Remember me
If you’ve seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day, you’ve probably seen the banter-filled relationship between Frank Castle/The Punisher and Spider-Man. While The Punisher is now one of Marvel’s most popular characters, thanks to his appearances in his own Netflix show and Daredevil: Born Again, he’s long been a cult favorite for comics fans and while on-screen his relationship with Spidey is a lot of fun to watch, that hasn’t always been the case. The two have a history in comics that isn’t exactly so friendly, particularly when it comes to The Punisher’s first appearance in 1974’s The Amazing Spider-Man #129 and a copy of the comic just sold at auction at exactly the right time.
Over at Heritage Auctions, a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #129 just sold for $1,952, after the release window of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In the issue, Punisher was hired by The Jackal to take out the webcrawler. Yes, you read that right: The Punisher was hired as an assassin to kill Spider-Man. However, as Spidey tends to do, he won over the assassin’s trust by showing him that The Jackal was actually manipulating him. Of course, nobody manipulates Frank Castle and gets away with it, so he vowed to take revenge for this deception. Brand New Day doesn’t show us how the two first met, but this issue gives us a bit more context about how they know each other. Sure, it didn’t sell for a massive amount, but you can bet that its value will steadily increase, considering the movie’s success, and how popular Punisher has become. Don’t be surprised if you see the same issue going for two or three times the price in a couple of years from now.
If you’ve read the comic, it’s pretty interesting seeing the difference in Spidey and Punisher’s relationship from the movie. We’ve always known Frank to be a brooding, broken, and brutal antihero, hunting down criminals without mercy. He follows a similar path in the comic, bringing a deadly aura whenever he appears. However, in Brand New Day, he’s full of quips and jokes, and always willing to help out Spider-Man despite their different methods. Perhaps that’s because Spidey had an impact on him in the time they’ve known each other. We can see it in the banter they share throughout the movie; it definitely hints that one of them tried to kill the other at some point. That said, while the movie does try to recreate some iconic Spider-Man comic book covers and panels, there’s no direct relation with this comic, except for the fact that both of the characters are in it. Still, their antagonistic relationship and how it changes is a nice nod to that first appearance.
Despite the comic’s relatively high CGC grade of 8.5, it went for a surprisingly low price. But now that the movie is out and has performed exceptionally well, future copies of the issue are sure to go for much higher prices. Spider-Man and Punisher make for a surprisingly good duo. With the former’s positive outlook and quips coupled with the latter’s brooding demeanor and deadly methods, they’re the perfect recipe for a Marvel buddy cop movie. The combo carried the movie brilliantly, especially considering how they first met in The Amazing Spider-Man #129.