“He’s different! He’s deadly! He’s — THE PUNISHER! The most lethal hired assassin ever! His assignment: kill Spider-Man!” So exclaims the cover of 1974’s Amazing Spider-Man #129, the first appearance of the skull-chested vigilante who would go on to become one of Marvel’s most recurring — and most violent — anti-heroes. Co-created by writer Gerry Conway and artists Ross Andru and John Romita, the Punisher was introduced as a pawn of Spider-Man villain the Jackal, who hired the gunman to kill the wall-crawling hero when he was accused of murdering Norman Osborn (secretly the Green Goblin, who died by his own hand issues earlier).
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Hired by The Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson to snap photos of the “Punisher” who started a war against the mob, Peter Parker’s costumed alter-ego encountered the hired gun under false pretenses. The Punisher (not yet named Frank Castle) called off the hit after Spider-Man uncovered evidence that the Jackal killed his mechanic, Reiss, and intended to incriminate him in the murder, only to gun for Spider-Man a second time — in another case of mistaken identity — in Amazing Spider-Man #135. That issue saw Spider-Man and the Punisher begrudgingly work together for the first time to stop another threat: Anton Miguel Rodriguez, the original Tarantula.
After 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with Spider-Man’s civilian identity erased from the public consciousness by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), all memories of Peter Parker (Tom Holland) have been forgotten. That includes his really good lawyer, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), who had Spider-Man exonerated when he was accused of murdering Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Spider-Man: Far From Home. While Spider-Man’s secret identity is once again secret, might those events explain why the masked vigilante is in Frank Castle’s crosshairs in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?
“[As] sad as it is that Peter is forgotten by everyone in his life, we are seeing, for the first time in the Tom Holland Spider-Man stories, him being a proper Spider-Man,” producer Kevin Feige told ComicBook and other outlets during a press event pegged to Fantastic Four: First Steps. “Him being by himself, dedicated to saving the city, and dealing with, for lack of a better term, street-level crime, as opposed to world-ending events that he faced when working with the other characters.”
Having appeared alongside the likes of Iron Man, a Skrull Nick Fury, and Doctor Strange in the Home trilogy, the Destin Daniel Cretton-directed Brand New Day is an opportunity for Marvel Studios and Sony to better integrate the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man into the street-level corner of the MCU.
“So when you do that, you say, ‘Okay, who are the other street-level characters that we’ve never seen him interact with?’” Feige said. “And of course, I love that Punisher started in a Spider-Man comic, and that great cover.” Bernthal, who has been relegated to the TV side with appearances across Daredevil, The Punisher, and Daredevil: Born Again, will also be the first cinematic iteration of the character to cross paths with Spider-Man in a feature film.
“I don’t want to say too much, but Destin, I will say too much, Destin is doing an amazing job right now on that movie,” Feige teased. “That starts shooting very soon, and he’s got eight or nine comic covers up on his wall in his art department that he is bringing to life in this movie, which is super cool.”
Plot details remain under wraps, but the next MCU Spider-Man movie has been rumored to include everyone from Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk to villains Scorpion, Boomerang, and crime boss Tombstone, all characters with ties to organized crime in the comics. Sony Pictures has dated Spider-Man: Brand New Day for July 31, 2026.
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