Marvel STILL has a Punisher problem; the changes in Spider-Man are a plaster for haemorrhaging

There are tens of thousands of heroes in the Marvel universe, but for perhaps very obvious reasons, the far-right adopted Frankle Castle, The Punisher, as its figurehead.

First appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 in 1974, Frank Castle was initially introduced as a hitman hired to kill the web-slinging hero. He shifted into an antihero role through subsequent appearances, but it wasn’t until his solo comic in 1986 that he fully became the rough-edged vigilante we all know and love today.

Unlike the vast majority of his peers, Punisher’s methods of dealing with criminals are severe and often just as bad as the criminals’ actions. He threw one into the mouth of a great white shark, smothered a villain to death with a fat person, and even blew up a funeral. He’s hardly the man you bring home to your family at Christmas, but it’s chill; he’s got trauma.

Unfortunately, it’s given way to a disturbing trend in the past few years.

Marvel’s Punisher problem ramped up in recent years

Taken at face value, The Punisher is the epitome of traditional, and often stereotypical, American masculine values. He’s jacked, emotionless, LOVES guns, loves women, and pulls no punches when dealing with enemies. Of course, if you go deeper into his character, it’s not so cut and dry.

2017 really hammered home anti-hero icon status with the release of The Punisher TV series with Jon Bernthal. People adored the show, and Bernthal’s gritty performance, but there was a clear gender split of 75 per cent male and 25 per cent female.

Soon enough, The Punisher and his iconic skull symbol became a figurehead for what we now refer to as the manosphere. If that wasn’t bad enough, then the alt-right got its hands on the character, and everyone took note.

“They see the Punisher as a power fantasy. White ex-military guy killing criminals without any concern for due process,” one person wrote on Reddit.

But it wasn’t a case of the far-right merely enjoying the character in comics and TV, because Frank Castle was practically an unwilling member of those groups. In 2014, a Blue Lives Matter group on Facebook had The Punisher as its profile picture, and in 2017, white supremacists painted his logo on their shields during riots. One person died, and dozens were injured, but sadly, those are only two examples of a much larger issue.

Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, The Punisher was once again used as iconography in anti-Black and anti-minority content.

This has ALWAYS been an issue

With technology shoving each horrible thing into our faces every time we pick our phones up, it’s too easy to accept that Marvel’s Punisher problem began in the last decade – that’s really not the case.

The Punisher’s popularity really took off in 1982, when Republican president Ronald Reagan declared a new war on drugs. Soon, the comics reflected the news, and The Punisher was gunning down Latino drug runners by the dozens.

Later in 1992, on the anniversary of Rodney King’s fatal beating by police, The Punisher sported blackface as he lectured Black hero Luke Cage on the realities of “Black-on-Black” crime. Again, these are only two examples of a much wider issue.

Over the years, Marvel has attempted to rehabilitate Frank’s image. He’s joyously killed Nazis, berated cops who wore his symbol, and went against white supremacist groups on America’s home turf. Even The Punisher’s writers have called for Marvel to sue police departments that use the symbol.

Did Spider-Man: Brand New Day fix the issue?

Some comic book castings were born for certain actors, and you could easily argue it’s the case for The Punisher and Jon Bernthal. He too condemned the far-right’s use of Punisher’s imagery in 2018, saying “F*ck them”.

In the recently released Spider-Man: Brand New Day, we got the first proper look at the MCU’s take on The Punisher. Unlike earlier TV appearances, he was more lighthearted, caring, and he even shed some tears for Peter Parker in the hospital – but was it enough? Twitter certainly thinks so.

“The friendly neighbourhood Spider Punisher,” one person said.

You know there’s a difference between the depictions when the right lose their minds, as one person wrote: “They gave Spider-Man fans a PG version of Frank Castle.”

“They made Punisher woke,” another said.

And it’s somewhat true. In more recent years, Frank has become an anti-establishment, anti-right anti-hero with a major anger problem. Part of that is also down to Jon Bernthal.

But here’s the issue. Those minor changes, as much as they were fun in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, do nothing to fix the decades of questionable decisions. It also doesn’t stop right-wing groups from cherrypicking aspects of the characters to adopt.

The damage is already done.

For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page.

Featured image credit: Sony Pictures/Marvel Comics