One of the most feared villains in the world of Marvel Comics has just made it painfully clear how far he’ll go to stay in power.

Amazing Spider-Man #56 brings readers back to a time when Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, decided to take a break from his criminal empire and enjoy a safari vacation in the wilds of Mozambique. There, he imparts upon his fellow crime lord Alonzo “Lonnie” Lincoln, better known as Tombstone, the drastic measures that are necessary to keep the natural order in place by highlighting a lion who has just killed a young cub. When pressed about the analogy, Fisk doesn’t spin any metaphors for Tombstone to unravel, but rather simply states that he too would be willing to cross such a line to maintain his empire, even if it meant killing a child of his own.

Written by ZEB WELLS Art by JOHN ROMITA JR. Inks by SCOTT HANNA Colors by MARCIO MENYZ Letters by VC’s JOE CARAMAGNA Main cover art by JOHN ROMITA JR., SCOTT HANNA & MARCIO MENYZ Variant covers by RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE, JOËLLE JONES & RACHELLE ROSENBERG, PACO MEDINA & JESUS ABURTOV, and PABLO VILLALOBOS

Although Wilson Fisk is far better known as a Daredevil villain today than he is as a foe of Peter Parker, the character was an enemy of the Wall-Crawler from the moment he set foot in the Marvel Universe in the pages of 1967’s Amazing Spider-Man #50 by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. After suffering a painful childhood, Fisk took it upon himself to build an empire of his own by organizing various gangs under his own centralized control. This quickly gave rise to Fisk’s moniker as the Kingpin of Crime, one which he has fought to maintain over nearly 60 years.

Similar to Fisk, Lonnie Lincoln’s own rise through the ranks of the criminal empire began with a troubled childhood which led him to become an overt bully in school before finding work as a mob enforcer in his 20s. When Tombstone was introduced in 1987’s Web of Spider-Man #36 by writer Gerry Conway and artist Alex Saviuk, was already the head of his very own gang. In the years since, Tombstone’s influence has waxed and waned, although he has always come back stronger and deadlier than before.

Tombstone was one of the key figures at the heart of Marvel’s recent Gang War crossover event, which saw New York City split up between the various crime lords who rose up to take over in the wake of Wilson Fisk’s fall from grace. Also caught up in the chaos was Tombstone’s daughter Janice, better known as the villainous Beetle, who at the time was set to wed Randy Robertson, son of Tombstone’s former friend turned staunch rival Robbie Robertson. Tragically, an attack on their wedding drove a deep wedge between not just Janice and Randy, but between her and her father as well, driving the two to take drastic measures to unseat one another as NYC’s foremost crime lord.

Amazing Spider-Man #56 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.

Source: Marvel Comics