Name: Francis David Castle Sr.
Alias(es): Frank Castle, The Punisher, Pete Castiglione
Species: Human
Citizenship: American
Gender: Male
Title(s): Lieutenant (former)
Affiliations: United States Marine Corps, Cerberus Squad
Status: Alive
Portrayed by: Jon Bernthal
Frank Castle was born on November 15th in Hell's Kitchen, NY. His parents had difficulty controlling him at a young age. He was a very violent child and liked to hurt people. Not much is known about his parents or what schools he went to. Frank met his wife Maria in Central Park while playing on his guitar. He later had two children named Frank Jr. and Lisa.
Frank Castle joined the Marine Corps when he was 18 years old. He served two tours, one in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq. He was placed under the command of Colonel Ray Schoonover who taught him how to use firearms. He later earned the title of Scout Sniper and was inducted into the ranks of the Marine Corp Force Recon. While he served he became best friends with another marine named William(Billy) Russo. While they served in Kandahar they were recruited onto a task force which was named Operation Cerberus under the supervision of Colonel Schoonover and Agent Orange. The objective of this Operation was to apprehend, interrogate and assassinate high value targets in Kandahar.
During his time at Operation Cerberus, one of the marines that he was working with named Gunner Henderson recorded footage of them torturing a man named Ahmad Zubair. He was a policeman working Afghan intelligence when he found out that US soliders were trafficking heroin. Agent Orange found out, captured him, interrogated him and executed him. Gunner tried to blow the whistle on the entire operation but when he went to the morgue to pay respects to a fellow marine that lent him his knife, he found several of the higher ranking agents stuffing bags of drugs into dead US soldiers. This video footage wound up in the hands of an NSA Analyst by the name of David Lieberman (Micro). He sent an encrytped email to Dinah Madani, a Homeland Security Agent who was Zubair's partner in Afghanistan. Once that video was sent, the Special Agent in Charge at Homeland Security, Carson Wolf brought a team to apprehend Lieberman but ended up shooting him and Lieberman fell into the Hudson River. Thankful to him, he had a nokia cell phone in his front pocket which intercepted the bullet which saved his life. After this happened, Micro went into hiding. They planted evidence, painted Lieberman as a traitor and left his family in disarray. The people behind Operation Cerberus thought that Frank Castle filmed the video, so they killed his family in Central Park and covered it up to look like a gang shootout.
Frank spent the next few months hunting down members of each gang involved; The Dogs of Hell, The Mexican Cartel and the Kitchen Irish. He later earned the title of The Punisher by the public. After being captured and tortured by the Kitchen Irish, Frank was apprehended by the NYPD with the help of Daredevil. He went on trial for the murders of 37 people. The trial was going considerably well until one of the guards working for Wilson Fisk told him that he had information regarding the murder of his family, prompting him to shout outbursts that clearly stated he was guilty. When he went to the prison, he confronted Wilson Fisk who told him that one of the inmates in the prison knew more about what happened to his family. Frank then interrogated the inmate and learned that the shootout in Central Park was really a drug deal gone bad, with a big drug dealer with the street name 'Blacksmith'. Fisk later snuck Frank out of prison so he could continue to find who killed his family. He tracked down the Blacksmith and found out that it was his old commanding officer, Colonel Schoonover. He killed him, returned to his house and proceeded to burn it down. Before burning it down, he recovers a hidden disc in a picture frame that he hid that. On that picture frame it says "Micro".
Six months later, Frank is now working at a construction site under the fake name Pete Castiglione. He has flashbacks everyday of his children, his wife and everything he did in Kandahar. While he is eating breakfast at a diner, he get a phone call from Micro who leaves him a phone on a nearby roof. Frank is unsure of his intentions so he remains cautious, changing the way he walks to throw off Micro's gait recognition and keeping low. Frank wants to work with him but needs to make sure he's clean so he gives Micro several locations to drive to at specific time frames. At the last location, Frank sends one of his friends to confront Micro while he sneaks into the back of his car. Micro is informed by Frank's friend Curtis Hoyle that he's in the wind and will not work with him. Micro drives back to his secret location that he's been hiding in frantic and upset just to find out Frank followed him back. After a few days of torture and the two not trusting each other, Micro tells Frank what happened to him and how he "died". Frank however still believes he is working for Agent Orange so he keeps him tied up. Micro gets a hold of his pen which has a needle in it with some sort of drug that he uses to temporarily put Frank to sleep. Later when he wakes up, he tells Micro about Cerberus, Agent Orange and everything else that happened. Micro then informs Frank that Operation Cerberus was off the books and completely illegal.
Frank and Micro start working together and find out that Agent Orange is actually the head of Covert Operations at the CIA named William Rawlins. Agent Madani continues to find out who killed Zubair in Kandahar however all of her leads end up dead. She identifies Gunner Henderson and a few other soldiers that may have been involved in Kandahar and he ends up dead one day later. During this, Frank goes to see Gunner to find out if he knows Agent Orange's name. This is when Gunner tells him about the drugs they were smuggling in the dead bodies of his fellow marines. Shortly after, a team arrives to kill both of them. Both of them get shot, however Frank makes it out with the help of Micro. With the help of Curtis Hoyle, one of Frank's friends who is also a corspman he helps nurse Frank back to health.