Daredevil: Born Again episode 8 echoes an iconic comic book moment

Proving that the average Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show is more than just schlocky CGI and $212 million mistakes (we’re looking at you, Secret Invasion), Daredevil: Born Again is here to prove there’s a place for a more grounded corner of the MCU. There’s no Witches’ Road, shape-shifting Skrulls, or Miss Minutes here, and instead, the long-awaited Daredevil revival rises from the ashes of Netflix’s canned comic book caper and right hooks its MCU rivals with a gritty street-level adventure. 

While there’s plenty that’s different here, we're just glad that the supposed creative overhaul came in and kept Born Again as a proper continuation of the Netflix days. After all, it’s hard to imagine if Born Again had stuck to its original plan and skipped out on including the likes of Ayelet Zurer’s Vanessa Fisk. Although there’s been plenty of new blood in the form of Margarita Levieva’s Heather Glenn, Genneya Walton’s BB Urich, and Jeremy Isaiah Earl’s Cole North, a crowd of familiar faces has helped it feel like a true evolution of Daredevil after it was canceled in its prime.

Bullseye is right on target in Daredevil: Born Again

Alongside Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, a big win in terms of returning cast members is Wilson Bethel’s Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter. As a shining star of Daredevil season 3, this wildly reimagined version of the infamous Bullseye was one of the show’s best additions. Sadly, things came to a seemingly abrupt end during an epic three-way battle between Daredevil, Kingpin, and Bullseye at the Presidential Hotel. It’s baffling to think that it took up until Born Again for anyone actually to name-drop the iconic Daredevil adversary as ‘Bullseye’, but moving forward, we could be seeing a lot more of him.

While much of Born Again has been attributed to the “Devil’s Reign” arc of 2021, the moment of Dex escaping prison with just the use of a tooth is pulled directly from Kevin Smith’s Bullseye: Greatest Hits No. 5 from 2005. In Born Again, a tense confrontation between Murdock and Poindexter leads to the former beating the sharp-shooting assassin against a table. This dislodges one of Bullseye’s teeth, which he then uses to shoot a guard in the face, escape the infirmary, and head straight to Kingpin’s ball. The trend of Bullseye using his teeth as deadly weapons actually goes back even further to 1990’s Captain America No. 372. Here, he purposefully smashed his head while incarcerated, and when the guards rushed in to check on the commotion, he spat the tooth into one of their eyes and stole their gun. 

There’s plenty to be gleaned from the conversation between Murdock and Poindexter, with the latter saying: “In another life, you might be defending me. Cause that’s what good men do, right? Defend their worst enemies?” As well as setting up the villain as the perfect counterpart to The Man Without Fear, did Bullseye inadvertently persuade Daredevil to take a bullet for Kingpin? The whole conversation is packed with nuance, with it even being possible that Murdock wanted Bullseye to escape. Discussing that prison interaction, episode 8 co-director Aaron Moorhead told Phase Hero: “It was more like he just hits him out of anger, but then you start realizing that maybe there's some kind of a plan behind the whole thing. The idea of getting Bullseye to escape in that he can help him in all this because Matt is so good at these lengthy schemes."

In terms of Bullseye’s ‘powers’, they were first teased at the end of Daredevil when doctors operated on him while discussing a strange material called ‘cogmium’. There was an epic final shot that showed the Bullseye logo reflected in his eye, and nearly seven years later, we finally got a payoff. Given how Dex survived being thrown off a roof by an enraged Murdock in Born Again’s bloody opening, it was clear he’s had a few upgrades over the years. Episode 8 included a mention from Poindexter that he should be kept on the ESH wing (Enhanced Supervision), and when transferred to Gen Pop, he’s heckled by a prisoner who calls him a ‘freak’ due to his ‘superhuman vision’.

There’s also a mention in his file of how he now boasts a visual enhancement, which explains why he’s such a sharp-shooting assassin nowadays. Comic book Bullseye eventually got an adamantium skeleton after he broke his spine during a tussle with Daredevil, and while adamantium was officially brought into the MCU via Captain America: Brave New World, we imagine it’ll be the eventual arrival of a rebooted Wolverine who’ll get an adamantium upgrade rather than Poindexter. 

Interestingly, others have picked up on the blue hue of the episode, including a rare blue rose. Red and blue contrast each other in the likes of Tron or the Star Wars saga, but whereas blue lightsabers represent the heroic Jedi and red the villainous Sith, Bullseye’s blue is against Daredevil’s signature red color scheme. Sticking with contrasts, there’s a clever parallel of a childhood accident robbing Murdock of his sight, while the aftermath of Bullseye’s accident has actually enhanced his.

It’s great to track the evolution of a character as iconic as Bullseye, especially after Colin Farrell's portrayal in 2003's maligned Daredevil. The original plan for Netflix’s Daredevil was to eventually bring back Bullseye in season 5, so it’s refreshing to see him back on the scene much earlier for Born Again. With his new-found abilities, it’ll be interesting to see if Bullseye picks up more comic book projectiles, like when he used snot to kill rats in the sewer. While a throwaway line in the comics about Bullseye being fed stool softeners to ensure he can’t use his own feces as a weapon might seem too gross for the MCU, stranger things have happened.