season of Daredevil, but he found his footing in his lone season. Bernthal was excellent in his performance as Castle, and the show was one of the best non-Daredevil shows on Netflix for Marvel. A second season also hit in 2019, and that was it before Marvel left Netflix.
1 WORST: THE END
Marvel released a series of titles taking place in the future, such as Hulk: The End, where Hulk was the last surviving person on Earth. In The Punisher: The End, a similar stance took place. The third World War destroyed most of the world, turning it into a nuclear wasteland.
Frank Castle survived due to staying in a fallout shelter in the prison in which he was incarcerated. Frank's last mission was to seek out the government officials and military leaders who allowed the world to fall in destruction to kill them for their crimes, ending humanity as we know it.