Fox are currently working on a pilot for Marvel Comics, gun-toting vigilante The Punisher – after three poorly received big screen outings, including 2008’s underrated (you heard) Punisher: War Zone – with a slight rejigging of the back story. Deadline described the series thusly:
“An hour-long procedural with a Marvel signature and a new take on one of the comic book giant’s iconic characters, Frank Castle, a rising star detective with the New York Police Department who moonlights as the vigilante Punisher, seeking justice for those the system has failed.”
As one of the few characters to have aged in real time – comics make frequent reference to Frank Castle’s age – and rooted in the disillusionment and abandonment of Vietnam veterans, and social fears of the Eighties, it’s certainly alarming for comic purists to hear the source material manipulated around with to such a degree. The Frank Castle of 2004’s ghastly Thomas Jane Punisher movie, you’ll recall, was also a cop…
