Wilson Fisk: A Sympathetic Villain

With Netflix constantly releasing new teaser videos (see the latest video below) and images for the upcoming season of Daredevil set to release on October 19th 2018, there has been a majestic spotlight on Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk. Get ready ladies, gents, and nonbinary folks for a little story on how Wilson Fisk is not just a villain.

When the audience is first introduced to Fisk in Daredevil season 1 episode 3 “Rabbit in a Snowstorm”, he is the last character we see before the credits roll at the end of the episode. He is not sitting in a dark room with henchman or blood on his hands, but quite the opposite, in fact. He is an almost too bright room, an art gallery, staring at a seemingly blank canvas painting, a large white painting with a bit of texture, like a white wall. He is dressed in an all black suit, standing directly in the middle of the painting, at the center of the room, entranced. When asked by the curator, Vanessa, (who will soon be the love of his life) how it makes him feel, he simply says: “It makes me feel alone.”

This man is our antagonist. But that is not how he is shown. If you strip away the entire episode and only leave this scene, we will have a lonely man staring at a painting and finding immense comfort in its muted simplicity. This is his first scene. Yes, he grows to be hated but he is still loved and capable of love. His love for his city, his love for his fiancé. He does not relish in his power, but he understands its necessity, though that does not take away from the brute force he is able to inflict; as a final line of defense, of course.