How Kingpin’s Painting In Daredevil Hints At His Past
Kingpin’s painting “Rabbit in a Snowstorm” hints at the character’s traumatic past, and serves as a lynchpin of his development over the course of his Daredevil season 1 arc. The enigmatic Wilson Fisk is granted a memorable entrance in Daredevil season 1, episode 3, “Rabbit in a Snowstorm,” where the camera pans to reveal the hulking figure of Fisk standing entranced before the white-on-white painting. The Kingpin is the shadow cast over the rotten core of Hell’s Kitchen, and he might have easily been a simple, shallow Marvel villain in line with the movie offerings around the launch of the series in early 2015. However, Daredevil uses the Rabbit in a Snowstorm painting to open a window into Fisk’s soul.
A strength of Daredevil is undeniably its ability to dive beyond the black-and-white surface of its characters, with Kingpin serving to fix the MCU's villain imbalance as an example of the show's ability to draw out the nuanced shades of grey in its antagonists and heroes alike. Daredevil uses the painting and Kingpin’s art dealer and love interest Vanessa to peel the layers of the strangely empathetic character back, revealing a traumatized childhood at the hands of a cruel father. Daredevil season 1, episode 8, “Shadows in the Glass” reveals that Kingpin’s abusive father sat him before a peeling white wall, reminiscent of the Rabbit in a Snowstorm painting, and demanded that he consider the type of man he wanted to become.
Related: The MCU Must Avoid Repeating Its Kingpin Mistake With Daredevil
In gaining possession of Rabbit in a Snowstorm, Kingpin is taking control of his narrative. The powerlessness Kingpin feels in his childhood echoes throughout his development into adulthood, and the trauma sticks to his soul
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