Elektra #2 – Review

By: W. Haden Blackman (story), Michael Del Mundo (art) Marco D’Alfonso (colors)

The Story: How does one assassinate a giant monster?

The Review: The fun of superhero comics is the same thing which attracts people to World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy: the promise of exploring a colorful, multidimensional, interconnected world. Most of the time, however, we’re trapped with an endless parade of capes and costumes, fighting it out in one city or another, usually in the name of good versus evil. What’s great about a title like Elektra is it shows us a completely different side to the Marvel universe; it feels new instead of merely refreshed.

Part of that comes from the wider range of possibilities you get with more grounded characters. With the likes of Superman, Thor, Wonder Woman, etc., it’s a struggle finding sufficiently challenging antagonists or obstacles, which is why you usually see them fighting the same three or four villains most of the time. By contrast, someone like Elektra can be suitably occupied by folks as diverse as Lady Bullseye, Scalphunter, Bloody Lips, and the apparently infamous Cape Crow.

All these characters come together to form the shadowy realm of assassins that Elektra lives in, and so far, it’s a fascinating change of pace from the one we tend to see the Avengers and X-Men fool around in. To be honest, we can stand to see more of it than the issue offers; Elektra’s tracking and battle with Scalphunter and Lady Bullseye feels a bit truncated, giving us only a taste of their real skills, and her discovery of Kento Roe, Cape Crow’s son, hardly takes much effort at all. Maybe it’s too early to be setting back someone of Elektra’s caliber with major roadblocks, but you’re eager to get a full glimpse of her powers and abilities.

Anyway, even if all this does feel a bit short, at least it’s delivered with great intensity, as Elektra and Lady B hack and slice each other while Scalphunter falls to a mama-monster enraged by the reckless explosion of her eggs. As excited as you are to see Shicheng, the Underwater City, which Kento declares to be Elektra’s next destination in their quest for Cape Crow, you would have appreciated a longer stay on Monster Island.

But now we’re starting to see that Blackman has more than fun and games in mind for this series. Kento’s conviction that his father wants only a chance to find “peace…happiness…redemption” re-exposes Elektra’s more pessimistic views on the assassin’s life: “I know that people like Cape Crow, like me, do not change.” Her demand that Kento give her all of Crow’s possessions in exchange for finding him is thus a test for both men, to see if Crow truly wants to leave his old world behind. Whether Crow passes the test will not only determine Elektra’s fortune, but also whether she, too, has the capacity to live other than she has.

In thinking on the virtues of Del Mundo’s art, I can’t help comparing it to Andrea Sorrentino’s work on Green Arrow. Both artists spend a lot of time drawing characters in battle with weapons, yet it’s Del Mundo who achieves a real sense of furious skill and training in the sequences, brief as they are. His figures move fluidly across the page, like a series of snapshots of people in action. D’Alfonso enhances this quality even further by softening and streaking his colors with the flurry of the characters’ movements, like the blur you get in sports photographs.

Conclusion: The issue hurries you past its many attractions, but there are worse flaws than to be left wanting more than what you get.

Grade: B

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Matchmaker can get pretty surly when she’s double-crossed. “I’ll wager the Guild hates Cape Crow so much, they’ll pay a bright bonus for you. If only so they can see the look on your old man’s face as you’re tortured to death.”