Frank Castle is back, baby! The Punisher is returning in Daredevil: Born Again, and new pictures of Jon Bernthal on set give us insight into exactly what storyline we’re going to get with Frank Castle and Matt Murdock—or, at least, what Frank isn’t going to stand for.
One thing that Frank Castle seems to hate a lot comes in the form of police trying to appropriate his symbol. It is something we see in our real life often, and even Punisher co-creator Gerry Conway commented on this, tweeting, “Any ‘cop’ who wears a Punisher logo in his official capacity is identifying law enforcement with an outlaw. These ‘cops’ are a disgrace to serious police officers everywhere. They show an imbecilic level of irresponsibility and should be fired immediately.”
So tell me why, along with Frank Castle, we get to see a cop named Officer Cole North wearing a Punisher logo in these set pictures?!
Jeremy Earl is playing a police officer wearing the Punisher logo proudly on his chest, which fits with a comic storyline where Frank confronts police who are fans of his work. From The Punisher #13, written by Becky Cloonan, the panel features Frank ripping a Punisher logo off of a cop car and tearing it up in front of them, saying, “I’ll only say this once: We’re not the same. You took an oath to uphold the law. You help people. I gave that up a long time ago. You don’t do what I do. Nobody does. You boys need a role model? His name is Captain America and he’d be happy to have you.”
Seeing Officer Cole North wearing the Punisher logo gives me hope that the show is ready to tackle the storyline.
Frank Castle doesn’t look ready to play
One of the reasons that panel in particular is so important is because cops love to think they are Frank Castle. As Frank himself points out, that’s far from the truth. Frank often operates in a lawless fashion in his quest for vengeance and justice. Cops should not be doing the same. While seeing Frank standing next to Matt in the street (and maybe not fighting on the same side) has me worried about the fate of Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, the police officer wearing a Punisher logo does make me a little excited.
I just want, onscreen, someone calling out police officers who think that they’re vigilantes. I want to have it on record as boldly as possible that Frank Castle has never, and will never, allow police to just take his logo for their own use.
It is so exciting to me to have all these Netflix-era Marvel shows coming back to us on Disney+, and I just hope that they stick true to these characters because the Frank Castle I know and love will not take kindly to cops wearing his logo and thinking that they are above the law.
(featured image: Disney+)
