Comic Retribution

So now I've started on The Punisher, the last of the Marvel Netflix series. The first season came out in 2017 and the second in 2019. I've seen the first three episodes, all written by Steve Lightfoot, and they're pretty good. Better than Iron Fist, though that's not saying much, and about on par with Luke Cage, though not quite up to Jessica Jones or Daredevil levels.

One of the demands of the writers in the current writers' strike I really don't like is the requirement for all shows to have a minimum writing staff of--I think the number was--six. So many of the best shows have had just one or two writers, or you wish they did. Twin Peaks being the great example. Lightfoot's scripts are smart, both in showing character motivation and in arranging plot. The music is great, both in terms of Tyler Bates' original score and the rock and blues songs. The first episode made very good use of Tom Waits' "Hell Broke Luce":

I suppose Frank Castle could've been better cast. I didn't really like Jon Bernthal on The Walking Dead (a show I stopped watching in season five or six, though I promised I'd go back to it when Negan gets killed off. Has he been killed off yet?). I thought he was a little one dimensional. But the Punisher is kind of a one note character so that kind of works. I kind of wish he was bulkier, though. One review complained he's not charismatic but I'm not sure he should be.

I didn't read much of the comics. I read a couple issues when I was kid, back in the '80s or early '90s. I remember a story about the Punisher fighting a giant robot or cyborg of some kind. It must have been at a low ebb of creativity on the series that the plot had strayed so far from the premise into something so generic. The premise of a vigilante killer you're meant to root for seems inspired by the vigilante films of the '70s, the most famous of which is the Death Wish series. I've never been a fan of those thought recently I read Quentin Tarantino's book, Cinema Speculation, which has deepened my appreciation a little. I've certainly always loved Taxi Driver.

Frank Castle is no Travis Bickle and you're clearly meant to just get good, clean catharsis watching him execute paper thin gangsters. That is fun in a relatively shallow way but it's balanced a bit with mood and reflection on war trauma which the show treats a lot more intelligently than Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

The Punisher is available on Disney+.

X Sonnet #1738

Required science dwindles down to zilch.
A savage sort responds to meaty meals.
Attending prom, the dancers sought to filch.
But savvy guards distract the dizzy heels.
It's turtle shells you see along the beach.
Don't question stones when absence proves a lie.
The slowest slug's beyond the Devil's reach.
But hands are cluttered birds across the sky.
A horse's pace announced a rapid doom.
At hand, a brace of noggins clattered loud.
As tempting shadow ghosts illume the room.
A knowing dame abides behind a shroud.
Replacement violence burns the linen night.
The oil burns the sense so Buicks fight.