Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: marvel, punisher

Marvel's Punisher Looks To Destroy His Own Legacy In April

In July last year, Bleeding Cool scooped the news that Jason Aaron was to reinvent The Punisher for a new age, adding the headline story "Jesus Saiz and Paul Azaceta Join Jason Aaron on Punisher No More" In recent years there has been increasing criticism of the use of the Punisher skull by police, army, militia, white supremacist groups, QAnon events, and Sean Hannity on Fox News, even Trump Punisher pins have been popular. And then during the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol building in Washington DC, many Punisher skull insignias were seen. This also followed Black Lives Matter protests and a focus on real and fictional police behaviour, including the use of Punisher imagery by the police. Amidst calls for Marvel and Disney to cancel The Punisher as a character, Bleeding Cool observed that this may have happened already and that there had been no published or solicited Punisher comic books since November 2020. There was a collection of Punisher Vs Barracuda – but that series was never completed. It was initially postponed by the pandemic but then abandoned altogether, despite completed issues having been finished.

Marvel announced that series for March 2022, no longer called Punisher No More, simply… Punisher. Showing us Frank Castle seemingly working with ninja group The Hand, sporting sais rather than guns as well as a new devil face logo rather than the traditional skull image.

Well in April, Marvel Comics will be publishing Punisher #2, the two covers in solicitations, show the devil-face-logoed Frank Castle using a sword on one cover, while on another abandoning his skull logo chest plate as it has been hit by throwing stars and shuriken, wounding him, crawling away leaving a bloody mess behind him.

Is this a metaphor for the entire comic book as a whole? What kind of Frank Castle will we be left with at the end?

PUNISHER #2
JASON AARON (W) • JESÚS SAIZ & PAUL AZACETA (A) • Cover by JESÚS SAIZ
VARIANT COVER BY PAUL AZACETA
VARIANT COVER BY MARC ASPINALL
The Hand has lost its way. What was once the world's most fearsome organization of ninjas and killers has found itself defeated time and again by lesser foes. One priestess believes it's because the Hand hasn't had the proper leadership, the living embodiment of their dark god, the Beast. Enter the Punisher, the most accomplished murderer who has ever lived. A man determined to end his war, no matter what it takes. 40 PGS./Parental Advisory …$4.99

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