If you thought that Netflix’s The Punisher (and Daredevil too, for that matter) crossing over to Disney+ and therefore to the MCU proper was going to end the time-honored tradition of baiting Frank Castle/Karen Page ‘shippers, think again! Karen does appear in The Punisher: One Last Kill and the Kastle agenda is just as tantalizingly out of reach as ever.
For those unfamiliar with how these Marvel comics characters came to be so close on screen and launch a thousand ‘shippers, let’s do a quick recap. It all started in Daredevil Season 2, back in 2016, when the Punisher was on trial for doing what he does. Karen looked into his background, convinced Matt and Foggy to defend him, and earned his trust herself. He saved her during a violent altercation. She writed an article defending his honor. It was a tale as old as time. She then appeared in the first season of The Punisher on Netflix and they continued to Bond. Karen has a dark side that the Catholic more noble vigilantes she tends to hang out with don’t always understand. Frank, on the other hand, totally gets it and gets her. They’re fiercely protective of each other in their own ways.
Karen might be in a committed relationship with Matt Murdock at this point in the Marvel timeline, but that can’t and won’t stop Deborah Ann Woll from reprising her role in a vision Frank has midway through The Punisher: One Last Kill. The scene is, ironically, almost too good to be true. Karen is wearing Frank’s dead wife’s clothing. She admonishes and comforts him. The tension is so high. Their faces are so close. Frank asks if she’s really there. She says she is, in a gut-wrenching vague “I’m real and I’m here in your heart” kind of way. But she’s not there in a tangible sense. It is imaginary. Everyone say thank you to executive producer and co-writer Jon Bernthal himself for that.
Let Karen and Frank smooch!
The thing is, it’s actually crazy that these two haven’t kissed yet, and continue to almost kiss in the new special presentation. To be fair, Frank/Karen is more “canon,” so to speak, than a lot of flirtations in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s more than just undeniable chemistry between them. There’s no denying that they care about each other. They clearly can’t stop talking and thinking about each other. They’ve probably hugged on screen more than some actual canon MCU couples, if that means anything!
But there really was a lot of sex and romance in the Netflix Marvel shows. We used to have it so good. I miss it! Those series were not beholden to the minimal, chaste, “everyone is beautiful, no one is horny” romantic maxim holding the rest of the MCU back. By the time Matt, Karen, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Misty Knight, Elektra Natchios, Danny Rand, and Colleen Wing came together in The Defenders they’d really gotten around with extra-curricular love interests and each other.
Just not Karen and Frank. As nice and juicy as the scene in The Punisher: One Last Kill is, the last place these characters need to be is in the MCU and on a Disney+ show. They were already all angst and no payoff. Now they’re sharing a streaming service and cinematic universe with the Avengers, who are all wife guys and/or widowers and dads now. (Speaking of, at the end of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, we learned that Luke and Jessica are married and have a daughter. Canonical, sure, but also conformist!)
Matt certainly knows that his girlfriend and guy frenemy have feelings for each other. He points it out in both seasons of Daredevil: Born Again. His own relationship with Karen, despite a foundation of mutual respect and a lot of love, is at a bit of an impasse. They’re really struggling with some ideological differences. Does Karen’s appearance in the Punisher special mean that her and Frank are endgame? I wish I could say so. Rumors abound that Elektra, Matt’s messiest love interest, will be back in Daredevil: Born Again Season 3. But knowing those two, and this universe, it could still be a long time coming.
(featured image: Disney+)
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