Punisher V Daredevil
This is an epic clash set to play out on the small screen in 2016, as the second season of Marvel’s Daredevil lands on the streaming platform, Netflix. While the stunning first season of the show introduced us to lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and his friends, it also depicted his steady development into the superhero Daredevil, alongside the rise of the terrifying Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). Season two will see ‘The Man Without Fear’ cross paths with an entirely different type of threat, however.
Punisher is the alter-ego of Frank Castle (to be played by Jon Bernthal), who is a former U.S Marine that also trained with the Airborne School, the U.S Navy SEALs, and the Australian Special Air Service Regiment. He is also highly skilled in many forms of martial arts. First and foremost, however, he is propelled into vigilantism by the murders of his wife and children, who were caught in the crossfire of a mafia shoot-out.
The conflict between Punisher and Daredevil is a fascinating one, and has been depicted in the Marvel comic book source material many times – not least because the two crime-fighting characters both inhabit New York City, and so share a common foe: Wilson Fisk. This common ground is not enough to unite the two however. They may both be vigilantes, but Daredevil finds Punisher’s brutality to be abhorrent, while Punisher has little time for the opinions of others.
The hostility between the two raises interesting ethical and moral debate about the respective actions of these characters. Daredevil – a lawyer by day – clearly believes he is morally superior to Punisher, because Punisher leaves behind a staggering body count. Daredevil, however, inflicts a not-so-insignificant amount of damage himself. Where moral flexibility is concerned, can there be any such thing as ‘good’ and ‘bad’?
