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Daredevil (1964) #131-132, 146, 169, 181, 191
Daredevil vs. Bullseye
The devil and the death-dealer. Enmity towards each other casts a shadow across the bodies of Matt Murdock's loved ones, all the way to the big screen. Now, see how the first target was drawn in this collection of the earliest battles between Bullseye, Marvel's deadliest assassin, and Daredevil, the Man Without Fear!
144 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2004
About the author
Marv Wolfman
2,299 books308 followersMarvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 1, 2010
3.0 stars. Read these issues when they first came out in the 80's. Bullseye was always my favorite DD villian (despite the gut-wrenching protrayal in the movie) and this trade paperback collects their first sveral meetings. The first meeting was rather cheesy and brings the collection down a star. The later work, including the classic battle with Elektra by Frank Miller, are much better.
November 10, 2011
The first few issues here are a bit old school for my tastes but Frank Miller is just my cup of tea. Half way through the collection and all of a sudden we have pages of action free from corny dialogue; Miller's own drawings allowed to tell the story. The dialogue he does use is of a much better standard and the stories flow much more naturally. Overall, a very enjoyable read!
July 22, 2026
This book has separate stories of Daredevil fighting one of his iconic villains, Bullseye.
In the first story, Bullseye makes his first appearance. He show up killing a rich man who won't pay a ransom to be spared. Prepared for this, Bullseye starts a media campaign to support his extortion/murder campaign in the hopes that future victims will pay up immediately rather than face his infallible aim. Bullseye is an expert marksman using virtually anything--guns are okay, but he can use bricks, pens, trash, virtually anything, as a lethal weapon. Daredevil has enough enhanced abilities to dodge the attacks, but can he take down a ranged enemy when he (Daredevil) is more of a melee guy? Bullseye goes for the jugular and the exposure when he fights Daredevil at Madison Square Garden while the circus is in town. The story is exciting but the dialogue is voluminous and slows down the action a bit. Also, it was clearly written in the late 1970s, with a lot of the hip and trendy lingo of yesteryear. It was an entertaining introduction for the iconic character.
In the next story, Daredevil is trailing an incognito Bullseye, hoping to corner him and find out who hired him to assassinate Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson a few issues back (and not in this volume). Daredevil switches to street clothes and follows Bullseye into a gun store. He foils the robbery but gets beaned when Bullseye throws a golf ball at him. The injury causes Daredevil to lose his radar sense. Daredevil is called out by Bullseye to a TV studio for a duel to the death on air. If Daredevil doesn't show, he'll kill the three daytime talk show hosts. Even without his radar sense, Matt heads off to the confrontation. The battle features a lot of on-again-off-again moments of Daredevil's radar sense, which seems more tied to making the fight more dramatic than to any actual physical cause. I found this less interesting than the first story.
The next story has Bullseye on the verge of a surgery to remove a brain tumor. When the tumor becomes painful, he sees everyone as Daredevil and wants to slaughter them all. He kills the hospital staff and wanders Manhattan, vacillating between trying to keep control and trying to take down Daredevil. Daredevil shows up and has a chance to kill Bullseye but his better nature kicks in.
After the surgery happens, Bullseye is in prison planning to kill Daredevil. Bullseye finds out that he's been replaced as Kingpin's main assassin by Elektra, so Bullseye targets her too. When he makes his escape, lots of fighting ensues. Bullseye's inner monologue is fascinating (Frank Miller wrote it) as he works his way through all his problems. More problems happen as he fights Daredevil, who has a very hard time not killing Bullseye.
The final story has Daredevil giving the extended monologue while he plays Russian Roulette with Bullseye, who is completely paralyzed in a hospital bed. Daredevil is pulling the trigger for his enemy as he tries to make sense of the situation, especially after dealing with a legal case where the son of his client is obsessed with Daredevil. It's another poignant moment in the narrative.
This is a mixed bag of stories, some being more interesting than others.
Mildly recommended, though more strongly if you are a Daredevil fan.
In the first story, Bullseye makes his first appearance. He show up killing a rich man who won't pay a ransom to be spared. Prepared for this, Bullseye starts a media campaign to support his extortion/murder campaign in the hopes that future victims will pay up immediately rather than face his infallible aim. Bullseye is an expert marksman using virtually anything--guns are okay, but he can use bricks, pens, trash, virtually anything, as a lethal weapon. Daredevil has enough enhanced abilities to dodge the attacks, but can he take down a ranged enemy when he (Daredevil) is more of a melee guy? Bullseye goes for the jugular and the exposure when he fights Daredevil at Madison Square Garden while the circus is in town. The story is exciting but the dialogue is voluminous and slows down the action a bit. Also, it was clearly written in the late 1970s, with a lot of the hip and trendy lingo of yesteryear. It was an entertaining introduction for the iconic character.
In the next story, Daredevil is trailing an incognito Bullseye, hoping to corner him and find out who hired him to assassinate Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson a few issues back (and not in this volume). Daredevil switches to street clothes and follows Bullseye into a gun store. He foils the robbery but gets beaned when Bullseye throws a golf ball at him. The injury causes Daredevil to lose his radar sense. Daredevil is called out by Bullseye to a TV studio for a duel to the death on air. If Daredevil doesn't show, he'll kill the three daytime talk show hosts. Even without his radar sense, Matt heads off to the confrontation. The battle features a lot of on-again-off-again moments of Daredevil's radar sense, which seems more tied to making the fight more dramatic than to any actual physical cause. I found this less interesting than the first story.
The next story has Bullseye on the verge of a surgery to remove a brain tumor. When the tumor becomes painful, he sees everyone as Daredevil and wants to slaughter them all. He kills the hospital staff and wanders Manhattan, vacillating between trying to keep control and trying to take down Daredevil. Daredevil shows up and has a chance to kill Bullseye but his better nature kicks in.
After the surgery happens, Bullseye is in prison planning to kill Daredevil. Bullseye finds out that he's been replaced as Kingpin's main assassin by Elektra, so Bullseye targets her too. When he makes his escape, lots of fighting ensues. Bullseye's inner monologue is fascinating (Frank Miller wrote it) as he works his way through all his problems. More problems happen as he fights Daredevil, who has a very hard time not killing Bullseye.
The final story has Daredevil giving the extended monologue while he plays Russian Roulette with Bullseye, who is completely paralyzed in a hospital bed. Daredevil is pulling the trigger for his enemy as he tries to make sense of the situation, especially after dealing with a legal case where the son of his client is obsessed with Daredevil. It's another poignant moment in the narrative.
This is a mixed bag of stories, some being more interesting than others.
Mildly recommended, though more strongly if you are a Daredevil fan.
October 17, 2023
This collection made me happy for the main reason I finally got to read the first appearance of Bullseye. I had always been curious but never gotten a collection with that two-part story in it. It has a nice Shooter/Gil Kane story and some amazing Miller stories and one Miller dud.
So the first two parter by Marv Wolfman started out amazing. It was so good I was thinking "I need to buy all Marv Wolfman/Daredevil stories". But then it sadly devolved into the 70's writing I know and avoid. Why it started so good was the story moved at a good pace, the villain was new and interesting and had reasonable motives and he was a good match for our hero's powers. The dialogue and narrative was solid and there was clever writing. Why it ended so bad was...Bullseye decides to take Daredevil on in the circus. No reason - just...let's do this in a circus. So what started off smart and interesting turned into the illogical slugfest you see in a lot of comics. No character, no point, other than "wouldn't it be fun to see them fight in a circus even though it makes no sense". No interesting use of the villain's powers, no interesting twist of how the hero overcame the odds to defeat the villain.
The Shooter/Gil Kane story had some great Gil Kane art (I love his art) and started off good, with the hero using his enhanced senses to track down the villain but then...hero gets his powers taken away through a random hit to the head and then has to battle the villain without them. I mean - this could have been more interesting. Miller kind of did something like this in his run but he had Daredevil overcome the loss by training again and uncovering his inner traumas so he could be a hero and fight again. Here we just have Daredevil ...try harder?...and overcome his loss of radar. In other words, it was too quick a solution without any drama.
Then we get some classic Miller Bullseye stories. He elevated this villain to what we know and love now. I would tell any reader "get those Miller Daredevil collections instead of this one because you get ALL the stories not just a couple of random ones". Then the last story is a Miller one I must have read before but it was so bad it didn't stick with me. Not only is it bad it could not be considered a Bullseye story in any meaningful way. Daredevil just talks to a paralyzed Bullseye about a completely different story. Not a good story to end on. I would have used the Thunderbolt Bullseye story by Warren Ellis instead.
Anyway - not a great collection (due to the fact only random Bullseye stories were chosen - not every one chronologically) but there are some classic stories in it that made it entertaining.
So the first two parter by Marv Wolfman started out amazing. It was so good I was thinking "I need to buy all Marv Wolfman/Daredevil stories". But then it sadly devolved into the 70's writing I know and avoid. Why it started so good was the story moved at a good pace, the villain was new and interesting and had reasonable motives and he was a good match for our hero's powers. The dialogue and narrative was solid and there was clever writing. Why it ended so bad was...Bullseye decides to take Daredevil on in the circus. No reason - just...let's do this in a circus. So what started off smart and interesting turned into the illogical slugfest you see in a lot of comics. No character, no point, other than "wouldn't it be fun to see them fight in a circus even though it makes no sense". No interesting use of the villain's powers, no interesting twist of how the hero overcame the odds to defeat the villain.
The Shooter/Gil Kane story had some great Gil Kane art (I love his art) and started off good, with the hero using his enhanced senses to track down the villain but then...hero gets his powers taken away through a random hit to the head and then has to battle the villain without them. I mean - this could have been more interesting. Miller kind of did something like this in his run but he had Daredevil overcome the loss by training again and uncovering his inner traumas so he could be a hero and fight again. Here we just have Daredevil ...try harder?...and overcome his loss of radar. In other words, it was too quick a solution without any drama.
Then we get some classic Miller Bullseye stories. He elevated this villain to what we know and love now. I would tell any reader "get those Miller Daredevil collections instead of this one because you get ALL the stories not just a couple of random ones". Then the last story is a Miller one I must have read before but it was so bad it didn't stick with me. Not only is it bad it could not be considered a Bullseye story in any meaningful way. Daredevil just talks to a paralyzed Bullseye about a completely different story. Not a good story to end on. I would have used the Thunderbolt Bullseye story by Warren Ellis instead.
Anyway - not a great collection (due to the fact only random Bullseye stories were chosen - not every one chronologically) but there are some classic stories in it that made it entertaining.
May 3, 2022
This collection of stories detailing the initial encounters between Daredevil and Bullseye is mixed in terms of tone and quality, like most anthologies tend to be, but does illustrate the relationship between these two which has informed both characters up through the modern day.
The initial story is from the mid-seventies and is very emblematic of Marvel’s publications at the time. Lovely, bright artwork with overly dramatic speechifying and somewhat zany (though less than DC’s stuff at the time) plot elements. Bullseye doesn’t feel particularly fleshed out as much as a standardized baddie, but his capabilities to weaponize even household objects is entertaining.
After the initial story, the art becomes darker and to match the more moody tone of the 80s. The writing also improves pretty significantly. Bullseye’s threat level is a lot more apparent without the 70s cheese, and his engagement with Elektra (who’s part in the story is woefully short, since this is unfortunately a collection which is less interested in her then the title characters) is as exciting as it is horrifying to watch. The last stories are my favorite, specifically seeing how deep Matt has sunk, and how much rage he feels towards Bullseye. You can feel Matt’s desire to kill Bullseye radiate off the page. If the first story was a passable 2 out of five, the last was easily a four out of five. So let’s meet in the middle and say the whole presentation is a solid 3 random household objects made into deadly projectile weapons out of five.
The initial story is from the mid-seventies and is very emblematic of Marvel’s publications at the time. Lovely, bright artwork with overly dramatic speechifying and somewhat zany (though less than DC’s stuff at the time) plot elements. Bullseye doesn’t feel particularly fleshed out as much as a standardized baddie, but his capabilities to weaponize even household objects is entertaining.
After the initial story, the art becomes darker and to match the more moody tone of the 80s. The writing also improves pretty significantly. Bullseye’s threat level is a lot more apparent without the 70s cheese, and his engagement with Elektra (who’s part in the story is woefully short, since this is unfortunately a collection which is less interested in her then the title characters) is as exciting as it is horrifying to watch. The last stories are my favorite, specifically seeing how deep Matt has sunk, and how much rage he feels towards Bullseye. You can feel Matt’s desire to kill Bullseye radiate off the page. If the first story was a passable 2 out of five, the last was easily a four out of five. So let’s meet in the middle and say the whole presentation is a solid 3 random household objects made into deadly projectile weapons out of five.
June 2, 2013
Daredevil is still not my favorite hero, but I did find it refreshing that he doesn't banter that much when he's fighting.
October 13, 2015
The last 20 pages or so were absolutely AMAZING, but ultimately not enough to redeem this book - the rest of the story was confusing, melodramatic, and poorly drawn.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews