Comic Info
Comic Name: Elektra
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: W. Haden Blackman
Artist: Michael Del Mundo
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2014
Elektra #1 Variant
Reprints Elektra (3) #1-5 (June 2014-October 2014). Elektra has been given a new assignment. Find the legendary assassin known as Cape Crow. Unfortunately, the price on Cape Crow’s head is high and other assassins are out to find it first. Elektra finds herself teamed with Cape Crow’s son Kento as she seeks to find Cape Crow, but a superhuman assassin named Bloody Lips could possess the abilities and memories of Elektra and all the assassins he’s fought in the past.
Written by W. Haden Blackman, Elektra Volume 1: Bloodlines was printed under the Marvel Now! imprint. The series features art by Michael Del Mundo.
While I liked Frank Miller’s Elektra, I always felt that the character floundered under other artists. The character was very cerebral and caught in her own past on the inside, but on the outside was just a really good assassin…something that Marvel is full of. Blackman tries to get into the core of Elektra and succeeds for the most part.
The story is very much in line with something like Elektra: Assassin. In the early ’90s Marvel tried to launch a more mainstream Elektra comic which was really flat and one dimensional, but this seems to be trying to find a happy medium between Miller’s Elektra and a regular comic. The basic plotline is rather simple and flows. It doesn’t necessarily read well issue to issue since very little seems to happen in each issue, but overall the story moves.
Elektra #3 Variant
There are portions of the story where the cerebral takes over and it is a bit difficult to understand what is going on. The introduction of Bloody Lips to the story is both a good and bad thing. It might have been nice to build to a new character like Bloody Lips instead of introducing him here…maybe using a more traditional character for this arc.
What doesn’t miss at all is Michael Del Mundo’s great artwork. The style and look of the comic is amazing and the nice painted artwork (along with great covers) makes up for a lot of any minor faults the storytelling has. Elektra can be read for the art alone.
Elektra 1: Bloodlines is a nice start to a series, but I don’t know that it will be enough to carry a series. The art and storytelling are solid, but as seen in recent years, it doesn’t mean a series will continue or be able to support itself in the tough comic market. Elektra 1: Bloodlines is followed by Elektra 2: Reverence.
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