Bullseye's Best Arcs: 1976 to 2017

A killer who never misses poses a formidable writing problem: if he always hits, no confrontation has any stakes, and the character becomes unusable after two appearances.

Fifty years of publication mainly tell how successive authors got around this impasse. Everyone did something different with the accuracy — and that's the best order to read this character.

1976: precision as a show number

The first two issues — covers March and April 1976, the second arrived on newsstands on January 6, 1976— present the character for exactly what he is then: an attraction.

Marv Wolfman to the scenario, Bob Brown inside, under a Rich Buckler blanket. The second episode literally takes place under a marquee, which its title clearly announces.

At this point, accuracy is a trick. It impresses, it makes beautiful boxes, it means nothing. The character seeks to make a name for himself by publicly attacking a known vigilante: it's a career strategy, not an obsession.

This diptych nevertheless remains of real interest for those who want to understand what happens next. He shows the raw material before anyone knows what to do with it — an effective, pleasant, and perfectly replaceable antagonist.

Read for the documentary value more than for the story. The price also follows this hierarchy, as detailed in ourrating analysis.

1977: precision put to the test

A year later, an isolated episode — arriving on newsstands on March 1, 1977— takes the idea a notch.

Jim Shooter writing, Gil Kane draw. The title announces a duel, and that is what the story organizes: a head-on confrontation where the technical advantage of the killer is confronted with an adversary deprived of sight.

The idea is simple but it opens the way. If one never misses and the other sees nothing, the confrontation ceases to be a question of strength and becomes a question of perception. This is the first story that treats accuracy as a problem rather than an advertising argument.

Kane also brings a sense of dynamic composition which makes the episode very readable even today.

1979: the arrival of a designer who will become an author

The 1979 sequence marks the real turning point of the case, and it is initially graphic.

Roger McKenzie holds the script; a young designer named Frank Miller take the pencil. The central issue of the sequence arrived on newsstands on June 5, 1979, and its title explicitly places the hero in the hands of the killer.

What changes is due to the treatment of space. Miller tight frame, cuts into vertical strips, leaves boxes almost empty. The threat ceases to be demonstrated by exploits and becomes a matter of position: the reader understands that the character is dangerous because he always occupies the right angle.

The trio of episodes can be read in one go. It constitutes the entry point that we recommend to anyone discovering the character: late enough to be mastered, early enough to not require anything prior.

1981: precision becomes a symptom

The booklet dated March 1981 is the one that we consider to be the most inventive in the file, and it is rarely cited.

Miller is now in charge of the script and drawing. The title places the character's name in statement position, as a statement of identity.

The idea of ​​the story is as follows: the killer suffers from a brain condition which alters his perception, to the point that he sees the hero's face on all the strangers he meets. His illness turns the whole world into a single target.

The process is remarkable because it doesn't explain anything. It's not an origin: it says neither where the character comes from, nor why he kills. It's a diagnosis, and a diagnosis has no moral value. Miller adds clinical material without reducing opacity — exactly what was needed for a character whose interest rests on the impossibility of understanding him.

Incidentally, this story does something that few authors dare: it makes its antagonist pitiful without making him sympathetic.

End of 1981: the only victory, and what it costs

The episode arrived on newsstands on December 29, 1981 is the most famous of the series, and the most expensive. It's also a turning point for the character himself, in a sense that is rarely emphasized.

Until then, he was losing. That was his function: come back, fail, come back again. Here he wins — and this victory defines him for the next forty years.

The benefit is immediate. An opponent who really won once becomes permanently credible; all his subsequent appearances inherit this acquired menace. This is what definitively separates him from dozens of contemporary hitmen who have remained anonymous.

The cost is just as real, and it is measured over time.The character was never able to accomplish anything as significant again. Every author who has covered it since has written in the shadow of this episode, and many have attempted to replay it. None succeeded, for a simple reason: the effect was based on surprise, and surprise is not repeated.

The booklet was sold in double format, for one dollar when the current price was sixty cents. A UK version at 40p also exists.

1982: Take precision out of the equation

Miller's final episode on the series, arriving on October 26, 1982, constitutes the most elegant answer to the problem posed in the introduction.

Since a character who never fails makes any confrontation predictable, Miller constructs a story where skill is useless: a game of Russian roulette, where only chance decides. The killer is deprived of his only quality.

The story is short, tense, almost theatrical, and it still works perfectly. It also shows what's left of the character when his talent is taken away - and the answer, frankly disturbing, is: the will to win anyway.

This number is still at reasonable levels, incommensurate with that of December 1981. This is the most exploitable anomaly in the file.

1983: the return, under another pen

The two hundredth issue of the series, arriving on newsstands on July 5, 1983, brings the character back after Miller's departure.

Denny O'Neil writing, John Byrne draws, and the title of the story announces a redemption which is not what we believe.

The interest of the episode lies in its position: it is the first who must deal with the legacy of the previous year. He chooses not to erase it, and to treat the character as a diminished man who seeks to prove that he still exists. This will be, for a long time, the standard way of writing it.

2004: an origin that we cannot believe

Twenty years later, a five-part limited series attempts the impossible: telling where he comes from.

Daniel Way writing, Steve Dillon draws, with covers by Mike Deodato Jr. The five episodes have titles that form a clear progression, from “the last place on earth” to entering the fire.

The finding is structural. The origin is there narrated by the character himself, in circumstances which make his testimony unverifiable. The reader is given a full biography and has no way of knowing if it is true.

This is the only honest way to write the origin of a figure whose absence of origin constitutes the main interest. Dillon's line, dry and without emphasis, serves exactly this purpose: he recounts the improbable in the tone of a news item.

This series can be found today for almost nothing. This is the best buy in reading file.

2007-2009: bearing someone else's name

Two team series then move the character towards an unexpected register.

The first, the first episode of which arrived on newsstands on January 10, 2007 , is written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Mike Deodato Jr. She integrates the killer into a government unit of criminals employed as vigilantes. The title of the opening story is about faith placed in monsters, and that is precisely the subject.

The second, launched on January 21, 2009 under the pen of Brian Michael Bendis with the same designer, takes a further step: the character operates there under the public identity of a famous hero, costume included.

This period has a direct consequence for the collector, developed in ourcollection guide: for several years, his most important appearances appear neither under his name nor under his costume. A seller who does not know the period will never report them.

Fundamentally, these stories add something new. A killer forced to pose as a paragon of virtue must constantly fake it — and watching him fail to emulate ordinary decency is more telling than any confrontation.

2010-2017: return to the profession

Two later series close the course.

A diptych published at the end of 2010 puts him back in a pure professional situation, without a team and without a borrowed mask. Then a limited series whose first issue arrived on February 1, 2017 , written by Ed Brisson and drawn by Guillermo Sanna, sends him to execute a contract in South America.

Neither is reinventing anything, and that is not their goal. They do what the character has allowed since 1976: a short criminal story, led by someone unencumbered by any morality.

Note that the first issue of the 2017 series comes in seven different cover versions. This is of no importance for reading, and it says a lot about the commercial context of its publication.

In what order to read

Three routes, depending on the time you want to spend there.

The essentials in three episodes: the diagnosis of 1981, the confrontation of December 1981, the roulette of 1982. In that order. You will have the complete character in less than an hour.

The chronological journey: from 1976 to 1983 in order of publication. It's the best way to see a secondary antagonist become a major figure, a transformation that takes place before your eyes in around forty booklets.

The modern course: the 2004 series for the unverifiable origin, then the two team titles of 2007 and 2009. It is the cheapest, and it is what best corresponds to the versions seen on screen.

For the beginnings themselves, see our article on itsfirst appearance.

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