Elias Stone (Earth 130894)

History
"What little you must think of me. I do not command respect and instill fear into my enemies because of bloodline. Hiding behind one's Family tree is a trick for cowards to create demons from shadows. I am feared and respected because I earned the name, Kingpin."

Elias Stone in reference to his Family's history.

Hiding in plain sight, Elias Stone was a name that only strook fear into the hearts of aspiring businessmen that wanted to grow an expand in the City. Stone was a wealthy businessman and held a confident and generous view in the public eye. It is rumoured that he owns or has shares in at least 64% of all large businesses in New York.

However, Elias Stone was in reality the most powerful crime boss in the entirety of New York City. To say he had a finger in every pie would've been an understatement. He was the Son of Richard Fisk and an unnamed Woman of African American decent, making him the Grandson of the infamous Wilson Fisk, one of New York's pioneering crime lords who reigned from the 1930's until the 1950's. Although some believe that Stone only inherited the mantle of Kingpin through his Family's name and reputation, he has proven a multitude of times that he is capable enough to own the title. Together with his right hand man, Tombstone, he rules over New York's criminal underworld with an Iron Fist.

The Man In The Shadows.
He is first referenced (as the Kingpin) by a TLK gang member in Competition as being their previous weapons supplier, but claims that their new supplier is 'killing the competition' with their new and advanced weaponry. After some time searching, Elias eventually finds out through a (still loyal to him) TLK gang member that the new supplier of weapons came courtesy of a man named Ben Boyce, whom Elias sends Tombstone to interrogate in In The Name Of Science (2).

Tombstone discovers that Ben Boyce was a well known arms dealer in the past, but more importantly a middle man for Oscorp. Intrigued, this leads Elias to make contact with Norman Osborn, marking his first appearance through a video call. Norman reveals that with his advancements in weaponry, he can make a small extra profit off of illegal arms dealings ("off the book of course"). Kingpin warns him never to cross him ever again.

A man of his word, Kingpin hires the Mexican mobster and former leader of The Silentos Gang: Mac Gargan, who had recently gained a reputation for becoming the Super Villain known as the Scorpion. He sends Tombstone to convey Kingpins orders to him, which are to kidnap Normans Norman's Son Harry and hold him for ransom. Happy to oblige, Gargan accepts.

Scorpion successfully kidnaps Harry while at the family home and warns Norman that this is the price for crossing the Kingpin. Scorpion demands that Norman deliver a million dollars in cash to a disclosed location by Midnight the same day or forfeit his Sons life. However, upon delivery of the million dollars Scorpion attempts to bribe Norman of more money. When Norman refuses, Scorpion attempts to execute Harry but is stopped by Spiderman.

When the new reaches Elias, he is initially satisfied that the warning had been conveyed as he wished. However, he was under the impression that the Scorpion had been arrested only to later find out that he had fled New York with the ransom money that Osborn delivered, much to Stones annoyance.

Feud With The Green Goblin & The Symbiote
Shortly after, Elias starts to receive reports that his weapons stores and several other warehouses in his employment are being attacked by a 'flying monster' who was armed with high tech weaponry. Elias deduced that this must be retaliation from Norman after the attempt on his Son's life a week earlier.

Stone was due to attend a public opening of a new chain of restaurants that his company had recently acquired, only for this this flying monster (who had came to be known as the Green Goblin) to emerge from the shadows of myth to finally confront him. Narrowly escaping death at the hands of the Goblin's pumpkin bombs, Elias had no choice but to retreat whilst his attacker battled Spiderman.

Eventually, the Green Goblin blasted his way through the top floor of 'Stone Tower', his central place of operations. Green Goblin introduced himself as an agent of Norman Osborn, but Elias argued that he knew it was somehow Norman behind the mask. After a brief shootout between Elias' security guards, The Goblin displayed his full arsenal and easily dispatched all of them, leaving only him and Elias left.

Green Goblin proceeded to open fire on the building with the various weapons at his disposal, obliterating the top floor of the building and inadvertently causing an explosion that set the Tower ablaze. The Goblin took his leave and left Elias to die in the burning building but was saved by Spiderman, who had arrived just in time before Elias met his untimely demise.

It wouldn't be until Oscorp became the subject of public scrutiny due to people making connections between the Glider that the Green Goblin used being identical to technology being made at Oscorp that the Kingpin would play his next hand. Elias discovered that Norman and his partner Donald Menkin were planning to transport their special products to a secure location in fear of this.

Having obtained the information of one of their transits, The Kingpin ordered Herman Schultz AKA the Shocker and several of his own men to ambush the transit and seize the cargo. Shocker and the Kingpins men were caught in a three way battle between the transits security detail and Spiderman. Although Shocker and Kingpins men were victorious, they were unaware that during the battle that the cargo (The Symbiote) actually escaped from its containment unit and attached itself to Spiderman when the latter was thrown in it by an attack from Shocker.

Nethertheless, Shocker and Stone's men escaped with the contents of the transit and returned to Kingpin, albeit empty handed. Shortly after this discovery, an enraged Kingpin received a call from Norman Osborn who instantly blamed Stone for the ambush on his transit. Although at first denying the accusation, Stone relented when a distressed Osborn revealed what the contents of the cargo actually was and the danger it posed. After much back and forth between the two, they both settled on an uneasy truce to find and return the Symbiote to its containment unit. Although this so called truce was proven to be false on both sides, as Osborn only wanted confirmation that it was the Kingpin that ambushed his transit and whether or not he was in possession of the Symbiote. In turn, Elias was never going to return to the Symbiote once he had obtained it.

Though the search for the Symbiote yielded no promising leads, the revelation of the newly dubbed 'Black Suited Spiderman' allowed Elias to deduce that the Symbiote must've bonded with Spiderman during the ambush. Elias once again deployed Shocker, this time accompanied by Tombstone to locate and bring him Spiderman so that he could strip the latter of the Symbiote.

During their search for Spiderman, Tombstone and Shocker were attacked by the Green Goblin (who was still unknown to be Norman Osborn at this point). The Goblin managed to defeat both adversaries, allowing only Tombstone to return with news of their defeat in the hopes that it may deter Stone from continuing his search and the price of betraying Norman Osborn.

Severely weakened by his battle with the Green Goblin and stripping himself of the Symbiote, Spiderman was attacked and defeated by Tombstone and the Kingpins men. They brought the unconscious hero before the Kingpin where the two adversaries finally met face to face. Kingpin attempted to bargain with Spiderman by claiming he would spare his life if he relinquished the Symbiote due to Spiderman saving his life weeks earlier during the Green Goblins assault on Stone Tower.

Spiderman reveals he is no longer in possession of the Symbiote due to its toxic nature and even if he was that he wouldn't give it to a man like Stone. Elias doesn't believe him and orders Tombstone to kill the injured Spiderman. Ironically, Venom appears and attacks Tombstone, saving Spiderman. He warns both Tombstone and Kingpin not to interfere, claiming Spiderman belongs to him only. During the ensuing fight between the factions, Spiderman manages to flee the building and escape. Venom follows him soon after noticing he is gone.

Tombstone advises Elias to abandon pursuit of the Symbiote, claiming it to be more trouble than it's actually worth. Unwittingly, Elias relents and agrees with his partners sentiments.

Failed Imprisonment & Return
After defeating Venom, Spiderman decided turn his attention to taking down the The Kingpin once and for all. After the NYPD gather enough evidence to build a case against him, coupled with Spiderman stopping a huge narcotics deal with his men taking place at the docks, Elias Stone is charged with many accounts against his name and subsequently arrested.

Within a fortnight however, Elias Stone is released from Police custody following claims that the NYPD cannot connect him to the aforementioned narcotics deal and all charges against his name are subsequently dropped. Thus he continues to run the criminal underworld from behind the scenes as previous, despite Spiderman best efforts to take him down.

Shortly after his release, The Kingpin employed the criminal known as the Prowler after becoming aware of his recent exploits and the museum heist he had pulled off.

After 10 months of being comatose, Norman Osborn finally wakes up with no memory of the past year. The news, although irrelevant enough to warrant a threat to Stone, intrigues him somewhat as he in unsure how much of his memory is actually lost. However, one person particularly interested in this is Adrian Toomes who seeks revenge on both Spiderman and Norman Osborn. Elias takes advantage of his vendetta against Spiderman and agrees to make Adrian the Vulture once again if he can successfully get rid of Spiderman.

However, with his unrelenting obsession with killing Norman Osborn getting in the way killing Spiderman, Vulture is once again easily defeated and this time imprisoned in the raft.

Assault on A.I.M & Creating Carnage
After the reemergence of Venom, Elias hoped to return to a previous plan of obtaining the Symbiote once again. However, the creature was subsequently kidnapped by a mysterious group of scientists who are later revealed to be A.I.M. To everyone else (including Spiderman who had been the last to see Venom during their rematch) had believed that Venom had simply disappeared. Elias pooled his resources together to discover that Venom was actually being held captive by the A.I.M scientists in a secret underground laboratory.

Kingpin sent the Prowler and his men to recapture Venom, believing that he was the only one in the knowledge. Unbeknownst to Stone however, S.H.I.E.L.D had been following A.I.M for a while and subsequently discovered the whereabouts of the facility, enlisting Spiderman and Iron Man to rescue Venom while S.H.I.E.L.D agents arrested and shut down the laboratory. Upon arrival, Kingpins forces fought Iron Man and the accompanying S.H.I.E.L.D soldiers.

During this scuffle, Elias was made aware of the appearance of a third party in the entity of Doc Ock. However, to his amazement, Doc Ock was the only person to have discovered the real reason A.I.M had kidnapped Venom in the first place, which was to create their own Symbiote spawn from the original they already had.

Doc Ock abandoned his battle with Spiderman in favour of this revelation, which he took great satisfaction in being the only one who knew of its existence. Doc Ock escaped with the clone in hand while the other two factions fought each other, resulting in Kingpins forces to return empty handed. Consequently, Doc Ock then appeared at Stone Tower and gifted Elias with the Symbiote in exchange for much needed equipment required for Octavius' research and under the condition that he would be allowed to personally study the Symbiote. Elias agreed to the terms.

After his much promised chance of studying the Symbiote, Octavius revealed to Kingpin that the spawn required a stronger host to bond with and, in order to survive, someone more mentally unstable than Eddie Brock. Elias had exactly the right person in mind, the maniacal serial killer Cletus Kasady, who was currently apprehended and on his way to the Ravencroft institute for the criminally insane. Stone organised the breakout and kidnapping of Kasady and had him brought to his laboratory where the Symbiote resided. All that was left to do now was to introduce them to each other.

Stone explained to Kasady that he wanted Spiderman dead in exchange for the early release. Kasady became instantly infatuated by the Symbiote, agreeing to do exactly as the Kingpin ordered. Once the two bonded, the creature dubbed itself 'Carnage' after a promise Kasady previously made upon his arrest. Stone unleashed Carnage into the City, sending a few of his men to monitor him closely as he admitted to Tombstone that he did not trust Kasady at all.

Downfall
Unaware of Elias' actual intentions with the Symbiote, the Prowler addressed his disgust in the Kingpins actions upon bringing Kasady to the laboratory. Piecing together what his plan was, the Prowler decided he wanted no part in unleashing a deadly 'weapon' into the City even if the intention was for it to kill Spiderman. Kingpin warned him not to question him or pay the price. Eventually, the Prowler left Kingpins employ.

The Prowlers fears were of course justified as Carnage murdered the accompanying guards after Stone tried to rein him in due to his obsession with slaughtering every civilian he came into contact with. Despite this, Elias failed to see the error of his mistake in creating the unstoppable Carnage even after the latter's demise at the hands of the combined efforts of S.H.I.E.L.D, Spiderman and Venom.

The subsequent havoc lead a paper trail straight to Stones laboratory, resulting in it being stormed by S.H.I.E.L.D agents and various members of his personal guard being arrested. However, Elias and Tombstone managed to retreat in time and reemerge back at Stone Tower, away from S.H.I.E.L.Ds jurisdiction.

Suffering a huge defeat due to the incident with Carnage, Elias had lost a considerable amount of resources after S.H.I.E.L.D seized his laboratory. The Police were now watching his every move and he was under constant surveillance, leaving Stone unable to take any direct action against Spiderman himself.

The final sting came when news of an informant that had been leaking information to the F.B.I about Kingpins criminal activities. Tombstone tells him that it could be the Prowler, who had recently severed his partnership with Stone after their disagreement regarding Carnage. In a final act of desperation, he sends his enforcer to eliminate the threat personally. However, when arriving Aaron Davies' apartment, Tombstone is confronted by the Shocker and Spiderman, who were both searching for Davies for their own reasons.

After both being defeated by Spiderman, Tombstone relents and reveals to the hero that he in fact the informant on Kingpin and was intending on eliminating the Prowler to throw Kingpin off his trail. Unfortunately, The Kingpins recent actions had only served to increase lack of faith in his followers and as such resulted in Tombstone revealing where Stone was hiding.

Spiderman finally confronted Stone in long awaited face to face battle. Elias deduced that it would be Tombstone who eventually betrayed him when the end was near, hence Spiderman discovering where he had been hiding out. Spiderman told him that the NYPD would soon have his location and be on there way to arrest him, he tried to convince Elias to surrender. However, the ever prideful Elias Stone denied his request and instead the two engaged in hand to hand combat, with The Kingpin showing his true prowess for the first time to greatest enemy.

Although closely matched, Elias lost to his Superhuman adversary and relinquished himself to the NYPD when they arrived on the scene. Elias Stone was sentenced with an indefinite life sentence and was finally incarcerated in the Raft.

Powers & Abilities
Although he was not considered Superhuman by any standards, Elias Stone was a tall and very muscular man, with a deep voice and an intimidating demeanor. His Father: Richard Fisk, a wealthy crime lord in and of himself had connections to a lot of dangerous people and thus had his son and heir trained from a very young age in the ways of various martial arts forms that money could buy.

This already made him a dangerous and unpredictable opponent, as he not only had the muscle to back it up but the training too.

He was extremely agile, able to rival the speed of Spiderman who was possessed Superhuman speed. In his final fight, he gave his absolute all and nearly defeated the Superhero single handedly, something which most Villains with extraordinary powers have failed to succeed in doing.

He is also shown to be well versed in sword fighting. In his office at Stone Tower, he had two Katana blades on the wall behind his desk. Although the only time he is seen using them is when he is training.

Appearances
Elias Stone has appeared in a total of 18 Issues, 15 Stories and 7 Chapters.

He is first referenced in Competition by a TLK gang member.

He is first seen (on video) in the later half of In The Name Of Science(2) when he discovers that Norman Osborn has become his newest competitor in arms dealing.

He next appearance is in Retaliation where he hires the Scorpion through a message played to him by Tombstone when the latter is sent to recruit him.

His first actual is in Death From Above where he is assaulted by the Green Goblin, resulting in his public center of operations: Stone Tower suffers heavy damage due to an explosion caused by the Goblins attempt on his life. This marks the first time he and Spiderman meet face to face, although the latter is unaware of his true identity.

He appears in Blessed With a Curse when he hires the Shocker to ambush an Oscorp special projects transit and steal its cargo: the Symbiote.

Brief appearance in the following story Inner Demons where he is told by Tombstone about he and Shocker being attacked and defeated by the Green Goblin.

He appears in Revenge Is Like a Poison (1&2) in which he meets Spiderman for the second time and offers to spare his life as Spiderman once saved his, thus revealing himself as the Kingpin. He briefly appears in part two of this story, considering abandoning the acquisition of the Symbiote.

He briefly appears in the beginning of Power Play where he is first arrested and taken into custody.

His failed prosecution and subsequent release is mentioned in a Daily Bugle article read by Spiderman in The Sandstorm That Hit New York.

After this, his next appearance is in The Goblin Legacy (1&2) where he forms a temporary truce with Spiderman to take down the Hobgoblin and his terrorist cells after they interfere with his territory and loot his warehouses.

He is briefly mentioned in a conversation between the Chameleon and Spiderman in Second Skin when Spiderman asks if the Chameleon works for Kingpin, which the Chameleon denies.

He appears in Process By Elimination where he makes a deal to make Adrian Toomes the Vulture once again if he agrees to kill Spiderman.

He briefly appears in Old Habits Die Hard during a phone call between himself and Tombstone addressing Spidemans 'disappearance' as it states in the news. Tombstone asks if he thinks he's dead and Kingpin replies saying that it's doubtful. He appears again later on following the revelation that Norman Osborn was the secret identity of the Green Goblin.

His appears in Enlisted (1) sending Prowler for the mission to recapture Venom from the A.I.M facility he is being held in. He appears later in the end of Enlisted (2) when Doc Ock delivers him the Carnage Symbiote.

His next big appearance is in A Really Bad Day (1&2) which he enacts his plan of breaking Cletus Kasady out of his transport van and allowing him to bond with the Carnage Symbiote. The plan leads to a failure resulting in Kingpin being forced into going underground.

He is mentioned in Nick Fury and Spidermans conversation in Fallout (2) which Spiderman asks if he had had any luck locating The Kingpin, to which Fury reveals that all he has are false leads.

His final appearance is in Gangland where his plan to take out Spiderman fails once again, but this time leads to his downfall and subsequent arrest when Tombstone betrays him.

He is briefly seen in Rise Of The Sinister Six (2) watching the live broadcast of the altercation in Times Square amongst other prisoners in the raft.

Notes & Trivia

 * Elias Stone is of African American decent on his Mother's side.
 * The identity of the Kingpin and Elias Stone are assumed to be unrelated to all but Norman Osborn at first. Spiderman wouldn't discover that the two were one in the same until they meet again in Revenge Is Like A Poison.
 * His favourite colour seemed to be blue as he is seen wearing dark blue pinstripe suits. The only exception to this is when a photo of him being released from prison is shown in the Daily Bugle wearing a black suit.
 * He possesses quite a calm demeanour, almost charming. Despite this, he is rarely shown smiling or even joking. Equally, he has shown to lose his cool a few times such as when Shocker returns with the containment unit for the Symbiote but it is empty. Although this rage simmered when an incoming call from Norman Osborn interrupted him.
 * He rarely calls Tombstone by his nickname, usually referring to him by his surname instead; Lincoln. Suggesting that the two have a long standing friendship. However this friendship would seem to dissipate over time when Tombstone ultimately admits to Spiderman that Stone had crossed the line by creating Carnage.
 * Stone keeps a large portrait of his Grandfather: Wilson Fisk in his office in Stone Tower. It is one of the few things that managed to survive the fire caused by the Green Goblin.
 * Stone managed to maintain the public image of a very wealthy, generous businessman for a long while, even after his first arrest and release. However, Captain George Stacey admitted he had his suspicions about Stone for a while but failed to connect any evidence with him.
 * Elias disliked his Father, claiming that he struggled to handle the empire HIS Father had worked so hard to build. As such he maintains the belief that he himself salvaged what was left of his empire and truly earned the name 'Kingpin'.
 * Although proud of his heritage, Elias decided to not take the surname Fisk as he felt this automatically gave him a reputation and thus leave no room to develop one for himself. As such he takes his Mother's surname; Stone.
 * He seemed to hold a sense of honor and felt that all debts had to be repaid such as when Spiderman saved his life after the Green Goblin assaulted him at Stone Tower and the building was destroyed as a result. Despite considering Spiderman a pest and a major problem to his underground, he still offered to spare his life when interrogating him for the Symbiote.
 * He held Dr Otto Octavius in high regard.
 * Elias has many gangs that operate in the City under his control, including the TLK (The Lagos Killers). However it is assumed that the gang was later disbanded after he had discovered they had been buying weapons off of Ben Boyce, who was supplying the gang with weapons made at Oscorp.
 * Despite this, many gang members still stayed loyal to him and it can be assumed that they became integrated elsewhere under Stones employ.
 * Ironically, Stone hired Mac Gargan to kidnap Harry Osborn, despite Gargan formally leading the Silentos: a rival gang to the TLK which was comprised of Mexican criminals living in New York.
 * Elias owned many public businesses, including Stone Tower (which was burned down and rebuilt) and a chain of restaurants called 'Poppa's'.
 * Stone Tower was burned down after the Green Goblin attack in the end of Death From Above (2) and was finally rebuilt (although not fully refurbished) by the time of Revenge Is Like A Poison (1). It was fully operational and furnished by the time of Stones release from jail in The Sandstorm That Hit New York.