KINGPIN was Right (and the Oscar Slap Proves It!)

When I watched Will Smith slap Chris Rock at the Oscars, I realized what we were all thinking--that Kingpin was right. Vincent D'Onofrio gave us one of the MCU's most nuanced villains with Wilson Fisk: AKA The Kingpin. The character is flawed, relatable--and ultimately, he had some noble goals. IN this video, we break down why he was right--and all of the similarities between him and his arch-enemy, Daredevil.

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Written and Hosted by Ryan Arey (  / ryanarey  )
Edited by Sean Martin with Harriet Lengel-Enright

#Kingpin #BornAgain

So first, I have to talk about why Wilson Fisk is so different from every other villain in the MCU. Marvel has given us a lot of terrible villains, and a few great ones. And all the great ones had the same thing in common: relatability. We may not agree with their means, but we empathize with their goals.

Of all the villains, Wilson Fisk is the most….human. Vincent D'Onofrio once described him in 3 words: ``Monster and child.” It’s often said that when a child experiences trauma, they never mature past that age–and you can see that with Wilson. He’s shy, nervous. He always avoids eye contact in social situations…heck, I bet he would be a ScreenCrush subscriber. Add on a goatee and a Deadpool tee shirt and we could see the guy at cons.

He’s also very polite. Always saying please, always giving respect to the people in polite society. He’s exceptionally gentle with Vanessa.

Most of the time, when villains are being bad, they seem to really enjoy it. Heck, Palpatine seemed to get off on it. But for Fisk, he’s always holding back the evil inside him. But D’Onofrio still manifests this anger with his physicality, his twitch, the way he rings his hands.

You get the feeling that this is a man who spends every moment trying to be good, but the world just wants him to be bad.

But mostly, we can relate to his end goal. He doesn’t want money, or a criminal empire. He wants to fix his city.

He wants to make New York beautiful and clean. And he’s willing to get dirty to make this dream come true. He is capable of great cruelty. In that way, he’s a lot like Matt Murdock.

Both boys were very smart, were bullied, and frew up in hell’s kitchen. Matt’s family life was also affected by organized crime, and they both lost their dads to violence and were raised by their mothers. And both made a promise to eradicate the evil that corrupted their childhoods.

But mostly, they both hurt people–but Matt Murdock enjoys beating people up. Wilson also loves using violence– but he hates that he loves it.

Mostly, we can identify with Wilson because he does not want to rule. He’s no Marlo, he doesn’t care about the crown. He gathers power because he needs the tools to accomplish his goals.

Just to recap, in Season 1 of Daredevil, Wilson is working with 4 other interests to rebuild Hell’s Kitchen after the battle of New York. Which is kind of silly because Hell’s kitchen is here, and the battle was here, but whatever. He teams up with these gangsters to rebuild.

He insists that they all split the revenue equally, 5 ways. Even in his later appearances, he doesn't consolidate power for his own good, but for the good of the city. Wilson sees himself as a different class of criminal. He has a low opinion of the russians.

And he believes that his vision is what’s best for the city. How is that any different than most leaders or politicians? Some of our greatest leaders held a firm conviction that they were right. Hell, so did Captain America.

In fact, that’s a great comparison. Steve Rogers’ fondest desire was to leave the shield behind, and live a normal life. And Wilson wishes he could leave the city behind. .

But he sees the city as part of him–it’s in his blood. Which is tragic, because he also sees the city as dirty and diseased. So if he can clean up the city, then he can make a part of himself clean.

Wilson was raised in New York in the 1970s–when the city was at its dirtiest. On the inside and outside. Garbage strikes, high crime, summer of sam, Bronx is burning–it was a time when the lower classes felt like they could never catch a break.

So his dad decided that to break through this economic disparity, he would run for office, and join their club. So his dad preached this lesson, that the only reason people are poor is because they’re not man enough to go out and get what they want. So Willie grew up thinking that he had to be a better man than everyone else.