ULTIMATE ELEKTRA #5 REVIEW

[Adam Chapman]

Reviewer: Adam Chapman adam.chapman@sympatico.ca
Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Devil's Due: Part 5

Elektra vs. Bullseye.

<a href="http://www.comixtreme.com/gallery/data/media/711/ultelektra5.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixtreme.com/gallery/data/thumbnails/711/ultelektra5.jpg" align="left" border="0"> </a>Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Salvador Larroca
Inks: Crimelab Studios
Colours: Liquid's Aron Lusen
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Review: This mini has continued Elektra's origin, and her slow descent into what would later leave her Kingpin's assassin, as seen in Ultimate Spider-Man. This series has been about choices, and choosing your own path, and this issue finishes the story rather nicely, further separating Elektra from Matt Murdock, and slowly making her a darker character.

This issue picks up shortly after the last issue, as Bullseye reports to the Kingpin with the empty briefcase, showing his failure in attaining the ledger which has been the chief prize throughout this mini. Elektra's desperation to save her father, her only real family, is palpable, and the lengths to which she's willing to go to reach her goal shows just how far she's come, that she'd go against her father's wishes in order to save him.

The main event of this issue has Elektra confronting the Kingpin with the ledger, in order to save her father, which leads to her fight with Bullseye. It's a great, although slightly short, fight scene, and leads to a great, haunting final scene with Matt and Elektra, which perfectly finishes the issue and the mini, by showing how different Elektra and Murdock truly are, and how their respective moral values define their decisions in life.

Larocca has some beautiful work here, with very solid character designs and visual character dynamics. The colouring by Lusen is slightly faded, but it is an effect that works on this series, over Larocca's pencils. Bullseye looks great in his costume, which basically consists of his 616 costume, but without the mask, using the movie facial marking.

This has been a solid Ultimate mini, which has largely flown under the radar, but it has been a great character study, and shows just how interesting the Ultimate version of Elektra is, and how much fun it can be to trace her journey from college student (as in Ultimate Daredevil and Eletkra) to someone who has started to take the dark path which will eventually lead her to fight Spider-Man and Black Cat in Ultimate Spider-Man.

Ratings:

Story: http://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpg http://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpghttp://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpghttp://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpghttp://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/none.jpg

Art: http://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpghttp://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpghttp://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpghttp://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpghttp://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/none.jpg

Overall: http://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpg http://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpghttp://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpghttp://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/full.jpghttp://www.comixtreme.com/reviews/none.jpg

Buy this issue online now from X-World and Save! (http://www.x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/)

[Ryan Broussard]

this was the best out of all the issue, but overall i would give this series an "OKAY"

[Lord_Magneto]

i'd give this a 'very good' as well, it's only too bad that no female hero can star in her own book and have good sales, this book is dropping fast:(.

[chrismozer]

Why was this put out? Story wasn't the best. It seems Marvel likes to slap the word "Ultimate" on anything in hopes that it will sell.

And as usual....TPB comes out next week which further cements my belief that single issues are becoming a waste of money.

[Bad_Monkey]

Originally posted by chrismozer
And as usual....TPB comes out next week which further cements my belief that single issues are becoming a waste of money.

Except for that part where the issues are cheaper than the trade.

[Ryan Broussard]

Originally posted by Bad_Monkey
Except for that part where the issues are cheaper than the trade.

not if you buy it on line

chrismozer is right, marvel is doing there stuff all wrong and now i dont really wanna buy any of there limited series unless its something huge like secret war....at least DC makes me feel a lil better by waiting over a month at least

[Adam Chapman]

Actually, because Ultimate Elektra was late shipping, they were both supposed to be released on the same DAY, the last issue of the mini and the trade itself. The trade got pushed back a week.

They really need to lay off a bit on their tpb program- it's almost too aggressive, and comes out way too fast- they should focus on more reprints of classic stories, and not just pumping out everything they publish today. And not just reprinting visionaries collections, but just collections of storylines, like Essentials but perhaps in colour, obviously not with as many issues in them of course. But if they aren't all the same storyline, that's why they won't be packaged into trades, because they aren't as easy to label- hence why they bother with Visionaries, because at least in most cases the creators' runs were uninterrupted, and substantial enough to collect runs, but even then, it's not necessarily enough. I buy a lot of comics now, and chances are i'm not buying the trade because i didn't think the comics were worth it in thefirst place. I spent an hour ina comic book store looking at tpbs on Boxing Day, during a massive sale, and got nothing, because old tpbs or at least tpbs containing classic tales can't be found because they're long out of print and not being reprinted.

Wow, that was a rant... :(

[Ryan Broussard]

ummm...what he said

hehe

yeah dude total agreement, mean while they wont reprint any of the old deadpools which i wanna read, the black panthers are hard to get, they never made an agent x trade, if i would have seen that ult elektra trade the same day i bought the last issue i would have been incredibly Pissed off

[ohiogtd]

I'm bored. I was into this mini-series at the beginning but I'm losing interest. Its not that its bad or anything, just blah. The art by Larroca here is okay, but the coloring is way too washed out.

[alias.maxcomics]

Originally posted by ohiogtd
I'm bored. I was into this mini-series at the beginning but I'm losing interest. Its not that its bad or anything, just blah. The art by Larroca here is okay, but the coloring is way too washed out.

ok i totally agree. it is just blah, that's perfect. and while i kinda like larroca, i'm sick of all of the greys, and general watery color. i liked the end of this issue, but i felt that the whole thing was kinda of anti-climatic. i don't know how i feel about this. i like elektra, and i want more. eh, we'll see.:sick:

[Boomer]

Ninja girl beating up gangsters bores me to tears.
Oh the agony and indigestion. Anything but Elektra:sleep:

Gimme some superfly!! :spidey:

[AmazingMattMan]

this series was better then i expected, and it finished off on a strong note. for the most part it got better with every issue.