Jon Bernthal Called Out Capitol Rioters for Appropriating the 'Punisher' Skull Logo

From Men's Health

The Punisher star Jon Bernthal isn’t mincing words. The actor recently took to Twitter to call out rioters for appropriating The Punisher’s skull logo during the January 6 takeover of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

During the riots, some participants were seen wearing The Punisher logo on patches and shirts. The skull logo even appeared on American flags carried by rioters, who forcibly took over the Capitol building protesting the election loss of President Donald Trump.

Marvel has yet to comment on the use of the logo and ensuing calls to retire the skull logo entirely. But Bernthal—who played Frank Castle, a.k.a The Punisher, in the titular Netflix series—did speak out about the anti-hero being appropriated and misunderstood on social media.

“These people are misguided, lost, and afraid,” Bernthal wrote on Twitter. “They have nothing to do with what Frank stands for or is about.”

And he's not alone. Fans of the series are also standing by the logo. Twitter user @GoAskAlice137, who Bernthal retweeted in his statement, posted on Twitter, "No matter how many nut-jobs steal his logo, I'll still be a Punisher fan. They don't understand what it truly symbolizes. If they did, they wouldn't wear it. And I'm not going to let them take it from me."

Comics writer Garth Ennis, who is noted for writing for The Punisher in 2000 and 2001, also shared a similar sentiment with Syfy in the aftermath of the Capitol riots.

"The people wearing the logo in this context are kidding themselves, just like the police officers who wore it over the summer," he told the website. "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. They've thought no harder about the Punisher symbol than the halfwits I saw [on Wednesday], the ones waving the Stars and Stripes while invading the Capitol building."

He added, "No one’s going to suggest that the American flag is now a fascist symbol and should be treated as such, just because a bunch of would-be fascists employed it yesterday. I doubt there’s anyone who would suggest that any of the clowns who wore the Punisher skull [Wednesday] would have acted any differently in DC had it or the character never existed."

You Might Also Like

• This Workout Torches Fat in Under 10 Minutes

• How to Cool Down After Your Hardest Workouts

• What’s the Deal With Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss?