Brand New Day ‘, it’s time to revisit Jon Bernthal’s best moment as Punisher

Jon BernthalFrank Castle, aka the Punisher, should be one of the most recurring characters in the Marvel cinematographic universe in the immediate future. The acclaimed actor has resumed his emblematic vigilance role Daredevil: born again Earlier this year and would return in the second season of the series, in addition to the headliner of its own special presentation for Disney +. It has recently been announced that Bernthal will also appear as the Punisher in Spider-Man: A new dayThe fourth solo film with Tom HollandPeter Parker, who is currently scheduled for a release in July 2026.

Although those who wish to discover or rediscover the character in the light of this would certainly benefit from watching season 2 of the original Daredevil Netflix series, which presented Frank to MCU, and / or Again born Season 1, There is also a specific episode of the two seasons of Bernthal Punker spin-off series which is just as important To understand its iteration of the famous anti-hero.

An episode of ‘The Punisher’ defines Jon Bernthal’s version of the character

In The Punisher Season 1, episode 12, “Home”, Frank and his ally, David Lieberman, alias micro (Ebon Moss-Barach), work with the Ministry of Internal Security to combat a criminal conspiracy led by CIA corrupt William Rawlins (Paul Schulze), who orchestrated the murder of Frank’s family. After being captured, Frank is tortured by Rawlins and his former friend, Billy Russo (Barnes legs), until it reveals the access codes to micro computers. Russo and Rawlins try to prevent Frank and Micro from publicly publishing a video file exhibiting their illegal activities during the war in Afghanistan (some of which Frank himself were also involved), ignoring that Lieberman had already provided the fatherland with another copy. An increasingly maniac rawlins continues to torture Frank later before disrespecting Russo, which led the latter to calmly release Frank so that he could kill Rawlins before Homeland storm their location.

During his elaborate torture, Frank frequently slips into and out of consciencejump on the memories of his relationship with his now dead wife, Maria (Kelli Barrett). While the contrast between Frank’s images being brutally beaten and those of him dancing and intimate with Maria is initially heavy, this scenario ultimately progresses in a more nuanced and effective way. One of Frank’s last visions is a recreation from the moment he woke up in the morning after his return from his last service round, which is also the day when Maria and her children were killed during the annual family trip to Central Park. The twisted recreations of this moment of Frank’s nightmares had previously shown a armored version of him shooting on Maria himself, but this iteration, although lit up unrealistic, is involved to represent the conversation they had that morning. Maria says that the most difficult part of Frank’s military service for her is that the more time he spends in combat, the more parts he leaves himself in war areas, which makes him less and less present when he is with the family.

Many modern Marvel comics focused on the particularly dark idea that Frank A, to some extent, has always been the PunisherHaving an unshakable attraction to, even love, violence and murder, with the murders of your family simply offering him an ideal excuse to make an endless violent unleashing that he can justify for himself. Writer Garth Ennis“ Work with the character of the Max footprint oriented towards the adult of Marvel, in particular the mini-series The Punisher: bornEven suggests that Frank, or at least the older version of him which served in the Vietnam War, may have concluded an agreement with a supernatural force, perhaps the devil, to allow him to fight “a war that lasts eternally”, ignoring that the price of this “reward” would be Maria and the children of the children.

The representation of Frank de Bernthal throughout the MCU alluded to similar ideas, but the writers of his solo series complicate them intelligently in a way that keeps the character somewhat sympathetic while undoubtedly making his story even more tragic. Choose him to stay with his family rather than get back to the strengths of war The additional song of humanity that makes Bernthal’s Punisher one of the best versions of the characterOtherwise the best. It is only after Maria and their children are killed that Frank fully becomes the Punisher and loses the ability to separate from the role, as his final vision in the episode underlines, in which he seems covered with blood as in the real world and refuses Maria’s ghostly offer to “go home” (probably the meaning, and end up with her and the children of Maria). Instead, Frank says: “I am at home”, before regaining conscience and embarking on brutal revenge against Rawlins.

“Spider-Man: Will Brand New Day” be darker with his introduction by Punisher by Jon Bernthal?

“Home” also contributes to the development of other Punker Characters and configuration of key ideas for the rest of the series. The visions of Frank de Maria do not always seem particularly realistic, but they always allow Barrett to impregnate the character with more individual personality than she did in the previous flashbacks and the dream sequences. The second and last season of the series also establishes significant growth of the characters, with Frank ended up believing that he was still at least partially Punisher, and that Maria knew and loved him anywayBut now that she and the children have left, he must simply be the vigilante and cut himself off from most of the most innocent and moral friends of her life, including the teenager Runaway Amy Bendix (Giorgia Whigham) and the legal investigator Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll).

These dark and disturbing ideas linked to the character are the reason why Bernthal’s casting in the Spider-Man series, whose past films are particularly suitable for families, is surprising, although Frank initially made his debut as an antagonist of Spider-Man Comics. Passed from Marvel films starring characters with similar source equipment, like Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), have shown that they can be limited to the levels of violence on the appropriate screen for the PG-13 note (which is almost certainly this New day will receive), but capture the key to twisted emotions and psychology in Frank’s story in the context of a Spider-Man film can always be a challenge. That said, the inclusion of Punisher in New day could do A fascinating subversion of the tendency of the MCU to have can be supervised by older crime fighters.

The Punisher

Release date

2017 – 2018

Network

Disney channel

Showrunner

John Romita Sr.

Directors

Mark Goldblatt, Lexi Alexander

Writers

Gerry Conway