Daredevil & Bullseye

Bullseye challenges Daredevil to an epic battle beneath the big top. The audience, taken hostage by masked henchmen, is forced to watch as the nimble hero faces the menacing Bullseye and his bizarre, improvised weapons! The stage is set - who will come out on top in this center ring battle? Daredevil. Blind, lawyer, hit with the ladies, had the best Marvel movie until Spider-Man 2 came along... you know the deal. He was one of the first Marvel Universe figures released back in 2009, but the quality of the line escalated rapidly, so it wasn't long before an update was needed. Rather than being a repaint, Daredevil is an entirely new mold (or was, when released). When it comes to physique, DD's always been rather middle-of-the-road: his fighting style is a combination of boxing and gymnastics, two sports that are sort of near opposite ends of the "bulk" spectrum. So to that end, this new body is bigger than the skinny guys, but smaller than the beefy guys. He looks lithe enough to do a backflip off a roof and land on a clothesline, but big enough to punch you in the face so hard that your head turns inside out. Speaking of heads, this DD's is also new, and also better than the last one's. That one had a Christian Bale-style round mouth hole, while this one get a more "shaped" opening, with slight corners on the cheeks and a bit of material over the top of the nose. They've even sculpted two thin seams running back over the top of his head. Nice! Daredevil has a free-floating belt that also includes the holster for his billy clubs and a strap that runs around his thigh. His two clubs can be combined into a single staff, and held in either hand. They should probably fit in their holster, too, but it's a little to small to fit them both in there at once. [As the acress said to the bishop! --ed.] There are a lot of characters Daredevil could have come with, but Bullseye is the only one he had to come with - they're as linked as Batman and the Joker. Like DD, Bullseye was among the first Marvel Universe figures released, but I never got one, because his paint was kind of a mess - his costume was dusty blue, and there was a smear of white (presumably a flubbed "teeth" paint app) down the center of every figure's face. This one, though, is a ton better! His suit is a supremely dark grey, almost black but not quite. The white rings around his neck have been given some blue shadows, but they're applied well. Ditto the boots and gloves, which are also given a little bit of shading. Perhaps the black lines in those white sections (you know, the ones that make them look like a target) could have been thicker, but it's not hard to find images of him where they're this thin. The bullseye on his forehead is a sculpted element. Sadly, after the Daredevil movie came out, an abortive miniseries by Kevin Smith reimagined the character to look more like Colin Farrell, right down to the target on his forehead. This figure, fortunately, is wearing his mask, so the one here is merely a costume element. He's sculpted with a terrific smirk, too. The first MU Bullseye and Daredevil figures shared the same mold, so it's rather appropriate that this pair does, too. That means they both have a balljointed heads, hinge neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, swivel wrists, a balljointed torso, swivel waist, very stiff balljointed hips, swivel thighs (his right is very loose on my figure), double-hinged knees, swivel boots, and swivel/hinge ankles. Bullseye has a belt and holster combo too, but it's a unique mold - his only weapons are a silver gun and a kunai, both of which can be stored on the belt. It's a shame he doesn't reuse the "playing card" hand from the first release, honestly. Since this is a Comic Pack, it includes a comicbook - in this case, Daredevil #132, the same comic that came with Marvel Legends Bullseye. So let's just copy and paste the commentary from that review: "[it's] 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?" This set was never easy to find - it came out in early 2012, but most people never saw it, and were left to hope it would magically surface at discount retailers. As far as Daredevil and Bullseye go, these are the best 4" figures of them, even if size creep has made them bigger than they should be. -- 12/15/14

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