From Paperbacks to Iraq Attacks: Everybody’s Punisher / Randall Hugh Crawford

From Paperbacks to Iraq Attacks:

Everybody’s Punisher

Randall Hugh Crawford

Comic-book writer Gerry Conway is concerned that law enforcement and military services have been using the Punisher skull logo as an emblem. He says the character he created represented an individual taking action to correct the failures of law enforcement (interview by Dana Forsythe, SYFY Wire website, 8 January 2019).

The character of The Punisher, a.k.a. Frank Castle, first appeared in the story entitled ‘The Punisher Strikes Twice’ in Amazing Spider-Man #129. To say that Conway created The Punisher is to overlook that he had read a copy of Don Pendleton’s action novel The Executioner: War against The Mafia and changed the name and a few of the details.

I have not read the comic in about 40 years, and the original story may have been different than the origin presented in the Netflix Punisher series, but basically it’s a revenge story. Castle’s wife and children are killed in a crossfire between rival gangs while on a picnic in Central Park.

The revenge motivation for vigilantism pre-dates Batman with the pulp magazine hero The Avenger, and continues to be used, quite successfully, with The Crow. To say that Conway designed the skull logo is questionable. Amazing Spider-Man #129 was penciled by Ross Andru with inking by Frank Giacoia amd Dave Hunt. The cover of the comic was by Gil Kane and John Romita Sr. After Jack Kirby left Marvel in the early ’70s, it was John Romita Sr.’s art style that was adopted as the Marvel ‘house style’. As art director, Romita had a hand in designing or co-designing many new characters for the company. The original Punisher costume definitely felt as if it were in the Romita style. It is not customary for comic-book writers or scripters to submit sketches of potential costume designs, but I suppose it is possible that Conway may have done so. However, subsequent artists have redesigned the costume and chest emblem on multiple occasions. The design the police and military use is not the original version from Amazing Spider-Man #129.

Also, The Punisher that Conway describes—a man driven to take the law into his own hands because of the failures of the justice system—actually much more closely describes DC’s first Punisher imitation/rip-off, The Vigilante. (DC later took a couple more shots at creating their own violent vigilante anti-hero with The Butcher and Wild Dog.)

Whether Conway is right or not in his creator claims, the thing that does make adoption of the Punisher logo by law enforcement and the military so troublesome and questionable is the simple fact that the character was originally created to be a Spider-Man foe or enemy. Simply put, The Punisher began as a super-villain. At least Conway himself has made a point of this:

“When I first heard about it, I heard about it in the context of it being used by the Iraqi militia who had been trained by U.S. forces and kind of adopted it,” said Conway, referring to the skull’s appearance in Iraq.

“I find it flattering, but also a little unnerving because I never actually felt the Punisher was one of the good guys,” said Conway of the character’s popularity in the military. “I don’t think the Punisher is a hero; he’s an anti-hero. He’s someone that rises up from our subconscious and acts on our behalf and is a symbol really of cultural breakdown.”

(‘Bone Deep: The Relationship Between The Punisher And The Military’, James Clark, Task & Purpose website, 17 March 2016)

The Punisher has survived, changed and evolved over the years, having multiple partners and many uneasy alliances and truces with various Marvel superheroes. During the ’90s, Punisher, Wolverine and Ghost Rider were the top three Marvel guest stars; being shoe-horned into a wide variety of Marvel titles, some as inappropriate as the juvenile Power Pack. And who can forget the inter-company cross-over Archie Meets The Punisher.

Actually my favorite inter-company crossover was the Avengers/JLA series, which sent the Marvel heroes to the DC universe to have iconic encounters with their closest counterparts. Superman vs. Thor, for example, and Batman vs. Captain America. At one point, Batman and Plastic Man are on a New York rooftop when Batman glances down through a skylight and sees The Punisher attacking a group of drug dealers. Batman has instructed his JLA compatriots to do “a quick reconnaissance” of Earth activities, and not get involved—to “observe and move on”. But when Plastic Man turns to board the Bat-jet again, Batman suddenly leaps down through the sky light. It takes the Caped Crusader twenty minutes, and all off-panel, to wrap up the fight, kick The Punisher’s ass and (presumably) leave him, along with the criminals, all bound with Bat-rope and gift-wrapped for the police.

The funny thing about that is how similar the characters are—even if The Punisher is not a Marvel Batman rip-off the way Nighthawk and Moon Knight are. Both seek revenge against criminals because of the death of family members. Both are vigilante crime-fighters working outside of the law. Both are quite likely mentally unstable. From the start, The Punisher wore a mostly black (except for those questionable white gloves and go-go boots), bullet-proof Kevlar costume, a logical idea that Batman adopted as of the 1989 Tim Burton movie. Lacking super-powers, both characters rely on technology—Bat-gimmicks or an arsenal of high-powered weaponry—as well as fighting skills. The significant difference is that the comic-book Batman has had a longstanding vow to never take a life, while homicidal retribution is The Punisher’s modus operandi. Batman also has a close relationship with and the grudging approval of a police commissioner. It would be hard to imagine any law-enforcement official above the grade of disgruntled beat cop approving of The Punisher’s methods.

Batman has been around for 80 years now, and is known from multiple iterations and interpretations; both in the comics and via the Adam West, Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan and various animated versions (among others). No matter how many ‘new looks’ you put him through, though, Batman is always a bit of a square. The character is so popular, so familiar, so ubiquitous and so clean, I can see why men trying to project a tough-guy image aren’t adorning their uniforms with the Bat logo—or the Captain America shield, or the Superman S shield, or the Spider-Man spider.

The Punisher is tough and ruthless. He fights crime. I get that. But he began as a super-villain. He may have drifted into anti-hero status, but unlike other former Marvel villains such as Hawkeye or the Scarlet Witch, he never completely reformed. A skull emblem? Really? The skull and cross-bones—the Jolly Roger; for centuries the symbol of cut-throat piracy and lawlessness... and poison.

I like vigilante superhero fiction and anti-heroes. I’m a huge 007 fan. The Punisher does combat crime and a greater evil. But he does so outside the law. Which is fine for a fantasy character – Marvel and Netflix and Disney can market a violent psychopathic killer as an ‘anti-hero’. But, I repeat, he works outside the law. Do we really want our law-enforcement agents, our military, adopting as a symbol and an idol, a law-breaker? Do we want our police to uphold the law... or defy it?

Punisher-inspired image used on military unit patches