Get ready for the wildest Punisher comic you’ll ever —
Okay, well… get ready for the SECOND wildest Punisher comic —
Forget it. “Space Punisher” came out this week.
Written by Frank Tieri
Illustrated by Mark Texeira– Punishment is a dish best served–in Space!
– Frank Castle shoots his way through the criminal hierarchy of outer space starting with the Sym-Brood-ant Queen!
– From Frank Tieri, writer of Marvel vs. Capcom and Punisher: Noir and gorgeously painted by Mark Texeira (Punisher War Journal, Ghost Rider).
“Space Punisher” sounds like it would be one of the funnest comics we’ve read in a while. In this out-of-continuity mini-series, writer Frank Tieri and artist Mark Texeira re-imagine the Marvel Universe with space as the backdrop instead of Manhattan. All of the Punisher’s familiar trappings are tossed out the airlock, and replaced with super-sentient spaceships, android sidekicks, and light-sabers and rayguns. His villains — and seemingly, EVERYBODY else’s — are retooled to be space thugs and cosmic criminals. But Space Punisher probably enjoys itself a little too much, or at the very least, more than I did.
Space Punisher struggles a bit. And maybe it’s just that I don’t get the joke, but it feels like there’s a lot of crazy for crazy’s sake. It lacks what a lot of other slightly offbeat Punisher stories have, and that’s heart, and Frank Castle is a character that’s all about heart. An immeasurably broken one. But Space Punisher works really hard to sell us on the “space” angle, and gets pretty lazy when it comes to selling its lead character. Sure, he’s supposed to just be the Punisher in Space… except he’s not. He doesn’t quite act like the Punisher we know, or sound like the Punisher, or… well, he smiles ALL THE TIME, and that, to me, feels like a different guy. I guy I wouldn’t mind getting to know a little better, but that’s clearly not what this book is about.
Frank Tieri introduces some neat ideas, and utilizes this twisted version of the Marvel U pretty well. Space Punisher’s opening skirmish is with a swarm of Sym-Brood-Ants — Brood wearing Venom-style symbiotes — which is kind of awesome. But ultimately, I came away from things without really caring about this Punisher or his mission. Space makes for some nice scenery, sure, but the setting doesn’t make the story.
Mark Texeira’s art is the real reason this book exists. Hearing that Tex would be drawing space whales, casino girls, and the aforementioned symbiote-covered Brood was probably all Marvel needed to green-light it, and they definitely got their money’s worth. “Space Punisher” looks gorgeous, and delivers one of the most colorful versions of space I’ve seen, and some really cool visual updates to a bunch of traditionally less-than-cosmic Marvel characters.
As much as I really wanted to love this comic, it just left me cold. I was a huge fan of the ‘Frankencastle’ era, and wanted so much for this to be in the same vein. But for a comic with a title as on-the-nose as “Space Punisher”, it doesn’t go nearly far enough with either the premise or the title character’s story, and that’s two very big missed opportunities.
Final Verdict: 6.5 – Wait for the trade, or just go buy Fear Agent now
