By: Frank Miller Publisher: Epic Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 264 Publication Date: October 31, 2000 Studio: Epic Comics
Grabs your eyeballs and drags them across it's pages. ^ Sometimes a combination of visual art and gritty storytelling give you a visceral response. This is one of those cases. Do not miss this if you have even a small amount of interest in creating visual arts yourself.
It's not about the "story" ^ This is one of the best comics I've ever read. Better and more unique than a lot of Miller and other works that get more credit.
The take I get from reviews here is that this book is really good but the story is a little cliche. Well, very few action graphic novels have really groundbreaking plots. But the writing in this book stands out because Miller makes his characters feel real. The story is moving, with Garrett's hangup on Elektra, and her own impenetrable exterior and only semi-conscious grasp of how she became what she is. This sparse, neon colored man-woman thing fits in perfectly with Miller's typical "edgy" action, which 20 years later needs a little support. Garrett is also just more fun than Bruce Wayne. Miller's typical stream-of-consciousness style usually feels a little forced, but works great in this one.
But I think the real credit for the "story" goes to Sienkewicz, who completely hit it out of the park with Elektra. What can I say, it's awesome. To tell the truth Miller's grungy and 2D-looking figures kind of disappoint me. Sienkewicz's splashy style is perfect for this story. He gets maximum expression out of simple lines and looks. And I'm not talking black-and-white stick figures. In the end, you have vibrant scenes, but relatively rough and simple characters drawn with incredible feel.
Addictive - I can't keep away from Elektra: Assassin ^ 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.
Graphic SF Reader ^ 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.
a really great comic work... ^ 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.
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