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DAREDEVIL'S ENEMIES
- BULLSEYE - GLADIATOR - KINGPIN -

Thumbnail: Bullseye Bullseye
Name: unknown
AKA: Benjamin Pondexter
Height: 6'0" (183cm); Weight: 200 lbs. (91 kg.)
Hair: blonde; Eyes: blue
First appearance: Daredevil #131 (Mar 1976)
Known relatives: none
Occupation: Assassin, former mercenary, former baseball pitcher
Powers/abilities: uncanny ability to use anything as a weapon, uncanny aim, also skilled at hand-to-hand combat, adamantium skeletal implants
Special equipment: knives, shuriken, sais, anything that can be thrown, Kevlar body suit
Source of powers: unknown
Important allies: none (has worked for Kingpin)
Important enemies: Daredevil, Elektra, Capt. America, Crossbones

Bullseye is insane. He is a sociopathic, psychopathic, sicko! He had a brain tumor at one point which had him hallucinating that everyone was Daredevil, but whether or not the brain tumor was part of the cause of his aberrent behavior may never be known. He can turn anything into a weapon, and has unnaturally superb aim. One of the best assassins in the world, he couldn't beat Daredevil. In fact, with one exception, every time Daredevil and Bullseye have fought, DD has come out on top. Bullseye has developed a major hate for DD (I think mostly because of this losing streak). It's almost as if he goes into a confrontation with DD already saying, "You always beat me! It's not fair!"

Very little is known about his background. There was a mention somewhere about his being in the military and also possibly a ballplayer?? Daredevil ended up dropping him and paralyzing him once, but after some combination high tech and oriental medicine (not to mention an infusion of unbreakable adamantium into his bones), he got better. This is someone you don't want to be in the same city with.

note: Bullseye is often listed as having his first appearance in Nick Fury #15 (1969). From everything I can tell, this is a completely different character with a different origin & abilities.


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Thumbnail: Gladiator Gladiator
Real Name: Melvin Potter
AKA:
Height: 6'8" (203 cm); Weight: 300 lbs. (136 kg.)
Hair: bald (black mustache); Eyes: blue
First appearance: Daredevil #18 (Jul 1966)
Known relatives: Betsy Beatty Potter (wife)
Occupation: Costume maker/designer
Powers/abilities: hand-to-hand combat, talented costume designer
Special equipment: Gladiators armored suit and whirling titanium wrist blades
Source of powers: not applicable
Important allies: Daredevil, Elektra; former: Masked Marauder, Electro, Stilt-Man, Death-Stalker, Beetle, Big M, Matador, Leap-Frog
Important enemies: none; former: Daredevil, Iron Man, the Hand

Gladiator started off as a strong man seeing that people only got ahead when they took what they want and why should all those super heroes have all the glory anyway. A talented costume designer, he put together an outfit with very nasty wrist blades, to go out and conquer with. After some time, apparently he saw the world as an arena and his fights as contests in the old Roman style. [Personally I liked his initial motivations better than this "fantasy world" he supposedly ended up living in.] He got some counseling from his wife-to-be Betty Beatty and nowdays is a friend of Daredevil's. His wife means everything to him, and at one point Daredevil helped rescue her when she'd been kidnapped to try to force Gladiator back into a life of crime.


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Thumbnail: Kingpin Kingpin
Real Name: Wilson Grant Fisk (middle name from DD v.2 #15)
AKA: The Kingpin of Crime
Height: 6'0" (183 cm); Weight: 500 lbs. (227 kg.)
Hair: bald; Eyes: brown
First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #50 (Jul 1967)
Known relatives: Vanessa Fisk (wife); Richard Fisk (aka The Rose, son);
Occupation: Head of Crime Syndicate
Powers/abilities: highly skilled at hand-to-hand combat
Special equipment: walking stick/cane equipped with various charges
Source of powers: not applicable
Important allies: organized crime in general (more out of fear than loyalty)
Important enemies: Daredevil, Spider-Man, The Rose, The Punisher

While Mr. Fear might be the most obvious choice for arch-nemesis for the "Man Without Fear", the Kingpin is the best arch-enemy for Daredevil when you look at his beliefs and values. While Matt Murdock holds justice and the rights of the individual to be paramount, Wilson Fisk sees the whole world as one big game, a system to be manipulated, and the "individuals" are no more than game pieces to be toyed with or disposed of without any further thought. The Kingpin's only weakness used to be his wife Vanessa for whom he'd do almost anything. It's interesting to note that at one point he was going to retire from crime to the life of a spice merchant, but this all fell apart when Vanessa was kidnapped coming to engage the services of Nelson and Murdock to help the Kingpin legitamitize his affairs. Ironic that later, Murdock and the Kingpin would become such bitter enemies. At first, the Kingpin never even noticed Daredevil as anything other than a minor annoyance, but shortly after he discovered Daredevil's identity, he decided that he wanted to "break" the man called Matt Murdock. He destroyed Matt's life in every way and was going to kill him, but Matt survived. Daredevil became an obsession of the Kingpin's after this. In fact, "Daredevil" was one of the only things that could break the Kingpin's cool, calm, collected outlook. Daredevil then proceed to tear down the Kingpin's empire and the Kingpin wandered homeless for a while, although there have been hints in the Marvel Universe that he may be coming back!

While people often refer to the Kingpin as the "fat man", he isn't. He is solid as they come, and deceptively fast for his size. He tends to scatter the best fighters as if they were bowling pins. However, as far as I'm aware he has no "super powers".


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The Daredevil Resource ©1996,2004 Kevin Hall.     Corner DD graphic courtesy Piekos Arts.
Daredevil TM & ©2004 is the property of Marvel Characters, Inc. - all rights reserved.