If there's one person that nobody should ever want to be like, it's Frank Castle. The man doesn't handle grief very well as evidenced by his response to the mob killing his family in a park. Even if his desire for vengeance was understandable at first, he has long since graduated from vigilante to just being a mass murderer.
Unfortunately for video game legend Max Payne, there are more than a few things that he has in common with the Punisher. At the same time, there are also several key differences that set them apart. That's probably something that should make Max Payne extremely happy.
10 SIMILAR: Don't Pretend To Be Heroes
The key similarity between Frank Castle and Max Payne is the fact that neither man has delusions about who they are or why they do what they do. In some ways, that's respectable though it's also kind of unsettling at the same time.
While neither man mistakenly sees themselves as any kind of hero, that doesn't excuse their actions in the least. They are killers, plain and simple. And neither man seems particularly inclined to change their ways at all.
9 DIFFERENT: Max Payne Is A Talker
If there was a living embodiment of the phrase "silent killer," it would be the Punisher. The man rarely says a word he doesn't absolutely have to, preferring to let a hail of bullets do his talking for him.
Max Payne is a completely different story. He fancies himself both a thinker and a talker, which often gets him into more trouble than anything else. Frank might not have much to say but at least he stays more focused than Max.
8 SIMILAR: Highly Trained
While Max and Frank might not have had the exact same training, that doesn't change the fact that they know how to mix it up. Prior to the death of his family, Max was a police officer. And Frank is a military veteran who saw a lot of combat.
There's definitely an argument to be made that Punisher is better trained and far more dangerous than Max Payne is. And that is probably the case. But both men are tough customers who have stacked more than their fair share of bodies.
7 DIFFERENT: Max Is Actually Self Aware
Part of what makes Max Payne such a compelling character is the fact that he is fully aware of what he's doing. It's more than the fact that he thinks about who he is and what he's about. The guy is a noir character who is mired in his own bad vibes and is constantly trying to deal with them.
The Punisher knows what he's doing. He develops plans and strategies. At the same time, he largely seems unaware of the larger impact of his actions on the world as well as himself. He just does what he does because he does it.
6 SIMILAR: Unrelenting And Unbreakable
While it would be simple to break down what makes Max and Frank so deadly to their fighting skills or abilities with weapons, it's a lot more than that. Each man is, simply put, a force of nature.
They do not give up and they do not surrender. The only way to stop them is to kill them, and no one has been able to put either of them in the ground so far. When facing the kind of odds these guys face, being unrelenting is not just a way to succeed it's necessary to survive.
5 DIFFERENT: Max Makes Mistakes
Saying that only Max Payne makes mistakes in a comparison between him and Punisher is not completely true. Both of them have made a lot of mistakes in their respective careers of violence and carnage.
But the real difference between them is that Max is actually capable of admitting he has made a mistake. The only mistake Frank has ever admitted to is not killing someone when he feels like he probably should have.
4 SIMILAR: Professional Killers For The "Good Guys"
As previously mentioned, Max and Frank had long careers respectively as a cop and as a soldier before their lives went completely sideways. In that time of their lives, they may have even actually seen themselves as heroes in a way.
But both men would also be the first to admit that they were essentially contracted killers who just happened to be on the right side of the law. Honestly, it wasn't that hard of a transition for either of them to be who they are today.
3 DIFFERENT: One Of Them Is A Drinker
Not only did Max become a killer and an anti-hero, but he also developed quite the drinking problem. That's actually quite understandable considering his family was murdered and he became a rampaging death machine.
What's really surprising is that Frank doesn't have any sort of drinking problem. His life hasn't gone much better than Max's. Apparently, Castle's only vice is brutally killing any criminal who wanders into his path.
2 SIMILAR: Changed By Their Murdered Families
At their core, the one thing that both men have in common is the worst possible moments of their lives. Both Max Payne and the Punisher are motivated by the savage murders of their families.
These two men had similar responses to those situations, turning to lives of death and destruction. Admittedly, Frank is a lot more efficient at his work than Max is but they're both still quite good at what they do.
1 DIFFERENT: The Punisher Feels No Guilt
While it's rare to see Frank Castle eat or sleep, it's safe to assume that he needs to. He is still a human, after all. But when he does rest, it's also safe to assume that he hasn't lost a wink of sleep over any of the thousands of bodies he's dropped over the years.
Max Payne, on the other hand, actually feels guilt about his life and some of the choices he's made. Most importantly, he is plagued by survivor's guilt from living when his family died. Punisher likely has the same problem but he just isn't self-aware enough to realize it.
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