I always liked The Punisher as a guest star in Amazing Spider-Man or Daredevil, but other than his first mini-series he had never interested me with his solo outings. Then Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon came along with the 12-part Welcome Back Frank mini series. I really loved this take and felt that it struck the right balance between violence and dark humor. The ongoing series that followed it by the same creative team had its great moments as well, especially early on - but it is those twelve issues that really define the character for me.
It has been very frustrating to see his attempts at the silver screen, all which have been critical and commercial flops. He seems like one of the easiest characters to translate to film, but somehow something always goes majorly wrong. Unfortunately, I think three strikes and you are out is the rule with comic property chances at crossing over to the movies, so it will probably be a long time before any studio wants to try again. Hopefully Marvel Studios will be the one if that day comes.
Don't forget the real crossover event of Punisher-Batman, now collected in an anthology.
ReplyDeleteYour cover is tres chic!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you regarding the comics and the movies. Perhaps in a later Spiderman movie or, even better, an improved Daredevil movie...Punisher can reappear as a guest villain.
We know that Bat Man met the punisher in crossovers...but these are "BRAVE and the BOLD" BatMan Team up covers...the idea is..."BRAVE and the BOLD....lost issues"
ReplyDeleteI hated the cross over with Azrael as Bats...it stunk and the entire run with Azrael as Bats stunk...Dick becoming Bats...that makes sense. Like Bucky is CAP...it makes sense.
RE: 3 strikes rule. I like that rule. It'll be nice to see Marvel studios give Frank Castle the attention to detail he deserves. Although, the Punisher doesn't strike me as an ongoing-title kind of character. More like a mini-series kinda character. Or, maybe comics have changed to where a mini-series or a graphic novel works better than an ongoing. Either way that cover looks pretty bad@$$ awesome!
ReplyDeleteI reckon he'll appear in one of the new Netflex series later on. Tho perfect for HBO!
ReplyDeleteI agree about the movies, well Warzone = horrible plotless story telling piece of a film. But Punisher with Tom Jane is a near perfect Punisher movie, love that movie and his fan film Dirty Laundry he made years later... there was a reason he didn't come back for Warzone, it was one of the worst comic book movies to-date!
Tom Jane is as good as Punisher as Snipes is Blade! Real shame he never got to do a Punisher 2 :(
The '89 version was with Dolph, basically an 80's action flick, enjoyable as that but not really a Punisher movie at all nowadays.
Awesome cover, I remember I got or had that Punisher issues from his first mini series, great story that, should have based that into the sequel instead of that Warzone! :p