Was your father a billiards player?
Alright,
pturtle. Here's my long explanation. I don't expect you to read all this, but I get all excited about this stuff and I start rambling.
Ideally, my favorite fictional character would be a heroic solider who has a family, a good sense of humor, friends, a rogue's gallery, no flamboyant costume, a tragic back-story, and a compelling mission that I could follow.
Outside the costume, Batman is the closest to that criteria when he's written like a soldier for Gotham, but I need to read a complete story for him from beginning with Bruce Wayne till the end of his journey. That's why I'm really looking forward to these movies because I want a single continuity, even though I appreciate all the various interpretations.
Outside the costume and family, Captain America is pretty close to that, but the super soldier serum is a detriment for me. If the serum just gave him a healthy body that he trained his brain and mind to levels of near-physical and mental perfection, I'd be okay with it, but the serum gave him superpowers. In comics and movies, he's got the strength and durability on Superman depending on what the writers and directors want to do. I prefer Bucky Barnes for that reason, but I need to read a full story-line with him.
Big Boss filled my criteria, hence why he was my favorite character. The problem is that the writing, directing, and voice acting is pretty lackluster, but I ignored it because it was the closest I got to that criteria, and I spent more time with the character than any other, so I really put myself into him. My childhood dream was to become a solider and have a family of my own, but I couldn't because I have mitochondrial disease and there's no cure, so playing Big Boss in MGS3 was pretty special to me.
However, after reading a few Darth Vader novels which had great writing and dialogue, it really crushed the appeal for the series for me. The only thing left was that Big Boss didn't have the Force powers and the costume.
Now that I've just started reading the Punisher through the Marvel comic app, Big Boss' remaining appeal is gone. I only read a some Punisher, but conceptually, he'd my favorite fictional character if he did his research and had compassion towards criminals, and didn't see people as simply "good or bad people" to be saved or slaughtered; rather I'd prefer he saw people as people making good or bad choices. I don't mind him killing people if he was walking in the street and defending someone, but murdering people is what I take issue with. From what I read Wolverine kills a lot of people, but he doesn't murder anyone, which is why I consider him a hero. I haven't read Punisher from his origin so maybe it was a long gradual process before he went full serial killer route, which is interesting to me, especially since he's was Catholic. Unfortunately, I too, went through a period where I really struggled to retain empathy for people, even for my family, because of my post-traumatic stress, so I can somewhat to Frank. You just mention certain things and I'll shake really bad, so maybe I would have gone the same route as Frank given his circumstances.
If they made a Netflix series with one long continuity, and Punisher changes his stance at the end, he'd be my favorite fictional character easily. I know BatFan08 made fun of him for looking like an angsty teen with his skull get-up, and I can't argue with that, but I like it!
Right on!
