It’s been about ten years since Jon Bernthal’s version of the Punisher made his debut in the second season of Netflix’s Daredevil series, and since then, his presence has been rather sporadic. Later, the character received his own two-season spin-off series, and when Daredevil was folded into the MCU with the Disney+ show Born Again, Frank Castle was right on his heels with a brief appearance that saw him slaughter a group of corrupt cops clad in his symbol. Although everyone’s favorite murder machine didn’t appear in Born Again’s second season, he’ll be back to terrorize New York’s criminal underworld in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a little over a month after the character received his very first special: The Punisher: One Last Kill.
The special, which was released after the second season of Born Again and takes place concurrently, once again introduces Frank at his lowest, dealing with a mental breakdown as a result of his trauma from the military and the consequences of his frequent murder sprees. Although it introduced a beloved Punisher antagonist in Ma Gnucci, for the most part, the 40- minute TV movie repeated many of the same beats as Castle’s Netflix series, a wishy-washy “reclaiming the mantle” story that marks what is the third time we’ve seen Frank pick up his crusade again after a period of false retirement. After 10 years of much of the same thing, I feel that Bernthal’s version of the Punisher is at an impasse: either the MCU needs to figure out a direction for the character and fast, or it’s time for him to hang up the skull for good. One Last Kill isn’t the final kill — we know Frank is back in Spider-Man: Brand New Day — but it really should be.
