490 PUNISHER, THE
Thomas Jane as Frank Castle, a.k.a. the Punisher, in the 2004 live-action film by the same name.
Photofest
appearance, in Amazing Spider-Man #129, features the Punisher hired by the villainous
Jackal to assassinate Spider-Man (at the time a suspected criminal in Marvel continuity).
Th e Punisher’s attempt on Spider-Man’s life is interrupted when the Jackal, concerned
that Spider-Man is too much of a challenge for the Punisher, secretly attacks Spider-
Man and causes him to fall off of the rooftop the two are fi ghting on. Although Spider-
Man survives this fall, neither the Jackal nor the Punisher are aware of this, nor is the
Punisher aware of the Jackal’s interference. Th e Punisher is enraged at the Jackal for so
casually accepting Spider-Man’s accidental death; although the Punisher would have
taken Spider-Man’s life as a retributive act of justice, the Punisher considered Spider-
Man’s accidental death both a failure and injustice on his own part. Th e Punisher begins
to question the Jackal’s motives, and in a subsequent encounter with Spider-Man he
learns the true nature of the Jackal’s treachery. Th e Punisher never fully accepts that
Spider-Man is truly innocent, but the two often fi nd themselves working toward the
same goals in subsequent issues. By 1975, the Punisher was a solo feature in Marvel
Preview #2, one of Marvel’s black-and-white magazine format titles, which featured the
fi rst telling of the Punisher’s origin story. In Amazing Spider-Man #162 (1976), one of
the Punisher’s few recurring foes was introduced: Jigsaw, a former hitman for a crime
family. His name refers to his face, which appears to have been stitched together from
pieces, owing to his having been thrown out of a plate-glass window previously by the
Punisher.
Punisher remained a guest character until 1986, when Marvel debuted a fi ve-issue
miniseries, Th e Punisher: Circle of Blood , written by Steve Grant and Jo Duff y, a n d
