The Punisher Officially Beats Spider-Man at His Own Game

Images via Sony Pictures Releasing Published Oct 28, 2026, 9:01 AM EDT Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys. Sign in to your Collider account At the end of the day, The Punisher, for as effective as he is in making criminals pay, is just a normal man in the Marvel universe. Even in New York, he's surrounded by heroes and villains with powers that outclass him, from Spider-Man and Daredevil to Bullseye, the Green Goblin, and more. Frank Castle does have two things on his side, though — a tactical mind and a hell of a lot of weaponry. Using both, he's been able to punch a bit above his weight, even giving his web-slinging "friend" a run for his money under the right circumstances. Spider-Man's strength, speed, and webs have always given him a huge advantage over Frank whenever the two have come to blows in Marvel Comics, even though the Punisher was initially introduced as a villain for the web-head. Unless the situation is just right, like, say, Frank being under the control of Mister Negative and having his signature Punishercopter at his disposal, things usually don't end well for the vigilante. Even Spider-Man: Brand New Day saw Tom Holland's Spidey making quick work of Jon Bernthal's armored vehicle and nerfing his ability to curse with ease in a silly demonstration of the chasm between them. Writer Dan Abnett's Punisher vs. Spider-Man, however, has seen the two working closely together to eliminate New York's criminal infrastructure, albeit through much less lethal means than Frank would prefer. However, their slowly building friendship creates a new vulnerability for the Punisher to exploit when Spider-Man gets in his way. Spoilers ahead for Punisher vs. Spider-Man #4 'The Punisher vs. Spider-Man' Gives Frank a Surprising Win Issue #4 follows up with Frank after a confrontation with Peter out of costume as he tries to learn more about who Spider-Man really is. However, their meeting takes a turn when he finds photos the Daily Bugle reporter took that show just how disturbingly deep the corruption within New York runs. Trying to prevent Frank from doing something rash, Peter throws on his suit and swings after him, attempting to reason with the Punisher before he takes his war into the offices of his once-ally and intel specialist, Smokeshow. Talk goes nowhere, and soon, fists are flying, but this time, Frank gets the upper hand. He uses Spider-Man's empathy for him against him, going on the offensive and landing a punch right where he knew the hero was injured during their fight with Morgue and Rhino. He then pulls out his nastiest trick, using the very mechanical web-shooters that Spidey demonstrated to him to web up the web-head and give him quite the shock with a taser. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What MCU Superpower Would You Have? Strength · Spider-Sense · Invisibility · Chaos Magic Eight honest questions about how you actually are: your first instinct when things go wrong, what your friends rely on you for, how you handle stress, what your real flaw is. Answer them and we will tell you which power you would wake up with. The best ones in the MCU are never random, because they always say something about the person who got them. 💪Super Strength(Hulk) 🕸️Spider-Sense(Spider-Man) 🫧Invisibility(Fantastic Four) 🔮Chaos Magic(Scarlet Witch) FIND YOUR POWER → 01 What is your first instinct when something goes wrong? Go with the honest answer rather than the heroic one. AGet in front of it. BReact before I have finished thinking. CStep back and work out what is happening. DFeel all of it at once, then move. NEXT QUESTION → 02 How do you handle being the centre of attention? Every hero on this list answers this differently. AFine, as long as it is for something useful. BI did not plan it, but here we are. CI would much rather nobody noticed me. DIt depends entirely on my mood that day. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What do your friends rely on you for? They would all name the same thing about you. ADoing the heavy thing nobody else wants. BSpotting trouble before anybody else does. CNoticing what everybody else missed. DSaying the thing everybody is feeling. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with stress? Nobody picks the healthy one, and that is fine. ACarry it quietly and say nothing. BTake on more, which never once helps. CGo quiet and disappear for a while. DLet it out, then clean up afterwards. NEXT QUESTION → 05 What is your actual flaw? The useful thing here is picking the true one. AI carry things that are not mine to carry. BI cannot switch off. CI keep far too much to myself. DI feel everything much too strongly. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What kind of help do you actually give people? Everybody has one default, whatever the situation is. APractical help, straight away. BI turn up before they have asked. CI quietly remove the problem. DI sit with them in it. NEXT QUESTION → 07 How do you want strangers to see you? Answer for the first ten minutes, not the first year. ASolid, and worth relying on. BQuick, warm and switched on. CI would rather they formed no opinion yet. DInteresting, and a little hard to read. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What would you want a superpower for? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your power. ATo protect the people I care about. BTo never be too late again. CTo move through the world unnoticed. DTo change something I could not change before. REVEAL MY POWER → The Gift Is Given Your Power Is…Four powers, and four completely different kinds of person behind them. Here is what you would wake up with, what it would cost you, and why the MCU keeps handing it to somebody exactly like you. Super StrengthYou get the power that is really about taking the hit so that nobody else has to. Strength in the MCU always lands on people who were already carrying too much, which is exactly why it suits you. Your instinct is to put yourself between the problem and the people, and you do it before anybody has thought to ask. Bruce Banner is the most interesting version of this because his story was never about lifting things, it was about control. The catch with strength is that people stop checking whether you are alright, since you have made a habit of looking like you always are. You would be the one everybody calls at two in the morning, and you would answer every single time. Spider-SenseYou get the power that never switches off. Spider-sense is a gift and a nervous system on permanent alert, and the people who get it in these films are always the ones who were already worrying about everybody. You read a situation faster than you can explain it, and you are usually right in a way you cannot show your working for. Peter Parker is the template because he takes on more than he can hold and then apologises for not holding it well enough. Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived in July 2026 and put him back to being local, broke and permanently on call. The cost here is real, since a power that warns you about everything also means you are never quite off duty. InvisibilityYou get the quietest power in the building, and quietly the most useful. Invisibility comes with force fields for a reason, because the people who prefer not to be seen are usually the ones holding a shield around everybody else. You notice everything, largely because you spend more time observing a room than performing in it. Sue Storm is the strongest member of her team and the least interested in anybody saying so, which is very much your energy. The Fantastic Four: First Steps finally gave the family a proper MCU home in 2025 and made her the centre of it. Your risk is that being unseen becomes a habit rather than a choice, and the people who love you would like a look in. Chaos MagicYou get the biggest and least comfortable power on the list, the one that runs directly on feeling. Chaos magic is not really a superpower in the MCU so much as an emotional state with consequences attached. You feel things at a volume other people do not, and you have spent years managing that rather than being managed by it. Wanda is the best written character Marvel has, precisely because her power and her grief turned out to be the same thing. WandaVision remains the high point of Marvel television, and it works because the spectacle is only ever a symptom. The warning attached to this one is simple. A power that answers to how you feel is only ever as steady as you are. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ The fight ends with almost the exact opposite outcome anyone would expect — the Punisher leaving Spider-Man knocked out and tied up in his own webs, effectively beating him at his own game. It's a showcase of how Frank thinks, registering every little thing about his foes and friends alike and being willing to use those tactical observations to his advantage against the very people who considered him an ally. Moreover, the moment sets the stage for a high-stakes conclusion to this reflection on the characters' past together. Frank has his sights set on a kill, and Peter has a mess to wriggle out of if he hopes to stop the anti-hero from causing more death and destruction, even if the people he's targeting aren't exactly saints. Punisher vs. Spider-Man is now on sale. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on all the latest developments within the world of Marvel Comics. Explore more comics and books with a free trial of Audible. Release Date July 31, 2026 Runtime 145 minutes Director Destin Daniel Cretton Cast Peter Parker / Spider-Man Writers Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers Producers Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, Kevin Feige, Rachel O'Connor Prequel(s) Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home Franchise(s) Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man