I check out Comic Book Resources (now known as CBR) on a daily basis, despite a diminishment in writing quality over the past few years and the recent prevalence of articles about pro wrestling. I like reading about comics and their creators as well as other pop-culture tidbits like movie news, especially comic adaptations.
The two articles that caught my eye on Thursday were the news that Lego had asked retailers to stop advertising sets featuring police, and that there is an increasing amount of pressure calling for Marvel to exert their copyright on police using the iconic skull icon of The Punisher.
I misread the intent of the first article, thinking it meant that Lego would no longer be selling kits featuring police, but that is not the case. Still, recognizing the amount of antipathy currently directed at the institution of policing (regardless of how we might feel about it personally) shows to me just how deep this resistance actually goes.
The fact that a Danish toy company previously best-known for bricks and DIY building toys would feel the need to dial back what could be perceived as tacit approval of police or police culture is fascinating (and they are doing the same with kits featuring the White House). The fact that they would bolster that action with a donation of $4M dollars to combat racism is encouraging. I suppose this is their way of helping everything be awesome?
I am far more of a comic-reader than Lego builder though, so I was far more intrigued by the idea of getting the Punisher logo off cops, which feels long overdue.
It's bad enough when individual police officers feel the need to display the symbol of one of the most effective extra-judicial killers in fiction - there is a suggestion that, given the opportunity, this individual might be comfortable taking the law into their own hands, if sufficient oversight or consequences were not provided. Hardly reassuring!
I can understand the appeal of a character who, shielded by fiction, can perceive wrongdoing and mete out swift, unimpeded justice on the spot, unhampered by due process. But as someone who counts on that due process as a means to ensure justice is carried out accurately and faithfully, it is positively discouraging to see anyone in law enforcement actively stating that the Punisher's ideals are in any way laudable - he is not supposed to be a hero, but an anti-hero.
And bad enough when individual officers do it because they can, but when actual police services emblazon their vehicles with the Punisher's skull, ostensibly to put fear in the "bad guys," it sends an even more chilling message about how that department feels about things like oversight, supervision and continuum of force models.
Thankfully, when this did happen, the outcry was ferocious enough that the police force in question actually backed down and removed the iconography.
In terms of pressuring Disney to exert some of its considerable legal muscle to force the removal of a lucrative and potentially unlicensed trademark from law enforcement uniforms and vehicles, it's an intriguing question. After all, isn't this the corporation that sued a daycare for infringement when they used the likeness of a Disney character?
Since the story broke on Thursday, there has been much conjecture as to not only what Disney and Marvel should do, but what they can do, and the answer may be: not much, actually. In the end, it is kind of a stupid question, as no cop should really want a vigilante's logo on their gear. And if they do, then they shouldn't be too surprised that the public is disinterested in being policed by fear.
But on the third hand, there didn't appear to be any skull stickers on the officer who pulled a protestor's mask down in order to pepper spray him in the face, or on the ones who shoved a 73-year-old man to the ground, and refused to administer aid after he struck his head and bled from his ears.
Punisher co-creator Gerry Conway is baffled by cops wearing the Punisher skull, highlighting the deep irony and cognitive dissonance of having those who enforce the law wearing the regalia of a renowned outlaw:
To me, it's disturbing whenever I see authority figures embracing Punisher iconography because the Punisher represents a failure of the Justice system. He's supposed to indict the collapse of social moral authority and the reality some people can't depend on institutions like the police or the military to act in a just and capable way.
Gerry Conway has also recently begun a fundraising and awareness project to bring a spotlight to black comic creators as well as pressuring police to stop using Punisher imagery, whether they do so ironically, ignorantly or for any other reason.
But the best take on it is perhaps found in the pages of the source material itself - last year, writer Matthew Rosenberg had Frank Castle himself encounter active-duty officers who were perhaps more familiar than he was comfortable with:
It would be best if, given the current mood in the United States in particular, individual officers and police departments recognized that the display of skulls, even those depicted in comic books, is a terrible idea for those who are supposedly committed to public safety.
The next best thing would be if media mega-corporation Disney could act on behalf of their acquisition Marvel Comics and encourage the skull's removal by legal means or whatever other considerable pressure I am confident they can exert. And when they do, maybe I will once again read about in the comics news before I see it in The Guardian, which would be neat.
I'm just as happy that, unlike in the Marvel Universe, there isn't a real Frank Castle around to take wannabes to task for flying his colours.
I mean, you know - for the most part, anyways.
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