"The Punisher: One Last Kill" is a Reminder That Marvel Specials Should Happen More Often

The Punisher: One Last Kill debuted on Disney+ this week as the latest MCU release to carry with it the "Special Presentation" branding. Rather than a feature film or ongoing series, the Marvel Specials are meant to be focused one-off spotlights on Marvel characters, whether familiar or brand new.

But calling One Last Kill the "latest" Marvel Special feels a bit generous given it's only the third one ever, and is arriving four years after we got the only two previous releases with this branding. And yet as Punisher reminds us, the Marvel Specials are a terrific idea that could and should be made better use of - a way to expand the world of the MCU and explore different and more unusual corners of it in standalone stories.

The three Specials so far actually make a strong case for the different opportunities provided by the format. The first -- and, as a horror guy, my personal favorite -- Werewolf by Night, was 100% focused on brand new characters for the MCU, bringing in the likes of the title character, Jack Russell, along with equally cool characters like Elsa Bloodstone and Man-Thing (seriously, we need to see these guys again!). And overall, it introduced a whole other monstrous side of the MCU we now know is still lurking out there.

On the surface, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special could be seen as simply a fun way to provide a shortened Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.5 of sorts, given it did include pretty much the entire team from the films. And yet the actual focus was on Drax and Mantis, two pre-established characters, true, but ones that were never the center of the Guardians movies and thus were well-served by getting to have their own adventure away from their teammates for much of the run time - one which involved kidnapping Kevin Bacon, naturally.

And then there's The Punisher: One Last Kill, which centers on a guy who most certainly has had the spotlight before, given Jon Bernthal starred in two seasons of The Punisher TV series on Netflix. And yet this is all clearly a bit of a reset and refresh for Bernthal's version of Frank Castle, given that show first aired several years ago, on a different streaming service, and there's now the opportunity to bring in new fans and re-establish Frank's current status, after he first popped again up in two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again last year. Not to mention, the extreme and graphic violence on display here is something unique to the Punisher -- even beyond what Born Again normally does -- and again feels right at home within the Specials realm in that manner, where "unique" feels like a calling card.

Executives from Marvel Studios have spoken candidly about working to slow down how much content they were putting out compared to a few years ago, when the launch of Disney+ encouraged them to make multiple series releasing in close proximity to one another, on top of several films a year. And I very much agree that the overall less is more approach is better in the long term and that it's good to now be releasing their projects at a less aggressive pace. But that doesn't mean they should discard the Specials approach, given it serves its own purpose.

In fact, if there's just one or two live-action MCU series a year these days on Disney+, why not use the gap in-between for a new Special once a year or so, which can hone in on a character or concept completely removed from those other series? Especially since there are so many different and sometimes quirky aspects of Marvel worth exploring that, frankly, would be unlikely to get the massive financial investment of a full season of TV or a blockbuster movie, but that could be well served by a Special as a testing ground and proof of concept.

Werewolf by Night gave us a black and white horror story, so how about exploring other specific genres Marvel Comics have played in, like, say, a western? Marvel has a bunch of western heroes like The Two-Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid and Ghost Rider (no, not that one - this is a dude on a horse!) who would be really fun curveball to throw at audiences unfamiliar with them.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special let us get to know a couple of the Guardians team members better, so how about doing that for the likes of the Thunderbolts? Ahem, sorry, the New Avengers! A story focused on Red Guardian and John Walker stumbling into their own adventure sounds like it could be a blast.

And now that all of the Marvel heroes from the Netflix series have been firmly entrenched as MCU canon, what about exploring some of the other strong characters from the previous iteration of Marvel Television who've been left in limbo the past few years? The underrated Freeform series Cloak & Dagger had a great duo at its center, played by Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph, and focused on two characters whose profile has risen in recent years thanks to their use in Marvel Rivals. A Marvel Special would be the perfect way to bring these two back into play for future stories to make use of.

There are so many offbeat yet incredibly intriguing elements from the comics the MCU has yet to explore or to fully make use of and the Specials are the perfect platform to do so. For quite awhile, it felt like the concept had been abandoned all-together, but now The Punisher: One Last Kill has rekindled the approach. Here's hoping it's not another four year gap before we get the next one...