Fortunato
First appearance: Spider-Man #70

Living a supposedly humble life as a grocer in Manhattan, the aging criminal mastermind known as Fortunato became one of the deadliest men in the world of organized crime, and a thorn in Spider-Man's side. When underling turned crimeboss made a bid for the now vacant spot of criminal Kingpin, Fortunato, considering himself best suited to fill the void left in Wilson Fisk's wake, set up Hammerhead's murder, an act only narrowly stopped by photographer Peter Parker. Parker, then powerless and who had given up his mantle of Spider-Man to his clone Ben Reilly, had been covering Fortunato with reporter Ben Urich, while Reilly had inadvertantly encountered Fortunato's own son Jimmy-6, who was on the run from his vengeful father. His attack on Hammerhead now known in New York's criminal circles led the other major players in the crime circuit to rally against Fortunato, who had actually taken precautions against their attacks himself and created formed an allience with the terrorist organization Hydra. With the aid of the multi-national terrorist group, Fortunato defeated Tombstone, one of the crimebosses plotting against him, and used him as an example leading the other bosses to quickly side with Fortunato.

Held captive by Fortunato before the legion of Hydra followers and the other crimebosses, Spider-Man was barely able to bring down Fortunato and the others with the timely assistence of Daredevil and Jimmy-6, who wanted no part of his father's business. Defeated and disgraced, Fortunato laid low following this, and focused mainly on his empowering of Jacob Conover into the position of the Rose. Conover, a digrunted former employee of the Daily Bugle, saved Fortunato's life years earlier and through the aging crimeboss was given the resources to assume the mastermind identity once held by Wilson Fisk's son Richard. Conover was exposed as the Rose during a fight between Spider-Man and the South American crimeboss the Black Tarantula on Fortunato's compound, another act which prompted the aging mobster to lay low even further. Wilson Fisk, however, returned to New York city from his exile in Japan about this time, and one of his first acts was to eliminate all competition to the title of Kingpin. This imcluded Fortunato, who was very badly injured, and was forced to step down as the head of his crime family. Despite his animosity towards his father, Jimmy took over for Fortunato, but set about righting his father's wrongs and using his power to do good for the world.

The elder Fortunato's whereabouts are unknown, as is his current health status.

Powers and Abilities: Fortunato is presumably in his mid-seventies, blind in his right eye and requires the use of a walking cane. He is almost always accompanied by a pet wolf.

REFERENCES: Spider-Man #70-74, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #79-80, Amazing Spider-Man #422, Amazing Spider-Man #-1, Amazing Spider-Man #432-436, Spider-Man: Made Men, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #95, Amazing Spider-Man volume two #28

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