Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz
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By: Marvel Entertainment Group
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
a really great comic work... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
the only gripe i have about this is it feels like it should be part of a larger, longer story. or maybe its just because you don't want it to end. at any rate this is a great graphic novel, featuring top class writing and artwork.
Graphic SF Reader 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.
A compilation of the issues of Miller's introduction of the character of Elektra Natchios, a woman that could easily have been the star of a Robert Ludlum novel. That is, if there were not so many of those damned ninjas running around.
A woman that is an old girlfriend of Matt's comes back into his life, and makes it very complicated.
Addictive - I can't keep away from Elektra: Assassin 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
Elektra, child of pain and suffering (not just a bit of it inflicted by her) is back (wasn't she dead? The foreword covers or at least addresses that). Schooled in the ways of the Ninja, Elektra is virtually unstoppable - able to deflect bullets, take down helicopters, kill dozens of men at once, manipulate and elude the most powerful law enforcement agencies and the militaries of the most powerful nation on Earth. Single-handedly, she leaves a path of death and destruction in her wake - and she's doing it to save us all.
What!? Much of "Elektra" is, on its surface, incomprehensible - with rapid changes in POV (between Elektra and Garret, her hunter and then ally) and the homicidal Perry - a government agent recruited by Elektra's enemies and then transformed into an unstoppable cyborg of mass-destruction. We soon learn that Elektra had nearly been indoctrinated by The Beast, the implacable and genocidal demon served by the insidious clan of warriors known as "The Hand". (The beast needs to adapt to our world - until then, they are his hand; Eastman and Laird supposedly parodied them when they faced their Ninja Turtles with the "Foot Clan".) When she links The Hand to Presidential Candidate Kenneth Wind ("Think `Wind' like a watch"), Elektra quickly realizes that the Beast means to war against humanity by having it war against itself. Though possessed of superhuman fighting abilities and supernatural conscious-expansion talents, Elektra seeks help in her battle with The Beast, and recruits a SHIELD agent Garret for assistance. Pretty scuzzy and incompetent for an agent of SHIELD, Garret manages to find and lose Elektra at every turn, until he too senses the growing influence of The Beast. A cyborg, Garret isn't so much bionic as stripped of his manhood, and the story leaves little doubt as to who wears the pants in their relationship.
Though seeming impenetrable, a deeper reading of "Elektra" reveals a near-perfect narrative machine, one that informs altered-states of conscious, of fear, sacrifice and self-loathing, cold-war fears and new-age delusions. Even if you don't get it, it's still an intoxicating story, almost addictive. I've read it twice this week, always coming across new details I missed the last time.
The 1980's saw an upsurge in mainstream comics with a decidedly subversive slant. "Elektra: Assassin" may not be the greatest example of that trend (certainly not when sharing our attentions with the likes of Neil Gamin or Alan Moore), but it gamely pushes its own envelope with a story that rises well above its simple plot. You'll appreciate Miller's risk-taking even if his gamble doesn't pay-off.
