First Look: CIVIL WAR II: KINGPIN #1

When hero fights hero – where does that leave the villains? As Civil War II engulfs the Marvel Universe, criminal mastermind Wilson Fisk makes his big move! Today, get your first look inside CIVIL WAR II: KINGPIN #1 the new Civil War II tie-in series coming this July. Rising comic stars Matthew Rosenberg (We Can Never Go Home) and Ricardo Lopez Ortiz (Wolf) bring you a gritty street-level view of the epic upcoming event!

A new Inhuman with the ability to predict the future has helped the heroes of the Marvel Universe stop crime before it even happens. But amid this crackdown on the villains, one man has found a way to thrive. Wilson Fisk has a secret, and its helped him stay a step ahead of the good guys and keep his criminal enterprise running like clockwork. But how? What is his secret?

What secret is Fisk keeping that’s kept his house of cards from tumbling down? More importantly – what will happen when that secret gets out? Don’t miss CIVIL WAR II: KINGPIN #1 when it comes to comic shops and digital devices this July!

CIVIL WAR II: KINGPIN #1 (of 4) (MAY160751)

Written by MATTHEW ROSENBERG

Art by RICARDO LOPEZ ORTIZ

Cover by AARON KUDER

Variant Covers by ESAD RIBIC (MAY160752)

And SKOTTIE YOUNG (MAY160753)

Black Panther 50^th Anniversary Variant by JAMIE MCKELVIE (MAY160754)

FOC – 06/13/16, On-Sale – 07/06/16

If this was just a Kingpin mini and nothing to do with Civil War I would buy it

I really like that Black Panther variant.

Dangit. I wasn't going to buy any CIVIL WAR tie-ins. But this looks interesting. Wish the script was included so i could see if I like it.

Can anyone name everyone at the table? i see Kingpin, Lady Bullseye, Jigsaw, Hammerhead, and the Enforcers. Who's the guy to the bottom right and the black dude? Turk?

Night Thrasher!

UM Curious.....in the first Cover uh where are the ALL crawling out off some huge bottomless pit of hell?? LOL

Bout time one of them did something. I hope he wins, the heroes in the mu aren't worth much.

What is with that art?

There should be laws against drinking and drawing.

Last page, it's attack of the wet cardboard hero zombies

Is that scarface? Thought hes dead.

It's like we forgotten that there are actual villains that probably are sitting around with nothing to do :/

Scotty Young cover is awesome!

At the very least the villains should be waiting around for the heroes to exhaust each other while fighting, then when one hero is down and the other is dead tired from the fight the villains swoop in and take out both of them.

@mark_stephen: the villains ain't that smart

All muscle my ass.

I think he's Jigsaw. Is there a Scarface in the Marvel U?

I can see this being cool

looking forward to this, however that art is very similar to squirrel girl, silk, and kinda like spider-gwen... you either hate it or love it.

That art is simply horrible! That's a pretty huge turn-off for me.

They are smart enough to build multi-billion dollar enterprises.

I was never the biggest Night-thrasher or even a New Warriors fan, but im looking forward to seeing what Night-thrasher can do now that hes back in the land of the living

@dd208: Sorry, I thought of Jigsaw. Is Jigsaw alife?

I might check this out. Fisk is always cool.

The plot is intriguing, but the art might be a deal breaker for me...I'll wait and see though I guess.

Night Thrasher!

Resurrected in Contest of Champions, for those who weren't aware.

@JamesSpiring: I thought that would be a temporarily thing, that he would go back to being dead.

Not that I complain:)

@JamesSpiring: I thought that would be a temporarily thing, that he would go back to being dead.

Not that I complain:)

When you were expecting the interiors to look like the Esad Ribic cover, and then you see what it's actually like... oi

This book may pull me into the comic shop. Might buy the xmen mini also.

@titanbreaker: art is relative. I can see where this art is not up to the status quo. But that carved pig on the table looks awesome. Also the backround art is fully drawn. Kingpins red eyes may look awesome on Comixolgy, curious how the colors will work.

@mark_stephen: enterprises the fighting heroes continuously break up in the midst of their timeouts

If that were really the case the Kingpin would have been out of business years ago. They've stopped a scheme or two but how much of an impact have they really made on criminal enterprises like his? I think the villains are just as smart and smarter in some cases than the heroes, but that the heroes are luckier.

@mark_stephen: well now you're narrowing it down to a single villain. The initial post I made my comment to was villains as a whole. Which aren't that smart in marvel. Or they'd use all the in-fighting to take advantage and start removing heroes from the picture

Agreed.

@mark_stephen: cool. Kingpin can only do so much and I feel you on him. But it's miniscule to the overall power hierarchy in the villains world. His money only affords him use of a few street level threats.

True, but by the same token the individual villains tend to be here today, prison tomorrow, here the next day, basically one trick ponies. Which maybe is why marvel keeps doing the hero/hero fighting, even if the heroes still have the same powers there is an extra level of drama when friend fights friend as opposed to friend fights foe. With a foe you have to spend a lot of time -or you should- creating the foe, the character, motivations and powers, developing everything over a long period of time for the really good ones. It's easier to just have hero fight hero; just make them unreasonable or downright dumb and have them forget or ignore any possible solution to a problem other than pounding the other hero into the ground and shedding some crocodile tears. It's all going to be forgiven/forgotten in a year or so anyway, so marvel goes for the quick stunt instead of the involved story. As long as it sells they don't really have to put the effort into creating a Norman Osborn or a Kingpin, they just have to make Carol and Tony (with others) act like immature idiots and the issues sell.

Still if they made the villains really smart and really a challenge I think it would make for interesting stories. As it stands in marvel the villains are really only hobbies that the heroes battle between the truly serious business of battling and back stabbing their friends.

I like the art. The first cover page is kind of intense. Like... whoa! That is a lot of villains. Plus, my mind wonders as to why those villains were selected out of the cacophony of choices. (+)

@mark_stephen: when it comes to the villains I feel like that's where marvel could take a few pointers from DC. The injustice league might've been corny by today's standards, but it made way for storytelling involving immense villain interaction throughout DC. I'd like marvel to try a modern uptake along the lines of "anti-avengers" using their villains list. With the lighthearted nature throughout their line a book like that would hardly be corny. Especially because the characters themselves would likely be self aware and crack jokes on their situation. I think marvel could pull it off. Normon Osb. & Kingpin on the same team not killing each other but not liking the other trying to call shots. Throw task master in their and a few others.

It's a thought. In my opinion the villains marvel has been using in the past few years have been pretty un-remarkable. A team up with a couple of competent villains might not be so bad.

That first variant cover is pretty cool but I'm not blown away otherwise.

@mark_stephen: If only sighhhhhhhhhhh need more villains doing their thing instead of this shit. If only this wasnt a civil war 2 tie in XD

Well in the main title it looks like Tony is kidnapping Ulysyss, which I guess to the marvel staff qualifies as heroism so long as he does it, if a super villain did it then it'd be wrong.