Kingpin (character)

Kingpin
Kingpin drawn by David Mazzucchelli.
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	Las Vegas HYDRA faction, "Acts of Vengeance" prime movers, leader of a coalition of East Coast non-Maggia criminal organizations
Notable aliases	The Brainwasher, Harold Howard
Abilities	Highly intelligent Exceptional martial artist Great physical attributes, including increased physical strength

The Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) is a fictional character that appears in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #50 (July 1967), and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Romita, Sr.

Fictional character biography

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 newfound 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 crimelord 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, and ordered the abduction of J. Jonah Jameson, but was foiled by Spider-Man in his first confrontation with the web-slinger.

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 gang wars in New York required Fisk's attention.

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 crimelord known as the Schemer, intent on toppling his father as the kingpin of crime. When Kingpin's empire was at its top, Fisk was the most powerful human politically and financially speaking in the Marvel Universe, controlling several governments including the United States of America.

Fisk contended against his rival gang-leader, the Schemer, who proved to be Richard in disguise, and battled Spider-Man in this encounter.

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.

At one point, he became the manager and director of the Las Vegas faction of HYDRA.

File:Dd170.jpg

Cover to Daredevil #170. Art by Frank Miller.

Under duress, the Kingpin agreed to turn over his files to the authorities incriminating his former lieutenants. His wife Vanessa was then kidnapped by crimelords 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. He then maneuvered Daredevil into battling the Hand. 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.

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.

After that, a conflict between Kingpin and HYDRA was secretly orchestrated by Daredevil. Kingpin's criminal empire was destroyed by HYDRA, and the Kingpin was incriminated by Matt Murdock.

Wilson 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. 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.

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.

Recently, he 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.

He succeeded in getting Matt Murdock finally 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.

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 SHRA. 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.

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." [3]

In Runaways, Fisk meets with the Runaways, revealing he knew all about their parents, and makes a deal with them to secure a mysterious object for him. He and his army of ninjas are defeated when the Runaways refuse to give it after they stole it.

Skills, abilities and equipment

The Kingpin has no superhuman powers. However, he is incredibly strong and durable, possessing a remarkable strength concealed by his somewhat corpulent appearance. He has been shown to be strong enough to hurl people across a room, crush a man's skull with his bare hands, 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, and is an experienced bodybuilder.

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. His signature move is the bear hug.

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

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.

Crossovers

• In the second Batman/Spider-Man crossover, Kingpin is forced to partner with Ra's al Ghul in a plan that would destroy New York City, in an exchange for a cure to Vanessa's cancer. As it turned out, Ra's gave Vanessa her cancer to force Kingpin to aid him, but the Kingpin actually formed an alliance with Batman and Spider-Man to save the city. Ra's attempted to get his revenge by denying Fisk the cure for Vanessa's cancer, but Talia al Ghul, Ra's' daughter, provided the cure herself, recognizing in Vanessa a kindred spirit, as both of them loved a man that society would regard as a monster.

• In the second Batman/Daredevil crossover book, Kingpin almost lost his entire criminal empire to the Scarecrow, who had tried to dismantle it merely as a distraction so that he could spread his fear toxin throughout New York. In this book, Kingpin is shown to be a formidable physical match for Batman.

• The Kingpin has a small role in Marvel vs. DC, when he purchases the Daily Planet, firing Perry White and replacing him with J. Jonah Jameson. He also bullies workers, especially Lois Lane, who threatens to expose him as the Kingpin. Eventually, he is confronted by his angry staff, but is defeated when Spider-Man and Superboy arrive.

• The Amalgam Comics character The Big Question (Enigma Fisk) is a combination of the Riddler of DC Comics and Kingpin. He appears in the Marvel/DC Comics crossover comic, Assassins #1 (April 1996).

House of M

Wilson Fisk appears in the House of M similar to how is mainstream counterpart is represented.

Marvel Zombies

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.

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.

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.

MC2

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.

Spider-Man: Reign

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. What the mayor has to do with this is unknown.

Ultimate Kingpin

File:UltimateKingpin.PNG

Ultimate Kingpin. Art by Mark Bagley.

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.

Captain Jeanne De Wolfe was secretly working for the crimelord before being killed by the Punisher. The Kingpin was seen mourning of 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.

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 and waves this information in front of him, 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.

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.

Fisk, or someone possibly related, 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.

In other media

Earlier animation

• Kingpin has appeared in 1967 animated Spider-Man episodes "King Pinned" and "The Big Brainwasher". In "King Pinned", Kingpin and his henchmen kidnap J. Jonah Jameson when his newspapers were exposing his drug counterfeiting business. In "The Big Brainwasher", Kingpin has opened a club that Mary Jane has gotten a job at where she takes pictures of city officials and the camera mesmerizes them to enter a room where Kingpin has them brainwashed.

• Kingpin appeared in the Spider-Woman episode "The Kingpin Strikes Again". In that episode, hewas first seen trying to loot a bank with a band of capable henchmen. Though initially thwarted by the timely arrival of Spider-woman, she herself was foiled when she left herself wide open to attack by sticking to a wall, and one of Kingpin's henchmen with a jackhammer used the contraption to shake the surface the heroine was sticking on, causing Spider-woman to fall into a cell, holding her at bay .He later finds out Jessica Drew is the Spider-Woman and shares this knowledge with the world. In the end, she uses a robot to make everybody (including the Kingpin) think he made a mistake.

• Kingpin appeared in the 1981 Spider-Man TV series voiced by Stan Jones. In "Wrath of the Sub-Mariner", Kingpin calls a truce with Silvermane, Hammerhead, and Caesar Cicero when his scientist Dr. Everett has developed a fluid that dissolves metal. In "Return of the Kingpin", his henchman Hal Hunter sets Spider-Man up for a heist.

• Kingpin appeared in the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode "Pawns of the Kingpin" voiced by Walker Edmiston.

Spider-Man (1994)

File:Kingpinani.png

Kingpin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

His most prominent appearance is in Spider-Man: The Animated Series voiced by the late Roscoe Lee Browne. In this show, he was one of the main villains. This Kingpin is fairly close to the comics version, but he is often occupied with manipulating superpowered characters to do his bidding. In addition, as opposed to just being a crimelord in New York, Kingpin has a global criminal organization; his headquarters is simply located in New York. In physical abilities he is generally depicted the same as his comics counterpart, except in one instance when he toppled a huge robot. He's the mastermind behind the creation of the Spider-Slayers and is responsible for the creation of the Insidious Six, the animated equivalent of the Sinister Six. He's also involved in a power struggle with crime boss Silvermane. Initially, he operated behind the scenes until the "Framed/The Man Without Fear" two-parter, where his identity was revealed to Spider-Man with the help of Daredevil, who was seeking revenge for his father's murder at Kingpin's hands. The Kingpin's main associate here was at first Alistair Smythe, but after Smythe nearly betrayed the Kingpin because he believed Kingpin was going to kill him for placing his son in jail during the Daredevil two-parter, Dr. Herbert Landon replaced him. Kingpin remained at large throughout the series, although an alternate dimension's version was arrested in the series finale.

This series also described an origin for the Kingpin, somewhat different than the comic book version. As a boy, Wilson Fisk was influenced by his father, who sought employment as a mob criminal. When older, Fisk assisted his father in robbing banks and jewelry stores, culminating in one robbery where his father escaped but Fisk, hampered by his already-considerable weight, was captured by police. In adulthood, Fisk emulated his father's goal and climbed to a position of seniority within the mob, adopting the alias "Kingpin". He has had his police file destroyed, removing all record of his earlier arrest. He arranged for the arrest and conviction of his father, still an aspiring but minor criminal, and declared that he did this because "Sacrifices must be made." It was also revealed that his real name was Wilson Moriarty. He maintains a strained relationship with his wife Vanessa, who is well aware of his activities, while his son Richard works for him.

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series

Michael Clarke Duncan reprised his role as the Kingpin in one episode of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series. Here, the Kingpin manipulated Spider-Man into thinking he worked for the FBI and assigned the superhero to steal a chip from the mob (they were actually innocent scientists). Spider-Man soon realized he was scammed (evidenced when he learned that the first FBI agent he met is just a movie actor) and with the help of Harry Osborn and the real FBI, Spider-Man had the Kingpin behind bars after a confrontation in one of the Kingpin's helicopters. When the copter crashed, both of them successfully escaped and due to Kingpin's weight, he fell from Spider-Man's hand. However, the superhero saved him and had him trapped behind a crate long enough for the FBI to arrest him. In this series, Kingpin uses a red diamond-studded cane capable of shooting lasers from the diamond.

Film

• John Rhys-Davies played Fisk in the TV movie, The Trial of the Incredible Hulk.

File:Dunkenkingpin.png

Michael Clarke Duncan as the Kingpin of Crime.

• In the feature film, Daredevil, Michael Clarke Duncan played the character. As in the Spider-Man animated series, he is responsible for the murder of Daredevil's father. Although he is African American and in the comics the Kingpin is Caucasian, the studio decided to use Duncan, who resembled the character's intimidating stature. Here, Kingpin started out as an enforcer for a mob boss named Falon, in which capacity he was hired to kill Jack "The Devil" Murdock after he refused to throw a fight. Years later, Fisk became a crime boss in his own right and successfully hid his criminal activities from the public, although the media picked up on reports of a "Kingpin", running all crime in the city. He hired Bullseye to kill Nikolas Natchios (attempting to frame Natchios as the Kingpin in the process). He was successful, but Fisk also wanted Natchios' family killed as well and hired Bullseye to kill Natchios' daughter, Elektra, as well as the troublesome Daredevil. After he supposedly killed Elektra, Bullseye lost to Daredevil, although he revealed that Fisk was really the Kingpin during the fight. Having learned of his assassin's failure, Daredevil and Kingpin confronted each other in a final showdown. Due mainly to his injured shoulder- stabbed by Elektra when she believed him to be her father's killer- Daredevil was severely beaten by Fisk, who unmasked him, revealing that Daredevil was really "the blind lawyer from Hell's Kitchen", Matt Murdock, who Kingpin met at the party that took place prior to Nicholas Natchios' death. Daredevil nevertheless managed to make a comeback, triggering the sprinkler system in Fisk's office - thus allowing him to better 'see' his opponent while rendering Fisk practically blind- and subsequently paralyzing Fisk by sliding behind him and breaking his kneecaps. Daredevil prepared to kill Fisk to take revenge for his father and for Elektra by impaling him with his steel cane, but let the Kingpin live so as not to stoop to his level. Instead, Daredevil left Fisk for the police, who had learned of his identity as the Kingpin. Fisk threatened to tell everyone who Daredevil really was, until Daredevil pointed out that revealing to his prison inmates that he had been beaten by a blind man was the equivalent of suicide. Nevertheless, Kingpin swore that he'd get out of jail soon and that he'd be back to kill Daredevil, who merely said he would be waiting.

Video games

• The Kingpin is featured in the video game The Punisher.
• In The Punisher arcade game, Kingpin was the final villain. If a player finishes the game, the Kingpin is seemingly killed, however the police never find his body.
• In Spider-Man: The Video Game, the Kingpin was one of the main villains, the last boss of stage 3, The Lair of Kingpin.
• He is also included in the game The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin for the Sega Master System and Genesis.
• The Kingpin is the final boss in the video game adaptation of the Daredevil movie for the Game Boy Advance.
• The Kingpin is a boss in Spider-Man: Battle for New York, a video game loosely based on the Ultimate Spider-Man universe.
• In Spider-Man 3, Kingpin (voiced by Bob Joles) is featured in one of the games many sidequests. At a press conference, Peter (Spider-Man) sees Fisk and gets shots of him with some gang members, who leads them to break out their respective bosses. Spider-Man then goes to the Kingpin's penthouse and after defeating the gang members and their bosses, he fights the Kingpin. His strength and aggression amplified by the Venom symbiote, Spider-Man causes Kingpin to fall to his apparent death, although no body is found.
• Kingpin appears as one of the primary characters in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows voiced by Gregg Berger. He establishes a crime spree by hiring Vulture to build high-tech armors and gliders for his minions and even sets up a gang war between the Rolling Sevens Gang and the Park Avenue Gang.

See also

• Daredevil: Born Again

External links

• Kingpin at Marvel.com
• Kingpin's Profile at Spiderfan.org