The Punisher is a fictional vigilante and anti-hero in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita, Sr. and Ross Andru, he first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Feb. 1974). The Punisher is a vigilante who considers murder, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence and torture to be acceptable crime fighting tactics. Driven by the deaths of his wife and children, who were killed by the mob when they witnessed a gangland execution in New York City's Central Park, Frank Castle wages a one-man war on the mob and all criminals in general by using all manner of weaponry. A war veteran, Castle is a master of spatial planning, martial arts, stealth tactics, hand to hand combat, and a wide variety of weapons. The Punisher's brutal nature and willingness to kill made him a novel character in mainstream American comic books in 1974. By the late 1980s, he was part of a wave of ps