"The End" Week: Elektra #19!

We mentioned Frank Miller wasn't going to be a fan of this one, but how was it? This issue seems like it would've been a good starting point, if it hadn't been the last one. From 1998, Elektra #19, "A Promise to Keep" Written by Larry Hama, pencils by Mike Deodato, Jr, inks by Scott Koblish.

As might seem typical for a superhero comic's last issue, Elektra is starting in a pretty bad place: her old apartment. It had been gutted by fire, she had been beaten by the Hand's Kuroyama, and her roommate/ward Nina had her heart cut out there. The Hand "put her back together again," much as they had to Elektra; and she had taken Nina to the Chaste. So why does her former master Stick silently appear to her like Obi-Wan Kenobi with bad reception? Because, as an acolyte of the Chaste will shortly explain, Nina betrayed them all; letting Kuroyama into their stronghold to murder many if not all of them.

Elektra thinks the Hand may have followed to finish the job, but instead it's common thugs: the Kingpin had put a contract out on her. He may not have really expected any of his hired guns to have a prayer against her, but had to call in the hit for appearances' sake: he might've seemed weak if he hadn't. The cops also have a dragnet going, referring to her as a serial killer...which is by and large correct, I suppose. One of her other supporting cast members had been beat into a coma, with that also pinned on her; leaving Elektra to complain to the silent Stick how she was supposed to make things right without resorting to vengeance. Nina and Kuroyama even ride by on motorcycles to taunt her; with Nina tarted up as the kind of 'bad girl' that only 90's comics could deliver, and the giant Kuroyama making his chopper look like a scooter. They don't even have to go after her, they were good citizens and called the cops!

She might be down, but hardly out: Elekta solemnly swears to clear her name, restore the Chaste, reform Nina, and presumably kill a lot of ninjas. Great premise, if this wasn't the last issue! Without having read the rest of the series, I wonder if maybe this one didn't hit it big less due to fanboy loyalty to Frank Miller and creator's rights, and more to Deodato's art being good but not necessarily as, ahem, titillating, as the typical 'bad girl' book of the time. Or, maybe you the reader aren't meant to get into Elektra's head: when Miller wrote her, I don't think you did. Of course, she was also basically magic then, too.