Bullseye (comics)
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| Bullseye | |
 Bullseye Promotional art by Mike Deodato |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Daredevil #131 (March 1976) |
| Created by | Marv Wolfman John Romita, Sr. |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Lester (last name unrevealed) |
| Team affiliations | Thunderbolts |
| Notable aliases | Benjamin Poindexter, Leonard, Daredevil (II) |
| Abilities | Perfect accuracy Expert martial artist and hand to hand combatant Spinal column, along with various other bones, laced with adamantium |
Bullseye is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. Created by Marv Wolfman and John Romita, Sr., he was drawn by Bob Brown in the character's first appearance, Daredevil #131 (March 1976).[1]
He is a psychopathic assassin. Bullseye uses the opportunities afforded by his line of work to exercise his homicidal tendencies and to work out his own personal vendetta against Daredevil.
While he possesses no superhuman powers, Bullseye is able to use almost any object as a lethal projectile, be it weapons like shuriken and sai or seemingly harmless objects like playing cards and pencils. He is one of Daredevil's chief foes, usually serving as antithesis to the hero by showing what one might become when blessed with keener abilities than most. His aim is uncanny, being at nearly metahuman levels.
Bullseye's real name and origins are unknown. He has used the name "Benjamin Poindexter" on several occasions, but there are also instances where his name is given as “Lester.” The miniseries Bullseye: Greatest Hits (2004) developed the character's back-story, but also revealed that some or all of it has been fabricated, probably by Bullseye himself. In this series, Bullseye's name was Leonard.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Early life and back-story
Bullseye grew up in The Bronx, where he lived with his brother and his abusive father. His brother's main form of recreation was playing with rifles, leading Bullseye to become an expert shot. When he was 10 years old, his brother started a fire in their home in an unsuccessful attempt to kill their father. Shortly thereafter, Bullseye was placed in a foster home, and became a baseball player in high school. Bullseye was an extremely talented pitcher, and was offered a scholarship, but instead opted to enter the minor leagues. After three games, he was called up to play a sold-out Major League game. He had surrendered no hits the entire game, and in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, he became bored and requested the coach pull him from the game. The coach refused, and insisted that he finish the game. The opposing team's batter mocked him, accusing him of cowardice. Bullseye threw the ball at his head, killing him. As the ball struck, he said only one word: "Bullseye". He was barred from professional baseball and convicted of manslaughter.
This is a retcon of a previous origin story from Elektra #2, which depicts Bullseye growing up as a below average student in a trailer park with an alcoholic, physically abusive father. In this version of events, Bullseye fakes his father's suicide using a handgun set off by a toy arrow. None or all elements of this version may be true since it describes his father as possibly recovering from a recent divorce, fitting in perfectly with Daredevil's taunts in their confrontation during the "Hardcore" storyline.
His cold demeanor and unique skills, however, meant subsequent recruitment by the National Security Agency as an assassin was inevitable, and he was soon assigned to train Contras in Nicaragua. By the time he arrived, however, he claimed to have already been planning to leave the NSA. He had planned on robbing the Contras blind and fleeing, but soon discovered they were desperately poor. Bullseye made the best of the situation: within seven hours of being informed of their poverty, he had led the Contras in seizing a landing strip that the Colombian cocaine smugglers were using as a staging area before moving on to the United States. Without use of the airfield, the smugglers were unable to send new shipments. Bullseye set up Paolo, his hapless Nicaraguan translator, as the leader of the new force controlling the airfield, and let the word spread around. However, Paolo was nothing but a patsy. Bullseye planned to invite several organized crime heads to the airfield to broker a new deal with him as Paolo's supposed "right hand man". He would take their money and disappear, presumably leaving Paolo to suffer the wrath of the Mafia, Russian Mafia, Yakuza and various other criminal elements. This outcome is unknown, as before the deal could be finalized, the Punisher (Frank Castle) arrived.
Castle killed all the organized crime leaders in a fiery explosion from which Bullseye barely escaped. The two engaged in a fierce battle in which Bullseye was able to wound the Punisher and evade or disable several of his weapons. Bullseye then used some blood-reddened mud to paint a bull's-eye on his forehead, mocking Castle's inability to hit him. The fight concluded when Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrived, and the Punisher fled. Bullseye turned himself in to the D.E.A. agents and soon was assigned to infiltrate the Kingpin's criminal empire. He obtained a costume, fled yet again, and became one of the most dangerous hitmen in the world.
All of the above information was given by Bullseye during a subsequent interrogation by US intelligence. Just prior to escaping from custody, Bullseye confessed he made up some or his entire story to amuse himself; for example, he claims that he was really the one who started the fire which burned down his childhood home. The whole capture was a plan by the assassin to gain access to the prison where his father was being held. The story ends with Bullseye finally getting revenge on his father, leaving him to burn as the prison's security systems torched everything inside.
[edit] Costumed criminal career
From his earliest appearances, Bullseye is one of the more prominent enemies of Daredevil. He battles Daredevil after first meeting him,[2] and battles him again soon thereafter.[3] Bullseye was then hired by Maxwell Glenn to kill Daredevil, although Daredevil defeated Bullseye on live television.[4] Bullseye then joins Eric Slaughter's gang. He kidnapped Black Widow and battled Daredevil again.[5]
Bullseye is established early on as insane, and begins degenerating further when a brain tumor creates hallucinations that everyone he meets is Daredevil.[6] He begins killing random people under the belief that he is killing his nemesis. Daredevil later saves Bullseye's life, pulling his unconscious body from the path of a moving train. Bullseye is humiliated to be saved by his nemesis. The tumor is later successfully removed, though Bullseye's sanity is still in question. He then begins working as the Kingpin's chief assassin.[7]
Cleared of his charges on the grounds of insanity, he finds that the Kingpin, his usual employer, has retained the services of a new assassin: Elektra, Daredevil's former lover. Bullseye and Elektra fight, and Bullseye impales Elektra on her own sai, saying, "You're good... but me, I'm magic"[8] (the line was later used in the film adaptation of Daredevil).
Disguised as a morgue attendant, Bullseye attempts to kill Daredevil (in his civilian identity as Matt Murdock) with a thrown projectile, which Daredevil casually blocks with his cane. After reviewing the medical reports from Murdock's childhood accident, Bullseye becomes convinced that Matt Murdock is Daredevil, and has been given superhuman powers by the chemical spill that blinded him.
Bullseye then attempts to sneak up on Matt and kill him in his own home, but is ambushed by Daredevil, who has fooled Bullseye into thinking that a dummy with an attached tape recorder was Murdock. Seeing Daredevil and "Murdock" at the same time, Bullseye is convinced that Daredevil is not Matt Murdock, after all. The battle ends up with the pair balanced on a telephone wire from which Bullseye falls and is caught by his opponent. Bullseye screams that he is not going to let the hero save him again, and tries to stab his rescuer, whereupon Daredevil simply drops him. The multi-story fall breaks Bullseye's back, paralyzing him.[9]
Bullseye spent an extended period of time in the hospital following the fall. At one point, Bullseye was visited by Daredevil who forced him to participate in a game of Russian Roulette. As Daredevil related a case from earlier in the week, he waxed about how he felt about Bullseye. At the end of the game, Daredevil revealed the gun he had used for the game was empty and that he was only bluffing. (Years later, when asked to join the Thunderbolts, Bullseye thought back to this moment and agreed on the condition that he kills Daredevil before his tenure was up.)
Bullseye is taken to Japan, where Japanese scientist Lord Dark Wind reinforced much of his skeleton with adamantium.[10] He resumes his criminal activities, battling Daredevil in an effort to regain position of chief assassin for the Kingpin.[11] Bullseye is imprisoned for several years.
Bullseye eventually escapes prison,[12] and then battles Captain America.[13] He battles Crossbones in a vain attempt to assassinate the Red Skull to regain his position with the Kingpin.[14]
Bullseye then encounters an amnesiac Daredevil.[15] He takes advantage of Daredevil's temporary amnesia by replacing the hero and committing robberies in an attempt to destroy his image.[16] Eventually Bullseye has problems returning to his own identity, while Daredevil believes he was his own father, the boxer Jack Murdock. Both hero and villain switch costumes and fight, returning to their real identities but still painfully aware of their inherent similarity.[17]
Bullseye later has another run-in with the Punisher when he is part of Frank's frame-up scheme that ends with Bullseye getting both of his hands shot and losing a finger to the Punisher's brutality. Bullseye encounters Deadpool and Gambit during another long interval in which the character is seldom used.
In the Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada authored story arc Bullseye was hired by the villain Mysterio to attack and confuse Daredevil. In the course of their battle, Bullseye killed Daredevil's longtime love interest, Karen Page, with one of Daredevil's own billy clubs.
When the next battle between Daredevil and Bullseye takes place, the assassin collapses in the middle of a fight, claiming that he has a brain tumor. He is brought to a maximum security prison, where he recounts his (at least partially falsified) origins to a federal agent (see Daniel Way and Steve Dillon mini-series Greatest Hits, as described above) who has been sent to interrogate him over the location of some radioactive materials which he has stolen prior to his incarceration. He manipulates another agent into attacking him until one of his teeth is knocked out. Bullseye uses the tooth as a weapon, killing the agent and working his way to the prison's infirmary, where he encounters and kills his father.
Under the new Daredevil creative team of authors Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev the Kingpin returns to New York to start over from scratch after he has been severely wounded in an assassination attempt and left in a coma while his wife had sold off most of his assets. Bullseye offers to kill Daredevil for him, later entering Daredevil's apartment and attempting to kill his old enemy's new girlfriend, Milla Donovan. Enraged and already near the breaking point, Daredevil savagely attacks Bullseye and throws him out the window.
During the fight, the hero reveals to Bullseye that he knows his origin: that his real name is Lester McThrowy, his mother was a prostitute, and that he never knew his father. This was first revealed in Kevin Smith's Daredevil: The Target miniseries which promised to explore Bullseye's origins, but had not yet been published past the first issue. He mocked the assassin's new 'Bullseye' tattoo and carved a new one over it with a rock.
Bullseye returns in the arc "The Murdock Papers," seeking purported documents confirming Daredevil's secret identity. After a brutal fight with Daredevil and Elektra, Bullseye flees into open traffic where he is hit by a truck, sustaining severe injuries.
In the next story arc, "The Devil in Cell-Block D", by the new creative team of Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark, Bullseye is imprisoned again at Ryker's Island, concurrently with Matt Murdock who was being held on federal charges after his identity as Daredevil is exposed. When the prison breaks out in riot, the Kingpin - who has foreknowledge of the impending attack - arranges for Bullseye to be released from his full-body-and-face restraints. Having previously cut a deal with Daredevil for mutual protection, Fisk planned to hijack a riot-squad chopper to escape the island. At the price of the deal, Matt Murdock finally refuses to let Bullseye leave prison. They fight, Daredevil dodges Bullseye's gunfire, and the Kingpin is hit point-blank. Daredevil then beats Bullseye unconscious.
[edit] New Thunderbolts
Bullseye, along with many other villains, is recruited into the New Thunderbolts by Iron Man and Mister Fantastic to hunt down anti-registration superheroes in the Marvel Civil War storyline. Afterwards he is recruited by Norman Osborn into the reformed team led by Moonstone. He operates invisibly and is not seen by the public. He is used as a last resort and has a nano-chain fed into his system, so if he disobeys orders, he will receive an electrical shock.
Bullseye fights American Eagle after having being deceived by Songbird and told that she has disabled his nano-chain. During the fight, he simultaneously receives an electrical shock from the nano-chain in his system on order of Moonstone and is attacked by American Eagle (who mocks him for purposely avoiding fights with super powered foes) with a blow that breaks Bullseye's neck. As a result of the damage sustained from both being attacked by a superhuman and being shocked by the nano-chain, Bullseye is paralyzed, is unable to speak, and has incurred severe brain injury.[18]
[edit] Other appearances
[edit] DC vs. Marvel
In a cameo appearance in the "DC vs. Marvel" storyline, Bullseye found himself suddenly transported to the Batcave in Gotham City, as several heroes and villains from both universes began spontaneously crossing over. His battle with Batman was not one of his prouder moments, as the Dark Knight not only evaded a batarang thrown by Bullseye, but also knocked him out in one punch, leaving the villain stating that Batman "hits even harder than Daredevil..."
[edit] Identity Disc
Bullseye made an appearance as one of the motley crew of villains in Robert Rodi and John Higgins's "Identity Disc" series.
[edit] Powers and abilities
While Bullseye technically has no superhuman powers, he has trained rigorously for many years with almost every type of throwing weapon imaginable, developing an uncanny ability to use virtually any object as a lethal projectile. As a result, he can accomplish many feats with thrown projectiles that are impossible outside of fiction. Some of his accomplishments include lacerating a person’s throat with a thrown playing card, spitting his own tooth through a human skull, tossing a paper airplane to a distant rooftop, and killing a person with a toothpick thrown through a window from a hundred yards away. However, Daredevil is a comparatively frustrating target because the superhero's enhanced senses provide enough information to allow him to counter the attacks most of the time. While incarcerated, Bullseye was diagnosed with a rare form of red/green color blindness called protanopia.
Bullseye has exceptional physical conditioning, with the agility, reflexes, stamina, and speed of a professional or even an Olympic athlete. One result of his naturally perfect athletic gift for hand-eye coordination is that his reflexes are honed to a level well beyond that of any normal human.
Due to various injuries, many of Bullseye's bones have been reinforced with strips of adamantium, with his spine now entirely composed of the substance. This has increased his resistance to injury in unarmed combat. This reinforcement also allows Bullseye to utilize acrobatic maneuvers impossible for an ordinary human (as his bones are protected from fracture). While Wolverine's mutant healing factor allowed his entire skeleton to be laced with adamantium, the details of Bullseye's surgical procedure(s) have not been disclosed.
Aside from his ability to throw projectiles with lethal accuracy, Bullseye is also an expert martial artist and is extremely talented in the use of edged weapons and conventional firearms. He has mastered a wide variety of hand-to-hand combat techniques and has mastered all known hand weaponry. Often, his outspoken attitude during combat about using his abilities seems to have become one of his favorite weapons: intimidation. As such, he believes that his attention in the media grants him more effectiveness in combat with a near flawless reputation, rather than an assassin who often uses fear of the unknown.
Bullseye has a compulsive need to study his targets' histories, abilities, and relationships before engaging them. He employs this information to attempt to anticipate his opponents' movements in combat. This compulsion often crosses from the professional into the personal, such as Bullseye's obsession with Elektra.
Bullseye, at least for a short time, appeared to be able to sense Daredevil's presence psychically.
Bullseye has used handguns, knives, shuriken, whips, sais, darts, and plastic explosives. His ability to turn nearly anything into a lethal projectile has allowed him to use playing cards, pens, pencils, vases, hairbrushes, golf balls, paper clips, peanuts, paper airplanes, and even one of his own teeth as weapons. He also wears body armor made of kevlar.
[edit] Other versions
[edit] Age of Apocalypse
In the 1994 arc of a different timeline, Bullseye is seen as one of the human's greatest soldiers. Using a machine gun and hitting every enemy target, he fights on the side of 'good'. He does not have on his original costume, and does not act insane[19].
[edit] House of M
Bullseye appears in the House of M, very similar to his mainstream counterpart and is in the employ of Wilson Fisk[20]
[edit] Marvel Zombies
In Marvel Zombies, a zombified Bullseye appears alongside several other undead supervillains attacking and attempting to eat the invading Galactus.[21]
[edit] Ultimate Bullseye
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Bullseye appeared in Ultimate Elektra as an assassin named Benjamin Poindexter. He works for the Kingpin and was his prime assassin until Elektra beat him in direct hand-to-hand combat.
This version employs the use of disguises on his hits (he was seen masquerading as a police officer when he first appeared) and at one point donned a variation of his regular Marvel Universe incarnation's classic costume, sans mask. He has a bulls-eye tattoo on his forehead, similar to the tattoo and later scarring of the mainstream Marvel version, and the brand of the movie version. He also has a bulls-eye tattoo on his chest.
[edit] In other media
[edit] Novels
Bullseye appeared in the Christopher Golden's Daredevil novel Predator's Smile, which takes place just after Daredevil's iconic Born Again storyline
[edit] Film
Actor Colin Farrell portrayed Bullseye in the Daredevil movie adaptation. Bullseye has an Irish background, and his traditional costume was dropped in favor of a biker/metalhead style appearance: a duster (trench coat), leather pants, black tank top, dark goatee, tattoos, multiple earrings, and a shaved head with a bull's-eye scar on his forehead, although he does jokingly request a costume from Kingpin.
Prior to the film's release, the comic-book version of Bullseye adopted a near-identical appearance but has since reverted to the traditional look, retaining only the scar. He uses shurikens carried in his belt buckle as a main weapon, although he uses many small objects, including peanuts, paperclips, playing cards, Daredevil's billy club, shards of broken glass, and a pencil, as back-up. In the movie, Bullseye was hired by the Kingpin to kill Nicholas Natchios. Bullseye kills Natchios with Daredevil's billy club, causing Elektra to believe Daredevil killed her father. Bullseye himself begins to perceive Daredevil a personal challenge to his skills, because he is the only target he has ever missed.
Later, Elektra attacks Daredevil, seeking revenge, but soon realizes Bullseye killed her father. Elektra and Bullseye battle, but he slits her throat with a playing card, then stabs her with one of her sai (which was exactly how he killed her in the comics), and her heart stops (in the Director's Cut, Bullseye deals more injuries to her and while impaling her, gives her a kiss by biting down on her lower lip).
Daredevil chases Bullseye to a church, and they battle until Daredevil maneuvers Bullseye's hands to be shot by a S.W.A.T. sniper, leaving him with wounds resembling stigmata. With Bullseye wounded, Daredevil grabs him and throws him out of a window, crashing onto the hood of a car. A later scene shows him hospitalized but still able to fling a hypodermic needle with enough force and accuracy to impale a fly.
[edit] Toys
The Marvel Legends toy line created 2 Bullseye action figures. The normal figure is scowling, while the variant has a sinister grin. The variant also features gray symbols instead of white.
[edit] Video games
- Bullseye is a prominent villain in the 2005 Punisher video game for PC, PS2, and Xbox, voiced by Steven Blum. He appears during the Fisk Industries level. Bullseye is beaten by the Punisher and is thrown from high atop the Kingpin's building. He later appears after the end credits that play when the game is completed. He is in bandages and almost crippled.
- Bullseye appeared as a boss of sorts in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. He is a member of Doctor Doom's Masters of Evil and he attempts to launch a nuclear missile from the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier in the first level. He is a comic book mission villain for both Daredevil and Elektra. He also has special dialogue with them.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Wolfman, in an undated "Comics Channel" interview in Underground Online, recalled: "Bob Brown is the artist that drew the book, but he didn't co-create him. I had come up with the character, designed a rough version of the costume and then sat down with John Romita Sr. to do the final version.
- ^ Daredevil #131-132
- ^ Daredevil #141
- ^ Daredevil #146
- ^ Daredevil #160-161
- ^ Daredevil #169
- ^ Daredevil #171-172
- ^ Daredevil #181
- ^ Daredevil #181
- ^ Daredevil #196-197, 199
- ^ Daredevil #200
- ^ Captain America #372
- ^ Captain America #373-374
- ^ Captain America #377
- ^ Daredevil #284
- ^ Daredevil #285-289
- ^ Daredevil #290
- ^ Thunderbolts #115
- ^ X-Universe #2
- ^ House of M: Avengers #3
- ^ Marvel Zombies #4
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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