![]() The Punisher has been the subject of three films and a Netflix series he’s so inseparable from the lore of a much bigger character, Daredevil, he’s expected to return to TV later this year when Disney+ releases a rebooted “Daredevil” series. “But the Punisher, that’s what I’ll be known for,” he said, “so I have conflicted feelings.” Marvel, as well as the Man-Thing, and Killer Croc, Firestorm and the Werewolf by Night. He wrote Justice League comics for eight years. His comic book bona fides run deep: He wrote the famous “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” story that’s now a foundational part of Spider-Man lore. He thinks about what he’ll be remembered for. He has pancreatic cancer and has had successful surgeries but also complications, rehab facilities. He’d been in and out of hospitals lately, he said. He said that he hadn’t been aware that the Punisher was turning 50 this month. “Though fascism for some of these people involves far too much thinking.” Which is a totally sociopathic attitude.”Īt worst, he sees the Punisher logo being co-opted by neo-fascists with oppressive aspirations. The Punisher was saying justice failed and didn’t live up to his personal standards, so here he is. They think of him as simply righteous, and they don’t get it. And yet a lot of the people who embrace him now - militants, the darker side of police forces and military - these people never see grays. He was trying to do right but in the wrong way, which is a struggle a lot of people go through. You were meant to have an ambivalent attitude towards him. “The Punisher was always about grey areas,” he said. Gerry Conway, who co-created the Punisher 50 years ago for Marvel, as a second-tier sorta-villain for Peter Parker to spar with in issue No. He came to represent, ironically, a lack of moral ambiguity. Yet he came to symbolize - in some later Marvel iterations, and as a fetish for the alt-right - a viable (and extrajudicial) system of law and order, by any means necessary. ![]() The online shop for the Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge # 7 has sold items with the logo, too - as have the gift shops of police (and fire) unions around the country, often with a thin blue line accenting the skull, to reinforce your support of law enforcement. In fact, right now, you can buy a Punisher patch or pin for your uniform - the skull topped cleverly with a Trumpian wave of blonde hair - from the Chicago Cop Shop, a locally-based business specializing in custom Chicago police merchandise. There are many similar examples, nationwide. In 2017, a pair of Winnebago County deputies were ordered to stop handing out unofficial business cards with a Punisher logo. A few years ago, Channel 2 CBS News reported that a Chicago officer wore a Punisher patch on his uniform during a 2019 Christmas Eve raid in which police forced their way into a home and pointed guns at the wrong kids. It’s also been adopted by members of the military - notably, Iraq veteran Chris Kyle, who bragged of spray-painting the skull across the Middle East in his memoir “American Sniper,” helping popularize it among front-liners - and for a long while, it’s been popular with some police, including Chicago police. It’s been found tattooed on mass shooters and would-be killers who were stopped before they could open fire. The Punisher skull is a favored symbol among white nationalists, Proud Boys, terrorist groups and January 6 insurrectionists. ![]() The Punisher logo is a skull with four teeth jutting downward, like a dagger, or, as I like to think of it, a universal symbol of solidarity among people who only have four teeth. The bigger the wheels, the more likely it’ll have a Punisher sticker, looking super spooky and warning you without really saying anything. He stares at you from T-shirts and tattoos and, most noticeably, those little stickers on the backs of cars - or rather, typically, from the back windows of big trucks and SUVs. He’s cultural white noise to many and a cultural dog whistle to others. ![]() Probably, you don’t know you’re looking at him. He should have died decades ago, and yet there he is, every day, glowering. He is an artifact of a time when Americans could still agree broadly on what was right or wrong, moral or criminal. But the Punisher outlived his welcome somewhere during the Reagan administration. Normally, when anybody turns 50, you want to congratulate them. ![]()
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