Born Again’s Punisher Tattoo References A Chilling Real-World Phenomenon

The co-opting of the Punisher logo by real-world groups really began in the last couple of decades. This included American (and even Iraqi) military personal, firefighters, and right-wing militias, but “Daredevil: Born Again” appears to be honing in on law enforcement’s embrace of Frank Castle’s emblem.

It’s not easy to pinpoint exactly when certain police embraced the Punisher as their own. As per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelback in 2005 the Milwaukee Police Department investigated a group of its officers who had been engaged in “vigilante-style activity” who referred to themselves as “the Punishers” and wore black gloves and caps featuring skull emblems. But it wasn’t until Navy Seal sniper Chris Kyle had his story told in Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” that the use of the Punisher symbol by military and law enforcement groups seemed to gain real widespread traction. Kyle, who used the logo to represent him and his crew while serving overseas, wrote in his autobiography:

“We spray-painted it on our Hummers and body armor, and our helmets and all our guns. We spray-painted it on every building or wall we could, We wanted people to know, We’re here and we want to f*** with you.”

After this, the skull emblem started to crop up more widely among law enforcement groups in the U.S. and gained even more prevalence after the Blue Lives Matter movement began as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Often, the Punisher logo can be seen alongside or integrated with the so-called “thin blue line flag,” a version of the stars and stripes that has come to exemplify not only law enforcement as a whole but the Blue Lives Matter movement and its defiant response to accusations of police brutality.

Unsurprisingly, the co-opting of the Punisher logo by groups charged with maintaining order and protecting the public has been controversial. Frank Castle is, after all, a killer operating outside the law to mete out cruel and merciless vigilante justice. In response to this concerning phenomenon, not only did Marvel give the Punisher a new logo as part of an attempt to reclaim the character, co-creator Gerry Conway publicly disavowed law enforcement’s use of the symbol, even launching a fundraising effort called “BLM — Skulls For Justice,” with the goal of reclaiming the emblem “for the cause of equal justice and Black Lives Matter.” Writing on the project’s homepage, Conway laments the way the Punisher logo has been “co-opted by forces of oppression and to intimidate black Americans,” asserting that his character and his emblem were “never intended as a symbol of oppression.”

Despite all this, Marvel has otherwise remained relatively quiet on the topic, and hasn’t pursued any significant litigation against police departments using the Punisher logo. Now, however, it seems “Daredevil: Born Again” — and by extension Marvel Studios — is wading into this contentious discourse.