So, Punisher...(Part 2)

Part 1.

Dammit, Disney. You haven't made me exactly love this character, but you've made it complicated.

All right, so first bit, I gave my overall rant on how MAGA has pretty heavily co-opted Punisher, and my beliefs have evolved away from any manifestation of war and gunplay, so I'm kinda done with the character.

Then I re-reviewed the three films, and overall decided that "War Zone" is enough of a comedy to give it a pass. Like Deadpool.

But I left out the Bernthal Netflix show.

In that first rant, I said...

When looked at properly, in my opinion, the Punisher is a tragedy.

You're supposed to learn the lesson, that yeah, Frank Castle killing these bad guys may "clean up the streets" but it gives him mega PTSD, and places him outside of society, and takes away his ability to have a normal life.

There's no real Punisher, because no one would make that sacrifice.

And when you do get some incel with nothing to lose that shoots people up, it's never the mafia, or a terrorist cell, it's some girl who jilted him, and everyone else who gets in the way.

Or Kyle Rittenhouse.

Ain't no "good guys with guns" coming.

You're not supposed to go "yeah, the Punisher is all fucked up, but I wish someone would do it anyway".

That's the opposite thing you're supposed to take away.

The Bernthal version captures the tragic aspects of the character better than any of the movies, and leaves no wriggle room.

Doesn't slow down MAGA one goddamned bit.

Nothing does.

Their craniums are on auto-pilot.

Anyway! Disney has brought Bernthal-Punisher back for season 4 of Daredevil, his own special, and....

Spiderman 4!

That's where it's complicated. 

I'm not necessarily boycotting Punisher, so I can go ahead and watch the flick just fine.

And "Thunderbolts" leaves no doubt Marvel's philosophy totally isn't "whheee!! Killing is great!".

And it's a frigging Spider-Man movie. Come on.

So I've got nothing to worry about there.

Unless fucking Frank Miller wrote the thing; but after "Sin City: A Dame To Kill for" and "The Spirit" Hollywood knows not to touch him with a 20 foot pool skimmer.

So that's not even a blip on the radar.

If it's really, really good, and I love it, are the MAGA whackos gonna think I'm brethren?

Y'know what? Fuck it. Fuck them. Cross that bridge when I even get there.

I was dumb to let their bullshit even get in my head.

Forget this whole post. *Goes to delete it, and stops*

Oh, all right, let's redeem it somehow.....

Let's use it to talk about Disney vs Trump.

ABC (owned by Disney) gave Trump $15 million bucks because....he raped E. Jean Carroll, and someone told the truth about that. Hey, you don't wanna be called a rapist, stop raping people.

But no, let's give the rapist free money.

You know how much food you could buy for starving kids with $15 million?

Jesus Fuck.

P.S. release the goddamned Epstein files.

THEN!

ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel because Trump's FCC chair made mafioso threats, and they caved.

Then a few million people cancelled their Disney plus, and cost them a few billion, and they put him back on air.

And that's the good news. These big giant corporations are cowards in the face of fascists, but they're MORE scared of us and our buying power.

How does this connect to Spidey 4?

Well, Israel didn't like how the Israeli character Sabra was depicted in "Brave New World" so they sabre rattled, and Disney flinched, and did reshoots, and those reshoots were part of the long-ass delay.

So, that plays into how Punisher is depicted in Spidey 4.

Will we get "please don't hurt us!!! 😭" Disney?

Or "fuck you! Jimmy Kimmel is back! 🦸‍♂️" Disney?

If it's the former, we get shallow MAGA Punisher. 

If it's the latter, complex emotionally damaged Punisher.

"Thunderbolts" gives me optimism it just might the "fuck you!" Disney.