Review-- The Punisher Season One

When I was about 12 or 13 or so, I fell in love with Don Pendleton’s series __The Executioner.__ Mack Bolan, the main character of those tales, came back from Vietnam with medals on his chest and a dead family. The mob had killed his entire family save for his youngest brother. You could say that the special forces trained Mack Bolan was a little despondent as a result. So much so, in fact, that he began hunting down the mob one boss at a time. Essentially, it was a series about revenge, about punishment, about being the instrument of a vengeful god.

As Mack Bolan evolved as a character, he was ultimately caught by the military and turned into the leader of a group very much like Clancy’s Rainbow Six. He sought out and recruited the best in the global special forces (please remember the Cold War was going on at this point, so, um, no one from the USSR was included) and set them to carry out missions. This resulted in a ton of spinoffs (Phoenix Force, Able Team, Track, and many others) that carried out the narrative those early Pendleton books set up. Mack would occasionally show up in those series either by reference or cameo and Pendleton and his group of writers came up with the occasional large novel which included all the characters from the spinoffs.

By the time I reached the age of 16, I’d stopped reading them. But I’m certain I stormed through at least 40 of the short books and at least five of the expanded universe installments. You could say those books formed a lot of my childhood understanding of war, anger, and even the cold war.

While the combat may have been realistic, and the various series didn’t over glorify war, the characters were all very wooden to begin with and after a few books became real people. For a boy who grew up watching Vietnam Vets struggle with their identities barely 12 years after serving, the books cemented what I saw on hunting trips with explanations I didn’t need to get from the adults. Keep in mind this was before the massive rash of Vietnam conflict movies such as Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and the like.

Regardless of your feelings about this kind of education, it was there, and I learned. Some of the lessons I learned were incomplete, others incorrect, and some dead on with reality. The series, in conjunction with other military thrillers and a thirst for historical perspective on the Vietnam Conflict, drove me to research, investigate, and spend the time necessary to form my own opinions. More than thirty years later, I can look back and track how my thoughts changed between that time and my college education.

Those thin little “Men’s Adventure” books, maybe 50-60k words a piece, formed a part of my personality and ideals. But, of course, a healthy human being transforms. A healthy human being evaluates their opinions, their rationale, and adapts to new information. I was lucky enough to have that experience, not all did. Perhaps this is why I become so angry when I see the same fucking mistakes made in the past being made again and again. And the youth we send off into these ridiculously myopic conflicts are always the ones that pay the price with suicides, domestic violence, and severe psychological problems. I went from glorifying war to wanting to stop it from ever happening, or at least fighting for good reasons. Alas, I have yet to see either occur in my lifetime.

Why do I bring up Mack Bolan? Well, The Executioner series predated Marvel’s The Punisher. And guess what? The Punisher IS Mack Bolan. Might as well be, anyway. Remove the skull on the uniform, and he’s dead ringer for Bolan. Frank Castle, AKA the Punisher, was special forces, his family died to mob violence, and Castle came back to settle everyone’s hash. Where Bolan was logical about his motives, at least attempting to rationalize the revenge, Castle was nearly single-mindedly violent. At least at the beginning.

Castle has been transformed over the years just as Mack Bolan did from his first appearance to long after Gold Eagle bought the series and the rights. Garth Ennis, one of my favorite comic book writers, eventually took over The Punisher and modified both the character as well as some of his motives. The Punisher ultimately became humanized, haunted, and the series began investigating more than just his penchant for violence.

There have been several (terrible) attempts at bringing The Punisher to the silver screen, but Castle never found a decent vehicle for his tales. Mainly because Hollywood was too stupid to figure out how to portray the character and his world. Then a wonderful thing happened: Netflix’s “Daredevil Season 2”

Frank Castle stormed into the Daredevil universe like a wrecking ball, completely changing the narrative, adding personal conflicts, and turning the entire breakout franchise on its head. The Punisher, played by Jon Bernthal, was portrayed as an ultra-violent psychopath who had severe methods to his madness. Even as the Daredevil series displayed Castle’s ridiculous penchants for both violence and survival, it also managed to portray a man whose life was destroyed and, in some ways, felt he was to blame for the deaths of his children, his wife, and his chance to come back from the military as a human being.

The Punisher character was so popular, and written so well, that Netflix gave the character his own series. Although I very much enjoyed Daredevil Season 2, and especially Frank Castle’s portrayal, I remained dubious about a series devoted to the character. Why? Because there’s only so much you can do. There are only so many skeletons from Frank’s closet to drag out of the darkness to create new and interesting tales. They would have to do something monumental to make it work. Guess what? They did.

If you’ve watched Daredevil Season 2, and why haven’t you, you know the conspiracy that led to the murder of Frank’s family. But what you don’t get completely from the Daredevil season, is all the other crazy that drove the events. In some ways, the choices Frank made before his family died are the same reasons they are dead. The first season of The Punisher examines that part of his life as well as many points of view about special ops and CIA funded dirty wars.

Extremely violent, laden with obscenities, and filled with characters whom you don’t necessarily trust, The Punisher provides an interesting tale where you’re not even sure who the “good guys” are supposed to be. The lines are blurred over and over again, but you eventually realize you’re rooting for Frank and, at the same time, the people trying to incarcerate him. The truth of why all this is happening, and what Frank did to bring it about, is both horrifying and satisfying. It all makes sense and it’s all very well written. People you come to care about die. They get hurt. They get mangled. And it’s all too damned realistic.

I won’t give any spoilers away, but I will say that Season 1 ended with one of the most cathartic moments in cinematic history. Castle, haunted, stricken with grief, and somewhat broken, has one last line that both gives you hope for the character and breaks your heart at the same time. I had to watch the final episode twice just to put it all in perspective and cogitate over it before I came to this conclusion. But I still think it’s the right one.

For better or worse, The Punisher has been transformed from its beginnings as a brooding stick figure of a character to one that is fully realized, and sympathetic. I’m very interested to see how they continue things with Season 2, although it’s very clear to me what at least one of the plot lines will be.

Characters like Mack Bolan and Frank Castle have sprayed gore over the literary landscapes for decades. Some will argue they glorify violence and war, but I can say that if you read long enough, you find that as much as they seem to revel in the death of human beings, they are also very focused on the loss, grief, and pain of broken human beings. The violence is simply how they deal with it.

While I’m highly unlikely to ever read a Mack Bolan book ever again, I know I’ll pick up another punisher comic at some point in my life. If Marvel is smart, very smart, they’ve already picked up the threads from the series and woven them into the monthly serial. I hope so. Because the anti-hero still needs their place. And intelligent, sympathetic anti-heroes are difficult to come by.

The Punisher, season 1, is now available on Netflix. BINGE! And let me know what you think.

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