I honestly don’t know why anyone felt this book needed to be made. This is exactly what you would get if you combined the 1995 story The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe with Marvel Zombies. I don’t think anyone at all out there was screaming to read this series and yet here it is. That all may sound negative, and it is and it isn’t. At least based on this first issue, this is an entertaining series. There isn’t anything particularly bad about and I actually enjoyed it a good bit, I just don’t get why it ever made it far enough for me to read since it’s basically covering ground that we’ve already seen before.
Don’t get me wrong, it may not be anything new exactly, but I was definitely never bored. Jonathan Maberry creates a version of Earth very similar to that of Marvel Zombies, though the infestation comes from a cause much different than “The Sentry crashes into Earth all Zombified.”I appreciated an actual reason for the outbreak here, even if it was fairly predictable. I also would have preferred the reason for Frank Castle’s immunity to be nearly anything else, but it isn’t a huge plot point so I don’t care that much. This issue largely consists of Frank recalling the outbreak to himself (a narrative cliché I’ve never much cared for), but I actually quite liked the story. In a lot of ways it was more gruesome than the origin of the Zombieverse and in a good way too. I liked how that virus could affect certain characters differently and I especially enjoyed what The Thing turned himself into. There really isn’t much else to the story other than the establishment of Frank’s real target, a certain major Marvel character, and that maybe there are other survivors. This issue is mostly setup as a result, but it’s never boring setup.
I’d never heard of Goran Arlov before he penciled this series, but I’m fairly impressed with his work here. He creates a suitably dark, somber version of New York City that really shows how bleak everything has gotten. His Punisher is a very grizzled character, even more so than normal, and his one-panel rendition of the Blob is very chilling and makes his brief scene truly haunting. That being said, his work is nothing super special and there are some characters I wouldn’t be able to name based on his artwork unless they were named in the story, but overall it’s serviceable art that rarely distracts from the story.
I decided to check out The Marvel Universe Vs. The Punisher mainly out of curiosity as to what new and original scenarios Maberry could come up with. By that, I mean I was most interested in the various ways that Maberry might have the un-powered Punisher take out the superheroes of the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, neither of those are areas are made particularly original here. Most of the main infection story is derivative of one source or another at least at this point and we only get to see The Punisher kill a few heroes, and in relatively unspectacular ways. I will likely pick this series up again when the next issue comes out, admittedly largely due to the cover, but if Maberry can’t really make this world seem more interesting and unique and really take advantage of the playground he has, I likely won’t come back after that. It was fun enough for now, but it's gonna have to ramp up some to keep me entertained.
Overall: 6.1/10
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