Just in time for their clash on the big screen in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Marvel Comics has revealed Punisher vs. Spider-Man, a five-issue series by writer Dan Abnett and artist Matteo Della Fonte (Nova: Centurion) starting this July. Set shortly after Frank Castle’s first appearance in 1974’s The Amazing Spider-Man #129, the comic will see the pair trying to set aside their differences to help a friend of Frank’s, only to find their ideological differences may actually be insurmountable.
The full synopsis reads, “The Punisher and Spider-Man, two of the most notorious names in New York City with very different approaches to making the Big Apple safer (or not, depending on who you ask!) Brought together by happenstance and forced to stay that way by an ally from Frank Castle’s past in need, will the web-slinger and the gunslinger be able to begrudgingly set aside their differences before they find themselves at one another’s throats?!”
Abnett says, “I’m very happy to be writing these two characters in a head-to-head together, and to be revisiting the Punisher, a character I haven’t written since Year One in the nineties. The series is a whole lot of fun and full of big action, and some genuine surprises as they learn stuff about each other for the first time. That’s the real joy of going back to this pivotal early point in continuity: there’s a freshness in their encounters and interactions that I think readers are really going to get a kick out of.”
Issue #1 will be released on July 15, shortly before Brand New Day’s release on the 31st. Another miniseries featuring Peter Parker and Frank, as well as their fellow film star the Hulk, Spider-Man: Long Way Home, will begin on June 17, and a facsimile printing of The Amazing Spider-Man #129 will also be available in July. It’ll mark the third series to capitalize on the film, with Spectacular Spider-Man: Brand New Day starting first on May 13. You can check out a variant cover, and a four-page preview of Punisher vs. Spider-Man #1 in the meantime below.
