10 Superhero TV Shows That Completely Missed The Mark

Superheroes are often miscast. Just look at George Clooney as an overly nipply Batman. Jon Bernthal however, was certainly not miscast as the steely, no-nonsense tormenter The Punisher. Unfortunately, the show was perhaps mistimed and misappropriated.

Bernthal’s Punisher was a spin-off from the successful Marvel/Netflix Daredevil series. Former Recon Marine Frank Castle is the scourge of the criminal underworld and his take-no-prisoners approach makes him a very decent criminal tormentor. However, superhero fans seemed to repudiate this ultra-violent character, his blood lust seemingly coming with no great depth to the character. The inherent difficulty here was the paradox of needing to sympathise with the character, but fundamentally being unable to do so.

Unfortunately, as well for the Punisher, the character was co-opted by neo-Nazis with culturally significant questions asked of his vigilante style search for violent justice at a time of mass shootings in America. The Punisher received decent reviews from critics but perhaps just came along at the wrong time and in the wrong way.

Despite a strong comic book background, the Punisher felt more spec-ops than comic book, ultimately resulting in the series’ ironic misfire.