Marvel Comics has been slowly moving to materially alter its “Punisher” character after years of disgust at pro-police groups and conservatives using the character’s white skull logo, but now, in the company’s latest Punisher series, it looks like they have set up the complete end of Frank Castle.
Marvel’s antihero The Punisher was created in 1974 by comics team Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr., and Ross Andru, and debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #129. The character’s saga begins as military veteran Frank Castle is targeted by criminals who soon murder his family. The loss of his wife and child sends him into a homicidal rage and he sets out to outright murder anyone he deems to be a criminal. Castle is not bothered by any concepts of morality that bedevil other superheroes. In his black and white world, all criminals at all levels deserve the death penalty.
Also, unlike most other characters, he does not have supernatural powers. Only his hate for criminals is super-charged, and he relies on guns, swords, and explosives to kill his enemies.
The character’s costume is a black tactical suit with a large, crudely painted white skull with long white teeth running from his chest down his abdomen. But over the years, much to his creator’s chagrin, the logo became a favorite of pro-police and conservative groups who appreciated the stark imagery coupled with Castle’s unforgiving attitude towards criminality.
However, writer Gerry Conway has been extremely upset over use of the logo by Deplorables. Conway claims that his character was meant as criticism of the police and, being a left-winger, he despises the fact that his character was adopted by people on the right.
In 2021, for instance, Conway railed against the appropriation of his character. “For too long, symbols associated with a character I co-created have been co-opted by forces of oppression and to intimidate black Americans,” he said.
With Conway’s disgust ringing in Marvel’s ears, the company moved to make major changes to the character and redesigned the logo while giving Frank Castle a new job as an enforcer for an organization of assassins.
But that apparently wasn’t enough, because this year Marvel seems to have signaled the complete end to the character.
The company has just concluded a 12-issue series that ends with the death of The Punisher as a character, and reforms Frank Castle as a murderous crusader against criminals, to a protector of orphans who just wants to be called “Frank,” and not The Punisher.
The final issue of the series sees Frank Castle getting captured by The Avengers, facing judgment by Dr. Strange in the mystic’s Sanctum. He is visited by the heroes one by one as they each try to get him to renounce his career of homicidal revenge, but they all fail to make him feel any remorse at all.
Ultimately, Castle is visited by the ghost of his wife, who tells him she is appalled by the things he has done in her name. This visit finally breaks Frank, who summons the last remnants of the demon that had recently inhabited him and he destroys himself in hellfire.
But Frank is not dead. His attempted suicide only opened a rift that sent him to the Weirdworld universe, where he becomes a protector of orphaned children. The book ends with a child asking who he is. And instead of proudly telling them he is The Punisher — as he has always done until now — he replies, “Frank. Call me Frank.”
Screenrant summed up the final issue of the series perfectly — that it comes from a place of deep contempt for the title character:
[T]his final issue makes it clear that Marvel, or at least the author, really does not like the Punisher. Maria’s judgment is clear and irrevocable: Frank’s crusade was foolish, he never pursued justice, and not even revenge. Everything he wanted was an excuse to let loose his murderous instincts. This is a complete rewriting of the character, as it takes away the element that made Frank relatable (being motivated by the grief and anguish of losing his loved ones, something that can happen to everyone) to make him completely irredeemable.
With Frank Castle himself even rejecting his anti-hero name, this signals that Marvel likely intends to completely end its use of the character. He is a character that Marvel has hated since woke madness sent the left into insanity, and now they are finally rid of him.
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