Honestly, I wouldn't have bought this series had it been about Hawkeye alone. He's not one of my favorite characters or anything. However . . I think Bullseye is fantastic. I know he's an ass . . a real scum of the Earth, but . . I just find his character intriguing. I always liked him in Daredevil. Yes, I used to read that series a long time ago. And, there was a mini-series a few years ago by Daniel Way and Steve Dillon, Bullseye: Greatest Hits, that was pretty cool. So . . I thought I'd give it a shot. But, I missed the first 2 issues so now I have to do these 3 together.
The other thing that caught my eye . . this series is by Andy Diggle and Tom Raney, so . . I had to give it a shot. I love Andy's work. And I definitely wasn't disappointed by the story here. It seems to me that Bullseye just wants to push the envelope. Well, to be fair, all of Norman's team here seem to be on their own agenda. That's kind of obvious when they try to work together to take down a Hulk-buster that's heading for the Federal Reserve. Everyone is taking their shots, but in the end it's Bullseye/Hawkeye that stops the rampage. Unfortunately he leaves the suit standing in the middle of the street and no one else knows that the fight is over. They end up knocking it over and it kills 3 dozen innocent civilians. It's funny watching Norman trying to back-pedal that one. Later when Norman is chewing him out . . "You want me to run around in this stupid outfit and pretend to be some kind of Hero? Fine . . but if you ever expect me to hold back . . then you don't know me at all. Besides, that wasn't me. That was . . gravity. They had it coming. Rubber-neckers." Like I said . . he's a real piece of work. Then, later that night, Bullseye/Hawkeye stops a lady from being attacked. He kills 2 of the assailants and then pins the third to the van with arrows through his hands. The lady is very relieved. She doesn't even care that he killed 2 of them . . she just wants . . Hawkeye's autograph.
Needless to say, that doesn't sit to well with him and he shoves the pen through her eye. And then he sends the van, with the guy still pinned to it like a giant butterfly, off the roof of the parking garage . . . directly on top of a police cruiser. And to make matters worse . . it's all being caught by a news-copter directly over-head. So what does he do? What do you think? He kills the camera-man, the reporter and blows up the copter with the pilot inside. This guy is a public relations nightmare. HAMMER then shuts down the broadcasting station, under the guise of 'National Security'. But it's still a big mess that Norman has to try to work his way out of, and . . Ben Urich is hot on the story. But rather than discipline Bullseye/Hawkeye, Norman gives him a job . . he wants him to take out a group . . the PTSF . . "Peace Though Superior Firepower". He tells him where their hideout is, and that he wants him to kill them all. But when he gets there, they're all already dead, and they have a bullseye carved into each of their foreheads . . his signature MO. He then thinks he sees himself there too. Or . . someone dressed in his old costume. It turns out there's a couple of things wrong here. First of all . . Bullseye/Hawkeye thinks he's going crazy. Then they find a Senator, Irving Gray, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, dead . . with a bullseye carved in his forehead. Norman wants to know what's going on, but Bullseye/Hawkeye doesn't know, or remember, anything. To make matters worse, Ben finds out . . and I'm sure Norman knows as well . . that Senator Gray used to oversee an NSA based black-ops outfit in South America. Bullseye was his #1 operative. And the PTSF was also an NSA front organization. It was a group that was used to lure in 'real' bad guys, like AIM and HYDRA. And Irving Gray was the man who approved it's creation. So . . I'm thinking that either Norman was eliminating one of his competition in the government, or . . he's doing a really good job of setting up Bullseye/Hawkeye to take the fall down the line. The third issue ends with Bullseye/Hawkeye thinking that he sees himself . . his old self, Bullseye . . standing out on the ledge of the Avengers building. They fight for a couple of pages, until Bullseye/Hawkeye gets the upper-hand, but then . . then he turns around and sees about 15 of himself. Apparently someone is in the business of cloning this guy. That or he's figured out how to copy Madrox's powers. All in all I thought it was a pretty decent story. All the subterfuge and back-stabbing is great. What else would you expect from a group comprised of these individuals, and . . they have Norman Osborn as their leader. What a role-model. I actually like that I read the 3 issues together because the story flowed real smooth between them. When all's said and done, I have a feeling that Bullseye/Hawkeye won't be on this team anymore . . either because he's fed up with the games, and Norman trying to keep a leash on him, or . . Norman's going to kill him. At one point he tells him, "Have fun. Oh, and Hawkeye? One last thing . . screw this up for me, and I'll have the Sentry throw you into the heart of the sun." Don't we all wish that we could say that to our subordinates at one time or another? I'm just playin'. Seriously!
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