From the very beginning, it seems like the Punisher and Spider-Man have been at each other’s throats. Frank Castle originally debuted in the pages of 1974’s The Amazing Spider-Man #129 as an antagonist, one hired to bring down Spidey by any means necessary. They’ve since butted heads many times over the years, with Spidey sternly disapproving of Frank’s lethal brand of justice. Now that rivalry is carrying over to the MCU, as Jon Bernthal’s Punisher makes his big screen debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
With the movie hitting theaters soon, Marvel Comics has commissioned a new limited series called Punisher vs. Spider-Man. This series flashes back to the early days of Frank and Spidey’s rivalry, a time when the conflict between them wasn’t quite so fierce. What happened to cause the collapse of what might have been a beautiful superhero partnership? That’s something writer Dan Abnett (Imperial Guardians) and artist Matteo Della Fonte (Nova: Centurion) are setting out to explore.
IGN recently had the chance to speak with Abnett via email to learn more about the series and how it fleshes out this earlier era in the Punisher/Spider-Man relationship. Check out an exclusive preview of the first issue in the slideshow gallery below, and then read on to learn more about Punisher vs. Spider-Man:
By now, the dynamic between Punisher and Spider-Man in the contemporary Marvel Universe is pretty well established. As someone who bends over backwards to ensure that “no one dies,” Peter Parker isn’t a fan of Frank Castle’s methods. At best, he pities Frank. At worst, he loathes him. For his part, Punisher has little patience for costumed heroes whom he sees as employing half-measures. Apart from Captain America, he views the entire superhero community with contempt.
That’s not necessarily the vibe Abnett is aiming for with Punisher vs. Spider-Man. This series is set well in the past, not long after the events of ASM #129, and things haven’t progressed to the point they are in the present-day Marvel Universe.
Abnett confirms, “The story runs through the first few months/year of the Punisher’s arrival in comics, touching on his various early appearances in Amazing Spider-Man.”
This is a creatively fruitful period, as it offers Abnett and Della Fonte an opportunity to explore the characters when they weren’t bitter rivals. At this point, they were still tenuous allies united by a common cause.
“The relationship between back then is very different to the one we see today,” Abnett says. “The Punisher was not yet established as such a ‘major character’ in the Marvel Universe, nor was he such a cyclonic force of destruction. He was slicker, more ‘super hero’, with what was then seen as a cool ‘alternate’ take on being a costumed vigilante. They started out (after an initial clash) as allies, with Spidey quite happy to work with this ‘professional adventurer’. I wanted to do a story that respected those early, more innocent stories, and then showed how the relationship disintegrated as Spidey became more and more aware that the Punisher was playing by very different rules. I also wanted to track why Punisher was the ‘slick costumed hero’ then, and why he’s more of soldier/force of wrath now.”
Abnett elaborates on the early tone of their relationship, revealing that there used to be a “mutual respect” linking the two characters. At one point, each man thought he could influence and change the other.
“They were on decent terms, with some mutual respect in those early days,” Abnett says. “Spidey wants to help Frank, even sort of save him. He admires what Frank can do, and hopes to ‘channel’ that ability into a better (ie non-lethal) force for justice. Punisher is very impressed by Spidey’s courage and powers, and hopes to turn him into a more effective (ie lethal) weapon in his war. That clash of ideals is not going to end well…”
Obviously, with this being a flashback to a specific time and place in the Marvel Universe, the artwork is designed to evoke that era as much as possible. Fans can expect a book that pays homage to artists like Punisher co-creator John Romita, Sr. and others.
“We’re not being slavish, but we’re definitely trying to evoke that retro feel,” Abnett says. “Because the Marvel Universe timeline has necessarily shifted and altered over the years, it’s a non-specific ‘past’… more lo-fi, more ‘vintage’. We’re definitely trying to homage that John Romita Sr./ Ross Andru feel as a tribute…and as an anchor to a specific time and place in continuity.”
Artist Mike Zeck might be the most influential of the early Punisher artists, but don’t expect the book to draw from his style specifically. As Abnett reveals, that’s what comes next for Frank Castle.
“I adore Mike Zeck’s work, but to me that ‘look’ is a little later… just after this story takes place,” Abnett says. “You might, in a general sense, see the Zeck era… and the rise of the Punisher as a fully-formed character that took place from there, as a consequence of this.”
Punisher vs. Spider-Man may be inspired by a specific era of Marvel history, but it’s also a series designed to take advantage of a major movie release. As such, the book will be easily accessible to Punisher newcomers. Abnett notes that while Punisher vs. Spider-Man isn’t looking to cover the same ground as Brand New Day, both projects do draw on the same core source material.
“I mean, we’d be crazy to ignore the movie, right?” Abnett says. “There is a similar fun to be had, but this is very much the ‘original’ Punisher, in a different time, with his reputation yet to fully hit. Both we, and the movie, are respectfully working off the same classic source material. I think, in a good way, it’s very different to the kind of Punisher stories we’ve seen since the ’70s. I hope readers will find it refreshing because it looks at what the Punisher was, and how people (including readers) saw him before he was ‘The Punisher’ as we understand it now. There’s a certain amount of tasty foreshadowing because, unlike readers in the ’70s, we know where this is going and what a huge and notorious character the Punisher is about to become.”
Punisher vs. Spider-Man #1 will be released on July 15, 2026. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.
For more, see our exclusive interview with The Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day writer Dan Slott.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
