REVIEW: BULLSEYE: GREATEST HITS
Dan Coyle

****


Writer: Daniel Way
Artist:Steve Dillon
Colors: Avalon’s Dan Kemp
Letters: Virtual Calligraphy’s Randy Gentile
Cover Artist: Mike Deodato Jr.
Assistant Editor: Cory Sedelmeier
Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Plot: He’s dangerous, he’s deadly, he’s… been caught. Classic Daredevil baddie Bullseye has been captured after a failed attempt to hijack some nuclear weapons and sell them on the black market. As a C.I.A. hostage negotiator and an N.S.A. operative try to get him to give up the location of the nukes, he weaves them a tale, telling at last the secret origin of Bullseye. Collecting the five issue Marvel Knights miniseries.

Critique: I remember with great clarity eighteen years ago when I dug Daredevil #181 out of a back issue bin, hypnotized by the cover blurb: “Bullseye Vs. Elektra. One Lives. One Dies.” Even though it cost a lot (Well, in 1988 dollars anyway, I just HAD to read it. And I wound up reading one of the best comic book stories ever. The story was told totally from the point of view of Bullseye himself, as he escaped from prison to wreak his vengeance on Daredevil, only to wind up paralyzed in a body cast, thinking he had lost yet again to DD but unbeknownst to him (and knownst to us and our hero) taken Matt Murdock’s one true love away from him by killing Elektra. I was blown away, and struck by the complexity with which Frank Miller portrayed Bullseye. It was probably the first inkling of the obsession with bullies and revenge that would consume his later work. But the biggest impression the issue made on me was that of a very, very scary man who could throw things with deadly force.

Over the decades since that fabled issue, Bullseye, originally created by Marv Wolfman, has sort of fallen by the wayside as just another villain in DD’s rogues’ gallery. Even Miller’s final use of the character, in the great Elektra Lives Again graphic novel, he was reduced to little more than a plot device. Kevin Smith’s use of him in his Daredevil run was almost fan-ficky in its obviousness- “and now BULLSEYE kills Karen Page”, and the lone issue of his Target miniseries was awash in his usual misogyny (For, you see, Bullseye couldn’t just kill a mother, he had to kill a single mom who- gasp- enjoyed sex before becoming a mom!). Only Ann Nocenti’s excellent storyline in DD #285-290, where Bullseye stole an amnesiac Daredevil’s costume, and went on a rampage, did he have that air of menace that would put me at unease.

So I was surprised in 2004 when Marvel released a miniseries by Venom and Wolverine scribe Daniel Way and legendary Preacher co-creator Steve Dillon; surely, with Bendis having DD skillfully emasculate the character in the excellent “Hardcore” storyline during his Daredevil run, it was time to put the character away for a while? That he just wasn’t that scary anymore?

Little did I know.

Way starts with that old chestnut of inspiration for most villain stories- The Silence of the Lambs. Bullseye engages in a duel of wits with the pair of federales send to interrogate him about the missing nukes, much like Clarice Starling did with the good Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Way’s attempting something one rarely sees in comics, and rarer than Raritanium in superhero comics- a psychological thriller that’s mainly about people sitting around talking. Don’t get me wrong- there’s plenty of action in Greatest Hits, but nearly all of it takes place in flashbacks. Way’s going for a serious examination of Bullseye’s personality and behavior, and most of all- what really makes him tick. You may expect the abusive childhood, the difficulty with authority, the shady past with the more unsavory sections of the United States Government- but Way skillfully throws a curveball at these plot points, standing them just so they seem fresh.

Part of Bullseye’s character, Greatest Hits postulates, is the front he puts up. That for a seemingly invincible killer, he’s almost pathological about how he is perceived. To a person like Bullseye, people’s perceptions are the easiest way to exploit them to his advantage. In a way, this hearkens back to Miller’s portrayal of the character, particularly back in that famed issue #181. Bullseye hated Daredevil not because he was heroic and everything Bullseye wasn’t, he hated DD because the hero saved his life, made him look weak, ruined his reputation. And he killed Elektra to boost his rep. So the Bullseye in this series is always hustling, always trying to look tough because of what happened to him in his childhood, hating his abusive father but also looking for a twisted form of approval for him.

The flashback segments, particularly early on, are rather entertaining; anyone with a working knowledge of how the CIA took a bite out of the drug trade in the 80s will enjoy Bullseye’s brief stint as a craftier, nastier Barry Seal. When it gets to the DD years we all know and love, the story gets a bit more predictable, but I liked how Way added depth to a character that hadn’t been seen in a long, long while.

Way has said that the Garth Ennis-Steve Dillon run on Hellblazer> was a tremendous influence on his work, and editor Axel Alonso made the surprising move of matching Way up with Dillon. I was initially very skeptical about this. Dillon’s work in the years since Preacher ended- what little there was of it- seemed listless, like he was going through the motions. It seemed the fire had gone out of one whom I considered one of the industry’s best storytellers. Being paired with Way, however, has invigorated Dillon. Since the A story of Greatest Hits is told with a lot of talking, it behooves one to get a guy who excels at facial expressions, and there are few better at that than Steve Dillon. Whether the reaction is big, googly-eyed rage or an almost imperceptible shift of a lower lip, Dillon, when he’s on, can make such shifts compelling comics. The verbal sparring of the story moves it along nicely.

Of course, with a great storyteller like Dillon, it helps if there’s an actual story. Way has had his share of accolades and slams- I’ve had mixed feelings about his work myself. His work is all about the tease, the buildup, twist to the final revelation. Way clearly loves building a puzzle box that only becomes clear after the final click of the piece (though hardcore fans of Bullseye may be able to figure out one of the twists far in advance, if they pay very close attention to the dialogue). Sometimes, this results in agonizingly slow storytelling, as in his current work on Wolverine: Origins (also with Dillon) or the uneven Venom, but other times it can work out well, as it has on Spider-Man’s Tangled Web. It helps that Greatest Hits not only has a decent payoff that makes up for the pacing, but a dynamite payoff that achieves the odd feat of… humanizing Bullseye, yet at the same time, even more of a bastard than he seemed to be before. There’s always an argument against humanizing villains, because some people in this word, even my rotting lefty brain knows, are just evil. Bullseye doesn’t come out of Greatest Hits more human, exactly, but he’s easier to understand. Which is all the more terrifying. Way and Dillon even find a way to make Bullseye vulnerable, if only for a moment.

Greatest Hits is Way’s strongest book to date, and he and Dillon followed it up late last year with Punisher Vs. Bullseye, a thematically different but wildly entertaining face-off between the two characters. Bullseye himself is getting more exposure by being drafted into the New Thunderbolts during the Civil War event (and the hyped-up Warren Ellis/Mike Deodato run). If you’re looking for a well told tale, along with some insight into one of the Marvel universe’s most memorable villains, check this out.

Dan Coyle is a regular contributor to PopImage.


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