The Punisher is an iconic Daredevil villain, something we’ve talked about before. But the Punisher is something of a relic of the ’80s; back when somebody walking into a building and opening fire was still the province of action movies, not the news cycle.
Granted, what little we’ve seen of this Punisher is substantially different from the ’80s character. This one seems to be a focused assassin, not somebody who sprays bullets into a Mafia restaurant. And Marvel, it must be said, has seen this coming: For example, in the Punisher MAX series, Garth Ennis combined real world concerns with the character and avoided superheroics. Frank was more violent gumshoe than homicidal maniac.
And in recent years, the Punisher has been made into more of a schemer than an indifferent murderer. Instead of killing any criminal that gets in his way, the Punisher finds the glue that holds a criminal organization together and then disassembles it. It further helps that there are 13 episodes to fill, and Frank himself will presumably not be the focus of every last one: After all, we’ve got Elektra to learn all about, too.
Still, the simple fact of the matter is that he’s a loner with a lot of guns who walks into buildings and shoots people. That’s going to be tricky to salvage, although it appears that we won’t be hearing that the Punisher is a hero; the first trailer compares Matt’s guilt over what he’s done with Frank’s absolute lack of mercy. And, really, if anybody can bring Frank Castle into the 21st century, it’s Marvel.
