Last year, Marvel Comics announced it would be replacing the Punisher with an all-new version of the character with a complete redesign removing the iconic logo, which leftist corporate types are offended by as the police utilized it to stand against mobs in 2020. They canceled the logo under the stewardship of Jason Aaron and also canceled Frank Castle in the process. Now, after just four issues, it appears the new Punisher has been canceled due to a lack of interest, which has created poor sales.
Marvel Comics has been anti-Punisher for a long time, ever since the iconic skull logo started being used by law enforcement to counter-signal the extreme left during their riots in 2020. It went so far into the craziness that the character’s creator, Gerry Conway, canned the Punisher, a symbol of “police lawlessness.” He self-flagellated further, saying he wanted the Punisher rebooted as a black man who “faces the issues that minorities face in the world today.”
Meanwhile, at the House of Ideas, Marvel Comics didn’t know what to do with the character. They gave the Punisher to notorious activist Jason Aaron, who removed the logo to make some new, awful design for the character. In that series, Jason Aaron killed Frank Castle, sent him to hell, and had his wife chastise him in the process, all but destroying the character.
The comic was so embarrassing legendary creator Chuck Dixon chimed in about the Punisher’s demise, saying Marvel Comics made Frank Castle looks “like a fool and a complete nutjob.”
Marvel Comics eventually rebooted the Punisher with creator David Pepose, who invented a new character who rebelled from SHIELD that seemingly had nothing to do with Frank Castle. In this iteration, the Punisher reports to a woman rather than working on his own solo mission.
The character of Joe Garrison didn’t stick, as it appears sales were low for Marvel Comics, with the new Punisher series getting very little talk or buzz after initial fan reaction by which most had no interest in a replacement character for the Punisher. Commentators were mostly surprised that David Pepose didn’t turn Punisher into a gay, black female replacement but still balked at the idea of a new Punisher.
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Now, That Park Place has reported that it appears Marvel Comics has quietly canceled David Pepose’s Punisher after just four issues. After the fourth issue, the next month has no solicits for a new issue, and the month after that, a trade paperback of the four issues is set to be released with no more issues on the horizon.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Marvel Comics was embarrassed by the sales David Pepose garnered for The Punisher and simply wanted to sweep this under the rug. After taking so much care to destroy Frank Castle and what the character stood for politically, having a failed reboot is another humiliation for woke politics within comics.
Fandom Pulse reached out to David Pepose to confirm this cancelation, but the writer complained about “harassment” on Twitter rather than respond, showing a further lack of professionalism from Marvel Comics and its creators.
What do you think of David Pepose’s Punisher getting the axe from Marvel Comics? Leave a comment and let us know.
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I’m Shocked! Shocked! Shocked! Well not that Shocked.
I don’t think Marvel sees this as a failure. I think they’re satisfied for the character to go away, because the character was liked by people they didn’t like. And in the Woke Age, that matters more than profits.
Fair use laws.
Franke Castle ‘the Punisher’ still exists as a cultural icon.
and eventually, it will come back as an IP. cancel-woke culture is a blip. admittedly a long blip, but it’s like veganism. Vegans eventually die, because their diet is suicidally unhealthy. woke-cancel culture is starting to slowly burn out for the same reasons… in 10 years I expect a superhero title revival, it just takes a while for the pendulum to swing back.