"The Kingpin was a major villain in Spider-Man during the 'sixties when I first became a fan of the comics. I never intended for him to be so prominent in my series, but as the story arcs got developed, we needed a mastermind quietly manipulating things behind the scenes and he seemed the perfect choice. Also, he doesn't really have any interesting ability to speak of (okay, he's strong - big deal), so if you're going to use him at all, it just makes sense to use him for his mind. He's like Professor Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes stories. He's constantly lurking invisibly behind the scenes, but his presence is always felt."