Greetings, comic book lovers!
I’ve got both bad news and great news for your today. Since I want to end this on a positive note, bad news first.
Marvel has killed the Punisher.
Granted, they have been in the process of killing the Punisher for a couple of years now, but they made it official in the final issue of the recent Punisher series when Frank Castle, recently made the leader of the evil group of mystic ninjas known as the Hand, and having turned in his iconic skull logo for a more Satanic device featuring horns, summoned demonic forces to kill himself after his resurrected wife said that she wanted a divorce.
Yeah, right.
There are so many things wrong with all of this that it’s hard to know where to begin. First and foremost, the Frank Castle that was created by Conway, Romita, and Andru devoted his entire career to fighting evil in whatever way it manifested itself; usually organized crime in some form or another. As such, he would never, ever have joined the Hand, let alone become its leader for the simple reason that the Hand is a branch of organized crime. Duh. He could not co-opt them in his war on organized crime because they are organized crime.
Another reason Marvel’s final solution for Frank Castle is ridiculous is that he grew up Roman Catholic. Yes, he left the faith later, and even used it to gain an advantage over criminals, but as a former member of the Catholic church, he would have understood a thing or two about evil mystics and demons, things that many in the current crop of writers at Marvel obviously don’t understand. First, Heaven is stronger than Hell, so angels are stronger than demons. Second, if there are demons, there must be angels. He would not give himself over to demons if he could give himself over to angels instead. Keep in mind, it only takes a human priest, speaking in the name of Jesus, to exorcise demons, and they don’t need a lot of weird mumbo-jumbo to do it. No silver, wolfsbane, blah, blah blah. Just prayer.
Finally, Frank Castle would not have trusted the Hand to bring back his wife. He’s not stupid. He knows that when you deal with evil organizations, you never get what they promise. Their promises always come with a catch. And even if his wife was somehow resurrected, she would not hate what he had done, she would not divorce him, and even if she did, he is not so fragile that he would let it crush him any more than her death did. He certainly would not commit suicide over her.
So, why did the writers at Marvel do all of this? It’s not hard to figure out. The Punisher is a favorite hero and symbol in the military and law enforcement, and many in those lines of work have adopted his logo to represent their own fight against crime and other evils. As Wikipedia put it, “Following the widespread appropriation of this logo by far-right movements, it was officially retired from active use by Marvel Entertainment in 2022, replaced by a new horned-skull motif inspired by the Japanese mythological demon Oni” Yes, far right movements like the police and the military.
But the hyper-sensitive, easily-offended, safe-space crowd at Marvel cannot stand that the brave men and women who walk the thin blue and red lines, the rough men who stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm our intrepid Marvel writers, would co-opt The Punisher’s logo, even though they do in real life what the Punisher does in fiction. Therefore, Marvel has had to deconstruct The Punisher and destroy what he stood for, because he stood for the same thing that our police and military stand for; the rule of law.
Marvel has lost whatever courage it may once have possessed. It takes no courage to march in step with those who fly the pride flag or support those who wish to defund the police. Rather, it displays a rather shocking amount of cowardice, and a lack of imagination and humility, both of which are necessary to surrender your own views to a story that is larger than you, that was begun by greater people than you.
Now for the great news!
To the fans of The Punisher, never fear. Chuck Dixon is hard at work creating a hero that will pick up where The Punisher left off; Black Warrant.
And for even better news!
We here at BAM! Comix have launched our IndieGoGo campaign. Once it is funded, we will be ready to print issue 1 of Judge and get it into your hands. We can’t wait to make that happen. So head over to https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bam-comix-introduces-judge/x/29098084#/ and reserve your copy today!