Space Madness: Space Punisher #2 Review

I missed the first issue of Space Punisher for a few reasons, the biggest of which being that it was a book called Space Punisher.

Seriously: if all you know about the book is that it’s called Space Punisher, why would you buy it? At face value, it sounds like someone decided to fire the 616 Universe Frank Castle into space so he could try to kill the Guardians of The Galaxy or something, probably in the service of trying to get someone to give a tin shit about the Guardians of The Galaxy before Marvel Studios spends a hundred million bucks making a movie about them. It wasn’t until I saw Space Punisher writer Frank Tieri talking about the book at the Amazing Spider-Man panel at SDCC that I understood that this was an Elseworlds-style book, about an entirely different version of Frank Castle, who happened to be a starship captain. “Think Buck Rogers if Buck Rogers really screwed up,” Tieri said at the panel.

So I decided to give Space Punisher #2 a day in court, and sure enough: it’s about a version of The Punisher who happens to be in space. But the space setting is really the only thing different in the story, which is simultaneously a strength to the story, as well as its biggest problem.

Space Punisher #2 picks up with the aftermath of some kind of battle between The Punisher, The Leader, Deadpool and Sabretooth, with Punisher on the ropes before The Hulk shows up and starts wreaking havok. Punisher escapes, tortures the truth out of Leader before killing him, which leads him to Doctor Octopus, who Punisher then tortures in the pursuit of working his way up the chain or organized crime to its leadership. Only, you know, in space.

If that description sounds familiar (except for the space part), it’s because the only thing really different about Space Punisher from any other non-Marvel Knights or Marvel Max Punisher story is the cosmic setting, some of the costumes, and the weaponry. Sure, The Hulk has four arms, and Microchip is actually a Metropolis-looking robot named Chip, but other than the Space Opera trappings, there is no difference between the characters in Space Punisher than there are in any 616-set Punisher story.

And that familiarity, in one sense, works in the story’s favor. Despite missing the first issue, there was no learning curve in Space Punisher. Frank Castle is still Frank Castle, on the unending search to avenge the murder of his family at a (space) picnic by torturing and killing (space) criminals. The Hulk is still Bruce Banner, horribly transformed by a (space) gamma accident, and General Thunderbolt Ross is still in charge of a (space) Hulkbusters unit charged with bringing The (space) Hulk down (in space). So it is very possible to grab this book and drop right into it…

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