Flashback Friday: Bullseye's Appearance

Each Friday, I take one of the entries from my old Super Posts and expand it into its own featured article.

This week: Bullseye's appearance!

Bullseye, the long-time Daredevil villain with perfect aim, has one of the best looks around, in my opinion.

But in the early 2000s, comic book adaptations had a strange relationship with comic book accuracy. Although they were looking to the comics for stories more than ever before, the character designs were generally more "realistic" and "down to Earth". That's why, in Daredevil (February 2003), Bullseye looks like this below. The strange thing is that he asks for a costume halfway through the movie, but still doesn't get one.

In the miniseries Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target #1 (September 2002), Bullseye starts wearing plainclothes to draw less attention to himself, but someone complains, so he draws a target on his forehead like so (below). Now I know what you're thinking: this came out almost half a year before the movie. What gives? Well, the movie design had been released by June 2002, so that gives plenty of time for both the fans and the comics creators to become familiar with it.

 In Daredevil #48 (June 2003), we get an even more movie-accurate version. In the next issue, we learn it's a tattoo instead of a scar.

But then in Daredevil #49 (July 2003), Daredevil carves it into his head, meaning it will become a scar.

He was back in his classic outfit by Thunderbolts #110 (January 2007)...

...although interestingly, the ditching of his costume seemed to only happen in Daredevil. Whenever he appeared in miniseries during this time, such as Identity Disc (June 2004), Bullseye: Greatest Hits (September 2004), or Punisher vs. Bullseye (November 2005), he wore his classic outfit.

Presumably he still has the scar, but we never see it.

Group Spotlight: Dogs of Hell

Five years ago, almost to the day (March 11, 2014), Agents of SHIELD aired the episode "Yes Men". The episode is notable for a full-on guest appearance by Sif - not just a cameo like with Nick Fury - and for being an early hint that Ward is a bad guy, but it's also notable for introducing the Dogs of Hell to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Dogs of Hell are a motorcycle gang the the villain of the episode, Lorelei, is able to take control of through the hypnotic powers of her voice. This was their only appearance in Agents of SHIELD, but not their final appearance in the MCU. A different branch of the club played a major part in Daredevil season 2 (March 2016) as one of the three participants in the gang war that season revolves around. They later had brief appearances or mentions in The Punisher (November 2017) and both seasons of Iron Fist (March 2017 and September 2018).

Here's where it gets fuzzy. The Marvel Wikia claims that their first appearance in comics is in Civil War II: Kingpin #2 (August 2016). This would make sense, being only a few months after they were so prominently in Daredevil. And a biker gang DOES appear in that issue, but I can find no indication that they're actually the Dogs of Hell. If anyone can corroborate that information, let me know.

But that's all right, because they definitely do appear by name in The Immortal Hulk #1 (June 2018).

This is honestly my favorite kind of canon immigrant. It's not there to promote anything, it's not driven by any kind of nostalgia, it's just the comics realizing an adaptation filled a gap in some way and continuing to use it because it makes sense. Marvel never had a reoccurring motorcycle gang before. Now they do. And if they want, they can get a lot of mileage out of that.

Name Spotlight: James Wesley

Wesley is not a canon immigrant.

If you don't know who Wesley is, he's Kingpin's right hand man, whose main job is to clean up Kingpin's messes. He first appeared in Daredevil #227 (December 1985), and to be honest, didn't make too many appearances after that. But he was only ever called Wesley.

He later showed up in Daredevil (2003), and they gave him a full name: Wesley Owen Welch. This information is key to the mystery at the heart of the movie...which, incidentally, was almost entirely cut out of the theatrical version.

He appeared again in Daredevil season one (2015), and once again was given a full name. Only this time, he was called James Wesley.

It is with this name that he reappeared in comics recently, in Kingpin #4 (May 2017).

Character Spotlight: Mitchell Ellison

I don't know why it happened, but the stories of Spider-Man and Daredevil are very intertwined. Perhaps it's because they're the two most prominent street-level heroes at Marvel. Whatever the reason, they're very close friends and they share villains (such as Kingpin) and supporting characters (such as Ben Urich).

As you might imagine, this caused a bit of a snag when the movie rights for the two characters were split. It wasn't as much of a headache as, say, the Maximoff twins, but it did cause Ben Urich to no longer work at the Daily Bugle. For Daredevil's Netflix series (2015), the writers decided to have him work at the recently introduced New York Bulletin instead of the longer-established Daily Globe. I can only assume that's because the Bulletin was more of a blank slate. They could introduce characters and ideas surrounding it as they wished.

Enter Mitchell Ellison, the editor.

Ellison is an interesting character because, in the first season, he was a bit of a secondary antagonist. He kept seemingly interfering with Urich's work, and it was implied that he was secretly working for the Kingpin. But after it was revealed he wasn't working for Kingpin, and genuinely had the best interest of the paper at heart, he's been one of the purest forces on the side of good.

Although he hasn't actually appeared in the Marvel Universe yet, he was confirmed to be editor of the Bulletin in Kingpin #4 (May 2017).

Costume Spotlight: Elektra

I'm pretty sure every one knows what Elektra looks like.

But just in case, when Elektra first appeared in Daredevil #168 (November 1980), she wore this classic outfit:

And she's worn that pretty much ever since. There have been some variations, such as this white version she wears on occasion...

...and Ultimate Elektra wore a black outfit similar to the 2003 film version (I can't confirm whether the Ultimate version was based on the film version)...

...but mostly it's been the all-red outfit, to the point where one of the biggest complaints fans had against Daredevil (2003) was that Elektra didn't wear red. (They fixed this for the Elektra solo film, which is the only thing they got right.)

Daredevil season 2 (2016), however, has Elektra wear a more practical outfit with a mix of black and red:

This month, Marvel gave Elektra her own series, and Elektra #1 (February 2017) features a suit that, while clearly more comic-booky than the Netflix, is clearly inspired by it:

I don't think that the series will go farther than that and give Elektra a French-Cambodian heritage, but stranger things have happened.

Marvel Appearances Super Post!

Yesterday I mentioned that Marvel doesn't do canon immigrants as often as DC, and that's true.  What it's more a fan of is importing the looks of certain characters, mainly because it helps them create synergy between the comic book and the adaptation (which supposedly makes it easier for people to make the jump to the comics; the jury's still out on that one).

The Falcon

Spider-Man (Negative Zone)

X-Men

 Left: The X-Men during the Revolution storyline (which began April 2000)
Middle: The X-Men in the films (first released May 2000)
Right: The Grant Morrison X-Men (first appeared in New X-Men #114 (June 2001))

Mystique

The Toad

 Left: Toad in the comics
Middle: Toad in the X-Men film (May 2000)
Right: Toad since X-Men Forever #6 (June 2001)
(Note: How close he resembles movie Toad really depends on the artist. He may have green skin or not, he may have an athletic build or not, he almost always has a long tongue these days, but again, sometimes not. But the point of X-Men Forever was to make him more like the movies, whether or not it always sticks.)

Magneto

Left: Magneto's original appearance
Middle: Magneto in the X-Men films (May 2000)
Right: Magneto post-New X-Men #146 (October 2003), although he now has a different outfit

Spider-Man (MC2)

Left: Alex Ross's unused design for the Spider-Man movie (image released September 2000)
Right: Spider-Man, the son of Spider-Woman in the MC2 universe (May 2001)

Bullseye