The Punisher: One Last Kill served more than just fan service. There’s a version of this story where Marvel quietly slides the Punisher into a Spider-Man movie and hopes no one asks too many questions but instead, they made a 48-minute Disney+ special that drops Frank Castle into the single ugliest place he’s ever been, psychologically speaking. This is a man staring at his own reflection and not recognizing what came back. Before Frank Castle can share a frame with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, he has to survive himself first and that’s what this special is really about. Not the skull vest or the guns but the man wearing them, and whether there’s anything left worth saving.
When The Punisher: One Last Kill begins, Frank is holed up in New York’s Little Sicily district, cut off from everything, watching thugs assault civilians in broad daylight and choosing not to move. He’s having severe PTSD breakdowns, seeing the ghosts of his murdered wife, his daughter, his Marine brothers. He’s not the Punisher anymore. He’s just a man sitting in a dark room, waiting for something.
It’s weird to see a character with relentless forward motion being completely stuck in The Punisher: One Last Kill. He is isolated, having self hatred, and facing thoughts of suicide. This is where Judith Light’s Ma Gnucci comes in. In a wheelchair, she announces that every criminal in the neighborhood will descend on Castle’s apartment at 6:47 PM, the exact time when he killed her favorite son.
Soon after, Frank fights through stairways, hallways, and onto the roof before reaching the ground the hard way, and soon after Gnucci realizes he simply will not stay down. The point is the choice Frank makes when it matters. He can pursue Ma Gnucci, or he can save the innocent people trapped in the neighborhood and he chooses the latter. He protects a young girl named Charli, who reminds him of his daughter Lisa, and Ma Gnucci escapes as a result. He lets the revenge slip through his fingers to carry a child to safety.
How Spider-Man: Brand New Day can show us a different side of Frank Castle than The Punisher: One Last Kill
This is where things get genuinely interesting, and a little strange. Kevin Feige said the character would have a different tonality in Spider-Man: Brand New Day compared to his previous MCU appearances, which lean more into his violent actions than the film’s rating would allow. That’s a diplomatic way of saying they’re taking the most unhinged character in the MCU and dropping him into a PG-13 movie where a teenager webs his mouth shut to stop him swearing.
In Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s trailer, Frank appears clean-shaven and driving his iconic Battle Van through New York City, equipped with new weapons and appearing comfortable operating in broad daylight, suggesting a man who has finally accepted what he is. That’s a completely different human being from the one haunting a Little Sicily apartment, hallucinating his dead daughter.
It was not possible for Frank Castle to walk into a Spider-Man movie as a functioning person until he hit absolute bottom and chose something different. The Punisher: One Last Kill doesn’t give Frank Castle a clean redemption but a reason to keep going. And when Peter Parker’s Spider-Man meets him on July 31st, that reason will have to be enough for both of them.
The Punisher: One Last Kill is streaming on Disney+.
Edited by Nibir Konwar