The Punisher: War Machine Vol. 1

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Celibate Hero: Frank doesn't seem to have much interest in the ladies, but this is most likely justified by the fact that he still thinks about his family and/or he's too busy killing scum. He has had romantic encounters with some women, including the one that resulted in his illegitimate daughter in the MAX series, but it's not a significant part of his characterization outside of when he's written by Mike Baron, who has him sleeping around as much as your typical action hero. Carnival of Killers: An early arc in Punisher: War Zone had the New York mob hiring the seven best assassins in the world to hunt down the Punisher. Such things are something of an occupational hazard for The Punisher. The Scourge of the Underworld. The Little Hunter. Mr. UnSmiley. The Skull Faced Guy. The Marvel Universe's Grim Anti-Hero. The mainstream incarnation of The Punisher has only once succeeded at dispensing his own brand of justice to significant supervillains he encounters, even those who badly screw with him personally, like Bullseye. Probably that's why he mostly goes for mundane mobsters, who don't have Joker Immunity (or superpowers). The one exception is Stilt Man, which he got with a bazooka to the groin. The saddest aspect of all is, getting offed by the Punisher was probably was the high point of Stilt Man's career. McNinja: Frank doesn't just have his Marine boot-camp training, in Thunderbolts he was given training by Elektra Natchios. In 2022, for the Jason Aaron run of Punisher Frank will be joining the Hand.

Frank is well aware that he has zero chance of ever actually winning his war on crime, or even making a serious dent in the criminal population. MAX Microchip calculates that Frank has killed about 800 people in the 30 years he's been active (in that continuity, mainstream canon is all over the place). Anyone with even a passing understanding of population statistics can tell you that is less than a fraction of a fraction of 1% of the U.S professional criminal population, much less the rest of the world. Chambliss, Julian C. (2015). "War Machine". In Darowski, Joseph J. (ed.). The Ages of Iron Man: Essays on the Armored Avenger in Changing Times. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2074-9. Frank is also shown as being very skilled with in both knife fighting and hand-to-hand combat, but consistently prefers to use firearms unless he absolutely has no other choice. "As far as I'm concerned, if you're too close to shoot, you're too close, period." Frank's M.O. is repeatedly questioned by both criminals and heroes pointing out that he can't hope to keep crime down by killing criminals, and in fact has never done so. The truth is that Frank is perfectly aware of it, he's a Death Seeker whose only goal is to take out as many mobsters as he can before he's finally killed and reunited with his family. Finally there's Salvatore Carbone, AKA Thorn, who was one of the only recurring villains not killed off before the "Angel Punisher" story arc.

Depraved Dwarf: Frank and Wolverine take on an entire gang of these at one point, led by the midget brother of a mafia boss killed by Frank. It doesn't end well for them (or Wolverine).

Pay Evil unto Evil: Pretty much the cornerstone trope of The Punisher is doing bad things to even worse people. He even provides the trope's main image.

The Punisher provides examples of the following tropes:

The Dreaded: Frank himself. The white skull on his chest has become such a terrifying icon of death that just the sight of it can make men from EASTERN EUROPEAN DEATH SQUADS fall to their knees and sob for mercy. Frank come off as this sometimes, especially towards Soap, who he's even stated that he keeps him around because Soap's whiny personality makes it harder to feel bad in case criminals use Soap to get to him. He's also needlessly antagonistic towards Spider-Man and Daredevil, who's sole crime is trying to keep Frank from turning New York into a slaughterhouse. to Daredevil) "You want to stop me murdering criminals by taking me off the streets. That's stupid. Send me to prison and I'll just kill every criminal I meet. In Circle of Blood inmates attempting to assassinate Castle while he is imprisoned are able to obtain a pistol from a corrupt guard, but end up having to tape a soda bottle to the muzzle, since their limited resources and timetable make acquiring a real suppressor impossible. The "soda bottle silencer" ends up waking up nearby inmates (who were in on the plot anyway) and slows down the bullet's muzzle velocity to the point that Frank's mattress soaks up the shots.