#Elektra: Assassin

[gameraboy2]

Elektra: Assassin by Bill Sienkiewicz

[omercifulheaves]

Elektra: Assassin Art by Bill Sienkiewicz

[daresplaining]

What are you thoughts/opinions on Elektra: Assassin? Do you think it's in continuity or not?

I like Elektra: Assassin a lot. It isn't my favorite Elektra story (I'm not sure what my favorite is, it depends on my mood), but I do think it's a masterpiece of the medium. I love the way in which Miller weaves together different voices-- Elektra and Garrett's dual narration, voices from Elektra's memories, SHIELD reports, spoken and unspoken dialogue (massive respect, also, to letterer Jim Novak for what must have been a really difficult task)-- and twists the timeline to create mystery and suspense, providing just enough information to keep the reader from getting lost in the chaos. I love that it firmly lays down the extent of both Elektra's skills and her superhuman powers. She is both vulnerably human and inhumanly terrifying, as we hop between her perspective and the perspectives of those observing/hunting her, and I really appreciate that. And of course, the art is incredible--cinematic and dreamlike and gory and beautiful and like nothing else out there. Honestly, I always enjoy a Miller and Sienkiewicz team-up; Daredevil: Love and War is also great.

I think I've always considered it to be in continuity, just because nothing about it jumped out at me as being majorly contradictory to the continuity beyond the slight changes to Elektra's backstory (the shifting around of the timeline for her Chaste training, the stuff with her father abusing her), which I just kind of wrote off as Miller continuing to reconsider his creation. The guy gave us three different versions of her origin story, after all, and this one was close enough to the original that it felt more like an I-can-pick-and-choose-the-details situation, rather than a this-is-so-different-that-it-can't-be-616 one. More to the point, the creative team intended it to be in continuity (unlike, for instance, Man Without Fear). My edition of the Elektra: Assassin trade includes an introduction by Mary Jo Duffy (the woman, the legend) who edited the comic, which provides context for its creation:

"It was the summer of 1982, and I was talking to Frank Miller, trying to convince him to write or illustrate something new for Marvel Comics; preferably for the Epic division, where I was an editor. Frank responded that when he had time, he was already planning a graphic novel involving Elektra... Now, before leaving Daredevil, Frank had killed Elektra and left her spirit metaphysically off-limits, but he assured me that the graphic novel would clear all that up and extend her story beyond her death. "Then, early in 1985, Frank came to me and my boss, Archie Goodwin, and told us he wanted to write an Epic Comics series starring Elektra. What he had in mind was an untold story about Elektra's past..."

The comic (via one of the SHIELD reports) plants the story firmly in time by telling us that Elektra is in her early twenties, thus backing up the idea that this is an adventure that took place in her past, not long after she became an assassin.

[ultradude13]

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A post shared by Bill Sienkiewicz Art (@billsienkiewiczart)

Elektra: Assassin #6 cover art by Bill Sienkiewicz

[graphicpolicy]

IDW's Artist's Editions Line expands with new Marvel releases

IDW's Artist's Editions Line expands with new Marvel releases #comics #comicbooks #marvel

IDW Publishing and Marvel Entertainment are expanding their longtime collaboration with the development of over two dozen new releases in IDW’s multi-award-winning Artist’s Editions line. IDW has announced four new Marvel-focused products for Fall 2023: Walter Simonson’s Fantastic Four Artist’s Edition (9798887240350, scheduled for September) collects complete stories of mythic proportions…

[vertigoartgore]

Elektra Assassin/Flashdance poster mashup by Cliff Chiang.

[transistoradio]

1. Elektra: Assassin #4 (of 8) (November 1986), with cover art by Bill Sienkiewicz.

2. Cover art by Mark Brooks (“after Sienkiewicz”) for Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #7 (2024).

2. Sin City: Hell and Back #7 (of 9) (January 2000), with cover art by Frank Miller and colourist Lynn Varley.

[manyworldspress]

Bill Sienkiewicz, untitled (Elektra), 2023. Posted to Twitter, January 10, 2024.

__________________________________________________ Our shop: https://bookshop.org/shop/manyworldspress

[comicartarchive]

Elektra Assassin 7 pg2-3 by Bill Sienkiewicz

[milesmorales99]

Elektra Natchios (@onepen.art)

Commissioned

[lilatreus]

Come back to me elektra natchios come back to me… the kids miss you… I miss you…

[quincybf]

LALO SALAMANCA / ELEKTRA NATCHIOS

BETTER CALL SAUL / DAREDEVIL

[omercifulheaves]

Elektra: Assassin #1 Art by Bill Sienkiewicz

[viaov]

Joe Maduriera, Bill Sienkiewicz, Elektra

[evilhorse]

Elektra Assassin house ad circa March 1988

[sharkjumpers]

The trials of mind and body have BENT you to us, Elektra. You have slain what is SOFT in you. You are CLEAN. Never AGAIN can you live as others do. Should you turn from US, we will KILL you. Should you turn from the CODE, you shall kill YOUR-SELF. Your eyes have been opened to the DARK ways. Your soul is touched by the HIDDEN FORCES. You will DANCE with them... or PERISH. You are NINJA--ever on your lips must be the SIX ORDERS. Though the moment may be TERRIBLE or ECSTATIC... you will RECITE them... one by one... Protect the BODY. It is your WEAPON. FEEL no PAIN. Seek the DARKNESS and be SILENT. The OLD WAYS and the ELEMENTS. These are your ALLIES. NO ONE is INNOCENT. This must NEVER BE FORGOTTEN. And the FIRST ORDER on which SUCCESS AND LIFE EVER DEPENDS... LEAVE NOTHING LIVING. Only the LIVING SEEK REVENGE or spread the deadly net of KNOWLEDGE...

If you were wondering what Sam (and his mother) was being subjected to brainwashing wise during his time with the Hand, these are their full list of orders as defined by Elektra: Assassin. Much to think about.