The sequel to BORN AGAIN (1986) sees Daredevil finally taking a shot at the Kingpin of Crime, messing with his mind to throw him off his game (even if it’s actually Hydra who do most of Matt Murdock‘s dirty work). And while all of this is going on, Wilson Fisk‘s own son is plotting against him with help from the Rose. The Kingpin is about to fall…and the title kinda gives the end away.
Despite some flaws, the Daredevil chapters are worth picking up to see how the feud between these two characters progresses in this major turning point in their respective lives. The Spider-Man‘s tie-ins aren’t particularly strong issues and are really only of interest if you wanted to see the next stage in the evolution of the Hobgoblin and the birth of the Demogoblin. And even then, it’s a story you might be better off missing.
Related Events: Originally run as ‘Last Rites’ – a four-part story in Daredevil’s ongoing series – the Kingpin’s fall also impacts the life of Spider-Man and his rogues gallery over in the Web of Spider-Man arc ‘The Name of the Rose’; these stories can be read separately, but make are part of a greater whole.
Must Reads: Essential chapters are in bold in the Core List, while in the Full Reading Order, issues marked with a ✔ are the essential stories.
Spoilers: The issue descriptions and fallout section contain spoilers, so be warned!
Want to keep it simple? Here’s the chronological reading order without story descriptions, or spoilers; issues in bold are ‘must-read’ chapters:
- Daredevil #297
- Web of Spider-Man #84-85
- Daredevil #298
- Web of Spider-Man#86
- Daredevil #299
- Web of Spider-Man #87-88
- Daredevil #300
- Web of Spider-Man #89
| Must Read | Title, Issue Number & Synopsis |
| ✔ | Daredevil #297 Daredevil breaks into Fisk Tower and taunts the Kingpin, leaving him with a photo of his wife to mess with him. Thoughts of Vanessa Fisk continue to plague him, making him reject Typhoid Mary‘s advances. Matt Murdock fails to convince Karen Page to get back together with him. As Daredevil, he confronts Typhoid and pushes her into returning to her ‘Mary’ persona. After sleeping with her, he alerts Social Services to her whereabouts and she’s taken away in a straight-jacket. |
| Web of Spider-Man #84 The Kingpin has brought his unwilling son and heir, Richard Fisk (formerly the Rose) into the family business. The Hobgoblin (Jason Macendale) is struggling between his human and demon sides in a police holding cell. Peter Parker is mistakenly credited for a photo essay piece in the Daily Bugle that was actually taken by Nick Katzenberg. The mob bosses Katzenberg was going to out go after Peter instead, first trashing his apartment and then attacking Aunt May‘s house. Spider-Man wards the mobsters off and we learn a new Rose is behind it all and he’s in league with Richard Fisk. 1st appearance: The Rose (full, identity unrevealed) | |
| Web of Spider-Man #85 (pp.1-16) The Kingpin continues to push Richard Fisk to make him strong enough to take over his empire, unaware that he’s planning on deposing him with the Rose. Sgt Blume of the NYPD makes Peter Parker realise there’s a price on his own head, rather than Spider-Man’s, despite someone discovering his Spidey costume in his apartment. Peter sends Mary Jane Parker and Aunt May into hiding after the Triad Brothers attack him and MJ in the street. Richard Fisk arranges for the Hobgoblin to be broken out of jail… | |
| ✔ | Daredevil #298 The Kingpin’s deal with a middle-American conglomerate to start his own media company turns out to be a ruse even he wasn’t aware of. The company is fake and the deal has actually been made with Hydra. SHIELD kidnap Matt Murdock and Nick Fury personally asks him not to pursue the Kingpin. Matt breaks free of SHIELD and learns of the Kingpin’s deal with Hydra from their files. Later, Kingpin violently rejects Hydra’s attempt to take control of his business. And Daredevil tells Nick Fury he knew they wanted him to go after the Kingpin… |
| Must Read | Title, Issue Number & Synopsis |
| Web of Spider-Man #85 (pp.17-22) Spider-Man hunts and defeats the Triad Brothers, not realising they serve Deathwatch. Richard Fisk demands Spider-Man’s death when he thinks the webslinger is onto his game… | |
| Web of Spider-Man #86 Spider-Man continues to cause waves through the underworld in the search for whoever called the hit on Peter Parker. Richard Fisk recalls his friendships with Alfredo Morelli and Ned Leeds, then falls out with the Rose over freeing the Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin goes after Spider-Man and Peter Parker, clashing with the web-slinger until he loses control of himself to the point where his human and demonic sides rip apart, becoming two separate beings – the human Macendale and the horrific Demogoblin… 1st appearance: Demogoblin (full) | |
| ✔ | Daredevil #299 Disguised as a mob member, Matt Murdock releases information about the Kingpin’s Hydra deal to the underworld. Daredevil makes a deal with District Attorney Kathy Malper to help bring down the Kingpin. Kingpin has Hydra agent Garotte kidnapped, only for it to backfire when Baron Wolfgang von Strucker sends a chopper to shoot the hell out of the top floors of his building and blow up his New York property holdings… |
| Web of Spider-Man #87 Sgt Blume checks in on the Parker home and hears Mary Jane’s message revealing where she and May are staying. Richard Fisk makes a deal with the Hobgoblin. Thanks to Nick Katzenberg, Spider-Man falls into a trap set by the Hobgoblin and the hi-tech hitmen, the Praetorian Guard. Things fall apart between the Rose and Richard Fisk. The Hobgoblin bombs the Rose’s hideout and takes Fisk to the scene of Spider-Man’s defeat… |
| Must Read | Title, Issue Number & Synopsis |
| Web of Spider-Man #88 Richard Fisk starts dramatically putting weight as he surveys the damage to Fisk Tower with the captive Spider-Man in tow. Hobgoblin and the Praetorian Guard flee with Fisk when the Rose’s men attack the building, allowing Spidey to break free. At the Daily Bugle, Joe Robertson reveals to Sgt Blume that Katzenberg took the photos of Richard Fisk and the Rose. The Rose finds Spidey in Fisk Tower and agrees to an alliance with him. Hitman attack the swelling Fisk in his home until he’s driven to kill one of them. Rose and Spider-Man arrive and Fisk shoots the Rose. Spider-Man unmasks him as Sgt Blume before he dies and someone else immediately claims the Rose identity. Safe at last, Richard Fisk shaves his head and announces himself as the new Kingpin. Identity revealed: The Rose is Sgt Blume New identity: Richard Fisk as the Kingpin | |
| ✔ | Daredevil #300 (pp.1-5) Wilson Fisk returns to Fisk Tower where Kathy Malper arrives with a warrant for his arrest… |
| Web of Spider-Man #89 In his first move as the new Kingpin, Richard Fisk wipes out a bunch of second-level gang bosses, calls for the death of Nick Katzenberg and proposes to his girlfriend, Rebecca. Spider-Man and the Hobgoblin join forces to track Richard Fisk down, finding him fighting his former best friend, the new Blood Rose. Spidey is distracted by the treacherous Hobgoblin while Blood Rose shoots Richard Fisk in the back. Fisk falls into the harbour and Blood Rose escapes before Spider-Man can catch him. New identity: [redacted] as Blood Rose | |
| ✔ | Daredevil #300 (pp.6-39) Out on bail after his court appearance, Wilson Fisk recalls how he placed Matt Murdock’s fingerprints on a billy club used to beat a taxi driver to death (expanding scenes from BORN AGAIN, 1986). The Kingpin heads down to the subway lock-up where he stored it and Daredevil shows up to claim it. Their epic brawl leads to the streets and ends in an alley where Daredevil tries to burn the club only for the Kingpin to save it, putting his own prints on it in the process. Rather than face jail, the deposed Kingpin disappears into the night. Malper restores law license and looks forward to defending his city that’s now free of the Kingpin of Crime… |
| Must Read | Issues & Fallout | Event / Crossover |
| ✔ | Daredevil #301-301 (1992) The Owl makes a play for the Kingpin’s territory. | |
| Marvel Comics Presents #109-116 (1992) Mary Walker is revealed to have been released and manipulates Wolverine into helping her until her Typhoid Mary persona takes control again. | ||
| ✔ | Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #42 (1992) Nick Fury continues his mission to take down Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and Hydra. | |
| ✔ | Daredevil #308 (1992) A war over the Kingpin’s territory breaks out between Hydra, the Secret Empire, Yakuza, the Hand, the Maggia and others; Wilson Fisk is seen living on the streets of New York, slowly building himself back up. | DEAD MAN’S HAND |
| ✔ | Spider-Man #24 (1992) Marvel Comics Presents #112 (1992) The Demogoblin gets a new colour-scheme and continues to pursue the Hobgoblin (Macendale); Demogoblin forms a strange kinship with Spider-Man’s Infinity War Doppelgänger. | GOBLIN KNIGHT THE INFINITY WAR |
| ✔ | Web of Spider-Man #97-100 (1993) ‘Richard Fisk’ is revealed to have survived; ‘Richard Fisk’ is revealed to be Alfredo Morelli (aka, the Schemer) who received plastic surgery to look like Fisk and aid in the real Richard Fisk’s attempted takeover of the Kingpin’s empire; Morelli appears to take on a new identity as Gauntlet, though this could be another ruse; Blood Rose is revealed to be the real Richard Fisk; Blood Rose and Gauntlet are apprehended by Spider-Man. | |
| Web of Spider-Man #101 (1993) Demogoblin joins Carnage and his band of murderers on their kill spree through New York. | MAXIMUM CARNAGE | |
| Daredevil #317 (1993) In Paris, Vanessa Fisk is revealed to be ‘saddened’ that her husband is missing. | ||
| Daredevil #325 (1994) Wilson Fisk attends Matt Murdock’s funeral when Murdock fakes his own death. | ||
| Marvel Comics Presents #150-151 (1994) Typhoid Mary next clashes with Daredevil. | ||
| Amazing Spider-Man #385 (1994) Nick Katzenberg reveals he has lung cancer, encouraging Mary Jane Watson-Parker to give up smoking. | ||
| ✔ | Spider-Man #48 (1994) Demogoblin is killed while saving a child. | THE ENEMY WITHIN |
| Daredevil #333-337 (1994-1995) Daredevil teams up with Wilson Fisk against corrupt businessman Walter Jenkins. | ||
| Amazing Spider-Man #398 (1995) Nick Katzenberg is revealed to have died. | WEB OF DEATH | |
| Daredevil #341-342 (1995) Daredevil and Wilson Fisk take down one of Fisk’s murderous former employees, Victor Krueller, who Fisk tried to burn to death; Fisk becomes a street-level gang boss. | ||
| Punisher #104 (1995) Wilson Fisk sends his men after the Punisher. | COUNTDOWN | |
| Daredevil #349-352 (1996) Matt Murdock and Karen Page get back together. | ||
| ✔ | Amazing Spider-Man #414 (1996) A new Rose emerges who is later revealed to be Jacob Conover. | |
| Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #1-3 (1997) Jason Macendale is killed by the original Hobgoblin who is revealed to be Roderick Kingsley and not Ned Leeds; Leeds is revealed to have been a brainwashed pawn of Kingsley. |
| Must Read | Issues & Fallout | Event / Crossover |
| X-Men #62 (1997) Wilson Fisk is revealed to have become a part of the Stark-Fujikawa corporate empire. | ||
| ✔ | Spider-Man: Made Men (1998) Wilson Fisk uses his position and influence at Stark-Fujikawa to restart his criminal empire in New York. | MADE MEN |
| Daredevil #5 (1999) Bullseye tries to kill Daredevil by throwing a sharpened billy club, only for Karen Page to step in; Karen dies in Daredevil’s arms. | GUARDIAN DEVIL | |
| ✔ | Daredevil #26-30 (2001-2002) Richard Fisk reveals to low-level criminal Sammy Silke that the Kingpin knows Dardevil’s true identity; Silke leads an assassination attempt on the Kingpin that costs him his empire again; Silke leaks Daredevil’s identity to the media which, in turn, leaks to the press; Vanessa Fisk has her comatose husband taken out of the country. | UNDERBOSS |
| ✔ | Daredevil #31 (2002) Vanessa Fisk kills her own son, Richard Fisk, for betraying his father. | |
| Daredevil #46-50 (2003) Wilson Fisk attempts to reclaim his role but is defeated by Daredevil who proclaims himself the Kingpin of New York. | ||
| Daredevil #76-81 (2005-2006) Wilson Fisk creates a fictional file on Matt Murdock that forces Matt to give himself up to the police, ending his era as New York’s Kingpin. | ||
| Daredevil #92 (2007) Emotionally weakened over murdering her own son, Vanessa Fisk finally succumbs to the disease that had been killing her for so many years. | ||
| ✔ | Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Jackpot #1 (2010) A fourth Rose (Phillip Hayes) first appears. | |
| Daredevil #15-18 (2015) Daredevil tricks the Kingpin and uses the Owl to reveal all of Wilson Fisk’s crimes to the public, ending his career. | ||
| Amazing Spider-Man #19 (2016) Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy #2, 4 (2017) Vanessa Fisk, Nick Katzenberg and the Rose (Sgt Blume) is cloned by the Jackal. | DEAD NO MORE: THE CLONE CONSPIRACY | |
| Daredevil #28 (2017) Having won enough public favour by opposing Hydra and fixing the vote, Wilson Fisk becomes Mayor of New York in spite of his past crimes. | ||
| Daredevil #600 (2018) A battle with the Hand leaves Mayor Fisk in a coma; Matt Murdock takes over as Mayor of New York. | MARVEL LEGACY |
| Collected Edition Title | Collecting… |
| Daredevil: The Fall of the Kingpin | Daredevil #297-300 |
| Daredevil Epic Collection: Last Rites (vol.15) | Daredevil #283-300 Daredevil Annual #7 |
Reading Order © Omniverse Comics Guide 2025
Leave a Reply