Frank Castle, when his family is gunned down by mobsters, declares an all-out war on crime as The Punisher.  As a comic character, his popularity at times has approached that of DC Comics’ Batman, though he never successfully made the leap to feature films.

First Dolph Lundgren tackled the character, and while physically his portrayal was an accurate one, it felt a bit off.

Then there was Thomas Jane, who definitely had the acting chops to handle the character, though he was hamstrung by a storyline that was way too emotional, as well as what I call “The Fire Hydrant Scene,” which is not what something that The Punisher would ever do (mainly because it looked really, really dumb).

And then there’s Ray Stevenson‘s version of the character, perhaps the best of the three, despite the cartoonish violence (there’s a scene where he actually punches through someone’s head!) and garish color scheme.

All that was needed were nipples on his costume and (barely) veiled homoerotic references for it to become a Joel Schumacher production.

Despite my, in some cases, nitpicking, none of the aforementioned adaptations are terrible, and all are actually enjoyable if you don’t mind a little brutality with your crime fighting.

You may have thought, after three feature films that were shot down at the box office, that the sun had set on The Punisher.  You’d be wrong because Fox is preparing a television series based upon the character, though I get the feeling that he’s not only going to kill significantly less people, but he’s going to get a partner that will probably be very, very irritating.