The vast majority of people watching the Netflix Marvel shows have never read any of the comics.
That's axiomatic. A successful comic these days has an audience in the tens of thousands, while a successful TV show has an audience in the tens of millions. But the paradox is that comics fans have disproportionate influence as tastemakers because they're vocal online. Bad buzz can hurt a TV show or movie, so most producers of comics adaptations try to avoid departing too radically from the source in ways that might upset the core fanbase (although there is the occasional exception that tests the rule, like the insane
Gotham). Plus, of course, there's all the consolidation these days between comics and screen productions, with the same "chief creative officers" in charge of both at once. Franchises like the MCU and the Arrowverse are well-liked, in part, because they feel faithful to the essence of the comics and characters they're based on. So it's not unreasonable to expect an MCU show to avoid departing too radically from its source material.
Besides -- is there a plausible alternative? Let's be analytical here, think this through. If a second season of
The Punisher is not about Frank Castle hunting down villains and killing them, then what could it be about instead? Is there a way to tell a story in a series called
The Punisher that isn't about that?
What's unusual about season 1, what made it interesting and what makes the idea of a season 2 difficult to parse, is that it was, in a sense, the opposite of the standard origin story. It was essentially a de-origin story, a tale of how Frank Castle
ended his mission of vengeance and reached a place in his life where he was ready to move on. That's an impressive and effective thing to do with Castle as a character, but surely you can see how it makes a continuation challenging. Where
can they go from there without sinking into the lazy sequel route of undoing his growth? I hope they find a good answer to that question.
