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| “ | You know, it's too bad I killed my mother in high school... She would have loved this. Joking. She wouldn't a' cared. | „ |
| ~ Bullseye |
| “ | You think I do this [kill people] for money?! I've been gettin' paid for high-end jobs since... forever. Have you ever seen me spend any of it? Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if I have more money than you, at this point. No, Norman... I stopped doing this for money a long time ago. I do it because it's fun. | „ |
| ~ Bullseye on his sadistic assassinations to Norman Osborn. |
Bullseye is an enemy of both Elektra and Daredevil and a antagonist in Marvel Comics, serving as the secondary antagonist of the Daredevil franchise. He is a psychopathic assassin who is able to use almost any object as a lethal weapon.
He is also the titular protagonist villain of the miniseries Bullseye: Greatest Hits.
Contents
Overview
Bullseye is an assassin-for-hire who has worked for several crime bosses and villains, including the Kingpin and Mysterio. Although he possesses no real powers, Bullseye has an uncanny sense of aim and can use any small object as a deadly projectile. He has killed people with toothpicks, pencils, cards, and other ordinary objects, hurling them with fatal accuracy. At one point during his career, his backbone was shattered by a fall after a fight with Daredevil and his spine, skull, and fists are coated in adamantium, giving his bones superhuman durability and inceasing his pain tolerance.
Bullseye himself has stated that he killed his own mother. He also killed Elektra, Daredevil's partner, and lover, with her own sai. However, she was later revived by The Hand.
Although he is technically a Daredevil villain, Bullseye has battled Spider-Man, Deadpool, The Punisher, and The X-Men's Archangel (As Hawkeye) and is later worked with the Dark Avengers, under the guise of Hawkeye until Norman Osborn's arrest. During the events of Shadowland, Daredevil who had become the leader of the Hand killed Bullseye in a fit of rage which led to him becoming the host of the Beast an ancient demon. An attempt was made to revive Bullseye as a servant of the Hand but was stopped by a group consisting of Spider-Man, Elektra, Wolverine, The Punisher, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and several other street-based superheroes.
Biography
Early life
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 Contra's 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 the 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 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 into 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 is given by Bullseye during a subsequent interrogation by US intelligence. Just prior to escaping from custody, Bullseye confesses he made up some or all of his 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 is being held. Bullseye finally gets revenge on his father, leaving him to burn as the prison's security systems torch everything inside.
Costumed Criminal Career
Bullseye battles (and defeats) Daredevil at a circus in order to establish his reputation as an extortionist. Shortly after, Daredevil by chance overhears him in the midst of an extortion attempt and captures him. Bullseye is later hired by Maxwell Glenn to kill Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson, and Daredevil interferes. Although Bullseye defeats him again, Daredevil escapes with his life, and Bullseye's professional reputation is damaged as a result. Seeking to regain his credibility, he challenges Daredevil on live television but is soundly defeated.
Smarting from this even harsher blow to his reputation, Bullseye hires Eric Slaughter's gang and kidnaps the Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) to bait Daredevil into a revenge bout. Daredevil defeats him again, and the despair of this repeated humiliation drives him to a mental breakdown. It is later revealed that this breakdown was in part caused by a brain tumor, which begins causing migraines, paranoia, and hallucinations that everyone he meets is Daredevil. He escapes from prison but is recaptured by Daredevil, and the tumor is successfully removed.
The symptoms of the tumor quickly disappear, and defense lawyers are able to have him freed on the argument that his criminal behavior was caused solely by the brain tumor. He is hired to assassinate Kingpin but meets with repeated failure. Inexplicably, this convinces the Kingpin to employ him as his chief assassin, but he fires him the same day when he witnesses his humiliating defeat at Daredevil's hands. Bullseye's repeated failed attempts to regain this briefly held position became a running joke of the Daredevil series.
While in prison, he learns that Kingpin has employed a new chief assassin: Elektra, Daredevil's former lover. After escaping prison, Bullseye attacks Elektra and impales her on her own sai. This fails to convince Kingpin, who says he will only rehire him if he kills Daredevil. Bullseye attempts to ambush Daredevil, but their battle ends with his arch-foe dropping him from atop a telephone wire. The multi-story fall breaks Bullseye's back, paralyzing him.
During Bullseye's extended hospital stay following the fall, Daredevil breaks into his hospital room and forces him to participate in a two-man variation on Russian roulette. The revolver used in the game is secretly unloaded, but Daredevil has Bulleye take the even-numbered turns so that he would feel sure that the last shot is going to kill him. Bullseye has repeatedly cited this incident as his greatest grudge against Daredevil.
Japanese scientist Lord Dark Wind liberates Bullseye and has him brought to Japan, where he laces his bones with adamantium, thus restoring his mobility. Lord Dark Wind did this so that Bullseye would work as an assassin for him in return, but despite the favor done him, Bullseye refuses to work for free. He instead makes another play to regain the position of chief assassin for the Kingpin, who again says he will give him the position if he kills Daredevil, knowing he would fail. Bullseye is imprisoned for several years.
Bullseye eventually escapes prison and later battles with Captain America. He battles also with Crossbones in an attempt to assassinate the Red Skull to regain his old position with the Kingpin. Bullseye then encounters an amnesiac Daredevil. He takes advantage of Daredevil's amnesia by impersonating him and committing robberies in an attempt to destroy his image.
In one of his early heists, he is caught by his mark's disillusioned trophy wife. He becomes enamored of her, and when she pleads with him to take her away with him, he keeps her in his derelict hideout as his lover, attempting to flatter her by showering her with stolen money and jewelry. However, she comes to realize that he is mentally weak, and frightened by one of his psychotic outbursts, she leaves him.
Gradually Bullseye becomes so immersed in his Daredevil impersonation that he believes himself to truly be Daredevil, a confusion which the real hero takes advantage of in order to defeat him. 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 was seldom used.
Bullseye is hired by the villainous Mysterio to attack and confuse Daredevil. In the course of their battle, Bullseye kills Daredevil's longtime love interest, Karen Page, with one of Daredevil's own billy clubs. Bullseye is recruited to steal the Identity Disc, purported to be in possession of AIM and have vital information on the world's superheroes, along with Deadpool, Sabretooth, the Vulture, and Juggernaut.
Bullseye offers to kill Daredevil for Kingpin, 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 attacks Bullseye and throws him out the window. During the fight, the hero reveals to Bullseye that he knows that his real name is Lester, his mother was a prostitute, and that he never knew his father. He mocks the assassin's new 'Bullseye' tattoo and carves a new one over it with a rock.
Bullseye seeks 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.
Working with the 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. Afterward 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 been 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. American Eagle beats him severely, mocking him throughout for purposely avoiding fights with superpowered foes, and finally breaks Bullseye's neck. As a result of the damage sustained from both being attacked by a man with superhuman strength and being shocked by the nano-chain, Bullseye is paralyzed, is unable to speak, and has incurred severe brain injury.
Bullseye is later shown walking due to nanomechanical surgery, then goes on a killing spree using scalpels to "get some target practice in". Later, he joins the Thunderbolts in their efforts to assassinate Moon Knight.
Bullseye was with the Thunderbolts when they fought the Skrulls in Washington DC. He took advantage of a recently resurrected Andrea von Strucker being distracted by Moonstone to kill Andrea, and nearly kill Moonstone.
Bullseye travels along with the other Thunderbolts to Central Park and joins the final battle against the main Skrull force. Obtaining a missile launcher from the Zeus, he fires a rocket through the right eye of the Yellowjacket Skrull, disabling him from engaging other heroes.
Osborn orders Bullseye to kill Songbird, finally giving Bullseye the chance for revenge. Bullseye nearly succeeds, but is incapacitated by the Swordsman helps her escape.
Dark Avengers
As a reward from Norman Osborn for his role during the Skrull invasion, Bullseye is placed on the Dark Avengers and given the costume and codename of Hawkeye. Norman Osborn hires Bullseye to eliminate Deadpool, from whom Norman stole data about "how to kill a Skrull queen" but Bullseye is unsuccessful. On the Dark Avengers' first mission, he kills Morgana le Fey (who had just died by the hands of Sentry and returned) only for her to return yet again with an army of demons.
The Dark Avengers fight a rogue Hulkbuster robot, and "Hawkeye" disables the robot after killing its pilot. The robot falls, killing 36 civilians. When Osborn reprimands Bullseye for his part in the deaths, Bullseye demands credit for his kills. "Hawkeye" then goes out and saves a woman from being attacked by three men. He kills them, and the woman inadvertently infuriates him by referring to Osborn as "his boss". After he kills her, he notices a news crew in a helicopter filming the action. He silences the news crew by blowing the helicopter up.
Bullseye is used to take out his old partner Deadpool. Deadpool eventually gains the upperhand and stabs him through the chest with a meathook. He later wakes up in a hospital and goes after Deadpool again. Deadpool easily avoids Bullseye's attacks, then runs Bullseye down, stopping with one of the vehicle's tires on Bullseye's leg. Bullseye pays off Deadpool (under the pretense that Osborn told him to do so) to save himself. Elektra stabs Bullseye with his own arrow.
Bullseye is later given the order by Osborn to eliminate Daredevil, who has been discovered leading the Hand. Daredevil, who is going through the trials needed to join the Hand, and Bullseye clash. Bullseye booby-traps a building with one hundred people in it. Daredevil continues to battle Bullseye unaware that the building is rigged and that Bullseye has the detonator. When the building explodes, Bullseye escapes and leaves Daredevil to his grief, mocking that if Daredevil had chosen to kill him the people in the building might have been saved.
Molecule Man turns Bullseye into a pool of water to subdue him; however, as a liquid, he still tries to attack Molecule Man. He is restored by the Sentry. He is also part of the team when they go to Manhattan to look for Noh-Varr. Sentry finds him first but is distracted and leaves the battle later to find Noh-Varr gone. Osborn later assigns Bullseye with the duty to kill Sentry's wife Lindy. He takes her for a helicopter ride, and strangles her and dumps her body in the ocean. When the Sentry questions him about Lindy's whereabouts, Bullseye claims she committed suicide over the countryside by jumping out of the copter, and the Sentry flies off to find her.
Shadowland
In the aftermath of Siege, Bullseye is incarcerated and sent to the Raft. However, in the process of being transferred there, he manages to kill his captors and escapes. He makes his way back to Hell's Kitchen and arrives at Shadowland, Daredevil's fortress, and is confronted by Daredevil and a legion of Hand ninjas. Bullseye is unprepared for his enemy's newfound ruthlessness as Daredevil dislocates both his shoulders and then stabs him through the heart with his own sai, in much the same way Bullseye had killed Elektra years before. Later, a group of Hells Bikers put together a funeral service (unauthorized, as J. Jonah Jameson had expressly forbade it) for Bullseye. Ben Urich is dragged along, as well as Danny Deaver. Deaver, however continually sees visions of Bullseye, and it is not clear whether or not it is Bullseye's spirit or simply part of Deaver's psychosis. The funeral service is interrupted by Daredevil and the Hand and a massive brawl breaks out, almost killing Urich. Daredevil later exhumes Bullseye's corpse, intending to resurrect him as a soldier loyal to the Hand. The heroes interrupt the ceremony, preventing Bullseye's resurrection.
Return
It was later revealed that Bullseye was still barely alive as his body disappeared after the battle, but due to his injuries, he has become an invalid who has to rely on a metal lung in order to survive. To get revenge he is revealed to be the mastermind behind Klaw, Coyote, and Ikari's actions against Daredevil. He is later found by the hero, who defeated Ikari and Lady Bullseye. The warehouse where they were is subsequently destroyed, and Bullseye is nearly drowned in radioactive waste, leaving him scarred and blind.
During the Secret Wars storyline, Bullseye is among the villains attending Kingpin's viewing party of the incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610.
In other media
Movie appearance
- Main article: Bullseye (Daredevil)
Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Main article: Bullseye (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Bullseye appears as the secondary antagonist of Netflix's Marvel's Daredevil Season 3. This version of the character is a member of the FBI whose legal name is Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter. He was portrayed by Wilson Bethel.
Trivia
- He was created by Marv Wolfman and John Romita Sr.
- Ranked 35th in IGN's "The Top 50 Avengers" list.
- Ranked 20th in IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time" list.
 Villains
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