Marvel Database
Register
Advertisement

Quote1 They call me the Punisher. And I take issue with people who go around murdering other people. I'll give you one chance to surrender. Please don't take it. Quote2
The Punisher[src]

History

Early years[]

Jake was raised a Thorite and became a member of the Public Eye Police Force and Church of Thor, as his brother was. His father was a cop, too, in an unknown service, and died on unknown circumstances. Jake Gallows specialized in weapons. He had a wife, Anji, and a son, Dean, but they eventually broke up. Anji left with her son when she discovered, using her divination, that Jake would one day become a vigilante, saying instead that he spent more time with the Public Eye than with his family. He eventually missed his own son's funeral after he died during a military operation.

Birth of the Punisher[]

One day, the son of Alchemax's Vice President, Kron Stone and his gang murdered his mother, brother and sister-in-law. He was himself seriously injured.

After recovering, Jake, disgusted by the sentence for Stone, had come across and stolen, from the Public Eye, archives of the original Punisher's War Journal.[5] The last page bore the challenge: "You who find this, I charge you to carry on my work." Soon after, he became the new Punisher.

Under his new vigilante identity, Jake seemingly killed Stone, but decided to continue his rampage and collaborate with his sidekick Matt Axel on an arsenal, a prison (the Punishment Hotel), and a Molecular Disintegration device to terminate unrepentant criminals.[1]

He confronted, on a few occasions, the Cyber Nostra. Once while defending a hero-costumed crowd during the Heroes Day. There, he learned from Barrio Man the meaning of the faith people kept in Heroes Age values.[6] On the second time, he killed the Cyber-Nostra enforcer, Multi-Fractor, as well as some corrupt Public Eye cops. Seeing he had became a cop-killer, he swore to kill the Fearmaster.[7]

At a point, he crossed the way of the Young Blades gang, young killers using Sword Blades as vehicles. Led by the decred Maxine Sands, who called herself "Blue Max", carrier of the Blue Dagger, an exceptional Jet Blade. First trying to kill them under his Public Eye's agent identity, Jake was stopped by his Chief. He then wore the Punisher's mantle to terminate them.

Killing all his friends, Jake confronted Maxine. Blue Max tried to explain her reasons, but the Punisher was thinking only about punishment. Claiming nobody has ever given her anything, she preferred suicide instead of allowing the Punisher to give her death. Jake feels uncomfortable about her suicide. Knowing that Maxine was not solely responsible for her behavior, because she was a product of her society.[8]

She was saved by her fellow Blade, Sky Boy,[9] who was later captured and killed by the Punisher.[10]

Love & Bullets[]

A special agent, Kerry Dowenn, was sent to investigate possible subjects who might be the Punisher.[11] Her evidence pointed to Jake, but she refused to turn him in to her superiors. The two became lovers, after Jake revealed to her he was indeed the Punisher, and Jake was about to give up his vigilante identity to live a happy life with her.

While Matt Axel and Jake Gallows were on a mission to save Degens from Alchemax and the Church of the Flying Identified Object, the Fearmaster attacked Kerry trying to obtain the data that pointed to Jake Gallows as the Punisher. She deleted the disk before giving it to the Fearmaster, and in retaliation the Fearmaster transmuted her into glass.[12] Her fragile form shattered in Jake's arms, causing him to become even more unstable. He seemed to separate his being the Punisher and Jake Gallows into two different personalities.

He start using the Molecular Disintegrator on a larger scale. Graham Jones, aka Sky Boy, from the Young Blades gang, was one of the many criminals to be terminated in this way.[10]

Multi-Fractor was later revived by a mortician surgeon as Jigsaw. He tried to attract the Punisher's attention, who managed to capture him, but was needed by the Chief before having the time to terminate him on the Molecular Disintegrator.

Fall of the Hammer[]

The Chief's mission consisted of checking the security details on the floating city of Valhalla, created by Alchemax. Looking for security failures, he found Ravage, the Beast-Man, whom he targeted for being a cop-killer.

The two of them briefly fought, before retreating.[13][14]

The two of them were forced to work together among the other heroes (Doom, Spider-Man, and the X-Men) during the Fall of the Hammer.

The Punisher would help to bring down the false Norse Gods, killing both Heimdall and Baldur (after an hesitation, thinking of his Thorite family, and especially to his brother, named after the god he was about to kill) and striking the final blows against Thor. Then helping to prevent Valhalla from falling on New York City.

Avatarr warned him before disappearing that he will eventually be in the chair with the Molecular Disintegrator.[15]

At some time, he also checked the security of the Sky-Liner, a gigantic floating city created by Stark-Fujikawa, this time as the Punisher. The ship was attacked by the skyjackers, mercenaries hired by Alchemax, whereupon they were all killed by him.

Fearmaster was able to track Jigsaw to the Punishment Hotel and attack the Punisher. He then tried to kill him using the Molecular Disintegrator, but the fail-safe targeted Jigsaw, who disappeared and was left for dead. The Fearmaster then retreated to the Temple of the Flying Identified Object, where the Punisher targeted him. Using Fearmaster's hand, he changed him into mud and let him there in the Endymion Room, renamed the Punishment Room by Jake, with his precedent victims.

Public Enemy File[]

At the same time, Saber Hagen, a Degen super-soldier (Red Dog) issued from an Alchemax project, starts to kill massive crowds. Becoming sick of the passivity of the people for the laws and injustice. Thinking the Punisher would appreciated his actions and team-up, he presented himself, under the name of Public Enemy, and massacred a crowd of people in front of him. Matt Axel managed to convince Punisher not kill Public Enemy. Public Enemy later confronted him after having seen him leave the Degen Hostel (a foundation run by Matt). Even after allowing a crowd to start fighting Public Enemy considered then his mission accomplished.

The Punisher went to kill Matt, considering he had betrayed him by hiding Saber and also for providing him an unload gun with which to confront Public Enemy. While in a psychotic state Jake stated that the Punisher personality had taken control of him and stopped his attack on Matt.

At Public Eye he is teamed-up with Gold Heart (a highly evolved robot cop who appears to be the gold-stealing murderer vigilante known as Gold Ghoul). Visiting his flat with some doubt about the relation between the murderer and the cop he confronts him about it. Even though he suspicions were correct he ends up helping him escape Public Eye Internal Inquiries agents instead. It seems that the agents had discovered his secret identity and come to take him in.. Gold Heart's body was destroyed, but his program was inserted into Jake's bike.

Visiting the New-U Clinic, a clinic specializing in the mind-transfer of rich people into decreeds' bodies, to destroy it, he encounters a female Punisher previously signalled by Gold Heart, Vendetta. They teamed-up to destroy the Clinic. When they finally found Vendetta's ex-owner, who named her "Polly", she shot him with Incendigel, letting him burn, while Punisher terminated him, to avoid more suffering.

They argued on the way to punish. She was shot by a laser beam from Public Eye's flyboys, but Jake Gallows managed to take her to his place. After letting her heal, he propose to gave up his secret identity and let her take the role, offering the responsibility of his Hotel Punishment and arsenal to her, on the condition that she pass Jake's test: use the molecular disintegrator on a prisoner. She did, and realizing the psychotic nature of the Punisher, she then decided to quit New York and goes to space to save Gene Dolls. She kept in contact with Punisher.[16]

The Punisher later confronted the masked thief, Hotwire, who was his presumed-dead son Dean Gallows, mutated after an accident during his time in the Alchemax's Ten Minute Club. Blaming him for having be more concerned by his job than his family, he tried to steal all his money in the bank, but was stopped by the Punisher. They fought, but neither of them unmasked.

Enquiring on multiples suicides and accidents cases, Jake Gallows was the target of multiple bad-luck events. He was revealed by Synchron the Synner, from Earth-93124, that he was the target of his counterpart, Synchron the Strange Attractor and the antidote created by the nature to destroy him, as his own alternate counterpart, Jake Gallows, head of the Punishment Police. Jake briefly saw him when Synchron the Synner was called back to his reality, before go in Synchron the Strange Attractor and defeated him. The two of them fell from an anti-grav ship and Synchron impaled on a graveyard fence.

All the town began act in a crazy and violent way, including the Punisher. This was caused by Manitou's hypnotic waves, a scientist would-be God, using the energy of death and violence to increase him. Gold Heart manage to dissipate the effects of the hypnosis with the help of Matt Axel. Jake intended to kill Manitou but he informed him that was his intention to die, his plan to ascend as a God was to die and resurrect with the energies collected. He uses his waves of hypnosis to gather all the city to kill him. Breaking into an Alchemax facility, The Punisher put Manitou into a particles accelerator to annihilate both his body and soul, in the same way that nuclear weapons erase the souls.

Tracking a Cyber-Nostra's gang, the Punisher found on the Air Gladiator/Blue Dagger championship, confronting a returned Blue Max. He tried to kill her and win the game to discredit this dangerous and murderous sport but fails both, while Max was trying to avenge her fall comrade and adversary, the Samuraï, and her friend of the Young Blades. He swore there will no other chance for her to live on their next encounter.

2099 A.D. and head of SHIELD[]

Ultimately, Jake would become the first law enforcer under Doom's administration, as the Minister of Punishment, head of the Punishment Police, Federal Law Enforcement for the United States.[17] As Doom's minister, he will apply his brutal justice against the Black-carders and the Cyber-Nostra (even their lawyers), but attire to him the hate of his fellow ally, the now paranoid Matt Axel.[17]

This one rebuilt Gold Heart as a Punisher robot to kill his former friend. Jake started to act as a furious to kill Matt and his robot, and was quickly seen as a menace by Doom, thanks to Officer Saffron, Doom's liaison into the SHIELD. On Doom's orders and using an hologram of the Punisher, she managed to made him look gone off track.[18]

Helped by the SHIELD agent Jillian Wong, he managed to escape from Earth using Matt Axel's escape way. He was sent to a space station run by criminals, and went on a rampage. He then go out, just before her fellow partner, Vendetta, shot the station using a forgotten Alchemax's designed gunship she found in space.[19]

The two Punishers fight an instant, under oxygen-lack. Recovering, they made an arrangement: they finally teamed-up. Jake Gallows will return on Earth, directing for Vendetta the strikes of her giant gunship, to erase evil from the world.[20]

2099 A.D. Apocalypse and Death[]

Jake Gallows died during Doom's fall against the forces of John Herod. Tracked by SHIELD's agents, like all the heroes, under President Steve Rogers' orders. He furiously defended his life, killing many agents, before being terminated by a wave-spider. His death was recorded by NyFax's reporter, Mirielle Radley.[21] He was briefly interviewed before this by NyFax too, telling he was intending to "cut Rogers' skin off".[22]

Spider-Verse[]

After some glitches in the timestream, the events of the year 2099 changed under unspecified circumstances and everything that happened after the Atlanteans invasion was cancelled from the timeline. In this new timeline, the Punisher was alive and was contacted by Spider-Man when he and Lady Spider traveled back to 2099 A.D. in order to dissect the cloned body of the Inheritor Daemos for clues on how to defeat his brethren. At the same time, they had captured the new Daemos and locked him up in a stasis, but this wasn't able to hold him like Miguel originally thought. Daemos used the field to his advantage, killing himself so another clone could be transported back there with his essence uploaded into it to finish off the two spiders.

Jacob Gallows (Earth-928) vs

Punisher vs. Daemos

As Daemos made his way to Alchemax, he was blasted off his flying vehicle by the Punisher. Gallows confronted Daemos with his advanced weapons dealing a good amount of damage to the Inheritor, going as far as beating him repeatedly in the face with a Titanium Bat and using a plasma gas cannon to burn the ground causing Daemos to fall through. Gallows' distraction gave Spider-Man and Lady Spider ample time to transport back to the spider safe zone.[23]

Contest of Champions[]

Jacob Gallows (Earth-928) from Contest of Champions Vol 1 7 001

Warden

When the Elders of the Universe visited the remains of the reality known as Battlerealm, they decided to partake in a Contest of Champions to determine who was to keep the powerful ISO-Sphere found in this universe. Punisher was the champion chosen by the The Grandmaster from across the Multiverse.

Jacob Gallows (Earth-928) from Contest of Champions Vol 1 10 001

Upgraded by Maestro

Many waged battles later, Gallows and Maestro were the finalists. With ulterior motives in mind, they offered the Elders each represented (Grandmaster and The Collector) to become their right hands and put in motion a new Contest of Champions. Thus, Punisher and Maestro became their summoners, choosing new warriors from across the Multiverse.

When the Contest reached its conclusion, and the Collector saw himself with the majority of the ISO-Sphere in his possession, Maestro and Punisher betrayed their masters. Maestro got hold of the ISO-Sphere and became the god-king of Battlerealm, with Gallows becoming his right hand, and executioner and warden of the contestants.[24] Punisher began to show disgust for Maestro, realizing that he killed for joy rather than punishment.

Maestro eventually decided to directly fight all of the contestants, including the Punisher, knowing Gallows had been plotting against him. Before the fight could begin, Gallows was unceremoniously shot in the head by one of the contestants, an alternate version of Frank Castle who didn't approve of Gallows "wearing the skull."[25]

Attributes

Power Grid[27]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Master: All Forms of Combat:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Experienced Fighter:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Strength/Peak Human:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Normal

Abilities

Jake is a weapons specialist.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Jacob Gallows (Earth-928) from Spider-Man 2099 Vol 2 7 001

Face Scrambler: and a 'face scrambler' that helps him avoid detection. First conceived to avoid electronic detection, it was uploaded by Matt Axel to function on humans eyes, and also hide the eyes to avoid retina or iris detection.

Punishment Hotel material: Jake keeps a secret base in the basement of his home. The base contains a prison, which he uses to temporarily detain and interrogate prisoners.

Exo-muscular Undersuit: Jake's suit gives him enhanced strength and agility, body armor. The suit could also be programmed; Jake uploaded a number of martial arts techniques to help him in combat.

High Density Heat Sink Plasto-Armor: Gallows was equipped with High Density Heat Sink Plasto-Armor with Energy accumulators which reduce the impact of lasers or physical force on his body, an Exo-muscular Undersuit which allows him to mimic any known martial arts or adapt to the combat of others to the point of increasing his reflexes to metahuman levels, a cybernetic hand to replace the one cut off, a face scrambler that shows any video recordings a digital skull, and finally a Mirage-Effect Hologram Image Inverter that physically disguises his face as anything he chooses, including a metal skull or the face of any of a number of people, as well as duplicating their irises for identification.

Weapons

Various guns:

  • Power Bat - Possessed variable density settings; Gallows admits to not having thoroughly tested the lower settings.
  • .54 Magnum Smith and Wesson 2015 antique
  • .48 Caliber Stark-Fujikawa Street Pacifier
  • Grenazers
  • Mean Mule turbo kick boots
  • Plasma Gas Cannon
  • Vibro-Knux Flesh-Shredding Knuckle Dusters
  • Heat Haze Anti-Personnel Dart Missiles
  • Plas-steel Armor-Penetrating Wrist Crossbow
  • Ceramic Telescoping Machete
  • Auto targeting Shurikens shaped as skulls

Transportation

H.D. Stealth Stinger 5: A motorcycle which is able to go 800 MPH and is equipped with a hologram that makes it appear invisible. Controlled during a time by Gold Heart program

Black Ambulance: The Punisher also sometimes uses a Black Card ambulance to avoid police attention, which is equipped with a and can fly and fire wasp missiles.

  • Death Support System: A system to avoid prisoners to escape during the time to the Punishment Hotel, killing them at the first try, or wounding them slowly.

Notes

  • There is a possibility that it was Gold Heart, rebuilt by Matt Axel to look like the Punisher, and not Jake Gallows who was eliminated by SHIELD's wave-spider, which would explain Gallows having reappeared alive later.

Trivia

  • Along with having the same surname as Jake, Bartholomew Gallows was also a police officer who became a gun-toting vigilante due to disillusionment caused by the corruption and apathy present within the judicial system.

See Also

Links and References

References

Advertisement