You kinda need to stop putting words in my mouth. Nowhere did I say retire or “closed down”. I said shelf for a while. It’s insanely common in comics for particular characters or series to go in and out of publication as they lose relevancy or editorial decides to go in a different direction. It’s also pretty normal for them not to get high profile adaptations. Punisher hasn’t seen a very big focus recently anyway, barring the TV show. Much of his relevancy is the unfortunate resemblance to common mass shootings, and the nasty adoption of the logo we’re talking about.
In other words it’s an active response, not neccisarily ceding ground. Choosing which characters to forefront or pigeonhole, or when to create new ones was long a major part of Marvel Comics (and Stan Lee’s) approach to topicality. Often times explicitly to push or present particular political positions. That’s a big part of how we got the Punisher in the first place.
The punks also stopped using Swastikas for shock value (mostly), and supporting bands that weren’t neccisarily out and out Nazis but were amenable, and works that cut too close. And people more broadly have kept doing so, that’s why there’s so much spite toward Morrisey these days.
I also pointed out (at length) that because of the origins and tropes embodied in the character that these are frequently misconstrued or misrepresented to opposite effect. And that because of the base problems with the character this is difficult to avoid.
More over doing that with a different character. Is still doing that.
I simply think it’ll be a better approach than what’s been done recently. The last major thing being the TV show, which was explicitly targeted (in part) at a problematic audience. And didn’t address the whole spree shooter thing well. And in terms of their overall response to this sort of thing. Otherwise not a lot is different, and he’s getting ceded to the Nazis.
For the moment Disney seems to be continuing to push things in terms of family friendly, broad entertainment the way Marvel always did. Both with Marvel and Star Wars. In terms of Marvel Perlmutter is gone, and he is a odious person who apparently stood in the way and pushed for the opposite.
In other ways they’ve sadly acquiesced. Marvel was duped into firing a director, and delaying a major release by a right wing smear campaign. I haven’t seen it yet but from the sounds of it the latest Star Wars gave into the nasty shit storm after TLJ. Reversing the things the most toxic fans were angriest about, and reducing screen time for an actress that’s faced heavy harassment just for appearing while female and non-white. And as a result it’s not a very good movie.
You also seem to have assumed I’m “not supporting” the character or the movie. And whatever you mean by that it’s not the case. I may very well go see if Frankencastle is on Marvel Unlimited. I’ve also got no compunction about supporting Marvel and Lucasfilm (discounting the whole crass monopoly thing). Because as I said they generally seem to be moving in the right direction (not in terms of owning the planet). And every time they make a billion dollars off a movie with a female or non-white lead, every time they see success with a more explicitly political work. The more they’re proving these assholes wrong. Backending the Punisher till there’s a better case for using the character well, doesn’t change any of that. It’s a way to do that. Timing and context are part and parcel of art. Art that doesn’t account for the culture surrounding it, is bad art.
It also doesn’t erase any of the extent material. It’s not like generally enjoying something means constantly needing new injections of it. I’ll be fine with the Dolf Lungren movie.
As to whether the TV show is worth watching. It’s pretty good. Criticisms or not. He was a nice addition to Daredevil, and the first season is good TV. But like most of the Netflix Marvel shows it gets messy in season 2. That whole collection of shows basically devolved into “superheroing is an addiction” nonsense fast. But given that it’s just 2 seasons and a backdoor pilot via Daredevil season 2 it holds together better than most of the other shows did.
