Ahead of his big screen debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the Punisher has returned in a Marvel Special Presentation. More than anything Marvel Studios has done before, Punisher: One Last Kill is a straight-up roller coaster ride of violence and action, bookended by moments of touching insight into the painful, tortured life of Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal).
But the special isn’t just a vehicle to show the Punisher is back in action. Punisher: One Last Kill is also the best use yet of the Marvel Special Presentation format, which Marvel Studios has underutilized thus far and should really consider leaning on more instead of its increasingly bloated streaming shows.
Punisher: One Last Kill begins with Frank Castle haunted by memories of his dead family and his fallen fellow Marines. He’s also surrounded by chaos. The fictional New York City neighborhood where he lives, Little Sicily, has become ground zero for a turf war which ignited when Frank killed off the leaders of the Gnucci family, the last crime organization tied to the death of his wife and children. The story really kicks into gear when Ma Gnucci, whose husband and sons were killed by the Punisher, puts a bounty on Frank’s head, forcing him to take down countless assailants as they swarm his apartment building and slaughter the residents of Little Sicily in the process.
As a 48-minute-long standalone story, Punisher: One Last Kill makes excellent use of the Marvel Special Presentation format. In its current form, the story wouldn’t have had enough complexity to support a proper Punisher film, nor would it have worked as a Disney Plus TV show without really stretching things out. Instead, Marvel Studios made One Last Kill its own little thing that serves two purposes. For those who have watched the Punisher series and his guest spots on Daredevil and Daredevil : Born Again, One Last Kill is just a fun ride with the character. For those unfamiliar with the Punisher, it works as a decent introduction before Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Punisher: One Last Kill also proves just how versatile the Marvel Special Presentation format is, despite the fact that this is only the third time Marvel Studios has used it. The first was the monster story Werewolf By Night, which debuted in October 2022. A month later, the very fun Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special arrived. Then the format remained dormant for more than three years until Punisher: One Last Kill. All three of these specials are well done, and Punisher: One Last Kill will likely be as embraced by fans as the first two specials were (if not more so given how long they’ve waited for a new Frank Castle story). This is all the more impressive when you consider that all three specials have presented wildly different genres: Werewolf By Night was campy horror, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special was a Christmas comedy, and Punisher: One Last Kill is a brutal actioner.
It makes me wonder why Marvel hasn’t made more use of this format, especially when you consider just how many of the Marvel TV shows on Disney Plus have been flops. While several of the post-Endgame series have been good — like Loki and WandaVision — the vast majority have struggled with finding a story that remains interesting throughout their entire season. Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Echo and other shows all dragged on with significant wheel-spinning just to meet an episode order.
Marvel’s entire philosophy around its TV shows has been deeply flawed. Most of the time, the characters starring in these shows are ones Marvel decided, for one reason or another, don’t quite deserve a big movie. Instead, the studio takes a character deemed second-tier and rather than give them a tight two-hour-or-less film, they get six hours of television. How does that make sense?
Marvel needs to find a way to make different sized films. Why not make a fun, 90-minute Ms. Marvel movie for $30 million? Iman Vellani has proven to be excellent in that role, but her show just dragged on, making it really hard to get through (and Ms. Marvel was one of the better Disney Plus shows).
But since Marvel can’t seem to make a movie for less than $100 million, the studio should really consider using the Special Presentation format a lot more often. This will allow for smaller stories that aren’t quite long enough or marketable enough for theaters without feeling the need to stretch them into entire TV shows. Plus, it’s also worth noting that, since it debuted, the Marvel Special Presentation format has gone 3-for-3 with successful outings, which is far better odds than they’ve had with both their TV shows and their films lately.
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