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Legendary comics writer Chuck Dixon recently revealed why Marvel and the woke gatekeepers in the industry's mainstream despise the Punisher and other characters like him: "they hate their fans."
Dixon has worked on hundreds of comics, including Marvel's pre-woke "Punisher" titles and various "Batman" titles for DC Comics. He also recently collaborated with BlazeTV contributor Eric July on his Rippaverse Comics.
Afforded decades' worth of insights into the art and the industry, Dixon fields questions from fans and comics aficionados on his YouTube series, "Ask Chuck Dixon."
On an episode of the show last month, he read a letter from a fan that said, "Chuck, I have been a fan of the Punisher since I was a kid, I've always wanted to ask: Do they hate the Punisher because he doesn't fit into their vision? Or do they hate him because of the idea and the fans liking the idea that refutes most of their 'heroes don't kill' argument?," reported Bounding into Comics.
To the questioner's point, there has been a concerted campaign in recent years to snuff out the Punisher — or at the very least chase away undesirables among his fan base.
In a 2017 Gizmodo piece entitled "There's Never Going to Be a 'Right Time' for The Punisher TV Series," Charles Pulliam-Moore wrote, "[I]t’s impossible not to see how he’s also a celebration of the kind of gun culture that makes actual mass shootings possible," warning that to "make the Punisher the star of his own TV show is to valorize his character."
Newsweek's associate editor Jon Jackson wrote in 2021, "Marvel has a popularity problem with one of its B-list characters: the Punisher, aka Frank Castle, a troubled ex-Marine turned vigilante who metes out lethal justice to the corrupt and criminal ('The people I kill need killing'). Right now he's too popular with the wrong people."
Jackson stressed that the "wrong people" could be found "among the MAGA hats, Don't Tread on Me Flags and Trump 2024 banners."
Jon Bernthal, the actor who played the character on Netflix's "The Punisher," canceled in 2019, suggested that the rightists amongst the character's following "are misguided, lost, and afraid. They have nothing to do with what Frank stands for or is about."
Gerry Conway, one of the character's co-creators, told Newsweek, "I could definitely see it might be time for him to step back for a bit. Not because there's anything necessarily wrong with the character, but given where we are right now in our society."
Conway, a leftist, previously attempted to take the Punisher skull symbol "back from the right," claiming "[The skull] should be a symbol for Black Lives Matter," reported the Guardian.
Conway was reportedly apoplectic that police should use the symbol, claiming their usage had left the character "completely defiled."
Marvel, similarly antipathetic to the Punisher's un-woke fans, has finally put the nail in his coffin.
In what might be the final Punisher series, woke Marvel writers transmogrified the titular character into something pathetic and intentionally unlikable, ditching the skull for a devilish Asian insignia and his guns for swords.
Screen Rant reported that in the finale, he ends up in the custody of the Avengers. After long punishing the criminal underworld following his wife's murder, Frank Castle ends up in a confrontation with his undead wife who chastises him for killing "in her name." Afterward, an all-but-gelded Punisher essentially kills himself.
Responding last month to the question about why the Punisher is so hated, Dixon dismissed the suggestion that Frank Castle was exceptional in that he kills bad guys, noting that "we see other comic book heroes, superheroes who kill. It's hard to believe Captain America didn't kill a lot of Nazis. ... To single out Frank Castle because he kills people — you know, if that’s their argument it’s an inaccurate one."
The real reason Marvel and leftist critics don't like the Punisher, suggested Dixon, is who his fans are.
Dixon suggested that the anger over the Punisher's popularity with the "wrong people" parallels blue-collar Americans' embrace of the character Archie Bunker in the 1970s sitcom "All in the Family" — a character the writer Norman Lear intended for audiences to hate and whose ultimate fans he meant to lampoon.
Similarly, when Marvel went woke, Dixon said those running the show were "just embarrassed about everything about the Punisher, particularly his audience. They didn't like the Punisher and they didn't like the people who liked the Punisher."
"Most comic book characters are either brainiacs, mutants, scientists, you know, whatever. There's very few superheroes that have blue-collar origins," continued Dixon. "Frank Castle and Guy Gardner are blue-collar superheroes. They are average guys driven to extremes. And a lot of readers respond to that because a lot of readers aren’t brainiacs, mutants, or scientists. They’re driving a truck, or stocking shelves, or, you know, working for a paycheck."
"People respond to these characters because ... they have blue-collar origins. When they’re written correctly, they say stuff and do stuff that other comic book characters won't," said Dixon.
Dixon said the final straw for the Marvel bigwigs and liberal critics was when American police and soldiers began wearing and/or displaying the Punisher symbol.
"'Cops are wearing the symbol, ewww! Our soldiers are wearing the symbol, boo!'" Dixon said, mocking the thinking at Marvel. "'We're going to take the Punisher, and we're going to mangle him and we're going to destroy him. We're going to do what no other entertainment company ever has done. We are going to ... tear it to the ground.' And that's what they did."
"Any other lofty reason they give is B.S.," emphasized Dixon. "The main reason they wanted to get rid of the Punisher is because they hated the Punisher and they hate you for liking it. It's that simple."
Ethan Van Sciver, an American comics artist who worked as an artist on numerous DC Comics and Marvel titles, appears to have reached a similar conclusion.
Sciver noted on Twitter, "It's not so much that Marvel Comics hates The Punisher. They were happy to cash in on merchandise, media, apparel and comics featuring him for decades. They hate YOU. And they hate that you love The Punisher. So this is for you, Conservative comics fan, with a big Go F*** Yourself from Disney."
Ask Chuck Dixon #152 Why Marvel hates the Punisher and hates you. And life in the Rippaverse!youtu.be
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'Blaze News Tonight' RECAP: Elon Musk's Trump donation, Secret Service failure, and a Jan. 6 victory
In the wake of Trump’s near-assassinaton, Elon Musk has not only endorsed Donald Trump for president but has also pledged $45 million a month to a Trump-affiliated PAC, likely making him an even bigger target for the left. Corrupt Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.) has been convicted on 16 counts, leading several Democrat senators to call for his resignation, even threatening to expel him if he refuses to step down. Next, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) gives her thoughts in an exclusive interview on Trump’s decision to appoint JD Vance as his running mate, as well as Biden’s calls for unity. Next, former Navy SEAL and security expert Erik Prince joins the show to shed light on the newly surfaced Iranian assassination plot, as well as the failure of the Secret Service not only at the rally but in general. However, there is a hopeful development in one January 6 case. A federal judge ordered the release of January 6 prisoner John Strand. Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker calls in to discuss the ruling.
Elon Musk Goes Full MAGA with Monthly $45M Trump Super PAC Pledge | Guest: Erik Prince | 7/16/24 www.youtube.com
Elon gets super political in super PAC donation
Senior politics editor and Washington correspondent for Blaze Media Christopher Bedford joins Jill and the panel on “Blaze News Tonight” from day two of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to discuss Elon Musk’s recent political moves and Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez’s conviction.
In regard to Musk’s donation pledge, Bedford says, “My gosh, he’s brave.”
Not only did Musk pledge “$45 million a month, a staggering amount of money,” to a Trump super PAC, but he also expressed his disapproval of Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bill that permits children to transition behind their parents’ backs by vowing to “move his space company to Texas.”
Further, Democrat Senator Bob Menendez, who Bedford says is “one of the more openly corrupt senators” and “an incredibly arrogant politician,” has been convicted on “federal corruption charges.”
Even “the Democrats just want him to go away,” says Bedford.
Further, Julio Rosas, Blaze Media’s national correspondent, who is also attending the RNC convention, spoke with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) about her thoughts regarding Trump’s VP pick, JD Vance.
“It’s the direction I want the party to go in, and that’s going to be America first,” Greene said of Vance.
To Biden’s calls for “unity,” Greene was candid: “If Joe Biden and the Democrats were serious about unity, he would completely stop the weaponized Department of Justice that he has enabled, he would reel back Merrick Garland, he would drop all the charges against President Trump, [and] he would release political prisoners who are being held in prison for years now for protesting election fraud.”
Secret Service failure and Kimberly Cheatle’s refusal to step down
The Secret Service is on high alert after reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump have surfaced. Former Navy SEAL and security expert Erik Prince joins the show to shed light on the threat.
“I think this is a desperate effort to deflect from a completely botched job of protecting the leading Republican candidate and front-runner for the next presidency,” Prince tells Jill, adding that he doesn’t give the threat “a whole lot of credibility.”
“We suffer from a from a whole collection of federal agencies that are bloated, obese, unaccountable, and ineffective, and we continue to steer away from a merit-based, execution-based excellent society to our detriment,” he continues, noting that had Trump been killed, “we could have literally torn the country asunder.”
When Prince points to the lack of merit in our federal agencies, he is, at least in part, referring to Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle’s DEI initiative to ensure 30% of the force is made up of women.
Even though Cheatle has technically “[taken] responsibility” for Trump’s near-assassination, she has nonetheless refused to step down from her position.
While the FBI has sworn to investigate Saturday’s unfortunate events, Jill questions the authenticity of their claims, given “the way that the federal agencies have handled Donald Trump-related issues in the past.”
Prince agrees, stating he has “zero confidence in the federal government being able to investigate itself.”
A January 6 victory
The tides have turned for one January 6 defendant, John Strand, who was ordered to be released by a federal judge this July.
Blaze News investigative journalist and fellow January 6 victim Steve Baker joins the show to explain the details of Strand’s case. Steve tells Jill and the panel that Strand is one of the more “high-profile cases” of all the January 6 defendants.
Strand attended the Capitol on January 6 because he was the friend and bodyguard of Dr. Simone Gold, who was deplatformed during the height of COVID for recommending “alternate therapies that were not part of the approved narrative from the administration.”
Dr. Gold was scheduled to speak at the Capitol that day — an event that was “legally permitted.” When the Oathkeepers and Strand escorted Dr. Gold to her speaking location, however, the chaos had already begun.
“John Strand and Simone Gold did not participate in violence; they did not participate in breaching the Capitol building whatsoever,” says Baker, “but when the doors opened, they, like so many hundreds and even thousands of others, did in fact go inside peacefully, and she actually decided to deliver her prepared remarks there in the Rotunda.”
After Dr. Gold delivered her speech, she and Strand “peacefully left.” However, both were “arrested very early on” and were “charged not only with a handful of misdemeanors,” but also with the “infamous 1512 obstruction of an official preceding felony, which carried up to 20 years potential imprisonment.”
While Gold ended up “taking a plea deal" involving “60 days in prison,” Strand decided that “he was going to be a warrior” and fight the charges. In the end, he was sentenced to “32 months in prison.”
“They committed exactly the same crimes, but because he wasted the government's time and he put them through the hassle of having to prepare for a trial … Simone got two months in prison and he got 32 months in prison,” says Baker.
However, the Supreme Court’s “overturning of 1512" led to Strand’s release.