I’m not sure if I’ve talked about this very much on this blog or not, but my all-time favorite superhero is Batman. It’s a love affair that began sometime in the late 70s. I can’t remember if I initially saw reruns of the 60s Batman TV show, or the Superfriends animated series – as they were both airing on channel 20 at around the same time at this point They are the proverbial chicken and the egg – as it pertains to my Batman fandom.
One would think that for all the reasons that I like Batman as a character – he focuses on street level crime, he’s dark, he’s gritty, he’s violent, and he scares the crap out of his enemies – that I would like the Marvel comics Punisher for the exact same reasons.
However, Batman and the Punisher are not the same characters. Where is Batman has a code against killing, the Punisher is essentially a mass murderer of criminals. Frank Castle is an ex- Marine, and his primary weapon of choice are guns. Lots of guns. the character has a great visual aesthetic, in fact his skull logo was so popular, that it actually was co-opted by members of America’s alt- right movement. Ironically, enough, this is something that The Punisher himself addressed one time in the comic books.
As a comic book fan, the Punisher works for me – in limited doses. The combination of street level crime in military/political drama is a great combination. At the end of the day, Frank Castle’s mission will never end. He’ll just go on shooting bad guys forever; although many would make the same argument about Batman and his own war on crime. for some reason, the punisher has only driven me to one dimensional. Maybe it’s because Batman has an excellent supporting cast, and perhaps the greatest rogues gallery in all of comics. As for the punisher, his supporting cast is not as well-known. Likewise, his main villains are probably Jigsaw and the kingpin – who was technically on loan from Spider-Man and Daredevil comics.
But none of the stopped the punisher from becoming extremely popular and the 1980s and the 1990s. At his peak, Frank Kessel started three monthly marvel comics: the punisher, the punisher war, journal, and the punisher war zone. But I think for the reasons that I mentioned earlier, in addition to the speculator, boom and bust of the 1990s, the characters sailed to Winde. He disappeared for a bit. I want to be “reincarnated“ as some supernatural killing machine. Ultimately the punisher was brought back in marvel as part of the super successful “Marvel Knights” campaign. 
Given the fact that Marvel’s “The Defenders Era” began in Netflix in 2015, it seemed logical that the Punisher would eventually show up as this mini franchise focused on some of New York City “street level “superheroes. Frank Castle would make a another live action debut during season two of daredevil, as portrayed by Jon Bernthal
Seeing how popular Berenthal’s performance as the Punisher was on the Daredevil Netflix series, it seemed like a no-brainer that the character would eventually get his own spinoff. Berenthal would reprise his role as Frank Castle,the former Marine who is traumatized by the violent death of his wife and children in 2017 in Marvel’s The Punisher.
Berenthal’s performance as Frank Castle grew on me. In the first few episodes, I couldn’t disconnect him from the stereotypical macho military meathead. But as the show went on, we began to see a lot more depth and vulnerability to Frank Castle. 
In season one, there is something of a whodunit that runs throughout. There is an incident going back to Castle’s days serving in Iraq (a modern upgrade from Vietnam, as the Punisher was originally created in the 1970s) Some of Castle’s commanding officers were involved in some shady business. A member of Castle’s unit found out about what was going on, and now, that they’re all back in “the world“ the former military brass are trying to cover their tracks. all of this goes on while cast is still believed to be dead, as a result of events from season two of daredevil. Now, Castle is trying to find out who is killing off members of his unit; while he avoids the law.
I must admit that I had some trouble getting into this series to begin with. Episode three, Kandahar, was almost on a watchable. I slogged through it, but once I did, I was able to get into some of the action sequences that one would expect from a live action Punisher. They thought us a fine job playing the character. Cast is, admittedly, something of a meathead. But that’s part of his charm. Does get a few opportunities to really stretch the character. We see just how traumatized he is by the death of his wife and children; in his own unique way, he doesn’t want to see the same farewell his more partner, Micro’s family. furthermore Daredevil’s Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) returns as Castle’s one, true confidant.
In the tradition of its predecessor, Daredevil, Frank Castle doesn’t wear the iconic skull logo until episode 10 of the series. Episode 11 is particularly gory – in the tradition of some of Matt Murdoch’s fight sequences. But season one final episode man just to both complete the season long story in addition to setting the table for possible future storylines.
FINAL TAKE: recommended, obviously, to Marvel fans. But The Punisher – season one, is grounded in the real world to appeal to fans mainstream action/adventure fans as well MCU junkies.
As The Punisher is a spinoff from the defenders saga. When does it need to watch daredevil, in order to understand the events of The Punisher season one, but it does help. Likewise, it is not necessary to watch Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, or The Defenders is in order to see where Castle’s story goes next
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- Teacher Armor and the Saturday Clearing
- The Extra Day: A Ten-Year Memory
- Of Training Wheels and Christmas Lights
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The article “Rob Reviews: The Punisher – season one“ first appeared on Rebuilding Rob
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