Every live-action version of Marvel’s cold-blooded vigilante, The Punisher, has been a major improvement on the last one, but it took four tries to finally get it right. After the cheesy, poorly-acted 1989 Dolph Lundgren movie, 2004’s The Punisher with Thomas Jane took the character seriously, but Jane never seemed quite “hard” enough to pull off Marvel’s deadliest antihero. In 2008, Punisher: War Zone with Ray Stevenson finally nailed the brutality of the character, but the gore-fest left no room for any emotional depth, making this version of Frank Castle impossible to connect to. Finally, when Jon Bernthal suited up for the second season of Netflix’s Daredevil series in March 2016, he checked all the boxes.
Whereas the various Punisher films that preceded it had to establish Frank Castle and tell a whole story in two hours or less, Daredevil showrunners Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez took full advantage of their episodic medium and introduced The Punisher slowly over the first four episodes of season 2. The character appears briefly in those first two episodes, carrying out his unique form of justice and repeatedly sparring with Daredevil. In one illuminating scene, he purchases some illegal items from a shady pawn shop owner and then executes him for selling child pornography. In another, the D.A. gives Frank his pseudonym as part of their investigation.
The Punisher finally gets more than a few minutes of screen time in episode 3. The story begins with Daredevil waking up and realizing he’s been chained to a roof by The Punisher. From there, most of the episode is an extended philosophical argument between the two heroes debating the merits of executing bad guys (like the Punisher does), or letting them live (like Daredevil). It’s a bold choice for a show built on visceral, carefully choreographed action sequences, but it’s a fascinating one that really lays out who each hero is. Daredevil doesn’t kill because, as a man of God, he believes it’s not his place, and he believes in redemption. The Punisher rebuts that allowing a criminal to live another day puts others in danger. “You know what I think of you, hero? I think you’re a half-measure. I think you’re a man who can’t finish the job. I think that you’re a coward,” Frank says.
By the end of episode 3, you know a lot more about The Punisher and what he believes. We even learn his first name, but the writers wait until episode 4 to reveal his origin story. That’s when we finally learn that Frank Castle is a former Marine whose family was murdered during a mob shootout. Since then, he’s become a one-man war on crime.
The methodical drip-drip-drip of The Punisher in Daredevil stands as one of the best character introductions of any superhero. Over those four episodes you learn about his brutality, his humanity, and his philosophy. Bernthal plays it all with an unforgiving, matter-of-fact pragmatism. During physical fight scenes, however, he lets the beast out. In his tangles with Daredevil, Frank is revealed to be an emotional-open wound.
When Bernthal was announced as The Punisher in 2015, fans familiar with him from The Walking Dead knew he was the perfect choice. His character, Shane, had an at-times frightening intensity, with an utter ruthlessness to both zombies and still-living humans alike. He also just looked the part of The Punisher, with dark hair and an incredibly muscular physique. It was the kind of casting on par with Marvel A-listers like Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey Jr. All the showrunners had to do was deliver an introduction to The Punisher as good as his casting.
They delivered.
A decade later, Frank Castle is becoming a full-fledged member of the MCU proper, beginning with his reappearance in a couple of episodes of Daredevil: Born Again. Just recently, the first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day confirmed his presence in the movie (his first time on the big screen). Plus, later this year, a special starring The Punisher is coming straight to Disney Plus. While there is some concern that Disney may soften the character, Deadpool & Wolverine proved that, when the right story — or rather, the right hero — calls for a more R-rated touch, Marvel and Disney have been surprisingly willing to deliver. Let’s hope they do the same thing with The Punisher.
