Fans Call On Marvel To Retire Punisher Skull Logo

Marvel fans have called on the company to retire the skull logo used to represent The Punisher after it was adopted as a symbol of hate in the riots at the US Capitol.

A number of rioters were seen sporting a modified version of the white skull during the January 6 insurrection, which saw hundreds of Donald Trump supporters storm the Capitol as lawmakers attempted to certify the results of the 2020 election.

The Punisher is characterised as a murderer driven by vengeance; a former marine who long ago left behind his sense of patriotism and duty, and many protestors appeared to deem his logo suitable to represent their beliefs in last week’s riots.

Adaptations of the iconic skull were spotted on rioters’ shirts, backpacks and hats, with most of the designs featuring the logo on top of the United States flag.

The riots forced an evacuation of the Capitol and resulted in numerous deaths, and as a result of the chaos many Marvel fans have called for the logo to be either scrapped or better protected against misuse.

Alongside an image of a rioter, one Twitter user wrote:

The seditionists that invaded the Capitol today wore a Punisher logo. I say @marvel needs to either aggressively enforce their trademark so it isn’t printed everywhere or abandon the Punisher completely. You can’t allow your characters to be used by terrorists.

Another wrote:

Hey @Marvel, I love the Punisher. But that character and symbol are corrupted forever. It’s time to retire Frank Castle.

Last week wasn’t the first time The Punisher’s logo has shown up in protests, and in July 2019 Marvel made an effort to separate the character from the political connotations after the logo began showing up on the uniforms of police officers and soldiers, as well as at Blue Lives Matter demonstrations.

In The Punisher #13, the character comes across police officers who have his logo displayed on their car. He destroys the image, saying: ‘I’ll say this once. We’re not the same. You took an oath to uphold the law. You help people. I gave all that up a long time ago. You don’t do what I do. Nobody does.’

Mitch Gerads, who was the primary artist for 2014’s Punisher series, reiterated the need for Marvel to take action against the misuse of the logo as he wrote: ‘I worked on Punisher for 20 issues… I designed a new skull. I designed a patch (FOR CHARITY) using it. Seeing it (Thankfully, not mine) used by these groups today shows Marvel needs to retire it till it’s no longer adopted as a symbol of hate.’

Marvel has not yet commented on the use of the logo at last week’s riots at the time of writing.

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