It was only a matter of time before Wilson Fisk look to reclaim one of his kingdoms. We’ve seen post-Devil’s Reign that Wilson Fisk has been slowly building up his connections again. That is largely thanks to his temporary residence on Krakoa, through his marriage with Typhoid Mary. That led him to become the White King of the Hellfire Club. Now with the release of this week’s Daredevil #9 we see that all of Fisk’s planning has paid off as he returned to the title that he made famous: Kingpin of Crime.
DAREDEVIL CHALLENGES BULLSEYE CREW
In Daredevil #8 in their first team up since Matt Murdock returned as the Man Without Fear he and Elektra Natchios had a clash with the returning Bullseye. Fighting two Daredevils proved to be too much for even Bullseye to compete with. Quickly realizing this Bullseye used his new weapon: the power of streaming. Knowing full well he was losing Bullseye used the threat of the two Daredevils beating up someone who already gave up being streamed all over the Internet.
That led into Matt and Elektra finding out about Bullseye new career as a motivational speaker spreading the word of crime to other criminals. This time around the two Daredevils were quick to put down Daredevil so he couldn’t pull his streaming stunt like before.
After defeating Bullseye, Elektra wasted to time in making sure every criminal in the West Theater knew not to mess with either Daredevil. Given how they efficiently defeated Daredevil, even if they vastly outnumbered the heroes, every criminal in the room quickly backed down. While Bullseye got a few criminals to attempt to attack the Daredevils it wasn’t very many. This showed once again that the both Elektra and Matt as Daredevil have a level of respect that only those threatened by Bullseye who were most armed and skilled criminals would even attempt attacking them.
MATT MURDOCK & FOGGY NELSON REUNION
Teaming up with Elektra wasn’t the only reunion Matt had in Daredevil #9. Following the events with Bullseye and learning about Wilson Fisk returning Matt made a big decision. That decision was Matt finally visit Nelson North: Legal Services and reveal to Foggy Nelson and Cole North he was alive. This is something Matt has been putting off as he was trying to completely have a fresh start as a priest helping orphaned children.
Initially Foggy and Cole happily welcome Matt back, relieved that their friend is still alive. It wasn’t until Matt talked about why he took his time to reveal his rebirth that Foggy lost it. Matt choose all of the wrong words trying to act like he was helping Foggy and Cole by making them still believe he was dead. Understandably, given how they’ve grown to consider each other as close as brothers, Foggy lost it with how selfish Matt was being.
Foggy’s reaction adds weight to Matt’s decision to hide his return. If Matt truly wanted a fresh start in his new life as a priest he didn’t do a good job making sure it would stick. He was still in the same surrounding that made the pull of returning to being Daredevil would be to strong to resist. Which is what happened and made it so he now has to face how his friends react to all his current and past lies.
WILSON FISK RETURN TO KINGPIN OF CRIME
Of all that happens in Daredevil #9 the details about Wilson Fisk’s return to the spotlight is the biggest of them all. Since Devil’s Reign ended Wilson Fisk was forced to have a reset of sorts. That reset came with Fisk using his marriage to Typhoid Mary to become a Krakoa citizen for a period. That led to Fisk eventually claiming new power in as the White King of the Hellfire Club.
While the White King of the Hellfire Club is a powerful position given what is going on in the Rise of the Powers of X and Fall of the House of X that power was at risk. At least that is what it looks like as Fisk has seemingly taken his son’s, Butch Pharris, spot as the Kingpin of Crime. That wasn’t very hard thing to do given Butch has been an absolutely failure in making any sort of impact as the Kingpin of Crime.
Interestingly, as Cole North found out through his investigations, Fisk has returned to being the Kingpin of Crime without Typhoid Mary by his side. That’s at least not publicly as Typhoid Mary did appear to be working as Fisk’s bodyguard during the Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War storyline. Kingping and Typhoid Mary not being seen publicly available could be part of Fisk’s renewed public play to gain greater power. Being seeing with villains by his side would not help this. Which does show that while Fisk will be using Typhoid Mary and Bullseye as his muscle he is also looking to use his political experience from his time as Mayor of New York City for public power.
Given how we’ve seen several big Marvel events built around Wilson Fisk, the return to being Kingpin of Crime is a big deal. As the Kingpin of Crime, Fisk is now once again at the center of all political and underworld dealings in the Marvel Universe. It could set the stage for Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War not being the last of that type of street-level event Marvel has plans for.
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