Real world figures crossing over into comic books rarely works out well. At best, there's the very daft Superman vs Muhammad Ali (see also: Barack Obama meets Ash from Army of Darkness) - at its worst, you wind up with something like this Punisher/Eminem crossover. Whoever thought a meeting between comics' most unforgiving vigilante and a semi-comical gangsta rappa could ever turn out well had clearly been smoking some of the G's best dope, y'all. Ahem. The story sees Eminem performing a concert in New York when he is apparently attacked by none other than the Punisher, who kills a number of Slim's crew. Saved by Punisher bad guy Barracuda, Marshall gets the drop on Castle, knocking him out with the butt of his gun (one of the Punisher's more undignified defeats there). Double-crossed by Barracuda, Eminem and the Punisher both find themselves chained up on the big guy's boat, where he prepares to murder them both. While Barracuda beats up Punisher, Eminem saves the day by befriending a local ice fisher and borrowing his chainsaw. Barracuda would find himself tied up and tortured with a car battery attached to his testicles in the Garth Ennis story Long Cold Dark, but his defeat at the hands of the Real Slim Shady is probably his most egregious indignity. As for Eminem and the Punisher, they settled their differences, with Frank setting his sights on the Parents Music Council instead, for contracting the killer. This crossover, sadly, did not lead to the sequel Punisher Kills the Gangster Rap Universe, which could at least have rid us of Fifty Cent before he started making terrible movies on top of his terrible music.
A film critic and professional writer of over ten years, Joel Harley has a deep and abiding love of all things horror, Batman and Nicolas Cage. He can be found writing online and in print, all over the Internet and in especially good bookstores.
