How The Punisher TV Show Misunderstood The Character's Allure

Ephraim Belnap 

The Punisher TV show is ... all right. It's all right for average TV. It's all right for the Netflix shows, which, for all their hype are really just okay. The difference is that Punisher has more clout in his pubishing history, so the hope was that Punisher would really be a powerful series that evoked emotion and said something meaningful. Or if none of those, at the very least recreated the awesome that the original and prolific Punisher MAX series created in the 2000's. Extreme violence or not, those books understood how Punisher was a picture of American history and of Vietnam and of New York and of a man's potential feelings and swept it up into something special. The Valley Forge, Valley Forge bit is worth a read as an examination of the Vietnam experience across the American classes and how it was messed-up. The Eight Generals storyline says all sorts of things about military leadership and the creation of tradition. But what really makes the series good is that it understands what the Punisher is. 

Here's the thing about the TV show - it just turns him into an Unforgiven-type. Or a Wolverine type. Or a Jackie Chan type. You know the type. Older-looking fighter who doesn't want no trouble, except these foolish young kids keep testing him until he gets involved and shows them who's boss. It's a classic type. It's everywhere. And it works pretty well. It's good to avoid fighting, but then to be good at it when you have to. There are a lot of grizzled old guys. And an aging fighter trying to find their place in the world bereft of the usual landmarks is an emotionally engaging character. Punisher so easily falls into that with his oldness and guns and tough-as-nails face that you put him into that easy. But here's the thing - the Punisher - especially as written in the MAX series - isn't that. He's sooo close to that, so it's easy to see why he'd get typed. But the fact that he isn't is the secret to what makes him so appealing. 

Punisher isn't a fantasy of a man who's reluctant to get violent. He's someone who wants to be violent every second of the day, 'cause he originates in the mindset we've all had when we first discover the depth of human cruelty and (most likely if you're a guy) want to destroy it as viciously as possible

When we first learn just how bad rape and child abuse and torture can get. When we learn how sex trafficking works or what molesting priests do or what we let people get away with. It's evil, disgusting stuff. And it's the instinct of pretty much everyone to want to destroy it. And when you're a teenage boy (the primary audience for comic books), you want to physically destroy it with guns and violence and punching until it doesn't exist. And that's how you think it'll be destroyed. And when you grow up you learn that things like this happen because people weren't raised right, or had bad childhoods or whatever. But you still hold onto that image of destruction and kind of enjoy it. 

That's what the Punisher is a fantasy of. Of getting exposed to the absolute worst of humankind and then killing the crap out of it. Of destroying it 'til it doesn't exist. And that's what the show DOESN'T do. It turns it into "generic don't-want-to-get-involved guy gets involved" stories.