Commentary — ‘The Punisher: One Last Kill’ Needs To Move Beyond The Character’s Tropes
by Frank Martin
At a distance, the Punisher is a fairly simple character. He’s a veteran whose family was murdered in the crossfire of a gang war, leading to him spree-killing criminals across the New York. It’s a story of trauma, PTSD, revenge, and finding life after tragedy — particularly for a seasoned veteran like Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal). These are important elements that should be included in a Punisher story. But after the character has been around for years, scenes revolving around these elements have become tired and trite. The Punisher: One Last Kill should have known this and tried to work around them rather than leaning in.
After Frank has taken out the crime family responsible for his family’s death, he is overcome by his grief and PTSD. It becomes difficult for him to move on. However, the matriarch of that family, Ma Gnucci (Judith Light), is still alive and has put a bounty on his head. A gang of maniacs attacks his apartment building, ravishing everyone and everything in their path, forcing the Punisher to go on a rampage of his own and taking them all out one-by-one.
The “Marvel Special Presentation” is primarily divided into two halves. The second is all adrenaline fueled action while the first half primarily sees Frank coping with his PTSD. In order to accomplish this, there are very classic scenes of the Punisher wrestling with his emotions that come straight from the comics. There are flashbacks of his family, present day moments where he visits their graves, and even intense hallucinations of his friends and fallen comrades. These are very standard tropes that would fit nicely into a larger Punisher work. Unfortunately, this is a single-episode special. There is less than an hour to depict an excellent Punisher story. After already having ample screen time in Daredevil and his own series, this Frank doesn’t need to rehash old tropes. Instead, the special should have moved beyond that and used its time more wisely to tell a more comprehensive tale.
The Punisher: One Last Kill is now streaming on Disney+.
