Elektra: Assassin
| Elektra: Assassin | |
|---|---|
Cover of Elektra: Assassin trade paperback, published in 2000.
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Epic Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Limited series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date(s) | August 1986 – March 1987 |
| No. of issues | 8 |
| Main character(s) | Elektra |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Frank Miller |
| Artist(s) | Bill Sienkiewicz |
| Letterer(s) | Jim Novak |
| Colorist(s) | Bill Sienkiewicz |
| Editor(s) |
Daniel Chichester Archie Goodwin |
| Collected editions | |
| Elektra: Assassin | ISBN |
| Elektra by Frank Miller Omnibus | ISBN |
Elektra: Assassin is an eight-issue limited series published by Epic Comics, an imprint of Marvel Comics, between August 1986 and March 1987. Written by Frank Miller and illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz, Elektra: Assassin satirizes ultra-violence, politics, comic book clichés like ninjas and cyborgs, and the portrayal of women.
Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz were at the height of their popularity when this series was released, shortly on the heels of Miller's hugely successful Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and Miller & Sienkiewicz's Marvel Graphic Novel Daredevil: Love and War.
As with Ronin and Born Again, Miller wrote the series with the full script method.
As with Daredevil: Love and War, Sienkiewicz illustrated Elektra: Assassin using watercolors as opposed to the traditional pencilling/inking method. His exaggerated art was unique amongst mainstream comics of the time, bringing to mind the illustration style of adult-oriented comics magazines like Heavy Metal.
The story starts out with Elektra in a mental institution in South America, attempting to recover her memory. The first issue is very disjointed, as Elektra pieces together jumbled memories ranging from the murder of her mother, molestation by her father (which she says is actually an invented memory), to more recent events such as an assassination she carried out. This led her to discover the existence of "The Beast," which controls people by forcing them to drink its milk. At first, The Beast's motives are unclear, but it is gradually revealed that it is attempting to bring about a nuclear war. When its initial plans fail, it launches the presidential campaign of Ken Wind (with a face resembling a grainy Dan Quayle photograph, whose resemblance is a coincidence, according to Sienkiewicz, since it is a Sienkiewicz self-portrait.) Wind proves extremely popular, through various platitudes which disguise his evil nature; when Wind takes over, he intends to launch a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, bringing about mutually assured destruction.
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Wikipedia