The Four Color Media Monitor

A writer at the leftist Bleeding Cool site spoke about FBI director Kash Patel's new use of the Punisher symbol as part of a project with military medallions. And along the way, the writer made sure to indicate he's sadly approaching all this from a left-wing perspective:

As those of you who frequent Bleeding Cool know, Rich Johnston has been covering for quite some time the continued controversy over the use of the symbol used by the Marvel Comics character The Punisher, aka Frank Castle: the huge, white skull with elongated teeth. Specifically, how it continues to be used as a"call to arms" by law enforcement units, military groups, and right-leaning organizations across the country. We saw examples of it on display in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the demands for police reform and social justice, as well as during protests and counter-protests in Detroit and Charlottesville.

Umm, I can't tell clearly if virtually everybody right-wing made use of the logo for the sake of reactions to these far-left movements that did more harm than good to the USA and elsewhere. Also notice how Bleeding Cool's writer remains predictably superficial on what the BLM movement was actually like, and was even accused of acts similar to embezzlement. That's not getting anywhere.

It didn't matter that Gerry Conway, the character's creator, was vehemently against the symbol being used by these groups. The issue was even addressed in the comics in 2019 when Frank put two fawning, admiring police officers in their place: "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." Frank was looking to drive home the irony that those who have sworn to serve and protect would get inspiration from someone whose very existence goes against the laws they supposedly swore to uphold.

Conway, interestingly enough, seems to have vanished from social media in the past several months; his X page hasn't been updated since last April, with a post he wrote against Robert F. Kennedy being the last so far. And why does the writer say the non-existent Castle was seeking to drive home irony? It's the assigned writer who was. Perhaps the biggest irony of all is when yet another phony expert talks about a fictional character like he's a real person. All that aside, most interesting how the subject of the criminals themselves whom Frank was portrayed meting out justice against is largely obscured in the citation of the 2019 story; that too is very damaging and misinformative, as the dialect quoted from the story makes it sound like Frank's literally a criminal himself.

In his autobiography, American Sniper, Chris Kyle discussed the meaning behind marking his equipment with the symbol during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. "We all thought what the Punisher did was cool: He righted wrongs. He killed bad guys. He made wrongdoers fear him. That's what we were all about," Kyle wrote. The symbol would be seen more on the military side, from Middle East encampments to frontline fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. It would also find its way into the military culture back here in the United States, corrupted even further by those who use it as a way of pushing radical, right-wing conspiracy thinking.

In 2021, Jon Bernthal, who portrayed Frank Castle/Punisher in Netflix's live-action Marvel universe, found himself in the middle of controversy over the very matter. The actor posted an image of himself by the signage for the Southwestern District Action Team in Baltimore, Maryland, a police unit (which you can check out below).

Look how they blatantly refer to conservatism as nothing more than conspiratorial thinking. And who knows how much damage this all did to the TV show, no matter how left-wing anybody working on it could be; one of the reasons it's better not to bother about a Netflix-broadcast program, since it could be liberal propaganda regardless.

For their part, Marvel Comics would address the matter by changing the symbol, debuting it in Punisher #1 in March 2022 (from writer Jason Aaron and artists Jesus Saiz & Paul Azaceta) as Frank became the leader of the Hand. From there, Frank would end up in Weirdworld, find himself briefly replaced by a new Punisher with a new skull logo, and even be the subject of a Vietnam-era story from Garth Ennis. In September 2025, Marvel Comics would officially bring back Frank Castle and the skull logo in Punisher: Red Band #1 (from writer Benjamin Percy, artist Julius Ohta, and cover artist Marco Checchetto). The move would come six months after the premiere of Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock/Daredevil) and Vincent D'Onofrio (Wilson Fisk/Kingpin)-starring Daredevil: Born Again, which saw Bernthal return as Frank – and also sporting the skull logo.

Interesting a writer as pretentious as Ennis would be the one to bring up the topic of Vietnam (and it won't be shocking if its as negative as possible), considering how rarely the subject is spoken about today, and movies/TV shows about Vietnam have almost entirely vanished since the mid-90s.

Now, it seems that FBI Director Kash Patel has reignited the controversy, utilizing the skull logo as the basis for a recent "challenge coin" he created. The medallions are created to signify a specific military unit or command, used to prove membership and passed along as a sign of respect or gratitude. Patel's "coin" features a skull with spiders for eyes and guns for the teeth, with "KH" at the top (with an "S" set between them) on the front. On the back, there's the FBI seal, the words, "Presented by the Director of the FBI Kash Patel," an image of an old Tommy gun from "The Untouchables" era, Patel's signature, and a blue "9." The medallions have already seen pushback on social media, with many arguing that Patel's FBI represents pretty much everything that Frank fights against. You can check out the "challenge coin" for yourselves online.

Not hard to figure out Bleeding Cool's writers are against this as well - and they even have the gall to make it sound like Frank Castle is a leftist despite everything - though one must naturally continue to wonder why Wolverine, another character who's slain dangerous criminals as well, keeps getting a free pass while the Punisher doesn't. After all, there have been times when Wolvie would operate outside the law, have run-ins with crooked law enforcement officials over the years, and none of the same people who're obsessed with hating the Punisher as a vigilante figure have any of the same qualms about Logan and his retractable claws as they do with a guy who's also made use of blades in some stories as much as guns. Obviously, there's also other characters even at DC who could qualify for the same kind of obsessive issue-making the anti-Punisher crowd keeps shoving, but again, only Frank seems to get the brunt of negativity. Now, that same negativity's led to leftists attacking the currently GOP-led FBI because Patel wants to issue skull-shaped medallions...and seriously, just because the skulls have big teeth, that proves indefinitely they were inspired by the Punisher's symbol? I think not.

From what I can tell, this is another case of leftists seeking excuses to invalidate any skull whose teeth they believe are literally inspired by the Punisher's symbol, and it makes no difference whether the design is coincidental or accidental, they just don't want to see it anywhere. Well maybe that's it's time for Bleeding Cool, and other such leftist sites, to stop paying so much attention to anything they believe is Punisher related. Maybe they should argue it's time for Marvel to simply cease turning out Punisher stories, or better yet, close down altogether. But they can't bring themselves to do that, because it would lead to closure of other outlets through which to channel their leftist propaganda.

As far as I'm concerned, Patel should remain firm on his new medallion designs, and not let petty complaints get the better of everything. It's definitely time though that all the Marvel universe be retired, and that's decidedly what Marvel lovers should really be calling for.

Labels: history, marvel comics, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, Punisher