Profile: Vanessa Marianna Fisk

Vanessa Mariana Fisk

First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #70, March 1969

Creators: Stan Lee, John Romita Sr.

History: Vanessa Fisk (Marianna was her maiden name) was the wife of the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, and figured notably in a number of stories involving the ruthless, towering crimelord over the years in both Spider-Man and Daredevil's series. Though she was married to Kingpin, she did not approve of his criminal activities, and was later written trying to convince him to abandon his criminal career.

Was subjected to the following act of discrimination: many years later, in the 2nd volume of Daredevil, around issue 31, she was depicted murdering her son Richard, because he'd tried to bump off his father Wilson. And that was just the beginning of storylines where she was portrayed as descending into contrived and forced madness. Later, in the 92nd issue, she tried to have Daredevil murdered, as she blamed him too for all the troubles she'd gone through with the Kingpin. Then, she was depicting dying.

What's wrong with how this was done? After being depicted as an imperfect but decent person years before, this 360 degree alteration was utterly atrocious, and another example of how characters developed by Stan the Man were being thrown under the bus long after he'd left Marvel management. It was also some of the worst writing Brian Michael Bendis had begun, and Ed Brubaker had concluded.

Was there anything good to come out of this? Nothing. Like practically all the rest of the Marvel universe, even Daredevil's storytelling collapsed after the original volume ended in 1998, and till this day, hasn't and won't recover under a corporate ownership. A character like Vanessa Fisk deserved much better.