9 Iconic Comic Book Storylines That Sucked In Movies

You’d think The Punisher would be one of the easiest characters to nail for a movie version. After all, it’s about a well-armed vigilante blasting through an endless wave of creeps; how hard can that be? It must be really hard, because out of three movie adaptations the only one that was a modest success was the Tom Jane version, and you’d be hard pressed to find a Punisher fan who thinks the movie is awesome.

The film drew a lot of inspiration from Garth Ennis’ Welcome Back Frank comic, which relaunched the character and made him cool again after a long dry period. It was blackly comic with cartoony violence but managed to sneak some emotion in, thanks to Frank’s wacky neighbours.

Unfortunately, the movie is a hot mess, trying to mix a gritty thriller in with silly humour and dumb set-pieces like the fight with The Russian. The comic villainess is replaced by a terminally bored John Travolta, and the wacky neighbours kill the tone whenever they appear. Jane made for a great Punisher, but both he and the story deserved better.