For everything Marvel is doing right lately, they also seem to be doing everything wrong. Whether or not it’s intentional, they just can't seem to turn certain characters around and give them a great movie, and the fans are paying. How hard could it be to make a "Punisher" movie after all? Has anyone from Marvel or Lions Gate ever ventured to watch films like "Death Wish" or "The Crow," or even "Death Sentence" for that matter? These were rough and tumble action movies with a heavy basis on revenge, in spite of their arguable quality, and they seemed to really ace the notion of vengeance and a person doing everything in their power to exact it.

And yet legions of The Punisher fans seem to find no end of troubles and turmoil with constant adaptations of one of the most popular Marvel characters of all time being adapted in to flop after flop and fans will experience a shaft yet again. News has surfaced that director Lexi Alexander has been kicked off the production for "Punisher: War zone" a much talked about restart of the series with a new cast and premise and a promised gory narrative for fans who felt shafted by the first two variations. Worse, Lions Gate is now excluding her from the editing process and are now trimming down the entire movie to a PG-13 rating to ensure a bigger box office draw, one would presume…and now we’re being told “No! It’s all one big lie!” So far, fans aren’t buying it.

I don't know what's worse about the “War Zone” fiasco. That Marvel's own violent creation just can't receive a proper adaptation that is so painfully simple, or that studios are still under the assertion that comic books and comic book movies are a kids medium and just may make a PG-13 Frank Castle film. Even in spite of "Watchmen," "Maus," "30 Days of Night," and yes, even the "Punisher" comic books, studios and comic companies are still convinced that comic book movies are for children, and they'll do whatever it takes to trim their films to meet the younger audience instead of tapping in to the adult niche that has ensured critical acclaim and incredible sales proving that the comic book medium can tap in to any audience around the world.

But like animation, studios are absolutely set on tapping the youth market, in spite of the actual material on page. Am I the only one who laughs at toy commercials for "The Dark Knight," a movie that featured endless killing, and an impaling with a pencil? Why are studios so convinced that if it's from a comic, it has to have a mild rating for the teens? Why can't something be just for mature audiences? Marvel seems to be at an impasse. They continue printing the Punisher comic books to this day, but simply refuse to release a faithful adaptation that sticks true to blood and vicious vengeance mythos on film!

You say conspiracy theory, but take "Fantastic Four" another comic property reduced to PG fodder that met endless ads and publicity, while we've been hearing about the difficulties of the "Warzone" shoot for almost three years? Whether you loved him as Frank Castle or not, you have to give credit to Thomas Jane who at least had the foresight to drop out when the shit hit the fan. What are we to experience with "Punisher: War zone" if the rumors are true? Off screen kills? Obscene language in the area of "shit" and "damn" only? The Punisher only hurting his foes but letting them live to fight another day because... he's just that kind of nice guy? He’s the Punisher, he has no mercy or remorse for scum.

A Punisher movie can't be that hard to create since adults love a great revenge thriller, men love a great action movie, while capitalizing on the attributes of Castle could appeal to women and men; and yet after years of successes, Marvel still seems to have very little faith in their characters. "The Incredible Hulk" trailers gave everything away before it came out in theaters and now even the DVD packaging is content with exploiting the Hulk leaving no mystery for the audience, "Fantastic Four" was tailored to fit the in crowd while the sequel was trimmed to a PG rating, and the upcoming "Iron Man: Armor Adventures" is a series contradicting all of the continuity of the Favreau movie in exchange for a vapid "Batman Beyond" premise. And do I even have to talk about "Next Avengers"?

Like Daredevil, Captain America, Fantastic Four, and Swamp Thing, fans may never get the chance to see a proper version of their beloved Punisher on screen. That is until an excellent indie director comes along one day to give him the justice he deserves like Christopher Nolan and John Favreau did for their respective heroes. Instead they’ll have to stay with the comics and settle for the three on screen versions that aren’t the most critically lauded, in spite of their small fan bases.

What Lionsgate did to Lexi Alexander is a damn shame, and it’s stunning that to this day studios still have no faith in a comic book movie. It’s so simple. Tell the story of Frank losing his family to crime, cast a wonderful actor, and show Frank basically wreaking havoc on every inch of the underground world to avenge them and bring down the crook that snuffed them out. Also include the Skull insignia. It’s not so hard, is it? Shit, I just wrote a 450 page revenge novel, for Christ sake.

I mean, if we can see a big screen version of “Watchmen,” once described as a graphic novel impossible to adapt to film, it should be a cake walk filming a violent, gory revenge flick about a guy with a skull on his chest killing gangsters dead. Marvel, Lions Gate? Get your act together and give Frank Castle a break.

‘Nuff said.