New York's Kingpin of Crime, aka Wilson Fisk, is one of Marvel's most down to earth villains. Whether caught up in the War of the Realms or leading a resistance cell against Hydra's Secret Empire, the Kingpin always has an angle that will benefit his own criminal ends. It's this tenacity that led Fisk to become the mayor of New York City and claim the legitimate power he has always craved, but it turns out that even the Kingpin's empire didn't start from scratch, and his predecessor started out by killing a hero from the Golden Age of Marvel.
The Golden Age describes a period of comics in which superheroes were tightly tied to 'pulp' crime writing, and many heroes were masked but mostly powerless crime-fighters happy to defend America's interests with lethal intent. As unique characters took more definite shape and the medium grappled with its use of adult content, the face of the masked crime-fighter changed, but both Marvel and DC have been conscious to bring many of their Golden Age heroes into modern continuity, often as a 'first generation' of heroes.
In Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev's Daredevil #66, former gangster Alexander Bont is released into the modern Marvel universe - a world he barely recognizes after spending the majority of his adult life behind bars. Enraged by a news story revealing Matt Murdock as Daredevil, the costumed hero who got him locked away, Bont goes on a Mutant Growth Hormone-fueled rampage, nearly killing Daredevil before suffering a fatal heart attack thanks to the physical strain of the drug. But it’s in this storyline’s flashbacks that readers see Bont’s rise to power and the criminal structure that allowed Wilson Fisk to become Daredevil’s most powerful enemy. Bont starts off as a mob middleman, ferrying diamonds to a cell of Nazi spies operating within Hell’s Kitchen. The meeting is crashed by Thomas Halloway, aka the Angel - a character emblematic of Golden Age pulp heroes, and a recurring character in the world of X-Men Noir.
Bont gets the drop on the Angel, knocking him unconscious and escaping with the diamonds, but he’s shaken by the encounter. When he learns that mob leader Lucky Luciano has been deported, Bont resolves to try and claim the top spot, unwilling to allow the new fad of masked crime-fighters to get in his way. Bont’s philosophy pays off when his attempt to seize power is interrupted by Don Stevens, aka Defender, a Golden Age hero introduced in 1941's U.S.A. Comics #1. Getting the drop on Defender, Bont shoots him from behind in front of the assembled mobsters, earning himself an instant promotion to head of the New York mob.
It's a brutal end for a hero who, among many accomplishments, helped liberate Berlin from Nazi control, but it puts Bont on top - a position he would hold for many years until eventually being toppled by a young Daredevil. The final page of Daredevil #70 shows Wilson Fisk resolving to visit Hell's Kitchen and investigate the opportunities springing up in Bont's absence.
It's the beginning of Fisk's rise to Kingpin, and while there was still competition ahead - Fisk would also have to contend with Don Silvio 'Silvermane' Manfredi's Mafia-inspired 'Maggia' crime family - he would even go on to inherit the superhero who stopped Bont for good. Unfortunately for Matt Murdock, the Kingpin quickly learned a lesson that Alexander Bont never could: Marvel's criminals can't ignore the superheroes in their midst, but they can work around them.