10. The Origins Of Wilson Fisk
When people think of the best Marvel villains they often name characters like Dr. Doom, Thanos, or even Galactus - but they are so wrong. Wilson Fisk is without a doubt the most complex and cruellest antagonist to ever grace the pages of a Marvel comic book, and actor Vincent D'Onofrio mastered this greatly in his on-screen portrayal. Combining cruelty with an uncompromising look at the self-proclaimed 'Kingpin of Crime', the significance of the 'White rabbit in a snowstorm' is made evermore apparent when Wilson's origins are explored through multiple flashbacks. Son to a loving mother and an abusive father, Fisk's emotional torment culminates in a physical crescendo that renders the viewer palpably horrified. To end the physical abuse of his mother, young Fisk takes a hammer to his father's skull multiple times, mirroring the brutality at which the character has often been defined by. The act itself is not unsympathetic, but it's the measures taken by himself and his mother after the attack that elevate the scene to uncomfortable levels of gruesomeness. Baptised in violence at an early age, this was the moment when everyone knew that this was a character who couldn't free himself from destruction.
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Ewan Paterson
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
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