r/thepunisher

In all honesty, I always thought Jamal Duff would be a great Barracuda. He's got the height, the frame and the voice to pull it off.

this is from one last kill

Its crazy after the last five years of b.s. with Marvel's treatment of the character that this may be the only good ongoing series they're putting out right now.

Someone brought up last week the idea of *Reacher* being a model for the next MCU Punisher project and I disagreed on character grounds. But as I’m reading the old 70’s Tomb of Dracula series, it hit me that the most frustrating thing about all Punisher adaptations post 1998 is that they already had a perfect model for how to handle the character in live action: Blade, and subsequently, Blade II.

Though they’re drastically different characters, I don’t think anyone could blame a layman for thinking of Blade as “The Punisher if he killed vampires” or The Punisher as “Blade if he killed criminals”. As incorrect as this is from a character standpoint, that idea works perfectly from a plot standpoint. Blade is just as deceptively simple as Frank in the way that other writers treated as some big obstacle. Because too many storytellers forget that character is just *part* of storytelling, they think a character with simple motivations and no life outside of them is too hard to make interesting. But I say what keeps fans coming back to them is that they’re the proverbial bulls in china shops. Most of their best stories revolve around the affect they have on their enemies’ respective worlds.

Now, going back to the other adaptations except The Punisher (1989), The Punisher (2004) was too slow and focused on his origins. Punisher: War Zone sacrificed drama for cartoonish action. The Punisher series on Netflix kept avoiding violence while resolving his origin two times despite that being resolved in Daredevil’s second season. And Punisher: One Last Kill feels more like half a story since it’s most likely a bridge to whatever they want to do next with a character.

Blade showed a character well into his career despite being even less well-known than Punisher to mainstream audiences at the time. They used an original character caught up in the events to explain the world of vampires as well as give us a victim to relate to so we never forget how bad those bloodsuckers are. And Blade II showed how that world is complicated enough that Blade can wind up working with vampires even though he hates them.

Now, I don’t want a beat-for-beat recreation of the plots of those two movies for whatever Marvel Studios is going to do with the Punisher, especially if they make another TV show. I think we’re all pretty done with 10-13 hour long movies that only have about 1 1/2-3 hours of plot. But the lesson to be learned is to stop relying on the Punisher for complex characterization, world building and plots, and focus more on the element of his world that does have those things: his targets.

Even if you give us just black-and-white evil villains for Frank to massacre, they still have a world he’s going to disrupt. Frank is one of the few protagonist where giving up a large chunk of his screen time to bad guys is a plus. It allows us to hate the villains more when we see what they do and why they do it while making us worry about Frank as we see the steps they take to stop him. Likewise, Frank’s scenes should be like the ones The Punisher (2004) did best: recon, prep, planning, and action. No more of Frank jumping into a situation with barely any knowledge like some 80’s Arnold Schwarzenegger action hero who just knows he’s going to win. He’s former Special Forces. Show us how he works, how focused he is, and use that villain POV to make the old adage undeniable: No plan survives contact with the enemy.

Anyway, that’s just what occurred to me thinking about Blade as I read his original tales and how those movies are to the Punisher what video game plots are to video game movie adaptations: a guide to follow so obvious that it’s baffling no one else uses it.

No intention to disparage the performances of Dolph Lundgren, Ray Stevenson or Jon Bernthal.

My personal gripes and "fixes":

• Have Billy Russo just Russo, Russotti was a unnecessary change
• Make Billy far more vain and egocentric when he's normal other than his intro scene his scenes are so short pre-Jigsaw to really get an idea of who he is, like make him have one of his aides constantly carry a mirror with him so Billy can check his reflection or have him be an overall chauvinist like Patrick Bateman vibes
• Don't have Carlos in the movie, prefer if it was just Micro
• Make Maginty and Pittsy just generic characters because man, they were wasted
• Have Loony Bin Jim either be intentionally hilarious or absolutely messed up, the movie doesn't know whether to make him creepy, Hannibal Lecter\Professor Pyg levels of psycho or a goofball who laughs at everything
• Get rid of the "jailbait" line from Jigsaw near the end because that just came completely outta left field and out of character and makes him sound like a pedo
• Go with the original script idea where Jigsaw actually felt betrayed by Nicky and was a close "friend" with him, makes more sense why he'd be after the family instead of just the money
• Set up the death of Micro for a sequel or go with the more darker(IMO) fate the original script had.

They are 100% gonna pussy out in regards to Barracuda if they make a sequel to One Last Kill. What makes Barracuda such a compelling character is his insane and jolliness depravity. In One Last Kill he's reduced to generic silent bodyguard #3. He doesn't even say anything just stares ahead like he's constipated.

Drawn on Procreate

Punisher organic GPS tracker

Just checking they are not part of the Max series? I also have welcome back Frank, coming in

They chose a really bad, tiny font that's hard to read. And a lot of the translation is awkward, but on the whole it's pretty cool. There aren't many comics that are still available in 한글, usually those are limited run, like the Korean version of videogames such as Fallout Vegas. And you have to pay hundreds on eBay if you want one later.

This one is popular enough that they're still making it in Korean. This one and Batman vs Ninja Turtles, which I haven't opened yet.

Is it because Bernthal has a big head and narrow shoulders?

Bernthal is fit and muscular, but something about his frame doesn't suit what I've seen of Punisher in comics, animated media, movies, and the game.

So I just got Marvel Unlimited and after seeing the new Punisher special I wanted to read some more Punisher comics, is this the Greg Rucka Punisher run a good start for new fans?