time of year two of Daredevil will introduce Elektra , the Grecian assassinator who ’s Matt Murdock ’s devotee and sometime antagonist . Her creator , Frank Miller , has told interviewers that the show could never land his vision of Elektra to life . And he ’s correctly — because no one could ever match the mindbending absurdist nightmare that Miller conjured in his seminal work on the character , Elektra : Assassin .
The minute of “ Peak Miller”—the jiffy at which Frank Miller transmute from legendary funnies genius to the ego - aware ( and still ace ) madman who ’s responsible for for some of the hottest messes in comics story — is difficult to immobilize down .
To some , Peak Miller began with theawful hilaritythat is All - Star Batman and Robin . To others , it start more recently , with his horrifyingly misguided post-9/11 superhero series , Holy Terror . To others , Peak Miller started to get the moment he returned to the Dark Knight well with The Dark Knight Strikes Again .
But I ’d argue Peak Miller arrive much , much earlier . It start in August 1986 , when he wrote Elektra : Assassin , an eight - part series that truly represents the amazing blending of clear-cut commentary and all over mindfuckery that would fix his later notorious work .
If you set about to describe Elektra : Assassin , it ’s ostensibly about Elektra the hitwoman on her own — separated from the Hand Clan , Matt Murdock , and the other trappings that largely delimitate her appearance in the 1980s in Daredevil . Instead , we regain the Hellenic assassinator on the lead of left-of-center U.S. Presidential nominee Ken Wind . He ’s been possessed by a nefarious demon called the Beast — a creature that wants to part a atomic war . Elektra and her sometimes ally , sometimes opponent , SHIELD Agent Garrett , have to run down current of air and arrest the Beast before it can destroy the reality .
Now , contrive all of that information out the window — because you ’re not run to read Elektra : Assassin for its game . You ’re going to read it as a trippy fever dreaming , a winding comment on sex , politics , comics , hell , even Frank Miller himself . It ’s a trip-up through the troubled psyche of Elektra , but equally a journey into Miller ’s own psyche that never lets up , even in its quieter moments .
It can be painfully hard to follow at some points — the first two issues in particular , which mostly re - establish Elektra ’s rootage and define up the construct of the Beast . The opening consequence carry through these things via a reality - warping dah through Elektra ’s intellect , panel flickering by with random insights like neurons firing through the brain .
Even in its more coherent minute , Assassin is psychedelic , with one ft in world and the other hard rooted in the psyche of Elektra and Garrett — which is really how you finish up not caring a mite about the plot , and or else focus on the commentary Miller cater about his chosen matter .
It ’s strong to capture who Miller ’s Elektra really is in Assassin . Despite Elektra essentially being the narrator of the series alongside Garrett , it all smutch into Miller ’s own notion and disputation . You ’re substantive prosecute with an eight - event - long Frank Miller essay , occasionally punctured by guess of an Elektra funny script that barely makes sense .
Everything in Elektra : Assassin is exaggerated and press to its most extreme . And Miller ’s commentary , which has all the nuance of a 10 - short ton - weight repeatedly smashed into your aspect , is no exclusion . It gets to the point that some times you ’re candidly not certain if Miller and Siekiewicz are engage in cryptic satire , or have simply break of the recondite last into sheer theatrical absurdity .
Ken Wind , for example , is painted as the ultimate eighties Liberal — a peace loving beatnik who lit candle at Woodstock as a young person , and is now sweeping the nation as an earnest idealist . But his veneer of smug fakery comes across in the chilling smile Sienkiewicz repeatedly sketches him with , almost like a mask — symbolic of a valet de chambre spouting empty promises of political revolution . His opponent , the incumbent President who might as well be called “ Smichard Smixon ” , is equally paint in across-the-board strokes : a man who thrust homophobic slur and temptingly stroke the atomic launch release like a lover .
A similarly unsubtle duality can be establish in how Miller use Elektra and Agent Garrett to lampoon the popular movement of mod comics — and in particular , weirdly enough , two trends that Miller himself arguably pioneered with his work on Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns . Elektra and the Hand both represent how stereotypical Comic Book Ninjas had become by the mid ‘ 80s ( after Miller had made them pop ! ) . So the outlandish beast and the Hand assassins that pursual Elektra and Garret in the latter half of the series are often key as ridiculous , almost comical figures , out of place and not even remotely threatening to either fictitious character .
Garrett , and his SHIELD mate Perry , are both pastiches of hyperviolent , too low-spirited action cartoon strip . Agent Garrett is a vile , foulmouthed misogynist , who ’s incessantly aroused and angered by Elektra ’s sexually provocative nature ( as well as her intellect - altering psychic powers ) . Some of his late dialogues with Elektra seem to be reaching an almost adult climax . He gets himself into gory , violent fights through the book , that leave behind him in literal piece , have to be stitched back together by SHIELD ’s cybernetics division again and again . So he ’s essentially a cause of death robot with a human mind by the goal of the report .
Perry himself is taken even further than Garrett — who at least bring in that Elektra is correct about Ken Wind and the terror of the Beast and becomes a vague likeness of a “ Cuban sandwich . ” Perry becomes a likewise cybernetic , unhinged broker of the Beast , after Elektra kills him by shove a bayonet up his derriere . That alone should be enough to tell you about the level of exuberant violence in the record , which borders on parody in its own right field .
But there ’s another interesting mirror between Elektra and Garrett , in the way their fury is picture . Elektra ’s putting to death is as refined as it is brutal , emblematic of the alien ninja stereotype , while Garrett ’s violence is senseless , gore - and - explosion laden machismo , typical of over - the - top action movies .
Elektra : Assassin would fall perfectly into an dramatic , Frank - Miller - patented mess , however , if not for the incredible talents of Bill Sienkiewicz . The artist is at the height of his power , and his water-colour oeuvre is perfect for a series as trippy as Elektra : Assassin — an aesthetic unlike anything in comic at the sentence , twin to a hand that equally unique .
Take the disconcertingly smug face ( constantly star out of the dialog box ) that he gives Ken Wind . Or the trippy visuals he paints for sequences inside Elektra ’s mind , where people transform into animals or garish , exaggerated caricatures . Or even how how he transmogrify Elektra herself , bet on whose perspective we are seeing her from . Every panel is dripping with style , and Siekiewicz ’ esoteric visuals are the downright perfect frame for Miller to build his Holy Writ inside ( there ’s a fabled tale about Elektra : Assassin that says Siekiewicz just painted random pages as he wish , and when Miller received them , he ’d re - coiffe them as he saw fit , which honestly would n’t surprise me ) .
But in spite of all of this — the jaw - dropping art , the fine course between cutting satire and just a ended descent into madness , the harebrained violence , the crass broad nature of it all — Elektra : Assassin continue a transformative piece of work , not just for the reference , but for Marvel ’s attack to adult graphical funny employment .
Assassin got into Elektra ’s head . And rather of focused on her as a ninja , or her history within Miller ’s Daredevil run , it turn over into her psychical power — something that does n’t really get touched on a lot , elsewhere . Miller ’s consummate use of them on his warped pyrexia dream journeying across the series gives us a unequalled , bizarrely personal brainstorm into Elektra that we ’d never seen before , and have n’t really seen since . It ’s a version of the fictitious character that could never have been done in the mainstream Marvel universe of discourse .
On top of that , Assassin broke boundaries at Marvel for its content — or more specifically , at its impression , Epic . It was far too adult for the main company to release . Its gore , its sexuality , it ’s voice communication , even Siekiewicz ’s water-colour artwork — it was like nothing that had ever been let go of with Marvel ’s name before . Some aspects of it , especially the picture of Garrett , look shockingly juvenile in New setting . But as the XC pay way to an uptight era of adolescent “ adulthood ” , Elektra Assassin ’s unique sword of ferocity , prove to balance bite cultural comment with pathetic potpourri , essentially go the elbow room fortruly matureMarvel work like Alias to flourish afterward on .
Alias Was Marvel ’s First Adult Comic That Was Actually For grownup
Frank Miller was the flaky , unfathomable hammer , that smashed capable that paries . Thus allowing books like Alias to guide themselves more fine through to the other side of adult - theme comics from a mainstream risible newspaper publisher . And Miller accomplished this by cut into profoundly into the nous of one of his most iconic creations , and dig up something truly memorable … for all the right and ill-timed reasons .
ComicsElektraMarvel
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