Villains And VigilantesWhen you look at the history of great hero/villain pairings you’ll find that they always share one very important trait, if not for a small twist of fate, a decision to turn right when the other turned left, the villain and hero are very much the same. It’s that commonality that draws them together and that forces them headlong towards their inevitable collision. This is why Wilson Fisk is undoubtedly Daredevil’s most iconic villain. Here we have two self-made men, born and bred on the streets of of New York, each with very different ideas of what’s best for their city. When Matt Murdock was bullied as a young boy his father taught him not to strike back with his fists but by hitting the books and bettering himself through education. Fisk was also bullied as a child but took the opposite tact, using his unusual size to take revenge upon his tormentors then enlisting them into a gang. This is just one of the many different forks in the road that Matt and Wilson have taken during the course of their lifetime and it’s the stuff of Marvel legend.With Great Power Comes..?Another common characteristic that every iconic villain has is that if you were given the opportunity to sit with them for a while and hear their view of the world and their reasoning for doing what they do, while you certainly might not agree with them, for a moment you might just understand why they feel and do the things they do. No real villain ever believes they’re an actual villain, Wilson Fisk certainly doesn’t. Bigger Than LifeFor my money, the best Fisk ever illustrated (aside from the incomparable John Romita, Sr.) has always been by Bill Sienkiewicz. I remember as a fan seeing his rendition of Wilson in Daredevil: Love And War and thinking to myself, this guys is working, not just on another level above every other artist at that time, but a whole other dimension. I love where he took the character and how bold and abstract he got with his size. It’s because of Bill that I’ve always had a blast drawing Fisk myself, he’s bigger than life to begin with but then to have the opportunity to play with those big shapes and his air of smug confidence is really just a lot of fun.While I’m not as brave as Bill as an artist, drawing Fisk allows me to be abstract and cartoony within the construct of a more grounded reality. The pages shown here are from Daredevil issue 13, Parts of a Hole, pages 13 and 17. Just look at the size of Fisk’s hands as compared to the poor dude who gets his arm ripped off on page 13 and how much bigger he is than every other person on the courthouse steps on page 17. It’s completely beyond the realm of possibility but yet I felt it was in keeping with Fisk and somehow still fit within the world. I mean seriously, how does he even get into that sedan at the bottom of the page? There’s no way I could ever have pushed those boundaries if not for guys like Bill that came before me and already laid the groundwork.Behind The PageThe reporter on page 17 works for the Marvel Knights Network: Marvel’s #1 News Channel.
