Gerry Conway obituary

"A year later, in 1972, he wrote the classic two-issue story The Night Gwen Stacy Died, drawn by Gil Kane and John Romita, in which Peter (Spider-Man) Parker's girlfriend is killed by his archrival, the Green Goblin. It began a transition from the so-called silver age of comics, which had produced Marvel's popularity boom in the 60s, into a darker era."

"Only eight months later, also in Spider-Man, Conway introduced the Punisher, drawn by Ross Andru and Romita, a henchman of another Spider-Man villain, the Jackal. An ex-Marine avenging the mafia's murder of his family before his eyes, the Punisher became an iconic antihero hit. Vengeance was a popular trope in the early 70s; Conway was inspired by the paperback book series The Executioner, by Don Pendleton, and the violent vigilante in Brian Garfield's novel Death Wish and the subsequent movie."

"The Punisher later spawned three movies, but Conway opposed the way its imagery changed, especially the character's death's head symbol. In his 2012 memoir American Sniper, Chris Kyle, a former US navy seal, claimed to leave it behind after operations, and the symbol also became a logo for America's far-right militias, as well as the military and police."

"After the police murder of George Floyd in 2020, Conway attempted to reclaim the image by starting his own line of merchandise, including t-shirts designed by people of colour. The Punisher should be a symbol for Black Lives Matter, he told the Guardian, for people on the outside of the justice system."

Gerry Conway took over as writer of The Amazing Spider-Man at age 19, following Stan Lee. He wrote the two-issue story The Night Gwen Stacy Died, in which the Green Goblin kills Peter Parker’s girlfriend, marking a move from the silver age toward darker themes. He introduced the Punisher in Spider-Man, an ex-Marine who avenges his family’s mafia murder, becoming an iconic antihero. Conway drew inspiration from vengeance-focused pulp and novels, including The Executioner and Death Wish, and also cited the Shadow. The Punisher later became a film franchise, while Conway opposed changes to the character’s death’s head symbol. The symbol was later adopted by far-right militias and then contested after George Floyd’s death, when Conway tried to reclaim it through merchandise and linked it to Black Lives Matter.

Read at www.theguardian.com