Anyone who's anyone will know that the concept of a grief-stricken, highly trained vigilante going on a revenge-driven rampage is fairly ubiquitous throughout pop-culture - what with all the Liam Neesons, Bruce Willises and Kevin Costners of the world rehashing that trope fairly well for the last two or so decades - so it should come as no surprise to learn that the Punisher isn't a particularly original concept either.
Although comparisons have been levelled between the character of Frank Castle and the Paul Benjamin character from Death Wish, comics historians commonly point towards Don Pendleton's Executioner series for having inspired the Marvel hero. The similarities are certainly stark, with both leads sporting a battle van of sorts, a similar narrative style (a war journal was used in both series), and an equally familiar gallery of rogues.
Gerry Conway cited the Pendleton novels specifically when he described the creative process that birthed the character, and given the popularity of those books at the time, it makes sense. They even bear a similar namesake, and while the Punisher has done much to distance himself from the Pendleton character throughout the years, there's no getting away from the fact that his origin - tragic as it may be - is fairly derivative.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
