How Daredevil: Born Again Quickly (And Violently) Ties Up One Of Season 3's Loose Ends

Massive spoilers for the first episode of "Daredevil: Born Again" follow.

M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable" introduced a useful nomenclature for comic book super-villains: the mastermind (the grand, intelligent arch-enemy) and the soldier (the physical equal and opposite for the hero). Daredevil has two great nemeses that both hit one category each: Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin, and Bullseye. "The man who never misses," Bullseye is a ruthless assassin with impossibly good aim and not a shred of conscience.

The Netflix "Daredevil" series from several ago put Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Fisk's (Vincent D'Onofrio) rivalry front and center, but it held off on Bullseye. He finally came in the series' third and final season, reimagined as an FBI agent named Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter (Wilson Bethel). Far from the campy baddie played by Colin Farrell in the 2003 "Daredevil" film, this Bullseye was truly disturbed and only grew worse under Fisk's tutelage.

The season never showed Dex in Bullseye's classic black-and-white costume, but he did wear Daredevil's own red suit so he could frame him for crimes. Series finale "A New Napkin" featured Matt defeating, and paralyzing, Dex but a post-credits scene revealed he was undergoing experimental surgery to fix his spine. (Comic Bullseye has bones laced with adamantium, just like Wolverine — no claws, though.)

Unfortunately, since "Daredevil" ended there, Dex's return as a proper Bullseye got delayed a decade. It was confirmed Bethel would be back for "Born Again" in January 2024, and you won't have to wait long to see him.

Dex, wearing a black costume and balaclava evoking Bullseye's go-to costume, shows up in the opening sequence of "Daredevil: Born Again" — where he kills Matt's best friend, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson).

The first episode of "Daredevil: Born Again" features Matt, Foggy, and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) at their go-to haunt, Josie's Bar. Foggy gets a call indicating that one of their clients may be in trouble, so Matt races off as Daredevil — only to learn the intruder, Bullseye, just wanted to know where the Nelson & Murdock team was.

Bullseye shoots Foggy with a sniper rifle, but Daredevil returns before he can kill Karen up close and personal. Daredevil and Bullseye fight through Josie's, eventually making it to the roof. As Matt hears Foggy die, he sobs and wails on Dex, then lets him fall off the building face-first. However, Dex survives. (The episode doesn't refer back to his operation, but metal-bonded bones feel like they could've helped here.)

"Born Again" resumes one year later on the day of Dex's sentencing. Matt testifies against him and he's sentenced to life in prison for eleven counts of murder. But hey, when has the slammer kept a good supervillain down? Somehow I don't think we've seen the last of Bullseye.

So, why did Bullseye kill Foggy? Fisk denies having anything to do with it, and remember, Dex ultimately turned on the Kingpin back in "Daredevil" season 3. I'm not discounting some larger conspiracy yet, but if this was just Bullseye seeking revenge, it's absolutely in-character for him.

If anyone should kill someone close to Matt, it should be Bullseye. At first glance, he's not an obvious pick for one of Marvel Comics' most sadistic villains. He debuted in "Daredevil" #131 (by Marv Wolfman and John Romita Sr.), when the book was just a middling superhero comic. Bullseye, sure enough, was just another one-note Silver Age villain. He seemed plucked from Stan Lee's dustbin, with a simple gimmick and costume designed entirely around that gimmick.

Then, like "Daredevil" itself, writer/artist Frank Miller elevated Bullseye.

It was in Miller's "Daredevil" #181, "Last Hand," that Bullseye kills Matt's lover, Elektra. Bullseye wasn't out to hurt Daredevil, he just wanted his old job as Kingpin's chief assassin and thought he could get it by taking out his replacement. Once Matt learns what Bullseye did to Elektra, though, he brutally attacks him. A near wordless sequence shows the two dueling across New York, with neither making a sound until they fall from a building, landing on a clothesline. Bullseye refuses to let his enemy save him, but Daredevil has no such intent; he drops Bullseye, intending for him to die but instead only crippling him. Even without Elektra making an appearance in the "Born Again" premiere, "Last Hand" is the primary source material for the episode's opening: Bullseye kills one of Matt's loved ones, so Daredevil tries and fails to kill him.

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As Daredevil remained a darker book, Bullseye has retained this characterization. He's not a mere criminal, he's a sadistic and unhinged mass murder. In Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada's "Guardian Devil," he murders Karen Page as well.

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During the "Shadowland" crossover, Matt finally had enough and murdered Bullseye outright, stabbing him through the chest to repay him in kind for Elektra and Karen's deaths.

Marvel Comics

The "Born Again" premiere has not specifically shown Matt wrestle with being an attempted murderer. He's quit being Daredevil, but that seems to be more because Foggy got caught in the crossfire then out of fear he'd become a killer. Matt Murdock remains a creature of Catholic guilt so, if/when Dex does reappear, I'm sure he'll rub Daredevil's sin in Matt's face.

"Daredevil: Born Again" is streaming on Disney+.