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Vincent D’Onofrio’s fan-favorite Wilson Fisk/the Kingpin made his full return in Hawkeye episode 6, the now-streaming finale. But his brief arc in the season’s final episode led to a somewhat shocking twist for the character’s presence in the MCU, leaving big questions about his future.
Spoilers ahead for Hawkeye episode 6
In the episode’s waning moments, Kingpin limps through an alley having narrowly survived getting hit by a car (driven by Eleanor Bishop), and subsequently being blown up by Kate Bishop. There, he encounters Maya Lopez/Echo, his enforcer/adoptive daughter.
The pair have a confrontation over Kingpin’s role in her beloved father’s. Under the orders of Fisk, another of his underlings Kazi (Maya’s love interest) leaked the location of a meeting attended by her father to Clint Barton back in his Ronin days when he was murdering criminals by the dozens. Kingpin wanted her father dead and Ronin gave him what he wanted.
Clint revealed Kingpin’s role in his death to Maya in episode 5, and in the closing moments of the Hawkeye finale, Echo confronts her ‘uncle.’ But things seemingly don’t go well for Kingpin, as Maya raises a gun to his head, and as the camera cuts away, a gunshot rings out – implying that Maya just shot Kingpin in the head.
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That may seem like a fairly cut-and-dried if an ignominious ending for a character fans have clamored to join the MCU at large, and who is widely regarded as one of Marvel’s best adaptations from page to screen. But there’s a comic storyline that ties directly into this beat from Hawkeye, and which may provide an immediate backdoor for Kingpin to return from his gunshot wound.
Echo’s comic backstory is much the same as in the MCU, with a few differences. In comics, rather than Ronin killing her father, one of the Kingpin’s assassins murders him, with Kingpin subsequently raising Maya to believe that Daredevil killed her father.
In the story Daredevil: Parts of a Hole (opens in new tab), Maya’s thirst for revenge sends her after Daredevil, who reveals the truth of Kingpin’s betrayal to her, leading her to turn on Kingpin and, as in the MCU, shoot him in his face.
But in comic books, Kingpin’s survival is quickly spelled out. Rather than dying from the gunshot wound, Kingpin survives, though he is blinded – creating an odd parallel between Wilson Fisk and his arch-enemy Daredevil (though Kingpin’s blindness is later cured).
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Considering the MCU version of Kingpin’s intense popularity – and the fact that we didn’t see a body, which in superhero media usually means there isn’t one to see – suggests that this story could be further adapted into the MCU, likely in the upcoming Echo streaming series that spins off from Hawkeye.
Fisk’s final words right before the gunshot might also provide a clue to his fate. “….Sometimes family doesn’t see eye to eye,” he says, which might be a clue to his survival but blinding as a result of his wounds.
Whether Kingpin shows up in Echo or not, Marvel Comics has already provided the MCU with a perfect angle to keep Kingpin going, despite the seeming cliffhanger of his offscreen death – and it’s unlikely they’ll simply leave that cliffhanger dangling, especially with a story in place to provide an answer.
Kingpin ranks at the top of the best Daredevil villains ever.
