We Previewed ‘The Punisher’ and Yes It Might Be the Best Marvel Series Yet

Netflix’s The Punisher will bring much of what you expect from Frank Castle – violence, trauma, and a ruthlessness otherwise unknown to anyone we would consider a hero. For those unfamiliar, Frank is more an anti-hero – the anti-hero – a quintessential personification of our inner-most want for brutal justice, our id minus the moralizing super-ego. It’s what makes The Punisher so entertaining and, to a slightly uncomfortable and sobering admission, universally relatable (if you’re new to the character my favorite description comes from 2016 when he was announced for Daredevil season 2, so read there if needed and you’re welcome) The Punisher’s solo series brings something new to our beloved Netflix-Marvel universe though, soon to be divorced as Disney reclaims Marvel properties to its own streaming service: spy games, and war. We ain’t seen either like this before.

Expectations of Frank Castle’s regular revenge plot lasts barely a moment, a prologue to the story that will ultimately unfold. His family’s murderers are hunted and killed, and the moniker known as Punisher vanishes dead. Living under a new identity and suffering from night terrors and post-traumatic stress, you wonder if Frank’s murders will make him further unhinged, the entire season a threadbare plot of him tracking the mob or some big-named cartel as his need for justice spills over into ongoing vigilantism. That would be the easiest Punisher story to tell, the one we’ve seen most often. Instead we go backwa…