Elektra Omnibus

Elektra by Frank Miller #2-3

by Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz

Elektra is a ninja, a martial arts master, and a highly paid assassin. Once Matt Murdock's college girlfriend, her service as the Kingpin's personal bodyguard put her in brutal conflict with her former lover, nearly killing Daredevil in the process. Now, fan-favorite creator Frank Miller ushers his awesome assassin through good, evil, life, death, rebirth and more, in this definitive collection of the character's most memorable solo adventures. First, following a fatal duel with Bullseye, Elektra is seemingly dead and buried. But her spirit cannot rest. Elektra claws her way back from beyond the grave, in perhaps her defining story! Then, in a tautly crafted tale of espionage and deception, Elektra must unravel a supernatural conspiracy that threatens the Presidency! Collecting ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN #1-8, ELEKTRA LIVES AGAIN, and material from BIZARRE ADVENTURES #28 and WHAT IF? (1977) #35.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes, Fiction

380 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1990

About the author

Frank Miller is an American writer, artist and film director best known for his film noir-style comic book stories. He is one of the most widely-recognized and popular creators in comics, and is one of the most influential comics creators of his generation. His most notable works include Sin City, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Year One and 300.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy when a fresh new character comes about and makes a different and interesting impact to an existing Hero's story. Elektra certainly did that to Daredevil. Great collection of the early stories and the beginnings of this very interesting character. Very recommended

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This edition contains Elektra: Assassin, the 8 issue saga by Frank Miller, along with Bizarre Adventures #28, What If...? #35 (What If Bullseye had not killed Elektra), and Elektra Lives Again.
Elektra Assassin is the strongest of the bunch, an 80s Cold War US era piece mixing story about Elektra with the story of SHIELD Agent John Garrett, how they get tangled up in a plot to destroy the world via Nuclear Holocaust. The art is great, the story is a little out there at times, but shares much with Miller's TDKR book from a few years later. The paranoia, distrust of the government, fear of Nuclear Apocalypse, and hyper-violence.

The Elektra Lives Again, I didn't really enjoy all that much - it deals with Matt Murdock and his torment at her death and how it haunts him, then his descent into madness...or is it? The other 2 pieces were OK, but Assassin is the real treat here. Just pick that up and don't bother with the rest of this collection.

Very strong, another Miller classic. Yet barely a note of Daredevil, which is fine, though Nick Fury does factor in.

[Peter Looles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elektra by Frank Miller omnibus

Bizarre Adventures #28 & What If...? #35

This omnibus starts with a 10 page long story from Bizarre Adventures. There aren't many things I can say about it. It's a small and forgettable story, who's only strength is it's very nice, black & white artwork. After that follows an issue of "What If...?" which asks the question "What if Elektra had lived?" Practically the answer is that her and Matt would live a happy and carefree life together, away from all the troubles. That's honestly quite depressing, considering that she's dead and Matt's chance for happiness is long gone. The artwork in this issue is done by Frank Miller and it's very similar to the style of artwork he used in his Daredevil run. Personally I love that style of artwork and I especially love Frank's very innovative work with page structure.
7/10

Elektra Assassin

It's hard to understand exactly what's going on in this story, because a very big part is narrated by Elektra and let me tell you, there's something wrong with her mind because her thoughts are totally messed up and make little to no sense. This story takes place long before Elektra's death in Frank Miller's iconic Daredevil run and it starts with her remembering her past, her hard childhood, her abusive father, her years getting trained by Stick and everything leading up to the assassination job that she currently has to do. She escapes from the place in which she was imprisoned and she does the job. Because of that, someone wants to kill her and she fights back, but instead of killing the guy, he blows him up and leaves him almost dead. The company that he works for (SHIELD) is able to catch her and he, Garrett, falls in love with her. Somehow she escapes and both her and him find themselves in an airport, in which she wants to kill Wind, which is a guy who runs for president, but she actually kills someone else. After that it gets even more confusing. Some people trap Elektra's conscience in another girl's body and Garrett tries to free her and after he does so they somehow get in an underwater fight with some SHIELD agents and they defeat them and the whole organisation is after them.
This was a very interesting comic, but also way more hard to read than it should've been. Elektra is great and this comic certainly evolves her character a lot. She's a very complex and damaged character. She has lived a very hard life and she has daddy issues and delusions. The she's written is certainly one of this comic's highlights. Another good thing about this comic is how feministic it is and also how it criticizes various things from the real world (like the fear of a nuclear war, which was something very real at the time this came out) and especially politicians. It very heavily criticizes Nixon and also how politicians are double faced and they use very questionable tactics during the elections. Besides everything good, this comic also has multiple negatives. One of the main things that I found negative is the fact that it had way too much text. Usually I'm a fan of comics with a lot of text, but in this one it's very hard to follow, because half the story is narrated by Elektra who is sort of crazy and the other half is narrated by Garrett who is a drunk and also sort of crazy. Fortunately, after a while things start making sense, but until then the reading experience isn't very good and the lettering certainly doesn't help. The lettering in this comic is very confusing. The way the narration boxes are placed in the pages make the whole reading experience very hard and unpleasant. I get why Frank Miller wanted to make this comic confusing, but it's not something that I particularly enjoyed.
Probably the greatest aspect of this comic is  Bill Sienkiewicz's artwork, which is beautiful and crazy. Bill's style is very unique and he really knows how to perfectly combine the colors and create really special pages. His artwork is very surreal and it fits perfectly with the story.
Overall, I think that while this comic has many negative aspects, it also has many positives, which are more and of greater importance. It's not particularly a fun read, but it has a lot of nice action and violence and the characters are very complex and interesting. I wouldn't call it one of Frank Miller's best works, but it's certainly one of his good ones.
7.5/10

Elektra Lives Again

Despite what you might think, this isn't really a comic about Elektra, but a comic about Matt Murdock (Daredevil). The story takes place shortly after Elektra's death and it follows Matt, as he's being haunted by Elektra's memory, when he's awake and when he's asleep. His dreams of her are becoming a torture and he does whatever he can to end it.
This was a very short and good comic. It's a very easy and enjoyable read, but it also deals with very important things like grieve, loss, pain and acceptance. This could very easily become a story filled with misery and boredom, but thanks to the way Frank Miller combines everything serious in this comic with fun action, it becomes a great read. I really like the fact that while we see Matt a lot in this story, he's never fighting in his Daredevil costume, full of glory. Instead he's a normal person, trying to deal with something very real, the death of someone he loved.
The artwork by Frank Miller is very good. Frank always changes his style a lot and while many times this leads to atrocious results, this time it works perfectly. The way the characters and the action are drawn is great, but in my opinion, the best aspect of the artwork is the perspective of each panel. Frank really knows how to "direct" each panel and in here he does that perfectly.
Overall, this was a really great comic, probably the best in the entire omnibus, in my opinion. It's easy to read, it has a lot of depth and it's beautifully drawn and colored.
10/10

The entire omnibus: 8.5/10

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this omnibus collects all of Frank Miller's Elektra work outside of Daredevil's regular ongoing series.

First is an obscure, untitled vignette from Marvel's black-and-white magazine Bizarre Adventures. Elektra has second thoughts about a job from a questionable employer.

"What if Elektra Had Lived?" provides an alternate outcome for a classic Daredevil story -- although, as the Watcher points out, even this happy ending may not last forever.

"Elektra: Assassin" is an eight-part limited series with multimedia art by Bill Sienkiewicz. It's a mad, hallucinatory blend of political satire, super ninja action, espionage and spiritualism. It was groundbreaking in its day (1986), and I still don't think it's been surpassed. A masterpiece.

In "Elektra Lives Again," Elektra's killer is resurrected to bring a final end to the rogue ninja, with Daredevil in the middle. Vaguely dreamlike and ambiguous, it gives a touching finale to Elektra's story. I like to think it's the last one.

[Relstuart · Rating 1 out of 5]

A bit too bizarre for my tastes. A large part of the central story was told by a third party S.H.I.E.L.D agent. I started my Daredevil (DD) reading with Bendis, followed by Brubaker, and then back to Miller. I've enjoyed all three of these and Elektra has always been an interesting character related to DD's story. I had hoped this would be similar to Miller's DD but it's significantly different in tone and substance. Macabre, sinister supernatural ambience, and with an odd dreamy quality that feels rather nightmarish.

The second and much shorter story centers on DD with Elektra and Bullseye coming back to life. It was better than the first story but I don't know that it will stick with me like other DD stories.

I'm sure there are folks that really love this book but it's not my cup of tea.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, I'm not sure how to rate this because I *loved* Bill Sienkiewicz's art, but hate Frank Miller's writing.

[Michael (Mai) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time getting into this. But I LOVED the art.

[ebradley127 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vaguely disappointing. I'd always liked Elektra from reading Daredevil. My issue with the omnibus is that these comics, ostensibly the quintessential collection of Elektra, are merely about her from the perspective of the men in her world. There is very, very little from her perspective, and about 95% of it is male angst about her. I expected so much more.

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, umm. I had been on a Frank Miller kick lately because of the latest Batman movie that came out. Re-read both pieces of Bat-Gospel (Year One and TDKR), and it made me interested in re-reading Ronin, which I hadn't read since I was 16, perhaps. Both of the Batman books hold up even better than before. Ronin was still very fun, albeit a bit headachey during the climax. It's still a fun read. This brings me to the one work of his I own that I have yet to read, this Elektra Omnibus.

Let's back track a moment. During the 80s, Miller developed what most people would call the definitive Daredevil stories. He took a low-level character and made him an A-List. In his first issue of writing the character, he introduced his own creation, a character named Elektra. This character made the series. She ended up becoming a huge catalyst for who we know as the modern Daredevil. She was an ex lover who played by her own rules and was a constant headache for Matt Murdock when it came to exacting justice in Hells Kitchen. Then Miller decided to kill her off in a moment that shocked the readers! (Some would consider this fridging today, but not me. She was completely in charge of her own destiny until the very end.)

The character proved to be so popular that Miller brought her back in the adult oriented Marvel owned Epic Imprint. Assassin was a hit, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Now I have read it, and I can honestly say "duh fuq?" What started with a strong few chapters about a mentally unstable assassin quickly became a huge political mess that I could not follow one bit. I'm not even completely sure what happened during the end! Sure, Sienkiewicz's art is idiosyncratic enough to warrant a critical eye, but what the hell did I read!? Apparently it was about the soviets (you did that better with TDKR Frank), minds going into robot bodies (Frankie, I already got the headache from Ronin), and sexist men (Franklin, you like using very disparaging words about women in your books, a bit too much if I have any say.) Also the main character is hardly Elektra! If anything, it's some Biggot named Garret. The only reason this omnibus is getting 3 stars is purely for Sienkiewicz's art, which truly is glorious, and also because this Omnibus comes packed with Elektra Lives Again. A book about Murdock dealing with grief and realizing she's still alive...or is she? But that's the thing about this Omnibus. Elektra is never the main character in her own stories. She's an idea. An effect on men. It's There's Something About Mary but not as fun.

When I was 15, I got $100 for my birthday. I spent that money on Batman merchandise, which included TDKR because The Dark Knight movie was coming out, and I could not have been more excited. Everyone said read this comic as it is the greatest Batman comic you'll ever read. Over re-reads, I've grown more understanding of it all, so maybe the same thing will happen with Elektra. But I'm pushing 30 and I don't know how much more I can learn as an adult to appreciate this "story." Idk Chip Zdarsky seems to be doing some exciting things with her at the moment. I'll have to pick that one up at some point.

Don't let my review impede you from reading Miller's other DD stuff. I've read every Daredevil story by him save for Love and War and they've all been exceptional. But why must this be so damn egregious?

[Shazne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.75/5
This was a roller-coaster read. There's two "main" stories in here. First one requires lots of suspension of disbelief. The Ideology and process beneath the story is pretty dope. The overall atmosphere displayed through the art is impressive. But the narrative is overdone. It's a simple premise. The 2nd act is forcefully complex. In some parts the exposition adds to the flow and other times it ruins the pacing. The 3rd act was pretty dope, it saves the overall story but the ending leaves you conflicted whether you should buy it or not. I liked the idea of the ending but the execution asks a lot from you to take it seriously. The second story is a psychological exploration of grief. I thought that was quite good. The art and the atmosphere makes you feel the nightmare & pain. It's emotionally complex but it's earned & well done.

[Eric Orchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.

[Ross Warburton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very good at all

[Alex Quinonez · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was interesting but the story was hard to follow and tedious. 3/5

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't finished reading yet, but I'll review now since I have a pretty clear idea my impression (can always edit later if I get a stunningly different opinion by the end of the book, right?)

The first thing, I think, that will probably strike anyone about this book is the unique art-- very experimental, and I like that. Looks like a lot of acrylic, watercolor, un-inked pencil, crayon, who knows what else, decoupagy-badly-photocopied b+w photos... It works well with the effervescent nature of the story and works out. The cover screams 80's cheese but the inside doesn't come across as cheesy at all :)

At first I wasn't impressed with the guy in the story: seemed like another pervy angry thug. And maybe he is. But the romance is interesting, so I got more ok with him later on. Elektra herself, as a person... I can't decide yet whether she's a human trying to escape a monster, or the other way around. Maybe I'll have that figured out by the end :)

[boofykins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll preface this by saying that I would not recommend this book to a first time comic book reader, as this is a little too out there and different than that of a “normal” comic book.

The bulk of this book features the 8 issue Elektra Assassin miniseries and the Elektra Lives Again graphic novel from Epic Comics, Marvel Comics adult-oriented, creator-owned line from the 80s.

Elektra Assassin is an absolute gonzo noir fever dream. Frank Miller’s frenetic writing features an abstract non-linear plot that will have you scratching your head from the onset and will gradually come together by the end for the most part, while still leaving plenty up to interpretation. Bill Sienkiewicz provides some incredibly insane artwork, that is surreal, abstract, and pushes the boundaries of what was then accepted as comic book art; especially the “Marvel Way.” Together, Miller and Sienkiewicz lead you through a bizarre psychedelic odyssey, steeped in fear and paranoia, ultra-violence, techno-bionics, and body horror, satirizing the portrayal of women, sexual dynamics, and hyper-masculinity with subtle dry wit and dry absurdism.

Elektra Lives Again is a little more grounded, though I wouldn’t say that it’s in reality however. Miller, who both wrote and penciled the graphic novel, gives us a peak through the curtains of Matt Murdoch’s ongoing grief pertaining to the death of Elektra. Murdoch’s recurring dreams (or nightmares) provide the tapestry of his journey in letting go of the grief and letting Elektra move on. Lynn Varley (Frank’s then-wife) provides the coloring in this section. Interestingly, her technique is pleasingly complimentary to Sienkiewicz’s when views adjacently in this Omnibus.

This book is a wild ride and plays like the movie you *thought* you were going to get based off the cover of countless B-movie VHS artwork you would see when you were perusing the video stores in the 1980s, only to be let down that none of that cool stuff was actually in the movie. Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz pull of quite the ambitious feat in delivering a comic that is true art.

[Maik Krüger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This contains everything Miller wrote with Elektra (outside the Daredevil series) as far as I know. There's a fun short story, an extremely cruel 'What if Elektra was not shot' and the magnificent Elektra Assassin with artwork by Bill Sinkiewicz, and Elektra lives again by Miller and Varley.
The middle part took me two weeks to read as I felt I was watching the world through the eyes an insane ninja and I did not want to lose my mental stability. The art ranges from bizarre to awesome cool and is unlike anything I've seen before. It fits the story like a house on fire. The last part is more on the tragic but fun side and is told from a more relatable perspective of Matt Murdock (who once again does not wear the Daredevil costume once, but does run around naked quite often). Art and story feels like a real labour of love, and confirms my opinion of Lynn Varley as the best colorist of all time.
A milestone book.

[Kandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this very slowly. The art here is phenomenal, and I found myself wondering how this even gets from the artist's hands to the page. There are very few lines in Sienkiewicz's illustrations so knowing the little I do about panel drawing, inking, coloring, I took far more time trying to figure that out than I should have. Sometimes you just have to enjoy and appreciate, not analyze.

Miller is one of my favorite authors. His stuff is so violent, filled with mental instability and illness, and his characters are never ever all good or all bad. They have internal conflict caused by trauma, fear, guilt. Elektra is no exception. I can't say I understood everything that Miller and Sienkiewicz showed me, but I felt it. This woman is a walking contradictory conflict.

Briefly, I much preferred Sienkiewicz's illustrations to Varley's. Varley has a very visually arresting style that lends itself well to many subjects, but I didn't feel it fit with Elektra's mental state. Varley's contribution was just the final "issue," so that didn't impair my enjoyment, but I do wish Sienkiewicz had done that one as well.

[JohnIV · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank and Bill's bizarre collaboration as Garrett fumbles along behind Elektra taking on the Beast.

Bought this mini-series in 1986 at the tail-end of my comic collecting period and have always had a soft spot in my heart for it and the clownish but capable Garrett. The psychopathic cyborg Perry is also one of my favorite villains. The manic story exploded onto the pages with art by Bill Sienkiewicz unlike any that I had seen before. I had a few TPBs in the ensuing years to re-visit until I got this second printing of the Elektra Omnibus. This collection also includes Elektra Lives Again which I had never read somehow, a beautiful but so somber contemplation on Matt's loss of his dark love. Great storytelling and art; highly recommended.

[James DeSantis · Rating 1 out of 5]

See, sometimes it's better not to buy a Omnibus blindly.

Actually I got this as a $20 add on to a big Omnibus order, so was no big deal, but this is truly one of the worst Omnibus collections I ever bought.

For one it's very very small. Maybe 300 pages or so. Which it shouldn't even be considered a Omnibus. Also this is a confusing mess of a Omnibus. Very incoherent and messy. Elektra is written way more interesting in Miller's actual Daredevil series.

[Angelo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a bit of a mixed bag. Elektra Assassin is a bit all over the place and there's a reason it's not really as fondly remembered as Daredevil Born Again and The Dark Knight Returns despite being released alongside them. Still it's pretty fun to see Miller get weird like that. Elektra Lives Again at the end is the far better story, but it's not long enough.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously, the artwork is terrific, Sienkiewicz in particular. Miller's writing - which is more impressionistic than specific - fits well with Bill's experimental and symbolic imagery. The mystical ninja fetish stuff doesn't age especially well, but it's still an interesting read.

[TheMadReader · Rating 1 out of 5]

I went into this with the hopes of it being one continuous story, or even an origin story of the Elektra character. Instead, it was some horseshit art and the perspective from a Shield agent. Not for me, enjoy.

[Caleb Abel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly a huge disappointment.

[Jonathan Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elektra Assassin was the weakest, the rest was good

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really more of a 3 but the art is incredible and easily worth an extra star.

[Rocco Ricca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insane that this book has one of the worst Frank Miller stories I’ve read (Elektra Assassin) and is immediately followed by one of the best Frank Miller stories I’ve read (Elektra lives again)

[Craig W · Rating 1 out of 5]

Elektra: Assassin = 1/5
Elektra Lives Again = 1.5/5

It’s shocking how poor this was compared to the rest of Miller’s Daredevil stuff.

[Ali Suchy]

Really did not care for this. Loved the art, and I’ve enjoyed Frank Miller’s writing before but this was too out there.

[Ian Plute · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Hamish · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've noticed that there's a distinct difference in the work Frank Miller does for established characters (specifically DD and Batman, discounting anything he's done since 2000) and work he does on his own creations. And as much as I want to adopt the "damn that editorial interference, let the man follow his own vision" attitude which is a good one 90% of the time, maybe a little editorial interference can go a long way with 'ol Frank. When he has to rein it in a little because he's working with an iconic character and can't just go hog wild, he has to include things like, you know, a reasonable plot, or strong characterization, or interesting interactions. That kind of thing. But when he's doing his own thing with his own creations Miller tends to just jump into the world of the ridiculous, where he seems to think that if he's dumb enough, then it becomes kind of smart too (talentless hacks like Mark Millar have made whole careers based on this questionable logic). This is the only explanation I can provide for the enormous gulf in quality between his brilliant work (Dark Knight Returns, Born Again, etc.) and not-so-good work (almost everything else not involving those two characters).

This brings us to Elektra: Assassin, a work that seems to embrace dumbness with such aplomb that it's almost admirable. It revels in dumbness. It's proud of its dumbness. Its goal seems to be to go as over the top as humanely possible (pointing the way to what Miller would do for basically the rest of his career). But that level of caricature and exaggeration (choice examples include the romance comic parody in issue four, Garrett disguising himself with Groucho glasses, and the cloned dwarf flying by flapping his arms) doesn't strike me as having much in the way of aesthetic value, rather it seems like a writer who thinks he's being really clever by embracing his worst characteristics. And it's sad because it starts off very promising. The first issue, filtered through Elektra's fragmented perception reads almost Joyce-esque, and seemed to hint that 'ol Frank was shooting for something a little smarter, but he completely drops that aspects with the second part. But at the very least, the idiocy is imaginative idiocy. It's not the kind of dumbness that just anyone could dream up, and for that reason it's somewhat entertaining just for the sheer novelty and what-the-fuck-ness of it all.

The saving grace here is Bill Sienkiewicz. I'm not even going to try to explain what he does (and if you're reading this, chances are you already know), so we'll just say that he does some of his best work here (also like Stray Toasters and Love and War, this is painted). I wonder if his penchant for caricature and mixing of "high" and "low" art (hate those terms) was at least partially responsible for inspiring Miller to do what he did here, but god the book looks fantastic. In terms of sheer inventiveness, there aren't many in Sienkiewicz's class.

So this is many ways is terrible (Miller), but in many ways it's quite brilliant (Sienkiewicz). And at least the terrible parts are terrible in an interesting way, and it's never less than readable (even if you may roll your eyes while you do it).