Frank Miller

Updated: The Definitive Guide to Elektra

November 14, 2017 by krisis

Today’s character guide update is for another supporting character in Marvel’s TV Universe – The Definitive Guide to Elektra.

Elektra started out as a villain who was never meant to be used by anyone but Frank Miller. As with all good Marvel villains, eventually she became a hero – but, she still has an intriguing history with the rest of Marvel’s characters.

Want to know more but don’t need a comprehensive guide just yet? Keep reading for a brief history of Elektra, where to start reading, what she’s been up to in 2017, and a tally of her overall status in collected editions.

Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #25 to 21

June 11, 2016 by krisis

Omnibus on Shelf It’s time for the next set of results from the 2016 Secret Ballot for Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibus by Tigereyes. I covered #30-26 in the last installment.

This set of books is decidedly more classic than some of the ones we’ve seen so far, with all of the issues under consideration released by 1991. Unsurprisingly, that means we’ve seen all of these votes on past year’s of the survey. They’re all relative longshots save for one, but for a number of different reasons.

Marvel has released these oversized omnibus editions for over a decade now, with a staggering amount of their most-popular material now covered in the format – from Silver Age debuts to modern classics. Is your favorite character or run of issues already in an Omnibus? My Marvel Omnibus & Oversized Hardcover Guide is the most comprehensive tool on the web for answering that question – it features every book, plus release dates, contents, and even breakdowns of $/page and what movies the books were released to support.

And now, it’s the omnibuses that placed at #25 through 21! [Read more…] about Marvel’s Most-Wanted Omnibuses of 2016 – #25 to 21

Definitive Elektra Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The Elektra comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Last updated December 2017 with titles scheduled for release through August 2018.

Elektra is arguably Marvel’s most-recognizable female villain, with only Mystique to challenge her for the title.

Except, she was never really a full-fledged villain. She was introduced as an assassin, but she was no more evil than Wolverine. Like Logan, she was simply the best at what she did. And, as with many great Marvel villains, as fans demanded more and more of her, she was eventually made into a hero – or, at least, a noble protagonist who still killed people.

You can think of Elektra’s continuity in two unequal halves.

The first half is entirely written by Frank Miller. Miller used Elektra for less than two years in his run on Daredevil, but his operatic arc of her love and death made her an indelible icon.

Miller was clearly as enamored with the character as her fans were. He returned to her three more times – in the limited series Daredevil: The Man Without Fear and Elektra: Assassin, and in the graphic novel Elektra Lives Again.

By most accounts, Marvel had a gentleman’s agreement with Miller to leave Elektra alone until he was ready to resurrect her. Dardevil’s mid-90s writer D. G. Chichester was the one who broke the embargo, and so began the second half of Elektra’s Marvel career – as a reluctant ally to heroes.

Despite a string of limited and ongoing series, and even a movie to call her own, Elektra has the distinction of being relatively underexposed within the Marvel universe. She had never interacted with a hero other than Daredevil on the page until her run with Wolverine in 1996! Though many characters knew her by reputation, few had actually encountered her prior to the resolution of Secret Invasion over a decade later in 2008.