Elektra #5 – Review

By: W. Haden Blackman (story), Michael Del Mundo (art) Marco D’Alfonso (colors)

The Story: An assassin-versus-assassin battle in which no one dies? Blasphemy!

The Review: Have I become addicted to the decompressed style? Much as I complain about stories that seem to drag on and on just because arcs are expected to be certain lengths nowadays, I can’t help feeling as if Elektra is moving too fast at certain points. The problem is that Blackman spends a good long time building up the suspense, only to puncture it in an instant, rather than letting it defuse tantalizingly. He hasn’t quite mastered the art of using twists to amp the tension even more.

Perfect example: the battle between Elektra and Cape Crow. We’ve had four issues painting him as this master assassin, someone who can even throw Elektra off her game. But like many of the battles we’ve seen in this series, their match feels rather short, and Elektra really only spends a few panels in actual danger. I don’t protest the way things play out; it’s just that we’re not much on tenterhooks about it.

Elektra #4 – Review

By: W. Haden Blackman (story), Michael Del Mundo (art) Marco D’Alfonso (colors)

The Story: Which assassin will have the better family reunion?

The Review: If there’s someone who fits the definition of antihero, Elektra does. Her methods are unapologetically brutal, her objectives not always for the greater good. In times past, she’s even been outright villain, I believe. Therefore, it’s important, for those of us who want to continue enjoying this book without feeling bad about ourselves, that we get a solid sense of where her morals land, so we’re not just getting entertainment out of a killer satiating her killer’s instinct.*

Indeed, that could be Blackman’s very purpose in kicking off the series with an arc involving a whole bunch of assassins. They provide the comparative framework we need to understand how Elektra places on the scale between good and evil. Putting her side-by-side with Bloody Lips seems particularly useful because they have the common ground of deep family tragedies in their past. The more similar two things are, the more profound their differences.

Elektra #3 – Review

By: W. Haden Blackman (story), Michael Del Mundo (art) Marco D’Alfonso (colors)

The Story: Elektra experiences her own Poseidon Adventure.

The Review: Back when Blackman was working with J.H. Williams III on Batwoman, I often wondered how much he contributed to that series. I won’t lie; I had a lot of admiration for the writing on Batwoman, mostly for its great technique. In no other series did I feel like I had a deep understanding of all its characters, even the most incidental. It achieved this by consistently doing what few ongoing titles ever manage to do: push plot and character development at the same time.

At this point, I’m ready to conclude that particular aspect of Batwoman‘s success was probably due largely to Blackman. He’s accomplishing much of the same thing here, on Elektra, finding all kinds of ways to reveal something new about the characters in the middle of a scene, and using the gaps in between to fill in the characters’ lives even further. He does all this so seamlessly that you never notice howhe’s doing it; you’re just carried along by the ceaseless flow of the story, only realizing how much you’ve learned once you reach the end.

Elektra #2 – Review

By: W. Haden Blackman (story), Michael Del Mundo (art) Marco D’Alfonso (colors)

The Story: How does one assassinate a giant monster?

The Review: The fun of superhero comics is the same thing which attracts people to World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy: the promise of exploring a colorful, multidimensional, interconnected world. Most of the time, however, we’re trapped with an endless parade of capes and costumes, fighting it out in one city or another, usually in the name of good versus evil. What’s great about a title like Elektra is it shows us a completely different side to the Marvel universe; it feels new instead of merely refreshed.

Part of that comes from the wider range of possibilities you get with more grounded characters. With the likes of Superman, Thor, Wonder Woman, etc., it’s a struggle finding sufficiently challenging antagonists or obstacles, which is why you usually see them fighting the same three or four villains most of the time. By contrast, someone like Elektra can be suitably occupied by folks as diverse as Lady Bullseye, Scalphunter, Bloody Lips, and the apparently infamous Cape Crow.

Elektra #1 – Review

By: W. Haden Blackman (story), Michael Del Mundo (art) Marco D’Alfonso (colors)

The Story: So, wait—you don’t want Elektra to kill somebody?

The Review: Now that I’m on something of a hot streak where Marvel titles are concerned, I might as well go for broke and pursue another series featuring an unusual suspect. Of all the solo characters I’ve picked up in recent weeks, I probably have the most familiarity with the assassin by virtue of her guest spot on
Daredevil #35. It’s not much to go by, but it was enough to get me interested in her cool, confidently amoral aura, so close to that Secret Six flavor I haven’t tasted in so long.*

In a lot of the Marvel #1s I’ve read, the protagonists are at an uncertain juncture of their lives, and Elektra is no different. What separates her from the others is that she knows exactly who she is, an “assassin,” and she also knows why: “…I could not bear how foolish I felt every time I spared someone who was determined to kill me.” She’s come to the point where she accepts herself and her beastly past (as concisely summarized by Blackman) completely. She’s a killer with Zen. Even when the direction of her life is unclear, she knows what she has to do.