THE PUNISHER Series Will Include The Battle Van! Plus We Have New Photos of Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle
I've got some awesome news for all you Punisher fans! If you're familiar with the comics, you know that Frank Castle drove around in a "Battle Van". Well, I'm excited to say that the Battle Van will be in Marvel's The Punisher series!
The news was confirmed by Marvel TV head and producer, who recently said:
"They travel around in the Battle Van in the comics, so it was important for us to do our version of that. It’s not the Batmobile, but it’s definitely an iconic character that people know."
That's pretty rad that they are including the Battle Van. For some reason, I didn't think that they would include it, so this was a cool surprise. It's going to be awesome seeing it in action!
The Battle Van made its first appearance in Giant-Size Spider-Man #4 and has since made a number of appearances. The van is wrapped in armor and features a variety of advanced weapons. It's basically Frank Castle's base of operations that he can also go to battle in. Here's a detailed breakdown of several of the features that the van has had in the comics:
Microchip made several battle vans during his time as the Punisher's ally due to the vans being destroyed during various missions.
The vans generally were the same being built off a model of vans made by Ford and featuring a turbocharged Ford V-8 engine that allowed it to keep with high end European sports cars.
The Battle Vans had 4-Wheel Drive allowing the vehicle off-road capabilities. They also featured heavy duty suspension which stood up to the vans using ramps to jump over other vehicles at high speeds while being able to make turns and go around corners like a high end sports car.
Each and every single Battle Van was heavily armored and easily enduring of small arms fire. The van's armour allowed it to ram and even run through other vehicles tearing them apart without being damaged. The Battle Vans were only able to be destroyed by Anti-Tank weaponry or better.
They featured a Minigun that fired 5.56 ammo and a grenade launcher as offensive weapons. One Battle Van was equipped with sonic weaponry which Frank Castle used to capture Venom. The roof would open up upon the weapons being activated. The rear left door of the Battle Vans were also capable of extending several feet allowing someone to stand behind the door on a platform using the door as a shield and fire at targets to the rear while the van was moving.
Other features of the Battle Van's included their own computer system with Artificial Intelligence. The AI allowed the Punisher to give the vehicle commands to drive by itself and eliminate targets or to lure the enemy away as an evasion strategy. It would also be able to detect and repel intruders and came with a single layer peel-off paint job and different license plates to avoid detection.
The computer systems on the Battle Vans also allowed the user to hack into other computer systems as well and were equipped with satellite communication, police scanners, and CB radios; other than a stockpile of weaponry for the Punisher to choose from upon taking up a mission.
It will be interesting to see what features end up being included in the van in the series. I also have some new promo photos from the series featuring Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle that you can check out below!
Via: CBM