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Although he appeared in movies and television shows before, The Kingpin remains to be one of the more memorable villains of the Spider-Man universe of things. And yes I do mean universe since we will be discussing Kingpin’s part in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, the popular animated movie from 2018. It was so popular in fact that interest in Miles Morales, both Spider-Man and lead character, skyrocketed since the movie’s release. It also exploded the interest in Spider-Gwen as well.
In the movie, Kingpin plays a major part. Apparently it is his fault that the universe collided in an unstable way. Around half-way through the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, we find out that Wilson Fisk (Kingpin) had been trying to bring back his family, who tragically died in a car crash, by using a machine called The Collider made by Doctor Octopus. This decision was apparently no bueno as The Spider-Man of his current universe tried to stop him, but was killed instead. Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy and others crossed over into the universe to stop The Kingpin.
Now that we know The Kingpin’s place in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, what is his appeal? His form is exaggerated in this cartoon-like, animated style that apparently was well-received by audiences. Although the character of Kingpin had always been big in stature, in this film he is especially wide and exaggerated. This gives him the appearance of a big intimating dude. Which apparently he is, since he single-handedly kills Spider-Man with his fists near the beginning of the movie.
Kingpin’s first appearance was in a very popular comic book. In Amazing Spider-Man issue 50 (Affiliate Link), we see Wilson Fisk for the first time as Spider-Man quits being a hero and The Kingpin takes over with crime. The story was so popular that it was the basis of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 from 2004. It also featured the beloved artwork of John Romita, who became closely associated to the appeal of the comic book series. The villain proved to be popular, as he appeared on the cover in the following issue.
In Spider-Man: Into the Universe, Kingpin’s voice is portrayed by Liev Schreiber. This is the same actor that also portrayed Sabretooth, or Victor Creed, in the 2009 X-Men movie about Wolverine’s origin. In fact this movie has the voices of many well-known actors like Hailee Steinfeld who would later star in a TV show called Hawkeye. So there are many interesting aspects of this movie, and Wilson Fisk is just one of them. Fan of this villain? Leave a comment.