Marvel Under Pressure To Retire Punisher Logo
Marvel is under pressure to retire its Punisher character or at least his famous skull logo following the riot at the Capitol in Washington D.C. last week. Several Twitter users noticed multiple members of the mob that took part in the siege wearing a variation of the iconic skull logo, and went online to report their findings.
These users are calling for Marvel to either get rid of the logo, or crack down on trademark enforcement so hate groups can't adopt it for their own purposes:
The Punisher logo has popped up on the uniforms of police officers and soldiers over the years, due to Frank Castle's background as a Marine. However, writers of Punisher comics have been clear that the Punisher is a murderer fueled by revenge, and has long left his patriotism in the past. The Punisher himself even addressed this in an issue of the Punisher comics, reprimanding a cop for sporting his logo.
Mitch Gerads, who worked on the Punisher comics for 20 issues, voiced support for the movement to retire the skull logo. Perhaps not permanently, but at least until it's “no longer adopted as a symbol of hate”:
The Punisher franchise is still loved by many, and even got its own television series on Netflix. The MCU show, which starred Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher, ran for two seasons as a spinoff to the Daredevil series. The fact that the character has so many fans only adds more weight to Marvel's decision to retire the Punisher or not.
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