WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Devil's Reign: Villains for Hire #1, available now from Marvel.
Wilson Fisk's personal war on the superheroes of New York City has created a swathe of violence throughout nearly every corner of NYC. Fisk's personal police force, led by the villainous Thunderbolts, while largely effective, have unfortunately done just as much damage to one another as they have their targets. The fallout of his Thunderbolts losing control, however, may very well see Fisk following in the footsteps of similarly unsuccessful Marvel icons.
After sending the majority of the city's heroes to lock-up or on the run, Fisk's new Thunderbolts have kept themselves busy "fighting crime." As seen in the pages of Devil's Reign: Villains for Hire #1 (by Clay McLeod Chapman, Manuel Garcia, Lorenzo Ruggiero, Scott Hanna, Livesay, Andy Owens, Victor Nava, Protobunker's Dono Sanchez-Almara & Fer Siguentes-Sujo, and VC's Joe Sabino), these Thunderbolts share as little concern for collateral damage as they do one another.
Even after a gruesome yet successful outing together, the team can't help but break into violent infighting. Once Wilson Fisk arrived, though, the Thunderbolts are quick to get their act together, but the chances of them keeping it that way for very long might as well be zero. That being the case, it's hard to imagine that Fisk's attempts to corral the city's villains into one cohesive unit won't end in utter disaster, especially when that has happened so many times before.
Wilson Fisk is hardly the first classic Marvel villain to turn to politics as a weapon, nor would he be the first to have his own team of superpowered maniacs destroy everything he has accomplished from the inside out in the name of "order." When Norman Osborn took control of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the wake of Secret Invasion, he almost immediately disbanded the organization alongside his predecessors' Thunderbolts Initiative and Fifty-State Initiative. Instead, these operations were transformed into Osborn's terrifying vision of what they should be, and his Dark Avengers were born. When they first appeared in 2009's Dark Avengers #1, by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr., it was clear the team was nothing like any Avengers team before them. Consisting of various villains posing as their better known counterparts, as well as some truly unstable heavy hitters like the Sentry, Osborn's Dark Avengers were only effective for as long as they weren't their own worst enemies. Once Osborn's grip on the Dark Avengers began to slip, the downward spiral that ensued was too much for anyone to contain. Eventually, the Sentry lost control of himself to the Void, his malevolent alternate persona, culminating in the absolute destruction of Asgard on Earth.
Wilson Fisk's Thunderbolts may not pose that level of a threat to the world at large yet, but they are certainly more than enough to tear the city apart without flinching. Considering how much damage they have left in the wake of their public endeavors, not to mention the excruciating violence they are unleashing in the shadows, it's only a matter of time before the Thunderbolts take one step too far. If and when that happens, it isn't likely that any of the deputized supervillains will back down, and by the time the dust has settled, it will be the former Kingpin paying the price.
These Thunderbolts' casual penchant for death and destruction isn't one that Wilson Fisk didn't see coming. Rather, it is one that he vastly overestimated his ability to control. Even worse, the former Kingpin isn't going to be able to let the heroes clean up the mess when things do blow up in his face, at least not without giving up all of his recent victories over them. Considering how hard he has fought to take the city's heroes off the board, it might just be Wilson Fisk's pride that destroys him before his own personal super team does.