Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, is one of comics’ deadliest “normal” super-villains. He’s got no superpowers, but he does have a vast criminal empire that enables him to make life extremely difficult for superheroes like Daredevil and Spider-Man. While Fisk has a double life as a “legitimate” businessman, the Kingpin does not wear a costume. Even so, he still has a recognizable look: bald, with a white-and-purple business suit concealing his sumo wrestler physique. (All of Kingpin’s extra girth? It’s muscle, not fat.)
What inspired Kingpin’s design? Was it Lex Luthor, the other most famous bald villain in comic books? The going industry myth, backed up by John Romita Jr. (the son of Kingpin’s co-creator and a comic artist himself), is that Romita Sr. used actor Sydney Greenstreet as a model for Fisk. A British thespian, Greenstreet is most remembered nowadays for appearing in three 1940s pictures with Humphrey Bogart: “The Maltese Falcon,” “Casablanca,” and “Passage to Marseille.” Greenstreet’s role in “Maltese Falcon” as gangster Kasper “The Fat Man” Gutman is the one that probably most directly inspired Kingpin.
In a 2023 interview with the newsletter 5AM StoryTalk, Romita Jr. mentioned how his father was a movie buff; when Romita and his brother would watch movies with their dad, he’d talk to them throughout explaining the movie and its cinematic mechanics. Romita Jr. described this as his education in storytelling. Moreover, he also learned how his dad would base his drawings on characters’ faces in films. (Aside from Kingpin, Romita Sr. based Mary Jane Watson’s redhead look on the starlet Ann-Margret, giving Spider-Man comics a sizzling dash of romance.)
“He would use the image of some thug’s face that I’d seen in some of the films. I remember, I said, ‘Dad, I know that guy. I’ve seen his face!’ And he says, ‘Yeah, that’s Sydney Greenstreet. He’s the Kingpin.'”
The Kingpin debuted in “The Amazing Spider-Man” #50, the famous “Spider-Man No More!” story. You know, the one that inspired Sam Raimi’s superlative “Spider-Man 2,” down to the shot of Peter Parker walking away from his Spider-Man suit discarded in a garbage can.
Marvel Comics
In the issue, the set-up is that with Spider-Man temporarily gone, the Kingpin’s criminal businesses can flourish. But of course, Peter returns to being Spider-Man at the end of the issue. So, in issues #51-52, he has to face the Kingpin.