If you’ve ever wanted to know what Peter Parker would be like as the Punisher instead of Spider-Man, look no further than this new What If? issue.
Spoilers ahead for What If? The Punisher #1.
What If? The Punisher #1 quickly runs through Peter’s origin story in this timeline. While Uncle Ben still dies, he takes on a different approach to his work as a hero. He uses lethal force much like Frank Castle does as the Punisher. However, there’s an underlying feeling of guilt when it comes to Peter.
Peter doesn’t have the military background that Frank Castle has, so his approach is from a more scientific angle. He doesn’t have military training or equipment, but he does still have his powers from the spider bite.
While this is an interesting take on Peter, it falls flat. If the origin story was the same up until just after Uncle Ben’s death, that would have been a better starting point rather than Carl Potts going over what we already know again. It could have given us a few more pages to go a little deeper into some of Peter’s duels with his foes other than Green Goblin.
Since this is only one issue, there’s a lot that needs to happen. We see Peter become the Punisher and give it up within these pages. We also see Frank Castle then taking up the mantle, so it felt more like a detour than Peter actually embodying the Punisher persona for a long period of time.
The art from Juanan Ramírez and colors by Rachelle Rosenberg were more enjoyable for me than the story was. I love the design of the black Spidey suit with the Punisher logo on it. That felt like it fit perfectly with the story being told.
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Overall, this What If? was pretty mediocre. The story didn’t grab me as much as I was hoping and the origin stories for Peter and Frank pretty much remained the same. It wasn’t a huge change aside from Peter using lethal force to save others and not being quite as quippy. I guess I was just expecting something a little more drastic from this and I didn’t feel like we were given that.