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Daredevil's biggest enemy, the Kingpin, is a hand-me-down character who originally debuted against Spider-Man. Most of the guys created specifically for DD are losers like the Owl or Stiltman, but there is one character who has proven to be the perfect nemesis: the assassin Bullseye.
A former soldier with perfect aim, Bullseye
never misses his mark. From the early days of his career as a costumed criminal, the ruthless assassin has set his sights most often on a single target - Daredevil, the Man Without Fear. Any object - be it pencil, playing card or paper clip - becomes a deadly weapon in the skilled hands of the man who could be the world's greatest assassin!
I haven't always been a big Daredevil fan, but the character grew on me after several great stories. When Daredevil finally got his own major motion picture, there was no way they'd leave his main enemies out of the action.
The movie was great (and the Director's Cut is even better), but we sadly only got one figure from it: the ML3 chase DD. Much as I would have loved to get a Colin Farrell in his long aligator-skin coat, it was not to be. Ah well. At least we're getting the classic Bullseye, finally done well.
Bullseye's had a few figures before, but they've always been repaints of earlier offerings, and most of them have been pretty substantially craptacular. Fortunately ToyBiz has finally rectified this.
Sculpted by Dave Cortes, Bullseye is 6¼" tall, and is as articulated as any Marvel Legend. In addition to the usual points, he's also got sliding shoulders and individual fingers. The sculpt is excellent, but then ToyBiz's always are. Bullseye really has one of the most graphically interesting costumes in comics, and it's recreated well, here.
Particularly good are the gloves and boots - rather than simply detailed with paint, Bullseye is obviously wearing real garments. There are zippers running up the backs of the gloves and the front of the boots, and you can see the stitching that holds the things together. He's got a belt with several pouches around his waist and a holster on his left thigh. The concentric circles on his shoulders are not sculpted in, but are instead a separate piece of plastic that's slipped down over the figure's head. It's a strange choice, but I guess it keeps them from getting disrupted when you move his arms. Unless they're planning to maybe reuse this body in the future, some time? That might be okay.
Anyway, all that deft sculpterie would have meant nothing if the paint was screwed up - just look at Art Asylum's pathetic Bullseye Minimate. Luckily, ToyBiz didn't repeat those mistakes: the figure is black, with a few dark blue highlights. The white sections aren't as bright as they might be, but that's no great oversight. The tiny zippers are distinctly silver, as are the small spikes pinned into the strap for his holster. The shoulder circles have a hint of blue to help sell the illusion that they're just part of the costume. ToyBiz did miss a paint app above the forearm joint and below the elbow: that part of the glove should be white, not black, but that's an easy fix.
The facial sculpt is good, giving Bullseye a wicked scowl and deeply
furrowed brows. The rings on his forehead are all sculpted into the surface, and there are a few small wrinkles in the mask. The paint on his skin is a bit blotchy, making him look dirty or diseased. Bullseye doesn't have any accessories, per se, but he doesn't need them - he's always had better luck disarming his opponents and fighting them with their own weapons. Anybody can shoot a gun - only Bullseye can steal the sai from a trained ninja assassin and run her through with it.
Actually, tell you what: to help you make your Bullseye his deadliest, we'll give you an accessory for free. Print out these playing cards (requires Acrobat Reader - it's free and safe, and pretty much every computer in the world already has it), follow the instructions and you'll have five itsy accessories that fit him perfectly. An OAFEnet exclusive!
Instead of a detailed display base (because really, what could they
give Bullseye that would make sense? A pitcher's mound? A pile of bodies? This isn't McFarlane.), the figure includes a piece to build the mighty Galactus. Bullseye has the left leg, a piece that stands 7¼" tall, giving us an idea of just how very big the completed figure will be. The leg is detailed nicely, and articulated at the toes, ankle, boot top and twice at the knee.
There's piping down the front and inside of the leg and around the knee. The boot is three stacked rings with an angular connector down the front and back. There are a series of ridges along the top of his foot, and a triangular pattern around the sole of his shoe. The blue used is bright and metallic, setting off the purples and grey nicely.
Bullseye comes with a reprint of Daredevil #132 (his second appearance), a story that has him fighting the Man Without Fear at a circus. Now, you have to realize this is about two years before Frank Miller would come on the title and make Daredevil a worthwhile character, so don't expect much. It's amazing that DD even made it to 132 issues with writing like this. Bullseye has been in a lot of great stories, so why on earth did they choose this one?
-- 05/18/05
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