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The Punisher is more popular than ever, thanks to Jon Bernthal's intense portrayal of the character on the original Daredevil Netflix show, and then later on, The Punisher spinoff series. It's been confirmed that the new Daredevil: Born Again series on Disney+ will feature the return of Bernthal as Frank Castle. And episode two of Born Again ('Optics') is already taking a look at The Punisher's impact within the world of the MCU, and our own by extension. 

Warning: spoilers below for Daredevil: Born Again

At the end of episode two, Matt Murdock goes to the apartment of Nicky Torres, a man who was previously assaulted by two plainclothes NYPD officers on a subway platform. Torres was saved by a bystander named Hector Ayala, who also happens to be a vigilante called White Tiger. However, during Ayala's scuffle with Torres's attackers, one of the men fell in front of a moving subway train and was killed instantly. Torres ran off from the scene and remains the only person who can attest to Ayala's innocence. 

As Ayala's lawyer, Matt tracked down Torres, only to discover that two plainclothes officers were on their way to kill the latter in his apartment. Matt was able to get Torres to safety, but was subsequently beaten and nearly executed by the two cops once they arrived at Torres's apartment. During Matt's fight with the cops, we see that one of the officers has a Punisher skull tattoo on the inside of his wrist. 

In recent years, The Punisher's skull symbol has been coopted by groups within American law enforcement and far-right hate groups, a move that comic book readers and creators alike have found troubling. As a refresher, The Punisher is a vigilante who dispenses his own lethal kind of 'justice' by murdering criminals - quite literally the opposite of what law enforcement is supposed to do. Marvel has since changed the symbol that the character wears in his comics, adopting a different skull design. 

The situation has escalated to the point where the co-creator of The Punisher, Gerry Conway, has directly addressed the real-world impact of the character. On Twitter in 2020, Conway said, "I think the way cops use [The Punisher logo] is extrajudicial: they are cops, and they are going to punish you. And the Punisher is an outlaw. He’s a symbol of the failure of the justice system to treat everyone equally … About three years ago when it started to show up on police cars and on challenge coins that cops were using, I was really disturbed, because it was such a fundamental misunderstanding of what the character was and was supposed to represent. In that sense, he’s been completely defiled.”

With this in mind, it appears that the corrupt cops in the MCU's NYPD are on the same wavelength as those that Gerry Conway and many others have disdain for - one that is fundamentally built on a misunderstanding of who The Punisher is. Let's also remember that Bernthal's Punisher hunted down and beat corrupt military leaders into a bloody pulp on his spinoff show - hardly the kind of thing that Matt Murdock and Nicky Torres's attackers in Daredevil: Born Again would stand behind. And, of course, Matt Murdock is someone Frank Castle has respect for, even if he doesn't agree with Daredevil's methods as a vigilante. If Castle found out that cops with tattoos of his symbol tried to shoot an unarmed blind man like Murdock execution-style, he would probably try to settle his qualms with them the same way he does for anyone else he objects to - with violence. 

Fear not, we have the essentials when it comes to Marvel's Daredevil - especially with Marvel Studios' Daredevil: Born Again. Check out:

• The key difference between Netflix's Daredevil and Marvel Studios' Daredevil: Born Again, according to the showrunner
• The best Daredevil stories of all time
• What to watch before Daredevil: Born Again 
• Popverse Picks: Our favorite things for Marvel's Man Without Fear including Ann Nocenti comics, the Netflix series, and more
• How Vincent D'Onofrio reinvented Daredevil's Kingpin
• Marvel's Daredevil actors, ranked from Charlie Cox to Ben Affleck and even Rex Smith
• How Frank Miller accidentally killed a Daredevil cartoon (and Marvel killed a book to avoid pissing him off)
• That time we caught Daredevil actor Charlie Cox sneaking into New York Comic Con as Bluey