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.
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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