My Punisher Van Question:
Is the Punisher Van an
adjacent friendly character to a passenger?

If the passenger is off the map then they are not adjacent. If they are in an adjacent square after being carried then they are adjacent.

Adjacency isn't a trick question.

Are they in a square adjacent to a square occupied by the figure in question?

I am not sure if the Punisher Van has some funky carry rules or whatever, but barring some special power or trait or something that redefines it, adjacency is straight-forward enough.

A character is only a passenger while it is being Carried. That alone means a passenger isn't ever going to be adjacent to anything. Without any actual context, there's not much else I can say, because I have no idea how this question is even relevant to anything. Which is a big reason we ask people to always quote the effects they're asking questions about.

How about, Can the Punisher Van be an adjacent character to gain bonuses from other adjacent characters?

Or is the Van, just a vehicle and not a character?

All vehicles (maybe outside of the Charged-up bystander) are characters.

You are absokutely correct. Vehicles are characters.

Bystanders are characters, too.

They are not Standard Characters, though. But definitely are characters.