After two disappointing The Punisher movies in 2004 and 2008 (one the 1989 Dolph Lundgren version), the property is now firmly in the hands of Marvel Studios and the good news is they're doing something with it. Kevin Feige and his cohorts have cast The Walking Deads John Bernthal as the man himself - the brutal vigilante Frank Castle for Daredevil season 2 on Netflix. But heres the rub: The Punishers comic book stories are generally incredibly dark, even when compared to the narratives of Marvels previous Netflix output from Daredevil and Jessica Jones. It seems likely them, that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will need to smooth over Franks rough edges to make him work within their continuity. And Frank's got a lot of rough edges. With that in mind, here are ten Punisher stories that are probably too dark for consideration for The Punisher's appearances in the MCU
10. The Widows Of His Victims Band Together To Kill Him
The Widowmaker was the eighth volume of Preacher-creator Garth Enniss ultra-dark The Punisher Max collection. Instead of glamourising the gritty street level vigilantism that Frank Castle is known for, The Widowmaker zeroed in on an oft-overlooked side of his brutal war on crime the collateral damage. The crux of this story was the widows that The Punisher creates by killing pretty much every criminal he comes across. In The Widowmaker, a collection of these left-behind lovers banded together under a common goal to kill the man that took their husbands away. Of course, Frank survived, but not before being forced to think about the families-torn-apart ramifications of his actions. The Marvel Cinematic Universe would surely be scared to go anywhere near a story like this. Marvel heroes are likeable and charismatic and mostly squeaky-clean, but all of them could be seen to have blood on their hands if we start talking about collateral damage. Instead of running the risk of making all their heroes look less likeable, then, Marvel will surely just ignore the widows that The Punisher leaves behind.
