The Four Color Media Monitor

For a paper supposedly right-leaning, the Boston Herald sure isn't making a great impression with the following review of the new Punisher TV series, which begins with:

Marvel has been trying to make the Punisher a household name since 1989, when Dolph Lundgren starred in the first big-screen adaptation of the gun-happy anti-hero.

As a live action franchise, maybe, but not as a comics star. Yet that's nothing compared to the following, very troubling descriptions of what the premise involves:

Frank did some horrible things while working as part of an elite military squad in Afghanistan, and the past is coming to collect in blood.

Elsewhere, a federal agent named Dinah Madani (Amber Rose Revah, “Emerald City”) is trying to get justice for an Afghan police officer who was murdered there.

If leftist ideology was shoved into this show, that shouldn't be a shock. Even Marvel's live action productions obviously aren't immune to fishy plots filled with ultra-liberal ideologies. On which note, look which past writer they consider the best:

In the best “Punisher” stories, most written by Garth Ennis, Frank is a single-minded sociopath determined to kill bad guys, typically mobsters, typically in hails of bullets and explosions of blood and body parts. The stories stand as some of the most darkly funny and gory mainstream comics published. If ammo was turned into snowflakes, Frank Castle’s New York City would be under 20 feet of snow.

Just how is Ennis the best of the best, and not Mike Baron, Chuck Dixon, or even Carl Potts? And why do they think Frank as a sociopath makes the best rendition, rather than simply a man outraged at how terrible law enforcement and legal procedures allowed violent criminals to get away with murdering his family? I don't think the black comedy approach used by Ennis was particularly impressive either, and gore galore is no better. Certainly some of the Punisher stories I read in the past were bloody, but nowhere near the horror-thriller level they make it sound like.

“Marvel’s The Punisher” concludes on a note that suggests healing, if not redemption for Frank.

That just misses the entire point of the character.

I'd say the paper missed the point far more. They only seem to care about a leftist's idea of what Punisher should be like, and I think that's what ruined Frank Castle by the turn of the century. If leftism illustrates the TV show's approach, I'd say that was idiotic, and it reminds me of a description I may have read of the Daredevil TV program's own ideas, which also make it sound like Matt Murdock's been depicted as borderline sociopath. I honestly don't think that's a good idea either. I'm not saying the POV should be right-leaning in every way, but the politics that may have seeped in sure don't leave room to assume they're getting it right. And the supposedly conservative paper isn't helping their cause by taking such a peculiar stance either.

Labels: marvel comics, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, Punisher, violence