10 Inappropriate Things Marvel And DC Want You To Forget

In 1970, DC released what they hoped would be a thought provoking look at race relations in “I am Curious (Black)!”. Sadly, the book fell flat - presenting itself more as a stereotypical view on African American culture - and DC have thankfully never revisited the idea. Marvel however, learnt nothing from DC's mistake and in 1992, tried to do the same thing with the Punisher.

The premise for this story was even more dubious. Frank Castle escapes prison and is taken to a former surgeon/heroin addict who specialised in plastic surgery involving melanin. He wakes up from the surgery as a black man and goes on the lam, fearing for his life. Frank drives to Chicago to lay low, but due to being on pain medication he attracts the attention of the local law enforcement. This goes about as well as could be expected. Subjected to an onslaught of racist abuse, the Punisher strikes a cop and ends the page being brutally beaten by a whole gang of white policemen.

The transformation lasted four issues and served little purpose other than to promote the upcoming Luke Cage comic. For some reason Marvel figured that to (re)introduce a black hero, they had to make a similar character change race to help draw in readers. Nearly 30 years later and that logic still makes no sense.