Jon Bernthal’s Marvel entry was an event that had to be felt, endured, and witnessed with reverence while the audience could do nothing but sit and watch as the blood washed away with the grime and pain and pooled into the cracks forming in the unraveling psyche of a man, a father, and a husband. The Punisher was born out of an era when Marvel did not shy away from unleashing definitive and utter chaos.
It was an era of sheer brilliance when the script doled out the unchecked madness of the judge, jury, and executioner and spun his story into a narrative that made the Punisher more than just an anti-hero. His was a story of Senecan tragedy.
Jon Bernthal’s Gritty Legacy as Marvel’s Punisher
The epic narrative contained within the arc of the Punisher is a story that rivaled the legacy of Daredevil himself — be it in blood or trauma. Whenever the two were pitted against each other, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen looked like a bratty adolescent that couldn’t wait to dance under the midnight rain, at least when he wasn’t busy being tied up on a rooftop or getting shot point-blank in the head.
Also read: Jon Bernthal vs. Charlie Cox: Which Netflix Marvel Actor Nailed His Role Better?
The Punisher was made horrifyingly tragic by Jon Bernthal‘s personification of a man in limbo — living concurrently in the past and the present. And even though the memory of his iconic walk through a hospital carrying a shotgun still renders one motionless, the audience willingly rooted for the guy who stepped from moment to moment and memory to memory, reliving the tragedy of a slaughter, unable to escape, and unable to let go.
The solo series that was a much-needed addition to the completion of his personal arc was cut abruptly short by the contractual terms between Marvel and Netflix. Now that the studio has been batting home runs at the Disney stadium, it would only be right that Jon Bernthal too gets a spot on the roster. With Daredevil set to make his grand solo re-entry (despite how much we hate the new-found joie de vivre), the Punisher’s story is far from done and the least Marvel can do is acknowledge the fact and work toward a concept of The Punisher reboot.
Jon Bernthal Rumored to Step Back Into the MCU as Punisher
Although a rumor at this stage, a lot of rumors circling around in 2022 has been coming true. But Jon Bernthal’s comeback as the Punisher into the mainstream MCU is a story we not only want but desperately need. The crowd, having had a sniff of the rumor mill, has already been going wild with fan-crazed theories about the anti-hero’s return while simultaneously ignoring the fact that none of it seems substantiated by factual claims from Marvel-associated sources.
While nothing has been confirmed from Marvel’s end, the executive decision to green-light a Punisher solo would definitely be praised more than criticized. Currently, Disney is facing a legitimate creative clash against Marvel’s root ideologies entrenched in tragic origin stories and gritty comic arcs. What the audience witnessed during Marvel’s Netflix collab era was the peak era of cinematic television adaptations. One can only hope that Disney can respect that instead of panning the camera away the moment the Punisher pulls out so much as a butter knife.
Source: Twitter
