| “ | ...You can't give birth to a child and walk away from his murder... the blood may wash off your hands, but it stains your soul... | „ |
| ~ Vanessa Fisk |
Vanessa Fisk is a supporting antagonist in the Daredevil franchise, serving as the wife of Wilson Fisk.
Biography[]
Though Vanessa loved Kingpin deeply, she sometimes disagreed with his ways of crime. Together they had a son and named him Richard. At some point during the pregnancy, she once took a sewing needle and pressed it against her belly in fear of bringing her baby into a world of violence and crime. When their son was older, they sent him away to Switzerland for his education. Richard came back at one stage wanting to take over his father's empire as the Schemer and faced both his mother and father.
The Kingpin is quite possessive of his wife. However, she was lost in the sewers of New York and believed dead for some time. Daredevil rescued her from "The King" of the sewers and returned her to her husband for a price. The price was that the Kingpin had to remove his corrupt candidate, Randolph Cherryh from the ballot. Fisk readily agreed.
Perhaps as a result of this and other perceived threats, the Kingpin hired a minor actress to impersonate Vanessa so that she would not fall victim to kidnapping or future extortion from his adversaries. One particular impersonator, Heidi Devoto, died after she was kidnapped by Micah Synn.
Vanessa once splits up with Wilson Fisk, but she returned to New York when she found out her son had tried to kill her husband. Richard had teamed up with an old friend of his Sammy Silke and others in order to assassinate his father, Wilson. Furious, she started cleaning up the underworld, starting with the murder of a small-time hood named Falzone.
Then eventually she confronted her son Richard who after an exchange of words, promptly killed. After this, she took her husband away to recuperate. She was recuperating for a while in Switzerland but succumbed to her disease that developed from the pain of killing her son and died. Prior to that she was the ringleader of the operation that relating to Murdock and her husband's arrest by the F.B.I., as well as faking Foggy Nelson's murder, and hiring Iron Fist to pose as Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen and using Tombstone and Lily Lucca to lead Murdock on a journey throughout Europe. She did this out of revenge, blaming both Daredevil and Wilson for her current situation.
Sometime after her death, Murdock would honor her last wish and get the charges against the Kingpin dropped, under the condition that Wilson gives up his U.S. citizenship. Years later her body was recovered by the Hand, and she was brought back to life with the purpose to kill her husband in order to test him if he still a worthy leader for the Hand.
The two battled, but Wilson didn't want to kill his wife and tried to reason with her, asking her if there was any trace of her old self to show it to him so he can see to it that she is not harmed by anyone, and when it seemed like his efforts were futile, the Kingpin broke her back to kill her. However, much to his horror he discovered, too late, that she was aiming for an attacker behind him to save his life. Vanessa died her second death in the arms of her devastated husband who buried himself deeper in crime.
Later the second Jackal (Ben Reilly) created a clone of Vanessa, hoping to use it to convince Fisk on funding his company New U Technologies, but Wilson quickly killed the clone, which he felt deep down the clone was an insult to the memory of his late wife.
In other media[]
Spider-Man: The Animated Series[]
In Spider-Man: The Animated Series Vanessa was voiced by Caroline Goodall. In this series, she is the ex-wife of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, and the mother of Richard Fisk.
Unlike her original counterpart, this version is not portrayed as a villain. While she did love Wilson, she did not support his criminal career. Even though they were now wealthy, Kingpin continued to use crime to enhance his wealth. Vanessa tried to convince Wilson Fisk to give up his life of crime since they now had enough money to last a lifetime. However, Kingpin was consumed by crime and refused to stop. After being kidnapped by Tombstone for the Kingpin's archenemy Silvermane, Vanessa eventually becomes fed up with the fact that crime had taken over Wilson's life, and leaves him, presumably divorcing him.
Daredevil Netflix Series[]
Vanessa was a supporting character in the Netflix TV Series, Daredevil where she was portrayed by Ayelet Zurer. In the series, she is given the maiden name Marianna and is shown to be a wealthy art dealer who supported Wilson Fisk. She first encounters Fisk after he buys an expensive painting from her, and she ends up becoming his love interest throughout the duration of the series. Before he is arrested, Fisk proposes to Vanessa. She decided to wait for Fisk when he escaped from the FBI. However, after Fisk is arrested, she decides to leave the country with the engagement ring on her finger, deciding to marry him after he gets out of prison.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse[]
Vanessa appeared as the overarching character in the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse, where she was voiced by Lake Bell, who also voiced Poison Ivy in the DC Universe adult-animated series Harley Quinn. Just like her original counterpart, she is the beloved wife of Kingpin and the mother of their son Richard. However, in a moment of tragedy, when leaving Kingpin after witnessing him fighting Spider-Man, Vanessa tried to keep Richard from looking back. By taking her eyes off the road, she did not see the truck coming, which resulted in their deaths. This act incited a mourning Kingpin to lay down his plan of opening a particle accelerator to reconnect with alternative versions of his wife and son. He briefly succeeds, but the alternate Vanessa and Richard also leave Kingpin, which drives Kingpin into a murderous rage as he tries to kill Miles Morales with his bare hands. Like her counterpart from Spider-Man: The Animated Series, this version of Vanessa is not portrayed as a villain. She was also unaware of her husband's criminal activities, as she was disgusted with her husband after seeing him attack Spider-Man.
Trivia[]
- Vanessa Fisk was created by the late Stan Lee and the late John Romita Sr.
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