| The Kingpin | |
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Kingpin drawn by David Mazzucchelli. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | The Amazing Spider-Man #50 (July 1967) |
| Created by | Stan Lee John Romita, Sr. |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Wilson Fisk |
| Team affiliations | HYDRA The Hand |
| Notable aliases | The Brainwasher, Harold Howard |
| Abilities | Genius-level intellect Exceptional martial artist Expert strategist and tactician Great physical attributes, including increased physical strength |
The Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Comics Universe. Kingpin is one of the most feared and powerful crime lords in the Marvel Universe. The character is a major adversary of Daredevil, the Punisher, and Spider-Man. IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains Of All Time List ranked The Kingpin as #10.[1]
The name 'Kingpin', is a reference to the title crime boss in mafia slang nomenclature.
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The character first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #50 (July 1967), and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Romita, Sr, who based his physical appearance on actor Sydney Greenstreet. There the Kingpin appeared as an adversary of Spider-Man, but eventually became the archenemy of Daredevil.[2] He continues to be a dangerous and recurring opponent of Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the Punisher.
Wilson Fisk began his life as a poor child, ridiculed by his classmates, as he was an unpopular overweight child. When he was repeatedly harassed by bullies, Fisk began training himself in physical combat. Using his new-found strength, he intimidated the bullies into joining his gang, and he started on the road towards being one of the most successful criminals in New York City. His first gang was a small one with only a few thugs. He eventually was found by crime lord Don Rigoletto. Fisk became Don Rigoletto's bodyguard and right-hand man. Eventually, Fisk killed Don Rigoletto and took control of his gang, immediately becoming one of the most powerful criminals in the city.
The Kingpin remained the ruler of New York's criminal underground for a long time. However, he had made enemies with other gangs, specifically the Maggia and HYDRA, who teamed together to bring down Fisk and his gang. Fisk left for Japan, and started a spice business in order to become wealthy once more. After earning enough money, Fisk returned to New York and started gang wars, in an attempt to bring down the Maggia. With the criminal world in chaos, Fisk was able to step in and take control.
Fisk attempted a coalition of the New York mobs after hearing that Spider-Man had apparently gone out of action, and ordered the abduction of J. Jonah Jameson, but was foiled by Spider-Man in his first confrontation with the web-slinger. Frederick Foswell met the Kingpin and was captured. Spider-Man was knocked out by gas while fighting the Kingpin. He and Jameson were locked in a room which was filled with water. However Spider-Man made a web barrier flled with air, and when the door was opened he defeated the henchmen. Foswell was shot and killed while protecting Jameson.[3]
While Fisk was a powerful crime lord, he posed as a legitimate businessman, one who made donations to charities, and seemed like a generous, wealthy man. He eventually met a woman named Vanessa, whom he married and had a son with, Richard Fisk. Vanessa did not know that Fisk was a criminal when she married him, and when she found out, she threatened to leave him if he did not give up his life of crime. He temporarily retired from crime, and the family moved back to Japan, until the existing New York gangs lured him back to New York in hopes of getting files he was known to have on the various high ranking individuals which contained "irrefutable evidence of various crimes" against them.[4]
Richard Fisk did not find out that his father was a criminal until he was in college. After graduating, Richard told his parents he would travel through Europe. Only months after he left, they received news that Richard, who was angry after learning the truth about his father, had died in a skiing accident. However, this was not what really happened. It turned out that Richard Fisk was still alive, and was masquerading as a rival crime lord known as the Schemer, intent on toppling his father as the kingpin of crime.[5]
Fisk contended against his rival gang-leader, the Schemer, who proved to be Richard in disguise, and battled Spider-Man in this encounter.[6]
At his wife's behest, Fisk later divested himself of his criminal empire. He unsuccessfully attempted to kill Spider-Man once more before retiring from crime.[7]
At one point, he became the manager and director of the Las Vegas faction of HYDRA.[8]
Under duress, the Kingpin agreed to turn over his files to the authorities incriminating his former lieutenants. His wife Vanessa was then kidnapped by crime lords who put out a contract on his life, and he witnessed the apparent "death" of Vanessa. He then returned to a life of crime, regained control of his New York mobs, and hired Bullseye as his assassin. He set Bullseye against Daredevil. He then turned over his files as he had agreed.[9] He then maneuvered Daredevil into battling the Hand.[10] He secretly promoted mayoral candidate Randolph Cherryh. He then hired Elektra as his assassin. He was forced to abandon his scheme to elect Cherryh mayor when Daredevil found Vanessa alive but amnesiac and returned her to him. Fisk then sent Elektra to kill Foggy Nelson. After Bullseye killed Elektra, Fisk set Bullseye against Daredevil again.[11]
Some time later Kingpin learned Daredevil's secret identity when Murdock's ex-girlfriend Karen Page, who had become addicted to drugs, sold the information to a drug dealer in return for a fix. The drug dealer subsequently sold the information to Fisk, who then used his influence to destroy Murdock's civilian and professional life in the Daredevil: Born Again story arc.[12]
Kingpin also provided superpowers to the Black Cat, who at the time was dating Spider-Man, and feared her lack of powers would make her a liability to him. Kingpin hired scientists to provide her with defensive bad luck powers that would cause mishap to befall anyone that attempted to harm the Cat in combat. However unknown to the Cat, Fisk had a surprise for her as a part of plan to get revenge on Spider-Man; her new powers would also negatively affect anyone who stayed in close proximity to her for an extended time, eventually causing death. This story arc contributed to the break-up of Spider-Man and the Black Cat, and climaxed with a physical battle between Fisk and an enraged Spider-Man in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #100. In addition, during the course of this storyline Fisk's scientists also created the supervillains the Answer and the Spot to battle Spidey and the Cat.
Later, Fisk rehired Bullseye to investigate a New York drug war. Kingpin survived an assassination attempt by Crossbones. In retaliation, he sent Bullseye to assassinate Crossbones' employer, the Red Skull. The attempt failed, and the Kingpin then defeated the Red Skull in personal combat.[13]
After that, Fisk began his own cable television station, partnering with an apparent Texas millionaire the Kingpin thought could be easily manipulated. However, for once, the Kingpin was the one being played as his "partners" were actually the terrorist group HYDRA. Learning of this from Nick Fury, Daredevil began to spread the word through the underworld that the Kingpin had become a HYDRA stooge, weakening his power. When the Kingpin tried to fight back, HYDRA stole the vast majority of his assets, bombed his businesses across the city and even sent a helicopter gunship to blast his skyscraper offices, telling Fisk that he was just a criminal "while we are conquerers." With his empire crumbling, the Kingpin was brought up on a federal indictment and Daredevil tricked him into getting into a fight at a bus depot. Broken and beaten, the Kingpin was given the ultimate humiliation: instead of killing him, Daredevil forgave him for what he had done.[14]
Bailed out of jail by a rival, Fisk seemed set to be used as an errand boy by all his old employees but instead went on the run. He spent time in Japan rebuilding his empire and fighting the X-Men before he finally returned to take back New York. While there he manipulated Maya Lopez (also known as Echo) into thinking that Daredevil killed her father (although Fisk was actually responsible) to get her to kill Daredevil.[15] However, his plan backfired when Daredevil convinced her of the truth, and she shot him in the eyes in retaliation, rendering the Kingpin blind.[16] Fisk eventually lost his criminal empire to one of his employees, Samuel Silke, who was working with his son Richard, in a bloody Caesar-like assassination bid, using the Kingpins' new status as a blind man to rally supporters.[17] In the aftermath, Vanessa killed Richard and fled the country with Fisk's remaining wealth while the Kingpin recuperated in an unnamed eastern-European country, broken and alone, and was given an eye transplant which restored his eyesight.[18]
He returned, and after getting revenge on Silke by crushing his head, almost managed to regain his empire through sheer will, but was defeated by Daredevil, who declared himself the new Kingpin. Fisk was put in jail.[19]
He later hatched a scheme to be freed and regain his wealth by giving the FBI proof in the form of the nonexistent "Murdock Papers" that Matt Murdock is Daredevil. Having made so many enemies who were in prison, Fisk was constantly under attack from the Hand, HYDRA, or any number of criminal organizations with which he had had intimate contact. The U.S. Government was hard pressed to get rid of this expensive, dangerous, legally clean master criminal, and Fisk succeeded in manipulating the FBI into gravely wounding Daredevil and providing them a sample of Daredevil's DNA. He tells Ben Urich to give the feds the location of the Night Nurse, the only medic for injured superheroes, or go to jail.[20]
He finally succeeded in getting Matt Murdock arrested, but the FBI betrayed him at the last minute and arrested him as well, placing him in the same jail as Murdock with hopes that the two would kill each other. Ironically, the enemies were forced to team up in order to survive a prison riot which was directed at them. Finally, Murdock sacrificed the deal, refusing to let Bullseye, who was also incarcerated, leave the prison as Kingpin had planned. The fight ended with the Kingpin shot point-blank in the knee by gunfire from Bullseye intended for Murdock, while Murdock escaped.[21]
Fisk also appeared in the Civil War War Crimes one-shot. He offered a deal to Iron Man - consideration on his sentence in exchange for information about Captain America's Resistance base. However, as his status in prison is threatened for collaborating with Stark, he betrays him; he first sets up Iron Man by revealing a gathering of supervillains by Hammerhead to create a new criminal empire, claiming it was a base of Captain America's, and gives information to the Secret Avengers instead.
He also put out a hit on Spider-Man and his loved ones after Iron Man convinced Spider-Man to unmask in public as a means of demonstrating his support for the Superhuman Registration Act. A sniper attempted to hit Spider-Man, only to hit the "secondary target" of Aunt May. Spider-Man tracked down the hit to Kingpin. He confronted the Kingpin in prison and badly beat the Kingpin in a fight in front of the prison's inmates. He decided to let the Kingpin live for a time under the humiliation of his defeat, news of which would quickly spread through the Underworld. Spider-Man vowed to return and kill the Kingpin the second his aunt died.[22]
However, at some point later, after Matt Murdock returns to America with his name cleared, he completes Vanessa Fisk's last wish and takes on Fisk's case, getting all charges dropped in exchange for Fisk leaving the country and giving up his American citizenship. Murdock told Fisk they had to end their vendetta now as otherwise the Vanessa that the Kingpin had loved would be lost forever, as the woman she became got her last wish by having her husband and Daredevil constantly at war with each other all over again. Although the charges were dropped due to the evidence being too tainted to be brought to court, Murdock delayed the case enough so Fisk would not be able to attend his wife's funeral. Fisk is later seen visiting his wife's grave and mourning her death. Fisk later temporarily returned to New York to "[wrap] up some loose ends that he had to deal with."[23]
In Runaways, Fisk meets with the Runaways, revealing he knew all about their parents, since they ruled Los Angeles with efficiency and vision; he never tried to take their territory nor did they invade his. He makes a deal with the Runaways to secure a mysterious object for him in exchange for protection from the government. He and his army of ninjas are defeated when the Runaways refuse to give it after they stole it, discovering that it was a device invented by the Pride. It is later revealed that Fisk was hired by an elderly woman named Lillie McGurty, who orchestrated the events so the Runaways can travel back to 1907 and ensure that she would come back to the present with them, which her past self declined.[23]
Informed of May's survival by Mephisto as a nurse at the hospital, he decides to send a masked hitman after Anna Watson. Mary Jane goes to check on Anna, just in time to stop the hitman, who goes after her. Spider-Man saves Mary Jane and unmasks the hitman.During the course of the One More Day storyline, which ended with the removal of Peter and Mary-Jane's marriage from all memories, the situation changes so nobody (including Fisk and with the exception of Mary-Jane and Deadpool) knows Spider-Man's secret identity.
Kingpin returns in the Daredevil arc, "Return of the King". There, it reveals he has spent the past year living a normal life in a small Spanish fishing village. There he meets and falls in love with Marta, a young mother of two. He finds himself trying to overcome his former life as a crime boss, only to later find Marta and her kids murdered by Lady Bullseye, and the Hand, who then brutally attack him, stabbing him through the shoulders with two katanas. When he asks why, Lady Bullseye replies "The reasons are far too numerous, but if you want a specific cause, ask Daredevil."[24] In his revenge against the Hand, Kingpin frees and recruits the Owl to help him with it. Fisk begins hallucinating visions of his dead wife Vanessa, who taunts him. It turns out that Fisk's actual plan to is to take the leadership of the Hand, after killing Hiroshi, the ninja-lord who ordered the family's assassinations. However, he is thwarted by Daredevil, who takes the leadership for himself.[25]
During the Dark Reign storyline, Kingpin later creates an alliance with Lady Bullseye to destroy Daredevil. He orders Lady Bullseye to disguise herself as a member of the Hand and kill two corrupt cops and a judge, making it seem that Daredevil ordered it and making Norman Osborn send Bullseye in retaliation. Though Daredevil survived the fight with Bullseye, The Kingpin is undeterred and states that he has Daredevil "where he wants him".[26] The Kingpin has also targeted Daredevil's friends to frame Norman Osborn for their recent misfortunes to further his attempts on manipulating Daredevil's actions. He has Foggy Nelson disbarred as an attorney for standing up to a judge on his payroll for a unfair ruling of overturning a jury's verdict. He also causes Dakota North to lose her private investigator's license.[27]
During the Shadowland storyline, Kingpin approaches Iron Fist and Luke Cage telling them that they will need to take down Daredevil soon. Kingpin and Lady Bullseye later perform a ritual that brings back Ghost Rider to attack the Hand.[28] After Daredevil is dethroned from Shadowland, Kingpin takes both Shadowland, and the Hand, under his rule, officially taking his place back as the crime lord of New York City.[29]
During the "Big Time" storyline Kingpin hires a new Hobgoblin to steal some experimental vibranium from Horizon Labs.[30] It was revealed in Spider-Island that Fisk has gained Spider-Powers, as demonstrated by heightened reflexes, and the ability to wall crawl. [31]
The Kingpin has no superhuman powers. However, he is incredibly strong and durable, possessing remarkable strength concealed by his somewhat corpulent appearance. He has been shown to be strong enough to hurl people across a room, ripping limbs from people (demonstrated under a handshake), crush a man's skull with his bare hands,[32] leave imprints in concrete walls after punching them, and even crush one of Spider-Man's web shooters without making any great effort. Contrary to all appearances, most of his body mass is actually muscle that has been built to extraordinary size, much like a sumo wrestler and he is almost as strong as it is physically possible for an ordinary human to be. The Kingpin is a master of many forms of armed and unarmed combat, particularly sumo, jujutsu, and hapkido. He is an extraordinarily skilled martial artist, especially in sumo wrestling. His signature move is the bear hug. He once fought Captain America to a standstill in hand to hand combat.
He typically wears Kevlar armor under his clothing. Fisk sometimes carries a walking stick that conceals a laser beam weapon capable of firing a blast of concussive force sufficient for vaporizing a handgun (or a person's head) at close range; this is also known as his "obliterator cane". He typically wears an ornamental diamond stick-pin that conceals a highly compressed chamber of sleeping gas that is effective if sprayed at close range directly into his victim's face. Due to his wealth and intellectual industry, Kingpin could use far more advanced paraphernalia, but he prefers to use such things as a last resort. As Fisk became less Spider-Man's nemesis than Daredevil's, he became more of a naturalistic mafioso than a comic-book criminal mastermind, and depended less on science fiction-like weaponry.
Aside from his remarkable physical advantages and special paraphernalia, the Kingpin is intellectually formidable and is a master tactician and a highly skilled planner and organizer. He is self-educated to the university graduate level in the field of political science. He is extremely skilled and knowledgeable in the organization and management of criminal and legal business operations. Kingpin is also a master manipulator, occasionally going so far as to lead superheroes into taking down criminal rivals that pose a threat to his position.
In the Age of Apocalypse, Wilson Fisk is known as Dirigible, a wealthy businessman who bought his way into the Marauders, a human terrorist group serving Apocalypse that makes up for their lack of mutant powers using technology which allows them to fly and emit explosive blasts. Dirigible is clearly the leader of the group, as he is seen giving orders to his three teammates. Alongside Red (Norman Osborn), the Owl, and Arcade, he attacks the human refugee camps of Wakanda. However, Dirigible is killed by Gwen Stacy.
A future Kingpin appears in a possible future timeline in which the United States has been carved up between the various supervillains. This version is described as a "man of the people" who fought his way to the top, gaining control of the Mountain States and killing the domain's former master, Magneto. This version is an African American male, and he is eventually killed and has his territory taken over by Ashley Barton, Hawkeye's biracial daughter and the current Spider-Girl.[33]
Wilson Fisk appears in the House of M, similar to how his mainstream counterpart is represented.
The Kingpin appears in Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness #2 with his underlings, willing to work with the Punisher to try and save humanity from the zombie attack. The Punisher kills the group instead.[34]
Somehow, he later resurfaces as one of the undead villains in Marvel Zombies who makes an attempt to devour Galactus, but this attempt is short lived when he is eliminated by the zombified superheroes in an ensuing battle.[35]
Despite seemingly being killed again, he appears in Marvel Zombies 3 as a leader of the zombie horde, planning to invade Earth-616. He keeps his wife in hiding, satisfying his hunger (and those of other infected characters) by cloning uninfected humans as a source of food. Eventually, he eats her when his plan is defeated.[36]
An alternate version of Kingpin appears in Marvel Zombies Return during the first issue, where he summons the Sinister Six to steal a sacred tablet from the college where Peter Parker attends. But when the zombified Spider-Man is transported to their world, he kills and devours five of the members. An infuriated Kingpin decides to confront Spider-Man but is quickly dispatched and devoured by Spider-Man, leaving his men to run for their lives.
A more realistic version of Kingpin appears in a storyarc in PunisherMAX starting with the first issue of PunisherMAX #1. A realistic version of Bullseye is his main henchman.[37] This version of the Kingpin is bodyguard to a one-eyed mob boss named Rigoletto and is from Hell's Kitchen. In order to finally kill the Punisher, Fisk comes up with the idea to create a kingpin of crime who would be a target for the Punisher in order to flush him out. Like in the mainstream version he is incredibly strong, able to squeeze someone's head until their eyes pop out. He is also married to Vanessa and has a son, Richard, who is very young. It has been hinted that Fisk is just using Rigoletta in order to advance his own agenda. Fisk's past has been shown in several flashbacks, including his brutal murder of his abusive father, his tenure in prison, his vicious cruel streak, and other activities. This version of the Kingpin eventually kills Rigoletto and becomes the Kingpin of crime at the cost of his son's life.[38]
In the alternate future portrayed in the MC2 comics, Fisk has finally succeeded in killing Daredevil, although he made the mistake of betraying Kaine in the process. Kaine attempted to revive Daredevil with sorcery, but ended up bonding him with the demon Zarathos and Reilly Tyne (son of Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider), creating the superhero Darkdevil.
At some point, Fisk was sent to prison, although he is still able to manage his criminal empire from within the prison, often with the assistance of bribed guards, and lives in luxury within his cell, feasting on gourmet cooking. Fisk and his lawyer, Foggy Nelson, were on their way to court for his latest appeal when Kaine attacked Fisk. Spider-Girl intervened and saved Fisk. He continues to use costumed villains as agents and assassins including Spider-Girl foes Mr. Nobody and Crazy Eight.
When Kaine was being taken away by the police, Kaine asked Nelson why he represented the man who murdered his partner, Matt Murdock. Nelson had been unaware of this (it is not stated how much Nelson knew about Murdock's alter ego Daredevil or the circumstances of his death), and refused to represent Fisk further. This causes Fisk to lose the appeal in question.
When a gang war started, Fisk is slain by a bomb while still in prison. While dying he has a vision of his wife and son, who show the unrepentant criminal his dark past. The two spirits tell him that he can only come to the "light" if he renounces his criminal past. It is left ambiguous as to what he decided.[39]
Fisk appears in a vegetative state in the first part of Spider-Man: Reign. He is seen with Mayor Waters, who is saying that he hasn't eaten solid food in ten years. This is part of the oppresive regime imposed by the mayor's secret master, his assistant.[40]
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Kingpin remained mostly unchanged. He is still a large, thick set bald man who usually wears a white suit and carries a cane. He is the head of New York corporate crime, a ruthless murderer and notorious for bribing his way out of any prosecution. He has a reputation for simply owning many parts of New York, such as the McDonalds in Times Square. His employees include Electro, Elektra, and the Enforcers. In the universe, his wife Vanessa Fisk also exists but is in a comatose state. The Kingpin is trying to remedy this with an ancient tablet that he had stolen. Unfortunately for the Kingpin, it was stolen and lost by the Black Cat as revenge. It is unclear why Vanessa is in a coma. He also finds competition in another crime lord called Hammerhead, and manages to play his enemy against Spider-Man, Black Cat, Moon Knight, Iron Fist, and Shang-Chi.[41] In his first appearance, his employee Electro manages to knock out Spider-Man with electricity, and he, Kingpin, and The Enforcers manage to unmask him, revealing him to be a teenager. They then throw him out a window. From then on, The Kingpin knows Spider-Man to be a teenager, and tortures him with this knowledge many times. Captain Jeanne De Wolfe was secretly working for the crime lord before being killed by the Punisher. The Kingpin was seen mourning her death in Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #2, possibly indicating an affair. Her death came at the end of a play for territory by another crime boss, the Kangaroo, who was taken into custody.[42]
The Kingpin purchases the holding firm GG Enterprises, which owns the company that carries the licensing rights of the Spider-Man movie franchise. By purchasing the GG, Kingpin now technically owns Spider-Man's likeness. After Iron Fist betrayed the Ultimate Knights team's intentions to him, he had Spider-Man captured. He ties him to a stool, unmasks him, and tortures and humiliates him with this information, citing it as the only reason he would allow Spider-Man to continue to roam free. At the same time, he has Moon Knight assaulted and taken away, and torches Daredevil's offices. In retaliation, a crazed Daredevil breaks into Fisk's offices and threatens to murder his comatose wife by snapping her neck. As Kingpin pleads with Daredevil not to turn something that he only saw as 'business' into something personal, Spider-Man and the rest of the Knights persuade Daredevil to let her go on the condition that Fisk leaves the country. Daredevil grudgingly agrees.[43]
Fisk, furious that the heroes had broken into his house and threatened his wife, orders their deaths, and that Spider-Man's school to be blown up while class is in session. Unfortunately for Fisk, the Moon Knight (whose assassination Fisk had ordered) escapes death from the Kingpin's men and turns himself in, saying the Kingpin ordered his kill. As such, Fisk is finally arrested as he tries to leave the country.[44]
Following the events of Ultimatum, evidence implicating Fisk in his crimes were lost, and Fisk's lawyers were able to clear his name. Hoping to reinstate himself as the Kingpin, Fisk returns to New York. Instead, he is attacked by Mysterio, who throws him out a window. Fisk is later declared dead by the media.[45]
Fisk's grandfather appears in Ultimate Origins attempting to loot a house with Nick Fury and James Howlett (Wolverine), while all three are serving during World War II. Military police arrive to arrest them, and all three are subdued. Fisk is grazed by a bullet, while Fury and Howlett, despite the latter's protests that he's Canadian, are shipped off to separate unknown locations.[46]
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