Warning: This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.Spider-Man: Brand New Day manages to accomplish a feat that was one of the biggest concerns around the Marvel movie before its release by making the Punisher fit effectively into its PG-13 story. The MCU timeline has made more efforts to diversify its offerings in recent years, which has included providing a range of more adult stories into its overarching narrative, such as more R-rated releases like Deadpool & Wolverine and The Punisher: One Last Kill.

With Marvel’s darker older Defenders series like Daredevil and The Punisher having also been retroactively confirmed as canon, the MCU is in a position where it has to balance its adult and family-friendly tones alongside one another more than ever. This has come to a head in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, wherein the Punisher plays a prominent role in the movie’s story, despite having only previously been seen in darker releases.

Despite this raising some obvious prospective challenges in terms of how the movie could handle the Punisher and its story without letting either down, Spider-Man: Brand New Day does a stellar job of bringing Frank Castle into the narrative in a way that keeps him a gruff and all-guns-blazing figure while also avoiding anything too adult happening, setting a promising precedent for future MCU movies and shows to follow.

Spider-Man’s Story Flawlessly Fits The Punisher Into Its Story Without Toning Down The Character

The more family-friendly antics of Spider-Man: Brand New Day initially appear as though they’re set to naturally contrast with the film’s featuring of the Punisher, but the slow unfolding of the movie’s plot and depiction of Marvel’s bloodthirsty antihero reveals the opposite is the case.

Instead, the dynamic between Frank and Spider-Man is used to justify why we don’t see as much R-rated Punisher on-screen here, since Spider-Man cuts the Punisher off before he drops an F-bomb, and repeatedly insists Castle doesn’t kill anyone, going as far as to physically stop him early on in the film.

Similarly, the Punisher’s reluctant fondness for Spider-Man is shown to play a role in him being less brutal here than he can be in other stories, as Frank isn’t afraid to have conflict with Spider-Man, but clearly considers them kindred spirits of a sort, hence why he’s willing to house MJ to protect her from Jean Grey.

The Punisher is also able to go all out with his guns and usual level of violence against the Hulk, whose bullet-resistant skin provides Frank a target he can use his skills against on-screen that won’t result in serious bloodshed or anything that might challenge the film’s rating. He accidentally shoots Spider-Man as well in the film’s finale, cementing that Castle is still a dangerous figure willing to use lethal methods, but that he’s merely in a story setting with metahumans and thus wherein these methods don’t end up killing anyone on-screen.

The Punisher’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day Role Feels Like A Natural Extension Of His Original Show Story

The Punisher’s roles in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Punisher show itself couldn’t be more different on some levels. In the first, Frank Castle acts as effectively comic relief for the majority of the movie, and in the latter, we get a full, no-holds-barred insight into the damage and trauma that prevents the antihero from moving on when it comes to his quest for vengeance.

That said, The Punisher show also repeatedly displayed that Castle was still capable of forming bonds with others, and would do almost anything for those he formed an attachment to, as is the case in season 1 with Micro, and in season 2 with Amy, a teen who Castle develops a semi-parental connection to, and who he treats with a gruff tough love act that’s similar to how he behaves with Spider-Man.

Given much of the Punisher’s story is about his need to protect others and his desire to do good despite the horrors of his past, it makes sense that Spider-Man brings out of the best in him, especially because – as the Punisher says himself in Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s ending – Spider-Man is one of the few people he considers a friend. As such, it makes sense he’s also one of the few people who can convince the Punisher to act more civilly sometimes, and likely will continue to be after Frank was devastated by his accidental shooting of the web-slinger.