Posts by Steven Thomas5

wiredraven82 said:@Steven Thomas5/">@@Steven Thomas5

You can view Punisher however you want, but let’s stick to the facts:
1. He’s the most grounded "hero" in Marvel, and in my book, he's a hero.
2. The guy forces this massive philosophical, sociological, and moral question onto us: should we fight evil and crime using their own methods? I’m no God, so I can't give you the ultimate answer, but I know I get a kick out of watching him take down those psychos... especially when he breaks them before pulling the trigger. I'm totally on board with his philosophy for dealing with evil. Pedophiles, killers, abusers—they all deserve a bullet straight to the head. Though, honestly, a little silence first would be nice... a bullet is almost too merciful.
3. His brand of justice is ten times more effective than the system. Whether that's "moral" is something you should ask people around the world who actually suffer from that kind of evil.

Just because a character doesn't have superpowers doesn't automatically make them "realistic." It's hard to call any comic book character truly realistic, but if that's what you mean, then sure.

The whole concept of a "hero" is up for debate, though I don't think Punisher belongs in the same category as characters who primarily or exclusively use non-lethal methods to settle things.
If you enjoy the violence, hey, that's your prerogative. But you really have to ask yourself: who is he doing this for? Is he doing it for himself because he just loves the killing and the torture, or does he genuinely believe this is a justifiable, fair form of justice?
Violence is a cycle. It never stops because there's always someone else ready to add to the tally. Which means violence as a response to violence isn't actually effective...
Every movie touches on this: someone kills someone, then someone else kills them back. But the person who was killed isn't coming back.
Most characters are driven by the desire to prevent further suffering.
How they achieve that depends entirely on their ethics. If you have someone like Superman, for example, who refuses to kill as a hero, then Punisher just isn't in the same league. That's why I call him an anti-hero. Maybe a vigilante, but definitely not a hero. 😉

I don't need to ask anyone. Just look at the conflicts in the Middle East and tell me if violence as a response to violence is a good way to fight injustice... 😉

I wouldn't go so far as to call Punisher a hero—maybe an anti-hero at best—but even with that label, he just doesn't grab me...

When looking at the big cinematic universes, I struggle to pick one because they all feel kind of lukewarm. Iron Man is basically broken with that suit, Thor is a bit of a bore, and Captain America is actually decent. I'm low-key looking forward to the new Winter Soldier movie; I think that title alone could work. Also, Thor: The Dark World looks like it might actually have some grit to it...

There are three versions of Hulk out there. I haven't seen the Ang Lee version, but Ruffalo did a solid job in the Avengers movies, even if the actual plot didn't leave much room for anything deep...

The X-Men stuff was alright at the start, but then the franchise completely tanked by the third installment. Singer came back, but First Class was pretty underwhelming...

The original Spider-Man trilogy was okay, though the third one was a bit trash—but hey, what else can you expect from Raimi given that material? The new Spider-Man was just plain bad.

If I missed anyone, my bad, but the Marvel cinematic universe just isn't really my thing... 🙂

I've spent some time wandering through Washington and New York, places where countless movies have been filmed over the decades. But honestly? My proudest moment was visiting the cemetery where they shot Don Vito Corleone's funeral in The Godfather 🙂
When you walk up and then head away, the view is almost identical to the shot in the movie 🙂...

The Murder of Don Fanucci 🙂