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The page for characters associated or working under Wilson Fisk. AKA: The Kingpin of crime.

Warning: Unmarked spoilers abound!

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The Kingpin's Syndicate

    Kingpin 

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wilson_fisk_earth_200111_from_punishermax_vol_1_5_page_22.jpg

Debut: Punisher MAX Vol. 1, #1

"When I was a kid, I had a dog. A ragged little mut. Don't know the breed. Found him in an alley out back of a peep-o-rama on 8th Avenue. Somebody'd burned out one of his eyes with a cigarette. I named him Bronco Nagurski. I snuck him into my room, hid him from my dad. Stole food for him from the Puerto Ricans down the hall. I had him for three weeks before he pissed on the rug. My dad found him, kicked the shit out of him while I watched, then threw him out the same window my mom jumped from the year before. Once the dog was dead, the old man came after me. Looking back now, I'm glad that happened when it did. I was 8 years old, but that was the last time I ever let myself cry... The last time I ever knew fear."


  • Abusive Parents: On the wrong end of this trope. Just look at his character quote.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: While not anywhere close to the worst in the series (which, to be fair, is one hell of a high hurdle to jump over), and is not vile without reason, this Kingpin is notably more self-centered than his more honorable 616 counterpart. He hesitates, but ultimately allows his son Richard to die by shooting down Rigoletto's men out of spite, and is a sexual deviant who treats Vanessa no different than his other harems, and has sex with Elektra even after she kills an entire room of people. Both of these traits would not apply to 616 Fisk, who genuinely loves Vanessa and Richard even long after their attempts at his life, would not faciliate their deaths even if his life was at stake and is far more careful and loyal to his spouses.
  • Arch-Enemy: Becomes this to the Punisher at the end of the "Kingpin" arc.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The head of a major crime syndicate, and definitely one of the more lethal characters in the series.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed. Although this cost him his life, he successfully killed Frank Castle, something no other MAX villain managed to do.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Wears a white, tailor made suit at all times.
  • Bald of Evil: Just like his Mainstream counterpart.
  • Bastard Understudy: He started off as this to Don Rigoletto. Learning everything he needed to from him, served as his bodyguard and then killed him and took over his criminal empire.
  • Big Bad: Unlike the other antagonist in the series. Fisk is notable for not being another one-off villain, or side villain, but the villain.
  • Bodyguard Betrayal: How he became the Kingpin in the first place — by betraying the Don he was supposed to be bodyguarding and usurping his position.
  • Boom, Headshot!: How the Punisher ultimately finishes him off, in the back of the head, coupled with Double Tap.
  • Bullying a Dragon: In one issue we see him revisiting his old home, all the while musing as to where the Punisher may be hiding. Only to soon harassed by a pair of hoodlums who now occupy his old house. Cut forward to the next page and we see the hoods laying in a pile of their own blood.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Despite what he looks like, he is NOT obese, his body is nearly pure muscle, and his strength is as close to human perfection as you can get. That fact that he is able to go toe-to-toe with Frank Castle pretty much tells you all you need to know.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: He is certainly saner and more calculative than most MAX villains — most of them are deranged psychopaths and/or violent rapists with an incredibly frightening sadism.
  • Death by Woman Scorned: After he vicious street fight with Frank Castle, he tries to retreat to the safety of his tower only to be told by his men that they are under orders to not let him in. When Fisk wonders who gave out this order he sees his wife at the top floor of his tower. With a martini in hand and a grin on her face. Cue the Punisher blowing Fisk's brain.
  • The Don: He inherits this titled after successfully betraying and killing his old boss.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His own selfishness dwarfed his love for his son, and he eventually admits to himself that really, It's All About Me. Still, he was apparently unable to bring himself to have his own wife executed, as his response to her turning on and trying to kill him was to merely kick her out of their home.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Ruthless crime lord he may be, he is nonetheless shocked when he finds out that Bullseye had three different families kidnapped and murdered. He's so shocked, that he fires him upon discovering this.
  • Face Death with Despair: Hardcore mob kingpin he may have been, in the end, he sheds a single tear when he realizes that he is about to meet his end at the hands of the Punisher.
  • Fat Bastard: Subverted. Although he is an incredibly huge person, this is because his muscles are so huge they make him look fat.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Went from being a meek chubby child, who was routinely abused by his father to being a street hood who was raped in prison to the crime Kingpin of New York.
  • Genius Bruiser: Much like Frank, he is every bit as intelligent as he is strong.
  • Gilded Cage: After he becomes, The Kingpin, he refuses to leave his tower out of fear of the Punisher. In the last arc, he reflects on the fact that even though he supposedly owns the city, he's basically become a prisoner in his own home.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He's this with his more demure and slim wife Vanessa. And later on with Elektra.
  • Hypocrite: Is disgusted and disturbed by Bullseye's actions, even though his own really aren't that much better. Of course, Fisk tortured and killed to eliminate loose ends or because he personally believed that the victims somehow deserved it because they (or someone who associated with them) had somehow slighted him. Bullseye, on the other hand, terrorized and slaughtered completely random suburban families for no real reason other than his own psychosis in the name of "studying" the Punisher.
  • I Own This Town: Deconstructed. Although he does own most of the criminal activity in New York, his refusal to leave his tower out of fear of being killed by the Punisher has effectively made him a prisoner in his own home.
  • It's Personal: Normally he likes to keep a very business oriented approach to his illegal pursuits, but that all changes the moment Frank digs up the remains of his eight year old son, in an effort to piss him off.
  • Kingpin in His Gym: The beginning of issue #17 shows him working out in a gym alongside his fellow henchmen.
  • Large and in Charge: Literally. He's 6'7 and weighs around 400 pounds.
  • Prison Rape: While serving his time in prison, he was gang-raped by five men and spent three weeks in the infirmary as a result of the vicious assault. He eventually gets back at them though.
  • Revenge by Proxy: How he got his revenge against Big Lucky, the convict that raped him in prison. Shortly after being released, Fisk brought several bums and junkies to Big Lucky's house, ordered to rape his innocent wife and took pictures which he mailed back to Big Lucky in prison. He broke out to find his wife dead and Fisk waiting for him, who proceeded to torture him for several hours before finally letting him die.
  • Self-Made Man: Manage to go from being a battered child to the crime lord of New York, without anyone's help.
  • Self-Made Orphan: After having to endure years of abuse from his monster of a father, he finally got his revenge by slipping a pair of drugs into his beer. Drugs that would leave him paralyzed, but still allow him to see and feel everything. Once this was done, he pulled out a bag filled with some of the hungriest, dirtiest Rats he could gather. And then proceeded to have the rats eat his father's face.
  • Slasher Smile: He sports one of these on his way to kill his former boss Don Rigoletto.
  • Stout Strength: See Charles Atlas Superpower above.
  • Throw the Mook at Them: Comically, he throws a nearby dead mook at The Punisher during his final battle with him.
  • Villain in a White Suit: After becoming the Kingpin of New York he is never seen without his signature cream white suit.
  • Villainous Breakdown: When Vanessa keeps him locked out of his own home to let the Punisher kill him, he's left sobbing as he's finally shot in the back of the head.

    Vanessa Fisk 

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vanessa_fisk_earth_200111_from_punisher_max_vol_1_5_page_21.jpg

Debut: Punisher MAX Vol. 1, #1

Wilson Fisk's loving wife and mother of his child. Notable for being one of the the few people that Fisk appears to have any affection for.


  • Adaptational Sexuality: In contrast to her main incarnations heterosexuality, here, she and Elektra are lesbian lovers.
  • Boom, Headshot!: While her death isn't shown, she's last seen with Nick Fury pointing a gun to the back of her head. It's pretty clear what happens to her after that.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: At the very end it looks like she's going to get away with everything she's done but Fury puts an end to that notion.
  • Karmic Death: She ends up dying the exact way the ex-husband she hated so much did: getting shot right through the back of her skull.
  • Killed Offscreen: The last time we see her she's groping around in the dark meekly asking if anyone is there. Then we see a panel of Fury holding a gun to her temple. You can probably guess what happens after that.
  • Last Disrespects: Sometime after his death, Vanessa dumps her husband's ashes down the toilet as one last middle finger to him.
  • Morality Pet: For her husband Fisk.
  • Woman Scorned: After her husband let their son die, she decides to dedicate the rest of her life to seeing him killed.

Hired Assassins

Wilson Fisk's own personal "Hired Help"

    Bullseye 

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shelton_pendergrass_earth_200111_0.jpg

AKA: Shelton Pendergrass
Debut: Punisher MAX Vol. 1, #5

"Dear God, it's me... Bullseye. We never spoke much before, so maybe it's a little awkward for me to be calling you up now, but this seems to me like a special occasion. Today is the greatest day of my life. Or at least it will be soon. If you played any part in things unfolding the way they have, God, well I do most sincerely thank you. And I ask only one little favor... This horrible reckoning of brutality and vengeance and the most depraved sort of violent shenanigans imaginable... Please just make it last."

Little is known about the early life of Shelton Pendergrass. At one point, he was in the army, serving as a military lawyer, but never once fired a gun. In 2005 however, he began a career as an assassin, taking the name "Bullseye" and refusing to answer to his real name, and making a reputation for himself for never failing to kill his target, no matter who they were.

He is also extremely deranged, claiming he needed to completely know his targets before he could kill them. Recently he has been brought in by Wilson Fisk to help him get rid of a certain pesky vigilante.


  • Adaptation Name Change: Most Bullseyes are named Lester. This one is Shelton Pendergrass. Given that they have a totally different modus operandi and backstory, one could argue that he isn't even an alternate Bullseye so much as a totally different character who happens to have the same alias.
  • Adaptational Personality Change: It's small, but this Bullseye ups the ante in terms of just how insane he is. 616 Bullseye was a psychopath to be sure, but he wasn't asking his enemies what their favorite colors were, nor was he cleaning his clarinet while watching said enemies do battle.
  • Ax-Crazy: Most MAX villains are depraved sociopaths, but Bullseye is genuinely insane.
  • Bald of Evil: A clean shaven chrome dome, and by far the most psychotically evil of all the characters.
  • Boom, Headshot!: He gets his brains blown out by Frank while laying on a hospital bed.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He is a sadistic, perverse, psychotic madman — but, he is also one of the greatest assassins in the world. And thus, continues getting a steady amount of employment despite his blatant mental instability.
  • Camping a Crapper: On the receiving end; when a pair of Russian thugs get the drop on him, they do so while he's right in the middle of taking a shit. To further add too the nausea, he proceeds to shit out a gun and kill off all the thugs.
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: He insists that once he studies Frank enough, he'll know everything about him. He even says that he can hear his dreams if he sleeps in a bed Frank has used. For most of the story it seems to be just more evidence of how insane he is. But in the end, not only is he able to pinpoint every one of Frank's safehouses in New York City, he's able to repeat to Frank the last words he said to his wife.
  • The Determinator: He takes pride in the fact that once he accepts a job, he will see it through no matter what; nothing short of his own death or his employer personally firing him can make him break a contract.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Although he succeeds in successfully getting into Franks head, the actual basic human emotions are what elude him.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Even cheerier than Barracuda, he's a friendly, smiley psychopath who commits mass murder as though it's eating cereal. Then he eats his victim's cereal.
  • Freudian Excuse: It's vaguely implied that he had an Abusive Father.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Once upon a time he was just an average lawyer working for the Army. Years later, through a mysterious series of events he would go on to become one of the most deranged and heartless monsters that the Punisher has ever met.
  • Guns Akimbo: In his second fight with Frank, he dual wields a pair of pistols.
  • Horrifying the Horror: Fisk's horrified response to him after he finds out what he did to an innocent Suburban family is pretty much this trope in a nutshell.
  • Inexplicably Awesome: No one has any idea how a former lawyer for the Army suddenly became one of the craziest most sadistic assassins to ever live. With combat skills worthy of rivaling that of the Punisher.
  • In Love with Your Carnage: Thinks Frank is the greatest thing ever, and is so happy he gets a chance to try and kill him.
  • Made of Iron: Although he may not be as heavy set as some of the other villains, he's still every bit as durable, if not more so than the rest of them.
  • Mad Hatter: Utterly insane, and fully aware of it.
    Kingpin: You're a madman.
    Bullseye: I kill people for a living. What did you expect?
  • Mysterious Past: He was originally a lawyer for the army. Kingpin isn't able to find out how he got from that to the mercenary he is now.
  • Name-Meaning Change: Unlike his mainstream counterpart, he does not have superhuman accuracy. His name instead refers to the fact he always gets his target.
  • Not Wearing Tights: Just like Frank, he eschews his traditional spandex in favor of a more practical casual outfit.
  • Perma-Stubble: He eventually grows one of these as his quest to get inside Frank's head intensifies.
  • Pet the Dog: As Vanessa Fisk is being kicked out by her husband, Bullseye takes her aside and advises her to abandon her plans for revenge, and to try to move on, lest she become a monster like him. This leads to Bullseye going off on a tangent about how his life has devolved into nothing but severe neurosis that he keeps at bay through killing, which is the only thing that makes him feel functional and alive.
    Bullseye: I'm glad we had this talk.
  • Poke the Poodle: During his introduction, he threatens to kill a man with a toothpick. He flicks it at his face...and it bounces off his forehead.
    Bullseye: Don't be stupid. I can't kill you with a toothpick. [pulls gun] But I can with this.
  • Practically Joker: For years his mainstream incarnation has been viewed as Marvel's answer to The Joker. His MAX incarnation takes this comparison even further. Being even more equal to the clown prince of crime in terms of bat shit insanity.
  • Professional Killer: A very, very perversely psychotic example.
  • The Profiler: After some unique investigations, he manages to get inside Frank's head perfectly.
  • Psycho for Hire: Perhaps the biggest example in the MAX series, which is saying something.
  • Silent Whisper: As his fight with The Punisher nears it's end. Bullseye whispers something into his ear. Frank's reaction implies Bullseye was spot on in guessing what the last thing Frank's wife ever said to him was. It's revealed 5 issues later, but if you get a magnifying glass you can see Bullseye said "I want a divorce".
  • Slasher Smile: Most of the time he sports a rather harmless cheery smile on his face that undermines his psychotic nature. Its the times that he sports one of these that you know you should run. Run as far and fast as you can.
  • The Sociopath: Even more so than the mainstream version.
  • Straight Edge Evil: Is not a fan of smoking, unlike his Earth-616 counterpart.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He fills out a very similar role that Barracuda once did. Both are extremely deranged, highly unpredictable, sadistic killers who develop an obsession with Frank Castle.

  • 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain: For some reason he has four bullet scars on his head. Most of them were probably the result of opponents aiming for the "bull's eye" tattoo on his forehead, but its implied that his insanity and resulting career choice may have been due to brain damage from the first head shot.
  • To Know Him, I Must Become Him: Bullseye takes this about as far as realistically feasible. He studies every place in the city where Frank has killed someone, he wears his clothes and sleeps in his safehouses, and he interrogates Frank's associates to find out every minor detail about him that he can. He even kidnaps families and rearranges the tragedy that Frank went through so that he can fully understand his motivation. It works, for the most part, he succeeds in successfully getting into Franks head, though the actual basic emotions eluded him.
  • Tom the Dark Lord: Would you believe that this ultra psychotic, highly unstable hitman would have a name as harmless as Shelton?
  • The Unfettered: He never had any limits.
  • Villainous Crush: His obsession with Frank comes uncomfortably close to bordering on this. What with him wearing Frank's old close and sleeping naked on his bed.
  • Worthy Opponent: It's obvious that he views Frank this way. Even Frank himself begrudgingly begins viewing Bullseye like this, after he realizes he's the closet thing that he has ever had to an equal.
    Frank: Someday, there may very well be a man much like this standing over me as I die.
  • You're Insane!: Fisk's response to him after he discovers how he went about conducting his "investigation".

    Elektra 

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elektra_earth_200111.jpg

Debut: Punisher Max Vol. 1, #17

A mysterious and extremely lethal assassin from a secret organization, hired by Wilson Fisk in order to ensure his survival.


  • Adaptational Sexuality: She went from being Daredevil's old flame to being in a relationship with Vanessa Fisk.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Whereas her mainstream counterpart usually came across as a morally ambiguous. Here, she is genuinely evil.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Her last words right before she dies are "No, wait!," in a fruitless attempt to stop the Hand from killing her.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Possibly. Despite her slim frame, she's able to not only match Frank blow for blow in a fight but actually overpower him. Granted, he's already badly injured and she's at least half his age...
  • Dark Action Girl: Coinciding with her Adaptational Villainy.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Repugnant killer she may be, she does seem to genuinely care for Vanessa Fisk.
  • Hime Cut: A rare western example.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Not only is she swift and nimble, but also capable of dishing out great amounts of damage in lighting quick succession.
    • Glass Cannon: However, once Frank starts getting in serious hits on her, she runs out of steam pretty quickly.
  • Muscles Are Meaningless: Although she lacks the muscle bound physique of other powerhouses in this series, that hardly matters as she is more than capable of matching and even overwhelming them in terms of sheer combat prowess.
  • Ninja: A highly trained Ninja working directly under the Hand.
  • Race Lift: Went from being a Greek white woman who happens to dress like a ninja to a Japanese woman.
  • Smug Snake: Definitely has shades of this, especially during her climactic fight with Frank. She spends much of it insulting his lack of speed and grace. This comes back to bite her, of course.
  • Stock Ninja Weaponry: She uses two Sai's as her weapon.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Falls victim to this after Frank destroys one of her hands and paralyzes her from the waist down. The Hand doesn't have much use for a crippled ninja, after all...

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