Daredevil #111-115 (2008-2009): 1st Lady Bullseye; White Tiger dies 

Matt’s cheating on his wife with Dakota North.

I guess people can argue about whether it was necessary to have a Lady Bullseye, but since that ship has sailed, let’s dig into this story.  She is introduced without context, stalking Danny Rand.  Through flashbacks, we learn that as a kid she was kidnapped by slavers.  The slavers were then murdered by Bullseye.  So, she decided she wanted to be a killer when she grew up.

She now works for The Hand, who order her to frame Daredevil for murder.

In parallel, the Hand sends ninjas to kill Black Tarantula and Iron Fist, and they both fail.

Matt gets arrested for the murders he didn’t commit but fortunately for him he was banging Dakota North at the time of the killings so he’s released.  But he’s mad at Dakota for telling the cops about their affair because…It’s really not clear why.  I mean, Matt is a bigger slut than She-Hulk and the alibi got him released from custody.  Matt’s just a dick, I guess.  The writing here reads like a clunky attempt to mimic Brian Michael Bendis.  Ed Brubaker is a super talent.  He doesn’t need to to that.  Fortunately, Brubaker gets back to doing what he’s great at on the next page: Introducing seedy alcoholic slimeballs.

We all meet Master Izo for the first time.  Izo tells Matt about the internal power struggles for leadership of The Hand.  He tells Matt he’s going to help him destroy The Hand.

Matt and Lady Bullseye finally meet and fight. 

It ends in a stalemate and later in the issue LB slays White Tiger.

Turns out that Lady Bullseye is also a U.S.-barred attorney.  She uses that guise to take custody of Milla Donovan, removing her from the mental facility and providing evidence of Matt’s infidelity with Dakota North to her parents.  This is really just a convenient way to remove a character from this series who had become mostly a distraction and not a value-add.

The Hand resurrect White Tiger and manage to possess Black Tarantula, and we end with a big karate finale.  Master Izo and Iron Fist help Daredevil fight off The Hand, Lady Bullseye, and the two possessed heroes.  

This all ends up being a complicated plan to force Matt Murdock into taking over leadership of the Hand, since Elektra was discovered be a skrull.  A dead skrull, now, actually.  It’s a convoluted and (frankly) silly plan.

The story ends with LB, Black Tarantula, and White Tiger on a plane to Spain to engage “Plan B.”

None of this is terrible.  It’s fun enough to read.  But Brubaker has shown in the pages of Captain America and Iron Fist that he can do a lot better than this.  The plot feels like every other Daredevil plot, where a criminal mastermind tries to shatter his life, only it makes less sense–and the script is uneven.  As is the art.