The Punisher: 10 Ways It Saves Netflix's Marvel Universe

3. It Replicates The Character's Best Stories

The Punisher Kandahar
Netflix

Despite being one of Marvel's most popular characters, Frank Castle hasn't always had an easy time of things in the comics, certainly not until Garth Ennis took on the character in 2000 under the then burgeoning 'Marvel Knights' banner.

Ennis would then shift the darkly comedic tone the series found in that banner, and relaunched the character as a part of Marvel's 'MAX' imprint along with the late, great, Steve Dillon. The series was seminal in so many ways, and resonated on account of its expert handling of historical concepts, events and of course the character of Frank Castle himself. It's largely rooted in reality, and it is to this series that Netflix's latest Marvel offering owes its existence.

The show pays direct homage to both Punisher: Born and Valley Forge, Valley Forge throughout, with Frank's Afghan assault in episode three in particular following the same beats of the former's 2003 storyline. It's brilliant to see, especially since the opening volley from Daredevil Season 2 also took note of Ennis' contributions to the Marvel mythos. That's not all though - there are other elements of Frank's history that the show addresses, particularly in the series of 1987 and its subsequent spin-offs War Zone and War Journal.

It gives fans a good idea of what the character's all about off the page, and considering how difficult it actually is to get into the medium, that's no small feat.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.