Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, is one of comics' deadliest "normal" super-villains. He's got no superpowers, but he does have a vast criminal empire that enables him to make life extremely difficult for superheroes like Daredevil and Spider-Man. While Fisk has a double life as a "legitimate" businessman, the Kingpin does not wear a costume. Even so, he still has a recognizable look: bald, with a white-and-purple business suit concealing his sumo wrestler physique.

What inspired Kingpin's design? Was it Lex Luthor, the other most famous bald villain in comic books? The going industry myth, backed up by John Romita Jr. (the son of Kingpin's co-creator and a comic artist himself), is that Romita Sr. used actor Sydney Greenstreet as a model for Fisk. A British thespian, Greenstreet is most remembered nowadays for appearing in three 1940s pictures with Humphrey Bogart: "The Maltese Falcon," "Casablanca," and "Passage to Marseille." Greenstreet's...