9 Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed In Marvel’s The Punisher

After wowing audiences in last year's Daredevil season 2, Jon Bernthal is back as Frank Castle in his own solo spinoff vehicle The Punisher, the latest product of the Marvel/Netflix union (which will likely come to an end soon). How exactly does it measure up to its predecessors, though? Well, while it doesn't hit the heights of Daredevil season 1 or Jessica Jones, The Punisher is still another worthy addition to this corner of the MCU. As you might expect from a show about a vigilante who prefers a gun and a bullet-proof jacket instead of superpowers and masks, The Punisher is by far the most removed from the comic book world of these series. In fact, Frank Castle doesn't even wear his iconic skull emblem for most of the 13 episode season. However, this is a Marvel production, and there are still several callbacks to the comics for superhero nerds to pick up on. Here, you’ll find the 10 most interesting easter eggs hidden within The Punisher that we spotted while watching the first 6 episodes. As always, if you have any others, be sure to let us know in the comments section. The Name's Castiglione After the opening of the first episode establishes that he's hung up his guns after killing the last of the gangs who murdered his family, we join Frank Castle as he tries to keep his head down and lead a quiet life. As he's a wanted felon and meant to be dead, Frank is living under an alias: Peter Castiglione. Punisher fans will immediately pick up on the significance of this surname. In the comics, Frank was born Francis Castiglione. Under this name, he became a highly-decorated U.S. Marine for his fearless efforts during the Vietnam War. After his second tour of duty was up, he changed his name to Frank Castle so that he could illegally set out on a third. For simplicity's sakes, this storyline is not addressed in The Punisher, but it's potentially still part of the character's backstory. That would explain where he gets his cover name from. As for the Pete part, Google tells us that Pete Castiglione was a Major League Baseball player in the 1940s and 50s. So maybe Frank's a fan? Frank's Reading Material Despite his violent tendencies and tough man persona, The Punisher reveals that Frank Castle is a big reader, and the early episodes show him cosying up in bed, lost in a couple of good books (no, really). He borrows the novels from his old pal Curtis (more on him in a moment) and while it's supposed to be a way to keep his mind off the past, it doesn't work. The two novels we see him reading aren't randomly chosen and clearly echo Frank's own situation. First of all, he digs into Moby Dick, the classic nautical novel by Herman Melville. Though connecting the Punisher to a tale about a captain on the hunt for a whale sounds like a bit of a stretch on the surface, the two share similar themes. Ahab becomes obsessed with his pursuit of the titular sea creature to his own detriment. Much like how Frank's crusade against criminals is slowly destroying his soul. The importance of Frank's second choice of reading material is a lot more obvious. The book is F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Crack-Up, a collection of personal essays reflecting a dark time in the writer's life. The main essay begins with the line: "Of course all life is a process of breaking down," for example. This fits with Frank's own life spiraling down the drain once his family is murdered. Elsewhere, in a flashback sequence to his time in Kandahar, Frank references "The Charge of the Light Brigade," a poem by Alfred Tennyson about the tragedy of soldiers having to following orders they know will get them killed. The Gnucci Family Though Frank is trying to lay low while working at a construction site, it just so happens that a few of his co-workers are mixed up with some dangerous mobsters. To get their own money back, a group of them decide to hit up their poker game and steal their cash. Obviously, it goes wrong, and Frank takes it upon himself to wipe out both the mobsters and his crooked co-workers. The mobsters are mentioned to be the Gnucci family, which is another name that will ring a bell for comic fans. In the source material, the Gnucci crime family is run by Isabella Carmela Magdalena Gnucci, commonly known as Ma Gnucci. Ma was said to be the most powerful woman in New York City, with both the mayor and the police commissioner wrapped around her finger. However, as he likes to do, the Punisher took out most of her men and fed her to some polar bears at the zoo. Somehow, Ma managed to survive, albeit at the cost of all four limbs. Descending into insanity, Ma swore a vendetta against Frank, hiring the heavyweight hitman the Russian to take him out. Agent Orange The main antagonist of The Punisher season 1 is Paul Schulze's Rawlins, a crooked high-ranking CIA agent and the real brains behind the Blacksmith heroin ring. In Afghanistan, Rawlins was in charge of Operation: Cerberus, which Frank Castle was a part of. The pair immediately became enemies due to Rawlins' callous orders. Rawlins is a vaguely faithful version of a similar character who appeared in the revered Punisher MAX comics from Garth Ennis, one of the anti-hero's finest runs that also inspired both the 2004 and 2008 Punisher movies. On the page, Williams Rawlins is likewise a corrupt CIA boss who allied himself with the Taliban while he served in Afghanistan. In the comics, Rawlins' most noticeable feature is the eye patch he wears over his left eye. In the TV show, Rawlins does not reveal his real name to the soldiers while in charge of Operation: Cerberus, only going by the handle "Agent Orange." As well as being a type of herbicidal agent used during the Vietnam War, Agent Orange is an obscure Marvel comics villains (real name: Roger Goshaw). Curtis Hoyle In The Punisher, we learn that Frank Castle has one trusted confidante: his old army buddy, Curtis Hoyle (played by Jason R. Moore). Despite being close to Billy Russo in action, Curtis is the one Frank relies on to keep the secret that he's still alive. An amputee who lost his leg in an explosion while serving in Afghanistan, Curtis now runs a support group for veterans who are struggling to adjust back into civilian life. Curtis is a revamped twist on a very obscure comic book character who appeared in two issues back in 1987. In these, Curtis likewise served alongside Frank Castle in Vietnam. However, he had got himself involved in a drug ring run by General Buktir Van Tranh, rising to the position of his second-in-command. Frank found out about Curtis' crooked ways, however, and ended his life by throwing him out of a helicopter. Going by the first six episodes, Curtis' evildoing has been cut out of the character, but it's possible that a twist later in the season brings him closer to his comics counterpart. Turk Barrett Everyone always talks about Claire Temple being the character that connects the many shows of the Marvel-Netflixverse, but people often overlook Turk Barrett. As played by Stranger Things' Rob Morgan, Turk is a low-level criminal who has the bad luck to keep finding himself on the wrong end of superheroes' fists. In The Punisher, Turk appears in episode 4, where he ends up in the path of Frank Castle. The Punisher is following a lead about some guns being smuggled into New York, and Turk turns out to be the middle man. Miraculously, he manages to successfully plead his case that he's a relative innocent as he was never going to use those guns. In a rare moment of mercy, Frank decides to let him live. The Punisher marks the fourth series that Turk has appeared in. As a prominent character in Daredevil comics, it's not surprising that he turns up most in Daredevil and has featured in both seasons so far. He also showed his face in a couple of episodes of Luke Cage and in The Defenders. The character also appears in a Jessica Jones tie-in comic. Which means Iron Fist is the only one that Turk is not connected to in any way. Schoonover's Arm In episode 3, we flashback to Frank's time as part of Operation: Cerberus. As previously mentioned, Castle clashes with Agent Orange as the latter orders the squad to go on a mission that Frank firmly believes is a trap. Orange denies it and is supported by Frank's superior, Colonel Ray Schoonover (Clancy Brown). He's a character Daredevil fans will remember from season 2, where it was revealed that he was the drug lord the Blacksmith. This episode also gives us another, much more specific reference, to Daredevil season 2. It turns out that Frank was right, after all, and his squad are led into an ambush, with many losing their lives. In particular, Schoonover loses his arm and admits to Frank that he was wrong to go ahead with the mission. Frank then proceeds to wipe out their enemies single-handedly. If this scenario seems familair then that's because Schoonover previously recited this story while testifying on Frank Castle's behalf at his trial back in Daredevil. It's a neat callback to have this scene dramatized in The Punisher as it builds up the past "brothers-in-arms" relationship between the pair that was only hinted at in Daredevil. Micro Frank Castle gains himself an unlikely ally in The Punisher when he's contacted by a mysterious hacker nicknamed Micro. It turns out that this is David Lieberman, a former NSA analyst who had to fake his death to avoid the wrath of the same men who killed Frank's family. Together, they decide to bring down the ones who wronged them. In the comics, Lieberman's handle is Microchip, often shortened to Micro. His less savoury edges have also been sanded off for the TV show, as the comics' Micro was originally a successful criminal hacker and scam artist before joining with the Punisher. The sympathetic storyline involving Micro cut off from his family is original to the series, as well. However, it vaguely recalls how his nephew was murdered by the Kingpin in the comics, which led him to seek Frank's help. The Punisher also addresses a dangling plot thread from the finale of Daredevil season 2, in which Frank found a DVD marked "Micro" in his family's home. It's revealed here that Micro put it there to get Frank's attention. Billy The Beaut In The Punisher, Frank Castle's old best buddy is Billy Russo, played by Westworld's Ben Barnes. In contrast to Frank's gruff demeanor, Billy is charming and a hit with the ladies, earning him the nickname "Billy the Beaut." This will earn a smile from Marvel fans, too, as this is Billy's original nickname in the comics. Before he gets a much more grisly one, that is. You see, Billy Russo is usually the Punisher's nemesis, more commonly known as Jigsaw. In the comics, Billy was a crime lord who was thrown through a window by Frank Castle. With his once handsome face torn to shreds, Russo rechristened himself Jigsaw and swore revenge on the Punisher. The character's past friendship with Frank has been invented for TV, though Billy is soon revealed to be just a crooked as he is in the comics. In episode 6, we learn that he's actually in cahoots with Agent Orange. No doubt his face is going to be getting pretty intimate with a pane of glass by the end of The Punisher's debut season.