Indy Comics Writer

We had a great summer for superhero movies. Iron Man and The Dark Knight were terrific films. The Incredible Hulk, if not incredible, was at least pretty good. The Hellboy sequel was an improvement on the original.

But this winter? The comic book movies don’t look so hot. And it all starts with Punisher: War Zone opening this Friday.

Now, it’s probably not fair to criticize a movie I’ve not seen. But you know this movie isn’t going to be any good. That’s because the character of the Punisher isn’t any good.

I’ve never, ever enjoyed the Punisher. For one thing, he’s a one-note character, obsessed with revenge for the murder of his family. And that’s about all there is to him. Secondly, the writers of his adventures write him as if he’s some super-powered force of nature. He’s not. He’s an ex-cop with a gun. He should never be able to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Spider-Man and Daredevil and not end up unconscious in a matter of seconds. I don’t care what kind of gun he’s using.

(All right, I suppose those last few sentences made me sound like a total comics geek. Really, I’m not. I’m married. I have kids. Trust me.)

I won’t be in line to see the new Punisher movie. To me, it looks like it’ll rank somewhere along the lines of Marvel’s Elektra movie: pretty awful.

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