Marvel Comics has always impressed me with their characters. By proclaiming that they published ‘heroes with problems,’ one had to wonder how the villains would turn out. At the time super-villains were by and large mustache-twirling men with nefarious plans who apparently popped out of magical holes in the ground waiting to be caught by men in tights. As soon as Dr Doom entered the picture, this all changed. A villain who was both noble and devious, proud yet chilling in his destructiveness, Doom has always been the quintessential super villain for me. In many ways, Doom was more interesting than all of the members of the Fantastic Four combined! It’s no wonder he returned so many times to battle his former college roommate.
Hawkeye
Introducing characters such as Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye who all crossed the line between villain and hero was another brilliant move on Marvel’s part. This may seem corny now but at the time it was incredibly clever and insinuated that it was not the fact that you called yourself a villain or hero that made you so, but rather what you did with it. In truth, Hawkeye was a far better hero than he ever was a villain. This is what makes the current turn of events where the Daredevil villain Bullseye is dressed as Hawkeye so interesting.
Bullseye
As a villain, Bullseye is frankly not that thrilling. An acrobatic hand-to-hand fighter who can make anything he puts his hands to a deadly weapon is a formidable foe, but as a character he’s somewhat lacking. In the pages of Daredevil he is the oddball world’s greatest assassin who has only actually killed a couple of significant characters, one of whom came back from the dead anyway. Therefore you really have to question the whole ‘world’s greatest assasin’ title, don’t you? However, turning this psychopath into a media darling super hero is very interesting. In the first issue alone we can see that Norman Osborn cannot control him and that even when he is on patrol, Bullseye/Hawkeye really doesn’t ‘get’ the whole super hero thing.
The fate of the one person Bullseye/Hawkeye rescues nearly made me drop the comic it was so graphic (and I read Moon Knight!). Writer Andy Diggle is getting into some meaty material here and as the Marvel Universe delves deeper into the realm of the Dark Reign, it’s fascinating to see what the creators are finding.
This is a series not to miss.
Recommended:
Avengers: Hawkeye Premiere HC
Daredevil Vs. Bullseye Volume 1 TPB
Bullseye: Greatest Hits (Daredevil)
