‘Daredevil’ Season 3 Gives Bullseye a Major Marvel Comics Upgrade

By now, you’ve likely heard that the psychotic assassin Marvel Comics fans know as Bullseye appears in Daredevil Season Three on Netflix, but he might be even deadlier following the end of the season.

WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Daredevil Season Three.

Daredevil Season Three chronicles Matt Murdock’s return to his “Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” roots, as well as the return of Wilson Fisk to the seat of power at the head of NYC’s criminal underworld. However, while these two Marvel foes were re-establishing themselves, a new player emerged on the Marvel Cinematic Universe stage in the form of FBI Special Agent Poindexter, who would go on to become (if not in name) Bullseye.

Like with Wilson Fisk’s rise to become “The Kingpin” in Season One, Agent Dex’s storyline in Daredevil Season Three is a slow-burn descent into Marvel villainy. We never get to see Dex in the classic Marvel Comics Bullseye costume; he instead spends most of the season impersonating Daredevil. However, the final scene of Daredevil Season Three actually includes a major tease for Bullseye’s future in the MCU, as Dex receives a major upgrade that’s taken right from Marvel Comics lore.

During the season’s climatic final battle, both Daredevil and Bullseye arrive at Wilson Fisk’s Manhattan penthouse to take down The Kingpin. The result is a three-way brawl between Daredevil, Kingpin, and Bullseye — and when the latter tries to target Fisk’s wife Vanessa, The Kingpin responds by picking Bullseye up and and slamming him against the corner of a stone wall.

In the aftermath of the fight, the police arrive to arrest Kingpin, but Bullseye turns out to be severely injured, and seemingly paralyzed. Cut to the final scene of the season, and we find Dex on an operating table in some mysterious location, with doctors discussing the chances of rebuilding his spine, even with certain mechanical enhancements, as well as Dex’s chances of surviving the operation they’re performing on him.

The main surgeon is none other than Dr. Oyama (Glenn Kubota) who is the alter ego of Marvel Comics villain Lord Dark Wind. In the comics, it is Lord Dark Wind who invents the adamantium bonding process that helps give Wolverine his indestructible skeleton and claws. Lady Deathstrike’s claws, and also an adamantium spine for Bullseye.

The latter comes to Dark Wind after Daredevil lets Bullseye fall from a building’s edge following the assassin’s killing of Elektra in cold blood. Clearly the Daredevil TV show is drawing from that source material, with “Dr. Oyama” now just a skilled surgeon, and Kingpin being the one responsible for the injury that leads to Bullseye’s upgrade. Interestingly enough, legal rights won’t permit the Marvel Cinematic Universe to use adamantium, so Bullseye’s upgrade is now referred to as being constructed from “cogmium steel.”

The final shot of the cornea of Dex’s eye — which has an odd bullseye-looking symbol in it — is a something of a mystery: is this the source of his uncanny marksmanship? Or an upgrade that will make the full-fledged Bullseye even more dangerous, upon his return?

Daredevil Season Three is now streaming on Netflix.