After returning to The MCU in Daredevil Born Again (2025 – ), The Punisher/Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), MCU’s most gritty anti-hero, who is also set to appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day later this year, debuts a special presentation of the character.
The Punisher: One Last Kill is the third special presentation concept used by Marvel, following Werewolf by Night (2022) and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday (2022). For all the highs and lows of the Disney+ era of The Marvel Cinematic Universe, this single-film concept has certainly been one of the highs.
As this fifty-minute presentation sees Frank in hiding in Little Sicily after killing members of the Gnucci family, the remaining Ma Gnucci (Judith Light) puts a bounty on him, causing Frank to come out of hiding and protect his neighborhood.
The Achilles heel of this presentation is that it quickly tries to establish Frank as a permanent member of The MCU while also trying to convince audiences that he has been existing in the cinematic world for a long time. (A Captain Marvel treatment, if you will.) The result is a stale first half as it tries to quickly catch up audience members unfamiliar with The Punisher.
The presentation is muddy, with callbacks to The Punisher (2017-2019) and Daredevil (2015-2018). Themes of family and duty were already explored; instead of feeling fresh, the presentation goes in circles for thirty minutes.
Where the presentation fully shines is in the last ten minutes, which becomes the premise the special was selling itself on — Frank doing his own version of The Raid: Redemption (2011).
Most importantly, the action is good. Frank is a skilled fighter, but, more than anything else, he is a force of uncontrolled rage. The Punisher is not a cookie-cutter hero; he is terrifying.
Bernthal continues to be great as Frank/The Punisher. He plays the broken man convincingly, switching easily to that menacing maniac who believes he is on a mission to clear streets of evil.
Judith Light’s Ma, in the few minutes of screentime, is a refreshing addition to The Punisher presentation. She doesn’t fear Frank, an excellent foil in much need of more exploration as the MCU grows and establishes this part of the cinematic universe.
The Punisher: One Last Kill shows the strength of the single-presentation concept in the MCU, introducing Frank/The Punisher. In theory, it works, but in execution, the overall presentation feels repetitive and stale, only reminding us that every Marvel project is somehow connected to six more…
Review Courtesy of Matthew Allan
Feature Image Credit to Walt Disney Studios/Marvel