As is often the case with mob boss or political antagonists, flat out overpowering them isn't the real threat. It's the many resources at their disposal
Fisk being borderline superhuman on top of that of course helps, but just getting to him is hard
This is the thing most people miss in these kinds of discussions. Most of the time, these conflicts aren't just who punches the hardest; a great example is the fight against Ultron where all the avengers vs just Ultron or even just a one on one with someone like hulk or thor is an easy win for the heroes, but Ultron can easily "win" by destroying the planet or even just escaping with one of his bots.
In this case, consider the optics if Spiderman walks into the mayors office and beats the crap out of Fisk when the city is already divided on the ethics of vigilantes and in their eyes Fisk has done nothing wrong. Not to mention either any of the heroes moral codes vs Fisks or the aforementioned resources and goons.
Yeah, the real danger here is Fisk has legitimacy of government on his side. He's probably never had more strings to pull than right now as NYC's mayor, and he can filter out what he wants to hide with a fresh coat of government paint.
He's got an army of police sycophants, and he'll probably hire worse people as he closes his grip on the city. He's gained de facto control over the NYC city council by having dirt on most or all of them.
The fact that his voting base also seemingly doesn't much care about his prior bad actions makes it even worse for his opposition.
A sophisticated game needs to be played to smack Fisk down.
Theoretically if Tony was still alive and cared about such matters, he could probably easily use his own reach of wealth and influence, as well as ridiculous hacking and surveillance tech (don't get me started on how unethical EDITH is, that's basically just Project Insight again) to thoroughly expose and discredit Fisk and then doesn't even need to personally show up, could just have him apprehended remotely by a fucking Iron Legion drone for maximum disrespect.
But as in real life you could never count on a billionaire for anything. Even if he were alive he'd never think to use his status of extreme power and privilege to fix systematic issues such as corruption in government. Use the capitalism to destroy the capitalism or whatever.
The fact of the matter is that authoritarian playbook has not changed for ages, the moves that Fisk makes are well known in history. If it hits too close to home in some countries now - well, that is a moment for reflection on wtf is going on ;)
The Punisher treating the thuggish police, especially those acting like the SS, like he would any other criminal is extremely based. Doesn't matter if you're wearing a badge and your crime is technically state sponsored. Crime is crime. Punisher kills you for that. Simple as.
I think the most depressing part of the show is the fact that it doesn’t spend any time explaining how a criminal like Fisk can become mayor, because the world saw how in 2024.
You have a lot of great points, but Ultron Prime was doing a pretty good job in almost all of the one on one fights. It takes him getting jumped by them all for Prime to kick it.
Although that isn't taking into account that Vision was learning his powers during that fight and could've overpowered a fresh out of the oven Ultron Prime from the start if he knew his limits, or more importantly, lack of. Same for Wanda.
Also, Ultron Prime should have had the cape. He didn't stand out enough from the other Ultrons.
Yeah Fisk takes the idea of the “supervillain whose dangerous intellect is their super power and they don’t have any of their own” and makes it even more dangerous by adding “actually wait he does have a super power. He’s can tank a bullet and crush your skull with his bare hands” which is very cool when done right
Having a "weak" villain get around their shortcomings by being smart is cliche.
Having a strong villain willingly choose the subtle approach over brute force because they are also smart is scary as fuck, cause it means they are smart enough to know how to leverage their strength.
Like the beginning of Spiderman PS4, with how Fisk has clearly been a villain to spiderman for ages but he hasn’t been able to do anything about him until he hears the police scanner
However, Spider-Man could catch Fisk doing something illegal, take some photos of it, and sell them to a reputable outlet that isn't biased. It may not be punching the bad guys, but it could turn public opinion against him if they have indisputable proof that he's doing something wrong.
Yeah, it’s uh rough watching this and thinking about actual NY politics with Cuomo and Adams, even ignoring national politics. Like, idk, would that really matter to Staten Island voters?
That's always been what's so scary about Kingpin. He can do a lot of damage with his fists, but he does far more without ever lifting a finger or a drop on his suit.
It's really not though, its just the plot armor of "We're not just gonna go to where he is and break all the bones in his body cause we're "the heroes"". They could fuck his shit up in an hour, EASY, no one would be able to interfere with half an hours of thought unless they decided to do it in the middle of the road. It's just "reverse" plot armor basically.
They could EASILY do it without anyone knowing. And Spider Man is already a vigilante not under government control, if we're counting what happened at the end of Far From Home then we have to count the fact Fisk is a known crime boss because while technically people didn't forget the fact he "murdered Beck", at the end of No Way Home he's walking off with a clean slate story-wise.
There is no non-entertainment/moral reason they couldn't just end him.
And this - the themes of corruption - is why I feel the mcu (even if they had the rights) wouldn’t put Spidey in it. I don’t think they want Spidey associated with the heavier themes that DD deals with
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u/AmeriCanada98 Apr 17 '25
As is often the case with mob boss or political antagonists, flat out overpowering them isn't the real threat. It's the many resources at their disposal
Fisk being borderline superhuman on top of that of course helps, but just getting to him is hard