Eisner Award-winning comic writer Garth Ennis recently criticized pro-Trump protesters wearing Punisher's skull logo during Jan. 6's riot at the U.S. Capitol building.
Known for his prolific multi-year run writing Frank Castle -- most recently 2020's miniseries Punisher: Soviet alongside artist Jacen Burrows -- Ennis is no stranger to speaking about the misuse of Punisher's logo and the public's perception of the violent antihero. "The people wearing the logo in this context are kidding themselves," Ennis told SYFY Wire.
"What they actually want is to wear an apparently scary symbol on a T-shirt, throw their weight around a bit, then go home to the wife and kids and resume everyday life," Ennis added. "They've thought no harder about the Punisher symbol than the halfwits I saw [on Wednesday], the ones waving the Stars & Stripes while invading the Capitol building."
"No one actually wants to be the Punisher," Ennis elaborated. "Nobody wants to pull three tours of duty in a combat zone with the last one going catastrophically wrong, come home with a head full of broken glass, see their families machine-gunned into bloody offal in front of their eyes, and then dedicate the rest of their lives to cold, bleak, heartless slaughter."
Ennis clarified that he didn't believe Punisher inspired the riots to occur. "I doubt there’s anyone who would suggest that any of the clowns who wore the Punisher skull would have acted any differently in D.C. had it or the character never existed," he said. "They did what they did because their demented turd of a leader convinced them the election had been stolen. If you're ready to take violent action on that basis then no bloody, silly T-shirt you wear will have any bearing on the line you've crossed. In fact, it's completely irrelevant."
Gerry Conway, co-creator of Punisher, has a long history of speaking out against individuals -- especially police officers -- misusing Frank Castle's logo as a symbol for celebrated violence as well. "Any 'cop' who wears a Punisher logo in his official capacity is identifying law enforcement with an outlaw," Conway wrote on social media in October 2019. "These 'cops' are a disgrace to serious police officers everywhere. They show an imbecilic level of irresponsibility and should be fired immediately."
Ennis returned to writing Punisher in 2020 with the miniseries Punisher: Soviet and is currently working on another Frank Castle-based miniseries titled Get Fury alongside artist Goran Parlov. Ennis has written several Punisher titles including 2004's The Punisher, PunisherMAX, and several miniseries starring Castle including 2017's Punisher: Platoon.
Source: SYFY Wire