It is fitting that The Punisher will be making his Marvel Studios debut in season 2 of netflix' Daredevil. Like the man without fear, Frank Castle was considered a bad risk due to an earlier cinematic misfire (or three). Marvel did a masterful job of reintroducing DD, and I have confidence that they and actor Jon Bernthal will finally give fans the Punisher they have been waiting for.
I still prefer Dolph Lundgren's cinematic version of the Punisher, from 1989, to the two big-budget versions of more recent vintage. The loss of his family to a car bomb meant for him (depicted in flashback) was a lot closer to the comic book origin than the graphic massacre orchestrated by John Travolta's character in the first remake.
ReplyDeleteAs for your depiction of the 1970's Manhunter? My supreme compliments! I don't know what photograph you used for the basis of it. But, the depiction is spot-on to the art work that I so fondly remember from the DETECTIVE COMICS back-up series that first re-introduced Paul Kirk to Silver Age audiences. And for that...I thank you. :-)
The Dolph version is fine, but I always preferred the 2nd PUNISHER film with Thomas Jane. It strays from the comic book version, but it humanizes the character a bit more and John Travolta is great as the cold mafia boss. The film did well so there was a lot of potential for a sequel or two, Unfortunately that never happened.
ReplyDeleteGo to YouTube and look up "PUNISHER DIRTY LAUNDRY" to see what could have been.
How about a team-up of PUNISHER and PEACEMAKER? Or maybe PALADIN and PEACEMAKER?
@ Wolfhammer: See Marvel's "What If...?" v. 2/#10 (Feb. 1990) to see what _should_ have been.
ReplyDeleteI would think Frank would get along even better with the Kate Spencer Manhunter.
ReplyDeleteI've never been much of a Punisher fan, but am very interested in the Netflix version. IMO, it's a mistake to put Punisher out in his own movie without connecting him to a larger universe. When it's just him killing dozens of criminals, with no other character in there to provide a moral contrast, the character comes off as
ReplyDeleteshallow.
I've been a big fan of Manhunter since it came out in the 70s. It's one of my all time favorite limited series. I can see Paul Kirk and Frank Castle teaming up to face a common enemy but I can't see them liking or trusting each other.
I have been enjoying your work since I found out about this site last summer. Have you considered a Task Master/Deathstroke cover? I would love to see those two go at it.
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