If you have not watched Daredevil S2 and Punisher S1 on Netflix, this will probably contain a spoiler or two. Also, I'm going to talk about my life a bit more than I normally do, ever. You've been warned,
I had a slight bit of struggle with where I wanted to post this, and given that I've been relatively inactive on the Union City front (I have about seven drafted posts as of this writing), it kind of seemed the place. Plus, one of the greatest things about the Netflix Marvel shows is that you can use them as a World of Darkness inspiration. No, really, I'm serious. I mean, if you take away the over the top action sequences or, like, Luke Cage being bulletproof, the ambience is there and the character drama is pretty great as well.
"Fandoms" can be some seriously negative spaces where people slam on each other for different interpretations of character traits or little nit picky bullshit arguments will erupt over nothing at all and, as a result, I tend to avoid any such things. But I would consider myself a fairly huge Punisher fan. In addition to owning enough Punisher tee-shirts to wear a different one every day of the week, as well as a massive Punisher belt buckle, I've been off and on with the comic books since reading Punisher War Journal in my early days. Even the craptacular Dolph Lundgren movie was an early favorite of mine, just because it was nice seeing the character get some recognition.
Jon Berenthal is Frank Castle. Like, Lundgren was just Lundgren, Tom Jane was alright, and Ray Stevenson was comic booky, but Berenthal is the embodiment of the character on screen. I hated him as Shane in The Walking Dead and when it was announced he was cast as Frank, I was a little skeptical that he would pull it off. Holy fucking shit was I wrong.
Guess I'm kind of late to the game on the Netflix Marvel. It took forever for me to get into Jessica Jones and I haven't had any interest in Daredevil since Batfleck made that one movie. I think it was called Gigli. Oh, wait, no, I meant the Daredevil movie, with the terrible Elektra that then got her own movie. What was anyone thinking green lighting that garbage? As an aside, I'm not much of a DC guy as it is, and Affleck as the Bat guarantees I'll never watch BvS or Just-us League.
Uh, that's off topic. So, yeah, I had no intention of watching Daredevil until the Punisher announcement. The very first "One Batch, Two Batch, Penny and Dime" trailer had me tyrannosaurus rekt in anticipation, so I had to go through and watch Daredevil S1 to get ready. Much to my surprise, I actually really enjoyed it. The casting was fairly on point and it's still the viewing benchmark that Netflix measures every other Marvel endeavor to (I imagine Iron Fist was booty compared to it, and I know The Defenders was a disappointment to them, but that's again off topic).
So S2 of Daredevil. Right away, first episode, bad people are getting butchered by gunfire and you know, you KNOW, that it's just a start of things to come. Had Berenthal walked in, fucked shit up, and walked out, he would have been fine as the Punisher. But that isn't how they wrote him and that isn't how Berenthal played the role. Rather than be cartoony, they took the archetype, they went back to who Frank Castle is - a tortured soul that has seen some shit and is dealing with the loss of his family in the only way he knows how/in the way he was trained: by killing fucking everyone.
But they didn't take the cop out and go "this is a vet suffering PTSD and that is why he is unhinged." In fact, in DD S2, Berenthal's Castle makes it a point to say "don't do that" because he felt, rightly so, that using that as a defense trivializes individuals that truly are suffering from PTSD. Frank Castle isn't, at least at that point, overwhelmed with his military actions. They took a man, a military man sure but still just a man, who has experienced this gut-wrenching tragic loss and humanized him. He has a code. He doesn't hurt the innocent. He doesn't indiscriminately kill people via bombs, seeking to make any sort of political point. He has a chance to kill Daredevil, numerous chances in fact, which would have removed an obstacle to his course, but that would have been wrong as DD is a good man. Berenthal gets that point across without being just a gun-toting caricature as Punisher is normally portrayed.
It's the cemetery scene though, that I constantly come back to. Frank Castle is truly well and fucked, and for that one moment, we see the weakness, as he connects with Daredevil and truly opens up. Not a "chick flick" moment, just a guy that has lost everything and is ready to bleed out on top of someone else's grave, giving a "last confession" to a man dressed as the devil. Berenthal pulls no punches with the way he delivers Frank's story, his regrets, his sheer exhaustion at still being alive. If you have absolutely zero interest in Netflix Marvel and can't see yourself ever watching any of their shows, please, for me, go to YouTube and search for "Daredevil Season 2 graveyard scene" because it will make you a believer in how well this guy can make your heart hurt for a fictional character.
Which brings me to Punisher S1. The teasers and the trailers and all the build up that has gone into it this past year, kind of worried me. When Iron Fist dropped, I binge watched it because I was trying to stay caught up and it was alright. It wasn't great, but I had no attachment to the character and didn't matter if it was good or bad. The Defenders was basically the same thing. It wasn't great, was barely decent despite the build up, but I binge watched it all. And, afterwards, I started to worry that Netflix would take everything that made DD S2 great & just flush it away on some stupid storyline. I don't think I've ever had my worries proven to be unfounded as hardcore as I did yesterday, watching 12 solid punishing hours of television.
P-S1 begins with Punisher finishing what he started in Daredevil - wiping out the last survivors of the three gangs, and then walking away from the vigilante life. The ghosts won't let him be and it hurts the heart to watch him relive his last wake up with his wife over and over again. But, New York isn't a peaceful place and it isn't too long before he is put back into a kill or be killed situation, where he can silence the voices for a few moments by doing what he does best.
But again, Netflix resisted the two-dimensional approach. The Punisher is a killing machine, true. Unlike comic characters like Batman, he has zero reticence against putting a bullet into the head of an adversary. But Frank Castle... Man, this guy... This guy hurts you. You see it on Berenthal's face through the entire show. The only time he isn't in pain is, ironically, when he is physically hurt. But, as he explains later to his new buddy pal Micro, physical pain isn't the true torture, time is.
From the opening guitar scene, aided by Berenthal's gruff performance and brilliant cinematography, there is never a moment that you don't ache for Frank Castle. He tries to avoid connecting with people, to keep anyone from getting close to him, because as he explains "happy is a kick in the balls waiting to happen." But you know, deep down, that the connections he has are all that keep him going. From the kinship he feels with military friend Curtis to the romantic tension with Karen, he can't bring himself to be an emotionless killing machine. Torn to pieces with regret over so many things, you can always see a little of yourself in him as a character and I don't think any other Punisher actor has achieved that.
One of the (many) things that I loved about the show is the depiction of veterans trying to put their lives back together, and the disenfranchisement many feel towards an America that sends them off to fight & die and that then tosses them away when they return. I've known many vets in my life (I'll expand on that later) and not a small amount of them have expressed the same frustrations. There is even a "stolen valor" individual that typifies the kind of person that would lie about a military career. Or the extent of it at least. Few things make me angrier than someone that claims to be a vet/claims combat deployment to get some benefit or for handouts. Just pisses me off.
So, Ben Barnes, who is himself a really talented actor, was cast as Billy Russo. I love that even people who know nothing about the backstory aren't entirely shocked when he turns on Castle, because anyone that suave and smooth must be a bad guy, right? Of course, if you're read any of the comics, you'll know right away that Russo is Jigsaw, the Joker to Punisher's Batman, as it were. Looks like IMDB even lists the character as Jigsaw instead of Billy Russo under casting, so, uh, yay for spoilers there? You want to like Russo though. Even though you know that pretty boy is working an angle, even before the reveal, he is charismatic and seems to be caring of the plight of his former military comrades. Of course, that makes his utter douchiness even better later on. And when he is killing Homeland Security personnel, or abusing Dinah Madani's trust (by the by, again great casting, Amber Rose Revah pulls off the "I'm a total bad ass but also hot as fuck when I'm sweaty but don't objectify me because I'm not some weak victim chick" vibe super well), it's easy to forget that you liked him in the first place.
The wife isn't really a fan of action movie-type shows. She didn't like Iron Fist at all and I think she made it through a couple of Daredevil episodes. She sat and watched eight solid Punisher episodes. Eight. Solid. True, I paused it a few times for a beer run and cooking, but otherwise, I was amazed that she was so pulled in by the show and that, more than anything I can say, is a testament to Berenthal's acting and the level of writing for the show. And the amount of empathy that you can't help but to feel. Which brought up some other stuff, and I'm going to end this before moving on by saying, 5/7 perfect score, watch Daredevil if you haven't and then binge Punisher because it is so, so, so worth the watch.
---end Punisher stuff/start personal stuff---
In DD S2, the Kurgen himself, Clancy Brown, plays Frank Castle's old commanding officer, and tells about how Castle saved his life in Afghanistan. The Punisher actually shows how that battle mentioned played out, and as we're watching the scene, Rachel asks why anyone would join the military knowing that they might face that possibility. Then she specifically asked me why I was going to enlist. I... Didn't really have an answer at that moment, so I just shrugged, but I've been thinking about it since, and I want to give an answer now. So, if you've read this far & will permit me, I have to go into some backstory that most people know/are aware of, but that might not have been expressed in its entirety before.
I was a very angry child. My parents divorced early in my life & that would have been fine, except that my mother had/has terrible taste in men and every time a new one was in her life, it always meant more bullshit for me to deal with. From legit being homeless, to sleeping with a knife every night, to not being able to control my desire to smash faces, I never really had a positive outlet for all that anger, nor any real positive role models in my life, except for a couple of stand out examples.
I come from kind of a military family. My grandfather was a DI and recruiter for the Army, other grandparent figures served, uncles, so on and so forth. These were people that I looked up to, the only people I had to look up to as a constant, when I was younger. I lost my father when I was 12 and whatever anger I had prior to that was magnified a hundredfold and junior high was super rough for me, so when I was 14, I ended up going to live with my grandmother and her husband, who was military as well as a retired correctional officer. To give me structure and discipline and whatnot. I dunno how well that ended up (boy, can I tell you some of the shit that happened that summer...) but the most positive outcome is that, when I started high school, I decided to enroll in JROTC.
My two instructors were amazing individuals. I learned more from them than from probably any one else, not just in the sense of military history and protocol, but in what it takes to be a good person. A combat engineer and a pilot/Ranger, both combat vets, influenced me to be less of an asshole (despite the crowd of people I hung around) and to think about what I could do in service of my country. Now, I want to freeze on that and strongly emphasize that whilst they were super influential on me, I was and am my own person. JROTC isn't some recruiting conspiracy and many people that take the classes never join the military. But you learn a lot about citizenship. And that's important.
So my junior year of high school rolled around. I was JROTC staff - our battalion S-2 "security and intelligence," which was more people logistics than either of those two things, but it was a job that I did very well and took fairly seriously. And, then it came time to take my ASVAB as all juniors do. My scores were pretty good. Out of my friend group, all individuals planning on enlisting, I outscored all but one person. That made me kind of cocky, I guess.
Anyway, I had this grand plan of enlisting in the National Guard (not for fear of deployment, but because I wanted to be able to do stuff around my state) when I turned 17 in '98 (for the record, I was the first of my friends to go and enlist, contrary to how some people might act ala calling me a coward and whatnot). I had this recruiter, Sgt Rich Hagedorn, that was so far up my ass about joining, that it didn't even occur to me until way later how aggressive recruiters can be for their numbers. Actually, it's a lot like used car salesmen that will say anything to make a sale. But I didn't need the snowball convincing BS, I was down. Not saying that Hagedorn lied to me about anything - he was (and I assume is) a really stand up guy, it's just that in hindsight, I can see how thick it was laid on. So this was my plan - enlisting NG, knock out basic between my junior and senior years, then do AIT after graduation (airborne infantry), push to go to Ranger school (thanks to my JROTC SAI, that was kind of my dream, since I can't be a pilot), finish a contract with the NG and go reg Army.
I made it as far as MEPS. See, one of the things recruiters tell you is that they're going to throw these forms at you and tell you if you lie on them or don't fully disclose everything, well, you get a massive fine and prison time, but don't worry about it because they don't check anything. Problem is, that didn't sit well with me and, well, I was a fat & out of shape kid, so I was given an inhaler just in case. Not that I ever needed it, never had asthma, just poor physical activity, but between that and the fact that my feet are flat as fuck, I was medically DQed. I heard later on that Hagedorn told some other recruits I pissed a dirty UA, which I found fucking hilarious since I've never done any drugs in my life, but since I didn't hear it from the horse's mouth, I don't know if that's actually true.
So that wrecked me for a bit. When the letter came from the MEPS Dr (Hyde? I think), saying I was black-balled, I lost my shit. Now, I am hella book smart, but I hadn't planned on college and whatnot, at least not right after high school, because I wanted to focus on the military. And... It was absolutely amazing how quickly the way my friend group changed the way they looked at me. Almost all the guys that I was super close to back then went on to serve in more or less successful military careers (I think only one is still active duty, but I'll elaborate later) and the friend that was with me the day I got the letter (who was hardcore going to be a Marine, and all other branches are fucking weak as shit, except when they wouldn't take him and no one else would until the Navy finally got him in and then the Navy was the best branch ever and everyone else is fucking bullshit and it's cool if you lie about your time in Iraq since no one can double check on it) had this absolutely disgusting look of pity, not sympathy or empathy or "man, dude, bro, I am so sorry," but total "welp, sucks for you, I'm gonna go get my enlistment bonus now."
I'd never been close to anyone in my life the way I was with that group of friends and that letter really changed a lot of things for me. As we got older and everyone left town for their military careers, I was basically just adrift. Not begrudging them their successes. I want that to be clear. I love and respect (most of them) more than words can say, but it killed me inside. I mean, I had some fucking AMAZING adventures that a military career would not have allowed for in the years since, but that killed me so much, One actually did go Marines, two went Army, then of course the one that went Navy. Of them, the Marine was my friend for the longest, and I wasn't really the best friend to him for a lot of our time, but he was the closest thing I had to a brother (I mean, I have a half brother, but we aren't close), and only one of the two that went Army is still a part of my life.
So the 9/11 attacks happened, and a lot changed. Suddenly, we were invading other countries and on a huge wartime footing with people enlisting in record numbers.
I love those guys. I truly do. But, the Army that I'm still in contact with, his mom passed away and he came home and we got some jobs working together and we're really super close for the longest. 9/11 and the aftermath saw a change in military policy and a few years down the road, he was called back up to be deployed. And I thought, fuck it, maybe with the changes...
I spent a couple years getting doctor notes and shit like that saying I have no traces of asthma and my feet were suitable for combat and whatnot, and getting shot down. But, 9/11 meant that the military was taking almost anyone for the meat grinder, so I hooked up with an Army recruiter and said "hey, this is what happened, what can we do?" and the recruiter said "hey, you can be blind and deaf and we could probably get you in right now!" So they scheduled me to retake the ASVAB since my scores were old and I hit the 99th percentile. I have the aptitude for any job in the military beyond cryptology and piloting. Because glasses. It didn't pan out in the end, but meh...
I guess... Everyone that joins the military does so for their own reason. If I'm being entirely honest with myself, I think I always felt obligated, but more importantly, I saw it as a way to work through my anger by shooting at an enemy. I mean, you grow up on war movies and hear enough vets talk about the brotherhood and bonds you form, you don't stop to think about the psychological consequences or that you might actually get maimed/killed. Hell, I'm still not convinced of my own mortality.
What I'm saying is, that I never really had a great reason to join the military beyond anger, a sense of obligation instilled by familial and friend relationships, and absolutely no clue what to do in life otherwise. I still really have no idea what I want to be "when I grow up" and I'm so old now, I'm practically dead, but I keep pushing forward and moving.
That's part of why I love Frank Castle so much. Even if the path is different, I understand that soul-sucking feeling of helplessness when you see all your plans come crashing down around you & you don't know what else to do but to fight on. Right or wrong, I truly believe that any action is better than inaction and The Punisher personifies that ideal. He has a code and is quick to beat a mother fucker with another mother fucker and I just really respect that.
Dulce et decorum est. Pro patria mori. - It is sweet and proper to die for one's country. Wilfred Owen wrote this as a poem during World War I. Sigfried Sassoon also notably wrote about the war, and then died at a stupidly young age. Owen called it "the old familiar lie" and now that I'm older, I can see it. Patton posited that it's better to make the other guy die for his country, and maybe that is more proper.
War is merely the continuation of politics by other means. Von Clausewitz. Also, war cannot be avoided, it can only be postponed to the advantages of others. Machiavelli.
I fully, 100% support my brothers and sisters in the military, and veteran communities. I'm not a pacifist and understand that war truly is inevitable between the nations of man. It's what we do. We're an angry and warlike species. Just... Now that I've had years to age and gain experience, I'm less struck by nationalist fervor or the desire to cause injury and death to others. Usually.
