10 Years Later, I'm Tired Of Bernthal's Punisher
Will the MCU's depiction of Frank Castle ever grow up?
It’s been about ten years since Jon Bernthal’s version of the Punisher made his debut in the second season of Netflix’s Daredevil series, and since then, his presence has been rather sporadic. Later, the character received his own two-season spin-off series, and when Daredevil was folded into the MCU with the Disney+ show Born Again, Frank Castle was right on his heels with a brief appearance that saw him slaughter a group of corrupt cops clad in his symbol. Although everyone’s favorite murder machine didn’t appear in Born Again’s second season, he’ll be back to terrorize New York’s criminal underworld in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a little over a month after the character received his very first special: The Punisher: One Last Kill.
The special, which was released after the second season of Born Again and takes place concurrently, once again introduces Frank at his lowest, dealing with a mental breakdown as a result of his trauma from the military and the consequences of his frequent murder sprees. Although it introduced a beloved Punisher antagonist in Ma Gnucci, for the most part, the 40- minute TV movie repeated many of the same beats as Castle’s Netflix series, a wishy-washy “reclaiming the mantle” story that marks what is the third time we’ve seen Frank pick up his crusade again after a period of false retirement. After 10 years of much of the same thing, I feel that Bernthal’s version of the Punisher is at an impasse: either the MCU needs to figure out a direction for the character and fast, or it’s time for him to hang up the skull for good. One Last Kill isn’t the final kill — we know Frank is back in Spider-Man: Brand New Day — but it really should be.
Ten years after his debut in Daredevil, everyone is still waiting for Bernthal's Punisher to actually become the Punisher.
In the comics, the Punisher is a far cry from Bernthal’s perpetually weepy, guilt-ridden depiction: he's more akin to the unfeeling nature of the T-800, a golem of pure violence animated by vengeance and given an “acceptable” outlet for the appetite for bloodshed bred in him by his experiences in Vietnam. His lack of remorse isn't a design flaw; it's arguably one of the character’s most interesting psychological characteristics. It’s certainly not like the MCU hasn't made adaptational changes to their characters before, but in the case of the Punisher, it has stripped him of precisely what makes him such a prickly character, and replaced it with a “heart of gold” that ultimately serves to sanitize his unsavory murderous appetite.
Across his 50+ years of existence, the Punisher has existed as a moral litmus test for readers and countless writers – people like Chuck Dixon, Greg Rucka, and Garth Ennis have all given Frank Castle some phenomenal storylines in their attempt to dig into his psychology and understand what draws readers to such a bleak character. Bernthal's Punisher has received absolutely none of that depth, because every time we see him, he's repeating the exact same arc: an episode of grief-imbued inaction is interrupted by something that yanks him back into his old ways, with a newfound dedication to his mission. It's a fine approach for the character the first time, but when it's been repeated ad nauseam, it does feel a little like the MCU refuses to give the character any sort of pathos or make him rough around the edges out of fear of alienating fans who view him as a no-nonsense hero.
Hopefully his appearance in Brand New Day can exemplify what makes Frank so off-putting to Marvel's other heroes.
Part of the arc of Daredevil: Born Again involves a coalition of crooked police officers who wear the Punisher skull to invoke a certain connotation, specifically Frank’s brutal extrajudicial approach to crime. The idolization of The Punisher is something that the comics have dealt with directly many times, often with Frank deploying force against his wayward legion of fanboys, and to Born Again’s credit the season does end with the Punisher mowing down a small army of corrupt cops – but the premise of the special, which sees New York erupt in chaos and violence as a result of a bounty placed on Frank’s head, can't help but feel like it validates the perspective of those cops. In the comics, the Punisher can't help but see the world as one of victims and victimizers, which is advantageous for his brutal obsession even if it's not entirely true; the entirety of One Last Kill, on the other hand, seems to reinforce this narrative, positioning Frank as the last line of defense in a world erupting with lawlessness. Instead of weighing the pros and cons of Frank’s aggressively punitive approach to crime and interrogating the complications therein, the MCU is content with an ironically much simpler understanding of the character: that he’s an avatar for the righteous retribution missing from the world, delivering a necessary kind of justice that the proper channels aren't equipped to dispense.
Ever since that second season of Daredevil a decade ago, I've been waiting to see Bernthal’s Punisher evolve. It's not necessarily that he needs to be exactly like the character from the comics, but he does need to grow out of the John Wick archetype he keeps being forced into – Frank Castle is one of the most popular characters in comics, and that popularity raises some incredibly pressing questions about society’s relationship with guns, the carceral system, and the nature of heroism itself. If the MCU can't write with the Punisher with the depth and gravity necessary to make his presence feel genuinely thought-provoking, then maybe the next false retirement Frank Castle undertakes should be a permanent one.
