Wilson Fisk’s Kingpin has always had a mixture of physical brawn and political savvy, but Marvel’s Spider-Man made the crime lord far more intimidating on both accounts. It took the full weight of the NYPD plus Spider-Man to battle gun- and RPG-toting Fisk goons as they ascended Wilson’s skyscraper, for instance, and some of the accompanying police force even out themselves as working for Kingpin by turning their assault rifles on Spider-Man. Kingpin hasn’t played as big of a role in the franchise thereafter, though he certainly deserves to and could fill what’s become a friendly neighborhood niche in Marvel’s Spider-Man.

Oswald Cobblepot’s Penguin, specifically in the Arkham games, is of a similar ilk. Batman does admittedly have a lot of enemies who are crime lords, and yet Penguin has always been a sort of Jabba the Hutt-esque antagonist in that regard due to how egotistical and obnoxious the monocled and umbrella-wielding villain is. Penguin is also one of the most consistently recurring antagonists in the entire Arkhamverse, allowing him to express his unique charisma time and time again, and that’s arguably the same treatment Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Kingpin deserves.

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Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Kingpin and the Arkhamverse’s Penguin are Two Sides of the Same Coin

The difference between Kingpin and Penguin’s dichotomies is unmistakable and stems fully from where they call home: New York City, while home to many superhero and supervillain encounters, is still run like a normal society and brimming with a nonchalant population that’s meant to be representative of real life; meanwhile, Gotham City is a cesspool, even in the Arkhamverse, with corrupt politics and rampant serial murderers who only have a Caped Crusader and a half-baked police force to prevent a total societal collapse.

In Kingpin’s case, now that Wilson Fisk has been incriminated and incarcerated it would be much harder for him to get his name back in public graces in a way where he could ever resurface in New York City and have any kind of hold over it, which is a throughline Netflix’s Daredevil series grappled with in every season. In Penguin’s case, Oswald Cobblepot practically ran the criminal underworld in Arkham City with rivals Two-Face and Joker lacking the same kingly presence Penguin had while he still maintained the museum as a massive stronghold and wielded Mr. Freeze’s freeze ray.

But even in Arkham Origins , which is set in Gotham and not a city-wide supervillain stronghold, Penguin was notably less afraid of Batman than anyone and that went a long way in demonstrating how smug, powerful, and untouchable he was during those formative years of Bruce Wayne’s crime-fighting career.

Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Kingpin Has Probably Been Stretched as Thinly as Possible

Kingpin can’t be a crime lord who is pompous and arrogant while running New York City’s streets because he’s actually held accountable for his actions. Indeed, New York City has the ability to lock him up—even if that resulted in an epic siege on Fisk Tower—whereas Penguin is free to rule crime in a Gotham City that’s chaotically unruly and festering with the DC mythology’s most heinous antagonists.

Kingpin eluded Kraven’s hunt in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which could suggest that Insomniac has future plans for the character. However, the developer is also in a position where it could leave Willy well enough alone for other villains to have representation instead and it’d likely need a good excuse for why and how Kingpin could be reprised purposefully.

Either way, Kingpin returning would be fantastic because he could represent good-ol’ street-level crime while Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 continues to delve into matters much more theatrical and fantastical such as chemically enhanced goblins and space-faring alien symbiotes. Ironically, that is precisely the role Penguin plays in the Arkham games amidst duplicitous mud monsters and undead brutes.