Early life and backstory Bullseye grew up in
The Bronx, New York City, New York, where he lived with his brother and their abusive father. He became an expert shot by playing with his brother's
rifles. When he was 10 years old, his brother tried to kill their father by setting fire to their home; shortly thereafter, Bullseye was placed in a
foster home. In high school, he became a
baseball player. An extremely talented pitcher, he was offered a college
athletic scholarship, but opted to enter the minor leagues. After three games, he was called up to start a sold-out Major League game. He had surrendered no hits, and in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, he became bored and asked the coach pull him from the game. The coach insisted that he finish the game. After the opposing team's batter mocked him as a coward, Bullseye threw the ball at his head, killing him. As the ball struck, he said, "Bullseye". He was barred from professional baseball and convicted of
manslaughter. This is a
retcon of a previous origin story, which depicts Bullseye growing up as a below average student in a
trailer park with an alcoholic, physically abusive
father. In this version of events, Bullseye fakes his father's suicide using a handgun set off by a toy arrow. It is unclear how many elements of this version are actually true. Bullseye's cold demeanor and unique skills led to his recruitment by the
National Security Agency as an assassin, then an assignment to train
Contras in
Nicaragua. By the time he arrived, however, he claimed to have already been planning to leave the NSA. He had planned on robbing the Contras and fleeing, but he discovered they were desperately poor. Bullseye made the best of the situation: within seven hours of being informed of their poverty, he had led the Contras in seizing a landing strip that
Colombian
cocaine smugglers were using as a staging area before transporting the drugs to the US. Without use of the airfield, the smugglers were unable to send new shipments. Bullseye set up his hapless Nicaraguan translator Paolo as the leader of the new force controlling the airfield, and let the word spread around; however, Paolo was nothing but a
patsy. Bullseye planned to invite several
organized crime heads to the airfield to broker a new deal with him as Paolo's supposed
right-hand man. He would take their money and disappear, presumably leaving Paolo to suffer the wrath of the
Mafia,
Russian mafia,
yakuza, and various other criminal elements. However, before the deal could be finalized, the
Punisher (Frank Castle) arrived. Castle killed all the organized crime leaders in a fiery explosion from which Bullseye barely escaped. The two engaged in a fierce battle in which Bullseye was able to wound the Punisher and evade or disable several of his weapons. Bullseye then used some blood-reddened mud to paint a bull's-eye on his forehead, mocking Castle's inability to hit him. The fight concluded when
Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrived, and the Punisher fled. Bullseye turned himself in to the D.E.A. agents and soon was assigned to infiltrate the
Kingpin's criminal empire. He obtained a costume, fled yet again, and became one of the most dangerous
hitmen in the world. All of the above information is given by Bullseye during a subsequent interrogation by US intelligence. Just prior to escaping from custody, Bullseye confesses he made up some or all of his story to amuse himself; for example, he claims that he was really the one who started the fire which burned down his childhood home. The whole capture was a plan by the assassin to gain access to the prison where his father is being held. Bullseye finally gets revenge on his father, leaving him to burn as the prison's security systems torch everything inside.
Costumed criminal career Bullseye battles (and defeats)
Daredevil at a circus to establish his reputation as an
extortionist. Shortly after, Daredevil by chance overhears him in the midst of an extortion attempt and captures him. Bullseye is later hired by Maxwell Glenn to kill
Matt Murdock and
Foggy Nelson, and Daredevil interferes. Although Bullseye wins again, Daredevil escapes death, and Bullseye's professional reputation is damaged as a result. Seeking to regain his credibility, he challenges Daredevil on live television, but is soundly defeated. Smarting from this even harsher blow to his reputation, Bullseye hires Eric Slaughter's gang and kidnaps
Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) to bait Daredevil into a revenge bout. Daredevil defeats him again, and the despair of this repeated humiliation drives him to a mental breakdown. It is later revealed that this breakdown was in part caused by a
brain tumor, which begins causing
migraines,
paranoia and
hallucinations that everyone he meets is Daredevil. He escapes from prison, but is recaptured by Daredevil, and the tumor is successfully removed. Inexplicably, this convinces the Kingpin to employ him as a chief assassin, but he is fired the same day he witnesses the Kingpin's humiliating defeat at Daredevil's hands. While in prison, he learns that the Kingpin has employed
Elektra (Daredevil's former lover) as a new chief assassin. After escaping prison, Bullseye attacks and impales Elektra on her own
sai. This fails to convince the Kingpin, who says he will only be rehired if Bullseye kills Daredevil. Bullseye attempts to ambush Daredevil, but their battle ends with his arch-foe dropping him from atop a telephone wire. The multi-story fall breaks Bullseye's back, paralyzing him. Bullseye has repeatedly cited this incident as his greatest grudge against Daredevil. Japanese scientist
Lord Dark Wind liberates Bullseye and has him brought to Japan, lacing his bones with
adamantium and thus restoring his mobility. Lord Dark Wind did this so that Bullseye would work as an assassin in return, but in spite of this favor being done for him, Bullseye refuses to work for free. He instead makes another play to regain the position of the Kingpin's chief assassin once again if he kills Daredevil, knowing he would fail. Bullseye commits robberies while impersonating Daredevil in an attempt to destroy his nemesis's image. In one of his early heists, he is caught by his mark's disillusioned
trophy wife. He becomes enamored of the wife who pleads with him to be taken away by him, but he keeps the wife in his derelict hideout as his lover, attempting to flatter her by showering her with stolen money and jewelry. However, the woman realizes that he is mentally fragile and, frightened by one of his psychotic outbursts, leaves him. Gradually, Bullseye becomes so immersed in his Daredevil impersonation that he believes himself to truly be Daredevil, a confusion which the real hero takes advantage of to defeat him. Bullseye is hired by
Mysterio to attack and confuse Daredevil. In the course of their battle, Bullseye kills
Karen Page (Daredevil's long-time love interest) with one of Daredevil's own billy clubs. Bullseye is recruited to steal the
Identity Disc, purported to be in possession of
AIM and have vital information on the world's superheroes, along with
Deadpool,
Sabretooth,
Vulture, and
Juggernaut. Bullseye again offers to kill Daredevil for Kingpin, later entering Daredevil's apartment and attempting to kill
Milla Donovan (Daredevil's new girlfriend). Enraged and already near the breaking point, Daredevil attacks Bullseye and throws him out the window. During the fight, Daredevil reveals to Bullseye that he knows his real name Lester, his mother was a
prostitute, and that he never knew his father. He mocks Bullseye's new tattoo and carves a new one over it with a rock. Bullseye seeks purported documents confirming Daredevil's
secret identity. After a brutal fight with Daredevil and Elektra, Bullseye flees into open traffic where he is hit by a truck, sustaining severe injuries.
Thunderbolts Bullseye, along with many other villains, is recruited into the Thunderbolts by
Iron Man and
Mister Fantastic to hunt down anti-registration superheroes in the
Civil War storyline. Afterwards, he is recruited by
Norman Osborn into the reformed team led by
Moonstone. He operates invisibly and is not seen by the public. He is used as a last resort and has a nano-chain fed into his system, so if he disobeys orders, he will receive an electrical shock. Bullseye is later shown walking due to nanomechanical surgery, then goes on a killing spree using scalpels to "get some target practice in". Later, he joins the Thunderbolts in their efforts to assassinate
Moon Knight. Bullseye was with the Thunderbolts when they fought the
Skrulls in Washington DC. He took advantage of the clone of
Andrea von Strucker being distracted by Moonstone to kill Andrea, and nearly killed Moonstone in the process. Bullseye travels along with the other Thunderbolts to Central Park and joins the final battle against the main Skrull force. Obtaining a missile launcher from the Zeus, he fires a rocket through the Skrull
Yellowjacket's right eye, thus disabling the Skrull from engaging with other heroes. Osborn orders Bullseye to kill Songbird, finally giving Bullseye the chance for revenge. Bullseye nearly succeeds, but is incapacitated by the
Swordsman helping Songbird escape.
Dark Avengers As a reward for his role during the Skrull invasion, Bullseye is placed on the
Dark Avengers and given the costume and codename of
Hawkeye. On the Dark Avengers' first mission, he kills
Morgana le Fey only for the sorceress to return yet again with an army of demons. When the Dark Avengers fight a rogue
Hulkbuster robot, "Hawkeye" disables the robot after killing its pilot. When the robot falls and kills 36 civilians, Osborn reprimands Bullseye for his part in the deaths, to which Bullseye demands credit for his kills. "Hawkeye" then goes out and saves a woman from being attacked by three men. He kills the men, and the woman inadvertently infuriates him by referring to Osborn as "his boss". After he kills the woman, he notices a news crew in a helicopter filming the action. He silences the news crew by blowing up the helicopter. Bullseye is used to take out his old partner Deadpool. Deadpool eventually gains the upper hand and stabs Bullseye through the chest with a meat hook, who later wakes up in a hospital and goes after Deadpool again. Deadpool easily avoids Bullseye's attacks, then runs Bullseye down, stopping with one of the vehicle's tires on Bullseye's leg. Bullseye pays off Deadpool (under the pretense that Osborn told him to do so) to save himself. Bullseye is later given the order by Osborn to eliminate Daredevil, who has been discovered leading the
Hand. Daredevil (who is going through the trials needed to join the Hand) and Bullseye clash. Bullseye booby-traps a building with 100 people in it. Daredevil continues to battle Bullseye unaware that the building is rigged and that Bullseye has the detonator. When the building explodes, Bullseye escapes and leaves Daredevil to his grief, mocking that if Daredevil had chosen to kill him the people in the building might have been saved.
Molecule Man turns Bullseye into a pool of water to subdue him; however, as a liquid he still tries to attack Molecule Man. He is restored by
the Sentry. He is also part of the team when they go to Manhattan to look for Noh-Varr. The Sentry finds him first but is distracted and leaves the battle later to find Noh-Varr gone. Osborn later assigns Bullseye with the duty to kill Lindy Reynolds (Sentry's wife). He takes Lindy for a helicopter ride, strangles her and dumps her body in the ocean. When the Sentry questions him about Lindy's whereabouts, Bullseye claims Lindy committed suicide over the countryside by jumping out of the copter, and the Sentry flies off to find Lindy.
Shadowland In the aftermath of
Siege, Bullseye is incarcerated and sent to the Raft. But in the process of being transferred there, he manages to kill his captors and escapes. He returns to Hell's Kitchen and arrives at Shadowland, Daredevil's fortress, and is confronted by Daredevil and a legion of Hand ninjas. Bullseye is unprepared for his enemy's newfound ruthlessness as Daredevil dislocates both his shoulders and then stabs him through the heart with his own sai, killing him in a similar way to how Bullseye had killed Elektra years before. Later, a group of Hells Bikers put together an unauthorized funeral service (as
J. Jonah Jameson had expressly forbade) for Bullseye;
Ben Urich is dragged along, as well as Danny Deaver. Deaver continually sees visions of Bullseye; it is not clear whether or not it is Bullseye's spirit or simply part of Deaver's psychosis. Bullseye's funeral service is interrupted by Daredevil and the Hand which results in a massive brawl. Urich is nearly killed. Daredevil later exhumes Bullseye's corpse, intending to resurrect him as a soldier loyal to the Hand. The heroes interrupt the ceremony — Spider-Man explicitly noting that the only thing worse than killing Bullseye is the idea of bringing him back — preventing Bullseye's resurrection.
Return Bullseye's body was later stolen by
Lady Bullseye and The Hand from SHIELD custody, but a botched resurrection left him an invalid who had to rely on a life support system to survive. To get revenge, he is revealed to be the mastermind behind Klaw, Coyote, and Ikari's actions against Daredevil. He is later found by the hero who defeated Ikari and Lady Bullseye. The warehouse where they were is subsequently destroyed, and Bullseye is nearly drowned in
radioactive waste, leaving him scarred and blind. Bullseye would go on to have his body fully repaired by the Hand. When Daredevil's protégé
Blindspot is blinded by the villain
Muse, Matt Murdock places a bounty on himself out of guilt, attracting the attention of Bullseye and several other supervillains. Daredevil beats Bullseye and then revealed that he had put the contract out in hopes of luring Bullseye, as Blindspot's condition reminded Daredevil of the murder of Karen Page. Hired by
the Hood, Bullseye impersonates
Ronin to commit crimes to ruin Hawkeye's reputation. However,
Clint Barton uses Bullseye's identity and defeats the real Bullseye. In
Spider-Boy, Bullseye acquires a sidekick,
Maka Akana / Spider-Girl, and battles Spider-Boy in the Tournament of the Open Maw. During the fight between Daredevil and Spider-Boy against Bullseye and Spider-Girl, Daredevil yields and reveals that Bullseye has a playing card in his glove that Spider-Boy claims will be used against Spider-Girl, causing Mist to declare Bullseye disqualified. Daredevil then chases after Bullseye, but stops when he reveals that Spider-Boy and Spider-Girl are going up against Mist. ==Powers and abilities==