After three films that disappointed at the box office, Marvel is going to try bringing the Punisher to the small screen.

Three Punisher films never quite worked out (1989, 2004 and 2008), the media rights to the character finally reverted to Marvel in 2010, but nothing has been discussed as being in development until this week.  According to Deadline, Ed Bernero, creator of the critically acclaimed Third Watch, is working with ABC Studios on developing a television series based around the iconic character.  Fox has optioned it for a pilot with a penalty clause should it never air.

According to the reports, the summary of the series is as follows:

Frank Castle, a rising star detective with the New York Police Department who moonlights as the vigilante Punisher, seeking justice for those the system has failed.

There is so much wrong with that synopsis that I don’t even know where to begin.

The Punisher first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 published in 1974.  Since his creation, and through numerous reboots, one thing that has remained constant is that Frank Castle became the Punisher after seeing his family killed by criminals.  At no point has he been an active duty officer on a police officer by day and a vigilante by night.  He has always been a vigilante through and through with a strict code of ethics.  While I have enjoyed some Bernero’s work over the years, he has starting off on such poor footing here that I can’t even give this series a chance.  I could even deal with the idea of this being yet another procedural series, it sounds like they are going to tear out the core of this character completely for no good reason.

Also at issue is the fact that this will be on network television.  The Punisher is, by his very nature, a killer.  He shoots his enemies, he blows them up and he’ll even run them over, but on network TV?  True, Fox was the home of 24 which has a huge body count, but somehow I don’t see them getting away as easily with this due to the nature of the story.

This project has disaster written all over it to me, but we’ll just have to wait and see what comes out of it.