When the Fantastic Four defied Galactus during his attempt to siphon the energies of Earth by destroying his machine, the world-devourer called his half-robot, half-alive servant to destroy them. The Punisher landed in front of the Thing, who rushed to crush him with his fists, though he found that the robot was too powerful to simply beat up. But while the robot moved fast and hit hard, the Thing persevered, until the Punisher dug his clawed feet into the ground and tripled his power resources to throw both the Thing and the advancing Mister Fantastic off of him.

The Thing was soon forced to hide behind the force field created by his teammate, the Invisible Girl, along with Mister Fantastic. The Punisher robot responded by pounding at the field, trying to smash his way through it. Though the robot was unaware that Sue’s power was about to give, his master called him off before he could break through. Galactus had finished his energy converter and no longer needed the Punisher to keep the Fantastic Four at bay, and so returned him to his floating sphere.

Once the Human Torch had returned from Galactus’ distant ship-home with the Ultimate Nullifier, which Reed Richards threatened Galactus with, the devourer agreed to leave the planet and find another world to feed upon. And so, with his herald, the Silver Surfer, disgraced and abandoned on Earth, Galactus and his loyal, Punisher robot, disappeared into the far reaches of the galaxy to find more suitable worlds to harvest.

Later, when Galactus' hunger reached an unbearable level and he demanded the return of the Silver Surfer, he sent the Punisher back to Earth to find the Surfer for him. The Punisher soon fought with the Fantastic Four again, and nearly beat them as Galactus had given him new and stronger powers. But as the Human Torch was attacking him, the robot disappeared in a puff of smoke, recalled by Galactus who had changed his plans and decided to force the Fantastic Four to give up the Surfer.