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| Front cover of Elektra (2014) volume 2: Révérence |
Score (out of 5 Capes)
2 capes out of 5 for a book that is beautiful to look at but a story that is chaotic and disjointed.
My Review
Elektra's 2014 solo series proved to be short-lived, coming to an end after only 11 issues. This collection, paired with the Bloodlines volume I reviewed last week, captures the entire series and brings the many threads to a conclusion. It provides closure, if not a terribly satisfying ending.
Picking up where Bloodlines left off, Elektra is in search of the leaders of the Assassins Guild. Her quest brings her into conflict first with the Serpent Squad then with a nanite-infused and revived Lady Bullseye. The experimental nanite serum used in saving her has made her able to phase between solid and gaseous form, presenting whole new challenges as a combat opponent for Elektra.
After some misdirection, Elektra learns that the most likely one who might know who leads the Guild is none other than her old opponent, Bullseye.
For reasons author W. Haden Blackman never fully explains in the narrative, Bullseye's nearly dead body is held in strict and secretive containment by S.H.I.E.L.D. To extract his knowledge, Elektra would need to break through the agency's famed defences to get to Bullseye.
So she does.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s defensive abilities must be suffering a rough patch, as Elektra penetrates them without too much effort, really. So, too, do agents of The Hand and it is these latter warriors who make off with the body.
To get him back, Elektra must use the magical power of a dragon's heart to track down The Hand. Through a gorgeously painted, multi-page battle, she succeeds but not before The Hand manages to kick off the resurrection process.
In her deal for the magic and in her penetration into Bullseye's mind, our creative team makes several nods to Elektra's past. The homage and references to past history is one of the more powerful and appreciated bits of the entire series.
After getting what she needed, Elektra lands in Jakarta, Indonesia, for what could be a final confrontation with the Assassin's Guild. To her chagrin, the now-resurrected Bullseye is not far behind and strikes with a brutal, apparently skull-crushing brutality. Of course, spoiler alert, Elektra fights just fine despite massive bleeding and brain hemorrhaging, and escapes for a final confrontation with the Guild, one that is only alluded to on the final page of the entire series.
Bullseye, the Assassin's Guild, The Hand, Lady Bullseye, the Serpent Squad, S.H.I.E.L.D., dragons, there are so many elements thrown into the mix of these pages. Maybe the mix is red meat for serious and longtime Elektra fans. For those without that history, the result is more of a jumble of characters, plot twists, threats all tangling together into a big mess.
Blackman, in a note to the readers at the end of the book, describes the series as one of his works of which he is most proud. If only it had more coherence and less absurdity, I might agree. But the jumble of twists, turns and characters fails to tell an effective and interesting story. Surely he has done better work elsewhere.
These pages are, however, a treat for the eyes. Artist Michael Del Mundo took a two-issue hiatus, with Alex Sanchez doing the drawing for issues #6 and 7 and giving the visuals in those two chapters a more standard feel, if a bit sloppy in the faces. On his return, Del Mundo reintroduced the beautifully painted images.
As in the first volume, in Del Mundo's hands the battle sequences look more like a dance than a killing spree with stabbings, bloody slashes and severed limbs. Instead, even with those more gruesome elements, the fight scenes have a grace and elegance, the movements both fluid and powerful.
The end result is beautiful art illustrating a story with too many ingredients all thrown together and blended into a mash. Elektra, in these pages, is strong, decisive, beautiful and lethal, while her surrounding cast of characters feels forced, cramped for space in the over-stuffed narrative and ultimately disappointing.
2 out of 5 Capes.
What I loved
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| Del Mundo's beautiful painted pages |
As in volume 1, Michael Del Mundo's beautiful painted panels and pages is the biggest highlight of this book.
His fluid style gives these pages a sense of grace, a dance-like quality to the movements, especially in the combat sequences.
When the occasion calls for it, Del Mundo also breaks the bounds of the rectangular panels and goes big to impressive effect. The excerpted image above, for one example, is the right half of a two-page spread, a dream sequence memory of the pain of breaking up with Daredevil.
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| One of the amazing cover images |
Del Mundo also brings his creative eye and talent to many of the covers in the collection, as in the one above from issue #9. As Bullseye emerges from the fringes to the centre of the story, the cover puts Elektra in a dreamlike state at the very heart of the target.
What I didn't love
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| Resurrection of Bullseye |
This short, 11-issue series over 2 volumes packed plenty of Elektra's greatest enemies into the pages. So it should be no surprise that her greatest nemesis of all, Bullseye, the man who killed her in previous stories (Daredevil #181, April 1982 cover date), plays a central role.
Except he, too, has been killed. Or very nearly so - it turns out that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been storing his dead-but-not-quite-dead body in a super-secure secret location. Except Elektra has no problem penetrating the secrets or the facility. Nor does The Hand, who ultimately make off with Bullseye's body and restore it to life.
Whatever Marvel canonical knowledge that makes Bullseye so in demand is insufficiently explained within the story. So the reader not in the know already is left puzzled by the widespread obsession with the corpse or deep comatose state of this villain and the extent to which so many will go to revive him.
Related Reviews
Elektra: Bloodlines (volume 1)
Quick Reference Details
Writers: W. Haden Blackman
Artists: Alex Sanchez (#6-7), Michael Del Mundo (#8-11)
Published By: Marvel Comics
Published When: May 12, 2015
Parental Rating: Teen
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| Back cover of Elektra: Révérence |
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