Elektra #1 –
Marvel Comics
Written by Matt Owens
Art by Juann Cabal
Colors by Antonio Fabela & Marcio Menyz
Letters by VC’s Cory Pett
Cover by Elizabeth Torque
Elektra has always been one of favorite female characters in Marvel. First, I mean, you can’t really go wrong with a badass female assassin who uses sais as her weapon of choice. Aside from the comics, me having a pretty big crush on Jennifer Garner in my younger days didn’t hurt either. Combine all of that with Elodie Young’s great portrayal recently, I was wondering when we would be seeing more from the character in comics again. So seeing that she now had her own series was just too good to pass up.
Elektra has gone to Las Vegas to try and get away from her old life. It’s pretty clear that she doesn’t want to be drawn in by almost anyone, but she ends up talking to a bartender at one of the casinos. It seemed like their dynamic woke something up in Elektra, and the story started to change from there. All the while there was an undercurrent of something sinister going on behind the scenes, and you start to connect the dots from there. How it happens is not exactly conventional though, which was one of the interesting things about this story. This almost read like it could have been a one shot, until you see the last couple of pages and see where the rest of the story is going. Question is, will any more supporting characters come along from here on out (and should they?)
No matter how much I love her, I think we all admit that Elektra is a secondary character. At the same time, there are so many things you can do with her and stories you could tell, should you take the time to build a good foundation. Owens gives her a little vulnerability here, which is a good thing if you’re trying to keep this going for the long haul. Sure the action in this book was fun, but to make this story work, you have to give Elektra more than that. He gives her motivation, which helped make this story believable. I wasn’t a fan of the beginning of the book, but I feel like it may have been necessary to establish the connection with the bartender. The art is very solid, and it definitely makes you want to keep coming back for more. The only thing that gives me pause is the sustainability of this storyline and the actually threat that the villain will pose going forward. If the threat doesn’t feel real, and fast, it’s going to be hard to keep me interested. So, we’ll see what happens in the next couple of issues.
RATING: PICK UP