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Title: Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller ISBN: 0-87135-309-1 Publisher: Marvel Entertainment Group Pub. Date: 31 October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.32 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Graphic Novel for the Critic
Comment: I remember first buying this in its first printing and
thinking "I've never seen anything like this in my life".
I went on a tear and bought as much Sienkiewicz art as I
could, from New Mutants to portfolios to a signed Moon Knight
print (yep, I met him too).
Frank Miller of course is arguably the finest writer that comics have ever had. The combination didn't disappoint me
then; news of a reissue means I don't have to risk opening
my original to re-read a classic.
About the novel itself, I can only agree that as a story Miller
has written better, but placed in its context I believe it's
worthy of special merit. And again, to amplify earlier
comments, Bill Sienkiewicz does something in this book that
shook comic artists at the time, breaking huge ground for
those that followed, and then... nothing. Inexplicably,
Bill's presence went off the map. This stands as his finest
work in comics.
Rating: 5
Summary: Marvel Comics on acid: the 2001 of Superhero Comics
Comment: During the mid to late 80's Frank Miller was at his prolific best, pushing back the boundaries of what comics could be with the likes of Ronin, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, Hard Boiled, and Daredevil: Born Again. These were all good, old-fashioned, fast-paced action/adventure stories bursting with crackling dialogue, gripping drama and oh-so dry humour, told in a new and innovative way. Elektra: Assassin is different from these other comics.
There are no likeable characters, the first chapter won't make any sense and the dumb-witted hero looks like an ugly porn star from the seventies. Also, it doesn't help when Elektra, the heroine of the piece only has about two lines of dialogue to utter throughout the entire length of the book. You won't like it the first time you read it. It doesn't care if you like it or not.
It is however, one of the most incredible comic books that you will ever read. Totally surreal in its' intent, this is Marvel comics on acid. Its' remarkable illustrator Bill Sienkiewicz uses everything in his considerable armoury ranging from traditional fine art painting methods to Crayola crayons in order to tell a very intricately crafted, yet effortlessly beautiful story. In truth it is more his book than it is Frank Miller's.
While reading, you can feel the raw energy as the two creators; both on the top of their game spark off each other and propel themselves onto a higher plane of creativity.
This comic book truly does push back the boundaries further than they have ever been pushed before or since.
Also included: Telepathic Ninjas, Homicidal Androids, Demons from hell, flying blue dwarves and Nuclear War.
Rating: 4
Summary: Full of Too Much Wind...Like The Air!
Comment: You won't find a much bigger fan of Miller anywhere as his Daredevil work got me into comics in the early 80's and has kept me in comics for the past two decades. But frankly (sorry, couldn't resist), there are aspects of this large and sprawling story that are simply a mess. Sure it is innovative and its groundbreaking storytelling style is STILL being copied in current Daredevil comics today (thanks mostly to David Mack). Sure it turned a lot of heads in its day as nobody had ever seen anything quite like it. Sure it was courageous to take Elektra totally out of Daredevil's world and establish her as the baddest assassin on the block, especially in a no-holds barred mature reader format. Sure it was chock full of social commentary, psychological insight, sexual tension and political satire. BUT...it all adds up to simply a decent rather than a great read.
There are just too many things that bog this story down. The worst has to be that this was originally done in an eight issue format so there are a number of recap pages in this story telling you things you have already read. What's worse, this is usually done as military type briefings or reports on pages with tons of tiny panels that you have already seen with copious amounts of text telling you things you already know. It was annoying when I read it in the comic format back in '86 and it really brings the story to a grinding halt in this collected volume. The art by Sienkiewicz is inconsistent (which was a planned feature of the story) going from beautiful and detailed to crude child's scribbling at times which is not only disconcerting, but it seemed to get much more arbitrary as the story went on. In the early chapters, this choppy art style is very well done and moves the story along nicely, but in the latter portion of the book, it seems to have no other purpose than to follow the art style that had already been established. Finally, while the first part of the tale is very verbose with lots of intricate panel work, the end of the story has very little text with huge splash pages of very simple art. While some may argue that this was to depict the doom of the atomic apocalypse that the story was moving towards, if you really stop and look at it, it appears that Frank and Bill were trying to fill pages to finish out their eight issues of comic.
While I have many gripes with this work and place it very low on my list of Frank Miller output, I cannot deny that the core story and concepts are very good. There are amazing sequences in this work that are some of the best comics I have ever read. When Garrett is sitting at his computer researching Elektra's history and suddenly realizes she may be in the room...man, I have never seen anything like that simple sequence. My big problem is that this intricate little story is burdened and complicated by too much extra material that chops up the flow. If this were edited down to its basic story, keeping the innovation, but cutting out all of the extraneous stuff, I would certainly be writing a different review.
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Title: Elektra Lives Again by Frank Miller, Lynn Varley ISBN: 0785108904 Publisher: Marvel Entertainment Group Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
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Title: Daredevil/Elektra: Love and War (Daredevil (Hardcover)) by Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz ISBN: 0785110321 Publisher: Marvel Entertainment Group Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
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Title: Elektra: The Scorpion Key (Marvel Knights) by Brian Michael Bendis, Chuck Austen ISBN: 0785108432 Publisher: Marvel Entertainment Group Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra by Greg Rucka, Salvador Larrocca, David Mack, Joe Quesada ISBN: 0785110763 Publisher: Marvel Entertainment Group Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.99 |
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Title: Daredevil Visionaries Volume 2 by Frank Miller ISBN: 0785107711 Publisher: Marvel Entertainment Group Pub. Date: 01 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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