History Characters / MarvelComicsTheKingpin

Fisk began his life as a poor child in New York City, bullied by his classmates due to his obesity. Fisk began training himself in physical combat, using his new-found strength to intimidate the bullies into joining his gang. He was eventually discovered 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 criminal empire, immediately becoming one of the most powerful figures in New York's underworld. Kingpin enjoyed a long tenure in his new position, but he had made enemies such as the Maggia crime syndicate and the terrorist group ComicBook/{{HYDRA}}. The two groups teamed together to oppose Fisk, causing him to flee to Japan. There, he started a spice business in order to regain his wealth. 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 back control.

* SmokescreenCrime: The Kingpin sometimes has his men commit minor crimes like carjackings and purse-snatchings to draw Spider-Man away from a major crime he has underway. They don't mind being used as a diversion since the Kingpin can always bail his them out and provide them with good lawyers.

->'''ComicBook/NormanOsborn:''' Something occurs to me -- either Spider-Man is destroyed, or you get Oscorp. [[XanatosGambit Whatever happens, you win.]]\\

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', "The Spider Slayer"

The first actor to play him was Creator/JohnRhysDavies, who portrayed Wilson Fisk in ''The Trial of the Incredible Hulk'', a sequel telefilm to ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977''. He was voiced by Roscoe Lee Brown in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', where he was a recurring villain almost to the level of BigBad. He was portrayed by Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan in the 2003 ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'' film, and reprised the role in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheNewAnimatedSeries''. In 2015, he [[Characters/MCUKingpin entered]] the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse as the main villain of ''{{Series/Daredevil 2015}}'', where he is portrayed by Creator/VincentDOnofrio. In 2018, he made his animated film debut in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', voiced by Creator/LievSchreiber. He also made an appearance in ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'', voiced by Creator/TravisWillingham.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: The Kingpin is intelligent and ambitious, but he also knows his place. He's not going to pick a fight with truly global threats like Characters/DoctorDoom or [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]], and for the most part is content to run the New York underworld rather than take over the world. His willingness to take on groups like HYDRA and the Hand stems from him viewing them as rival criminal organisations and so something he can deal with. Someone with the raw destructive power of Doom, on the other hand, is not someone Fisk wants to take lightly.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Gave one to Daredevil in "Born Again" and was on the receiving end of one from him in Brian Michael Bendis' run (though that was after putting up a very good fight for most of the battle), and he's also been on the wrong end of several from a ''very'' pissed Spidey in ''Back in Black'' and since then, no writer in 616 has tried to sell Kingpin as a physical threat to Peter.

* NebulousCriminalConspiracy: Fisk is currently running The Hand. They are responsible for training Daredevil's girlfriend ComicBook/{{Elektra}} and his newer enemy Lady Bullseye up as assassins, and are a magical cult led by demons who worship another demonic creature called The Beast, who recruit members by killing them and resurrecting them as either undead ninja or, if they are named superheroes/villains, brainwashed killing machines. The Hand started off as politically motivated rebels before being taken over by a more evil cult called the Snakeroot, who generally form the Hand's elite.

* CorruptPolitician: Becomes Mayor of New York after the events of ''ComicBook/CivilWarII''.

* BadassNormal: The Kingpin has no superhuman powers. However, he is incredibly strong and durable, possessing remarkable strength concealed by his FatBastard appearance. He is a master of jujitsu, hapkido, and unsurprisingly, sumo wrestling. He has been shown to be strong enough to hurl people across a room, rip limbs from people (demonstrated under a handshake), 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. One Daredevil comic also showed that the door to his private vault doesn't have a lock. It's just so damn heavy that no other non-powered person could move it. He's basically the heavyweight champion of normals in the Marvel Universe, and one of the premier heavyweights ''period'', able to take on a lot of other tough fighters in hand-to-hand combat, from Spidey to Daredevil to ''Captain America''. It should be noted however that the only reason he can hold his own with Spider-Man is that Spidey normally holds back to avoid seriously injuring or killing normal humans. When Spider-Man ''doesn't'' do this, he absolutely curb stomps Fisk (in the ''Back in Black'' arc) and makes clear how easily he could kill him if he ever felt like it (this, after Fisk had publicly made a big deal out of how he was untouchable and how he could face down, say, Spider-Man), or kills him with a single punch (in a ''What If?'' alternate reality).

* FromNobodyToNightmare: He went from a poor bullied kid from Hell's Kitchen and a small time leg breaker to one of the most feared crime bosses in the country and one of the top threats of the Marvel Universe as a whole.

* DebtDetester: If there is a group people that Fisk hates almost as much as folks who have slighted him, are people he owes a flavor to. Fisk is usually pretty quick to find a way out of the debt, even on a good day. On a bad day, however, the debater might find himself worse off than before.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: He became a gang leader by bullying the other tough guys at his school which led to him being noticed by the local mafia.

* ScaryBlackMan: You saw Michael Clarke Duncan's name up there, right?

* GemstoneAssault: One weapon he occasionally uses is a diamond stickpin in his tie that can squirt tear gas/knockout gas into the face of an enemy that he's grappling with.

** The 90's Spider-Man cartoon version could easily qualify as well, being directly involved in nearly every major threat to Spider-Man (the creations of both Hobgoblin and Green Goblin, the Spider-Slayers, Insidious Six, Rhino, Shocker, his attack on the crashed shuttle being the catalyst for bringing the symbiote in Spidey's life, etc.) Though his importance faded when Norman became the Green Goblin.

*** Frank once had Fisk dead to rights, but subverting TalkingIsAFreeAction, Fisk [[CombatPragmatist literally yanked the rug out from under Frank]] before knocking his gun out of his hands by throwing a couch at him. Frank pulled out another gun as Vanessa entered the room and used her as a human shield [[note]]The latter likely accounted for what happened next--see Kingpin's BerserkButton entry.[[/note]] Exactly what happened after that is unknown, but when Spider Man and ComicBook/CloakAndDagger came across the room, Frank had been beaten unconscious, Kingpin considering him NotWorthKilling. Whatever happened, the hint is that Kingpin hit Frank with a hell of a beating, even though he had guns.

* DependingOnTheWriter: He has been the subject of flip-flops of epic proportions: either he thinks drug dealing is rock bottom, or he's single-handedly keeping about half the world's drug barons in business. Also his super-strength, where writers use a lot of explanations and hand wave to make him work as a villain for Spider-Man and Captain America [[note]]Albeit, the main explanation is that Cap, Spidey, or whichever superpowered hero Fisk is fighting is pulling their punches, as he painfully finds out in the "Back in Black" arc.[[/note]]

** Interestingly, Kingpin was teased as the main villain of the iconic ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} run by Matt Fraction at the beginning. Kingpin and the other mob bosses were robbed out of millions by both Hawkeyes so Kingpin asked all the bosses to start hunting the Hawkeyes. This plot point would never get revisited during the rest of the run, favoring instead a change of direction to feature a story with Kaziu and the Tracksuit Mafia as the main villains. It wasn't until TheStinger of the run where Kingpin would once again appear and ask all the mob bosses (including Kate's father, Derek Bishop) to help him kill the Hawkeyes. Sadly this stinger was never followed up on since Matt Fraction left the book and Jeff Lemire took over for the next volume with other ideas in mind. Eventually Kingpin would find his way into a story with the Hawkeyes [[spoiler: by becoming the main villain on the Hawkeye MCU TV show.]]

He was voiced by Roscoe Lee Brown in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', where he was a recurring villain almost to the level of BigBad. He was portrayed by Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan in the 2003 ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'' film, and reprised the role in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheNewAnimatedSeries''. In 2015, he [[Characters/MCUKingpin entered]] the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse as the main villain of ''{{Series/Daredevil 2015}}'', where he is portrayed by Creator/VincentDOnofrio. In 2018, he made his animated film debut in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'', voiced by Creator/LievSchreiber. He also made an appearance in ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'', voiced by Creator/TravisWillingham.

* FatalFlaw: His sadism. He simply cannot resist torturing enemies when the opportunity presents itself or inflicting as much pain on them as possible before killing them. This almost always blows up in his face when they snap and go after him with everything they have.

* DependingOnTheWriter: He has been the subject of flip-flops of epic proportions: either he thinks drug dealing is rock bottom, or he's single-handedly keeping about half the world's drug barons in business. Also his super-strength, where writers use a lot of explanations and hand wave to make him work as a villain for Spider-Man and Captain America.

*** Frank once had Fisk dead to rights, but subverting TalkingIsAFreeAction, Fisk [[CombatPragmatist literally yanked the rug out from under Frank]] before knocking his gun out of his hands by throwing a couch at him. Frank pulled out another gun as Vanessa entered the room and used her as a human shield. Exactly what happened after that is unknown, but when Spider Man and ComicBook/CloakAndDagger came across the room, Frank had been beaten unconscious, Kingpin considering him NotWorthKilling. Whatever happened, the hint is that Kingpin hit Frank with a hell of a beating, even though he had guns.

Wilson Fisk, otherwise known as the Kingpin, is a fictional crime boss, supervillain, and ArchEnemy of Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}, while also an antagonist to Franchise/SpiderMan and ComicBook/ThePunisher. His over-sized appearance and personality are based on Sydney Greenstreet, a Hollywood actor famous for his roles as criminal masterminds in films such as ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}''. Created by writer Creator/StanLee and artist John Romita, Sr., he made his debut in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #50 (July 1967). His nickname, Kingpin, is a reference to the title of crime boss in mafia slang nomenclature. He ranked tenth on IGN's list of top one hundred comic book villains in 2009.

* RaceLift: In the comics he was white but in the live action ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'' movie he's black, played by the late Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan. Duncan also voiced the Kingpin in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheNewAnimatedSeries'', where he's again black. Notably, Stan Lee originally considered making the Kingpin a black man but was concerned about the UnfortunateImplications of it.

* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: In the ''Daredevil'' movie he's played by Michael Clarke Duncan, who is African-American.

* {{Foil}}: Not as on-the-nose as most other examples, but he's one for Matt. Both have experienced tragedy and loss, to the point that the very ''idea'' of being happy seems foreign to them, and they're both incredibly scared of losing what they love. When Matt loses these things, he picks himself up and tries to be the best man he can. when Fisk loses what he loves, he sinks further into crime.

*** Another time Frank was attacking with him a gun, but Kingpin closed the gap while using a table as a makeshift shield. Punisher stabbed him with a knife and boasted that Fisk would die if he pulled the knife out. Fisk responded by ripping the table in half and grabbed Frank in NeckLift.