A couple of Daredevil’s villains (Bullseye and Kingpin) recently got solo series, so when it was announced that Elektra would be getting her own solo series I was filled with joy and excitement. The series is centered around Elektra making her way to good old Las Vegas in hopes to escape her old life, but how long will she be able to keep her violent and dangerous past in the past? Probably not long after a new player in the vegas area takes interest in her playing his new Battle Royale style game. I hoped this series would live up to my excitement, it pretty much did…

Lets talk about the writing first, this comic was written by Matt Owens. Matt Owens might not be someone you recognize as a comic writer, but you might recognize him as a writer from Netflix’s Luke Cage. This is Owens’ first comic book and when asked about transitioning from TV to Comics, he told Marvel.com:

“Comics are the greatest! This is where it all started for me. Reading Spider-Man comics as a kid is how I expanded my vocabulary and learned to explore my imagination. My entire career in television is due to my love and knowledge of comics. So now the opportunity to come full circle and work on a book myself is really a dream come true…  I couldn’t be more thankful to finally jump in on my first book! I had an internship in college under such greats as Cully Hamner and Brian Stelfreeze so while I’m not new to comics, this is my first time writing one professionally.”  

 

Sounds like Owens knows what he’s doing, and after reading this first issue I can tell he sure does. Owens writes Elektra’s dialogue in a very tangible way, showing that he truly knows the character. I enjoyed this first episode and I’m interested to see the story continue. Owens left this issue on a sort of cliff hanger and I cannot wait to read the next one!

But how about the art in Elektra #1? Juan Cabal was the artist for this book, you might know Cabal from his work on a few Wolverine comics. Cabal’s art in this comic was smooth and detailed. I enjoyed the flow of his panels, the cleanness of his lines, and the characterization of the people in this comic. Colors were done by Antonio Fabela and Marcio Menyz. For the most part I liked the vibrant colors in this comic, they were pretty and enjoyable. But, there were parts when they tried to color bruising or gore and it just didn’t look right. For example, there was a page where a girl had a bruise on her cheek but it kind of just looked like she had a single shade of purple paint on her cheek. This obviously didn’t ruin the comic or anything, it just didn’t look very good.

All in all, this comic was brilliant. I’m excited for the next issue and to follow the ongoing adventures of Elektra!

Four assassins out five for this comic.