Long-time Punisher creator Chuck Dixon recently weighed in on the changes Marvel Comics is making to Frank Castle a.k.a. Punisher.
Marvel Comics recently detailed that Frank Castle will become the warlord of the Hand in a brand new series written by Jason Aaron.
The official description states, “After a shocking secret pushes him to become the warlord of the Hand, he now serves the Beast, a role he’s been fated to fulfill.”
They add, “Tragedy, war, and rage come together as he takes up his sword and his new armor with the most notorious clan of assassins in the Marvel Universe. Will it mean an end for the Punisher? Or a whole new bloody beginning?”
Along with Castle becoming the warlord of the Hand, they also changed his iconic skull logo and he appears to have given up on using any kinds of firearms instead choosing to use a pair of swords.
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Dixon’s comments regarding the Punisher came on his YouTube channel in Ask Chuck Dixon #95 while responding to a question asked by Craig Welter.
“If it’s true that Marvel really did change the Punisher symbol because they don’t like the kind of people who like it (ie police and military), then it begs the question, why do the people at Marvel hate their fans so much? Why would anyone at Marvel hire people that hate the fans? Hating and trying to annoy the fans of your characters seems like a terrible business strategy,” asked Welter.
Dixon responded, “It kind of does, doesn’t it? They have contempt for the Punisher, this new crowd of editors.”
“And quite frankly when I was at Marvel writing Punisher in the 90s there were quite a few editors who didn’t like the Punisher. They sure liked to have him show up in their books because it would increase sales, but they didn’t like him as a character. And Marvel didn’t seek those kind of readers even then,” he stated.
Dixon continued, “They certainly don’t seek the kind of readers who would like the Punisher now. In addition to their contempt for the Punisher, I think this current crop of editors has a deep-seated dislike of the police and the military as well. So, it’s the old gang of deplorables thing. They don’t want to deal with them. And they don’t like the idea that they use this symbol. And I think they don’t quite understand why the police and military adopted the Punisher symbol.”
“First of all, it’s one of the coolest symbols in comics. I think it’s right behind Batman, and Superman, and Spider-Man as one of the coolest symbols. It’s iconic. And it’s also representative of bad ass. And let’s face it, Frank Castle is the biggest badass in the Marvel Universe,” he elaborated.
“You could say, ‘Oh well, Wolverine.’ Well, Wolverine is practically unkillable. So he can afford to be a badass,” Dixon explained. “The Punisher, not so much. He’s a self-made man much like Batman. Batman, the biggest badass in the DC Universe. These are both just average guys with the will to seek justice in their own way.
“And Punisher is eminently killable. He’s in danger every time he leaves the house. Sometimes he’s in danger when he’s at home because he’s made so many enemies,” Dixon explained.
He continued, “And so I think that’s what the police and military are looking at. That this is a badass symbol for a badass character. Some of them may not even be aware that the symbol goes with a comic book character. I don’t know. Everybody’s not into comics, trust me. In fact, the vast majority of people are not.”
“The woke crowd at Marvel are changing the symbol and changing Punisher’s entire modus. He’s carrying samurai swords now. Because they are embarrassed. They are embarrassed to be associated with people who probably don’t share their world view. And that’s really as simple as it gets,” he detailed.
Dixon then stated, “And do they hate their fans? Well, yeah. Except they’ve converted so many of their fans into non-fans now. So many people who followed Marvel for years and years have stopped. Have gone away. They’ve left comics or looking for some alternative to what Marvel is offering.”
“Is it a bad business model? Of course it is, but generally comic book companies — the big two in particular — are kind of clueless about their own readership. They don’t know who is reading them. They don’t reach out for new readers. They don’t care to find out what their readers want in order to keep them reading. They stopped doing that 20 years ago,” he asserted.
“It just seems to be, as I’ve said before, for these editors, it seems to be a stepping stone to some other kind of career. Comic books are not edited for the most part at the big companies by comic book lifers — people who want to be comic book editors,” he argued.
“They are done by people who want to be something else, somewhere else. And DC and Marvel Comics looks really cool on their resume. But in the process, they’re ruining the medium in America any way,” Dixon concluded.
Dixon doesn’t just criticize Marvel and DC Comics. He’s also continuing to create comics. He has a story in Graham Nolan’s anthology book Giant-Size Two-Fisted Manly Tales that is currently crowdfunding on IndieGoGo.
He also has a growing library of comics available to read for free on Arkhaven.com. They include a number of different stories from Alt-Hero Q to My Sister Suprema to Shade.
What do you make of Dixon’s comments regarding Marvel and the Punisher?