In this feature, I spotlight storylines that have been, well, left unresolved. Click here for an archive of all storylines featured so far.
Today, in a tie in to this week's Comic Book Legends Revealed, we look at the mystery of Kevin Smith's Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target, which never made its way past its first issue...
In this week's Comic Book Legends Revealed, I discussed the peculiar origins of Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target, a mini-series by writer Kevin Smith that never made it ways past the first issue. You see, Smith only did the series because Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada had promised Smith that Smith could write the first meeting of Daredevil and Bullseye following Bullseye murdering Daredevil's girlfriend during Smith and Quesada's run on Daredevil. So when some other writer was about to feature Bullseye, Smith reminded Quesada of it and Quesada told him he could get first dibs if he agreed to write a Daredevil mini-series right then and there. Smith agreed, but almost immediately regretted, as he noted that he was more interested in holding Quesada to the promise than he was in actually writing the story.
Anyhow, in the time between Smith's first run in 1998-99 and late 2001, when Smith began writing the project, 9/11 happened and Smith worked the tragedy into his story, showing Daredevil's reaction...
It also played into the plot of the series, were some Middle Eastern terrorists come to New York City to hire Bullseye to kill "the target." While there, their contact shows them a young single mother in a nearby building to show how strong Americans are and that's why terrorists will never win in America.
So anyhow, Bullseye comes in and they give him THE TARGET and he agrees to take the assignment...
They first make him prove his skills and his cold bloodedness...
And that was all we ever got.
A few years later, it was going to continue, with Adam Kubert taking over for the departing Glenn Fabry, but Kubert had just then signed an exclusive contract with DC, so he likely would not have been able to draw anything but #2, so #2 was never released. Smith did give us glimpses of what Kubert's take would have looked like...
So who was the target?
Go to the next page to find out, but come on, think about it - it's a pretty explicit 9/11-related comic, so who would you THINK the target would be (make your guess to yourself before you turn the page)...
The target was Captain America.
Okay, that's it for this edition of Left Unresolved!
If you have suggestions for other unresolved comic book plots that you'd like to see featured, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com