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JORDAN EXPLAINS ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN TO NATE
2008-02-13 10:37:32
COMICS.
They used to be about a lot of different things (war, romance, crime, ducks). Now the only ones that sell in bulk have whiny guys in tights whining about their whininess.
FOOTBALL.
It’s the best thing in the world. College is football in its purest form, but the NFL will do in a pinch. And it’s almost always better than reading comics.
ONE man (Jordan) tries to get ANOTHER man (Nate) to read a comic instead of watching football.
LET IT BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!!
JORDAN EXPLAINS ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN TO NATE
NATE: This segment is really getting difficult for me, because every time Jordan fails and I opt for football, I’m reminded that there IS no football. It’s like eating out, being asked if I want chicken or fish, I pick chicken, and the waiter says “All we got’s fish! And I’m not a waiter! I’m really an actor/writer/director/dancer, so I’m gonna have an attitude during your entire meal!!!!”
Anyway.
I watched Goonies last night. Do you have any idea how dirty that movie is? Kids are cussing and makin’ out, there’s all sorts of dead bodies and stuff. And no CGI! (except maybe the end with the boat) It was awesome.
JORDAN: I watched Goonies a ton, as a kid. I liked the part with the octopus. I heard they’re making a sequel. But, uh… what does that have to do with Elektra?
NATE: I was makin’ small talk. Just because we have absolutely nothing in common doesn’t mean that we can’t talk about movies and do each other’s makeup and hug and stuff.
Now, we went back and forth about which Elektra story to do for this segment. I wanted you to explain the story after she got stabbed by Bullseye, which I figured was the one called “Elektra Lives Again,” but then you tried to say that it might not be in continuity, then there was another story that took place before she died and might be in continuity, and then you were probably still speaking in English, but there was no more listening for me. So we decided on “Assassin.” Go ahead, 100 words or less.
JORDAN: Elektra starts off in a mental institution, her psyche shattered. She pulls herself together and learns of this evil psychic entity, “The Beast.” It’s controlling presidential candidate Ken Wind, to become president and launch a nuclear strike on Russia. Elektra uses psychic powers to get out, messing with S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Garrett. Garret becomes obsessed with her, but really, it’s because she’s using ninja magic on him. She gets him blown up, S.H.I.E.L.D. replaces his body with a robo-body. In the end, The Beast gets Wind elected president, but Elektra manages to thwart him by swapping Garrett’s mind into Wind’s body.
NATE: Well, I’m sold. I’ll read it.
JORDAN: … Really?
NATE: Of course not. Understanding how my endocrine system works is easier than this.
She learns of an evil psychic entity while she’s sitting in a nuthouse? And then…what, steals its power?
JORDAN: Ok, this is tricky…Yeah, I think she learns of him while in the asylum, because she is sort of reassembling her psyche. In regards to her having psychic ninja powers… well, there are two explanations, the real world one and the Earth-616 one. The real-world explanation is that this was a pretty early appearance of Elektra, she had only appeared in Miller’s Daredevil before this. So, Miller decided she had Psychic Ninja Magic. Since then, it’s been ignored. The Earth-616 explanation is that… er, well… the story did not really happen. At least, not like it appears in the comic. They later brought Garrett back and said he was insane, that he was never President, that he was never Wind, and basically calling the entire mini into question.
NATE: I don’t care if it “matters” later on when another person writes the same characters. Miller’s Daredevil ain’t Brubaker’s Daredevil. My question is, how does she, a loonbag psychic gumshoe, manage to steal the psychic powers of “The Beast”?
JORDAN: She doesn't. This story, taken solely on its own merit, says she has psychic ninja magic. She was trained by the Hand, who (elsewhere) routinely do things like bring people back from the dead and make their lackeys dissolve when defeated. So, ninja magic is real (uh... again... I mean in the comics).
Realistically speaking, this is not a story that is well served with a plot summary. What makes this story really worth reading is the storytelling and art. Bill Sienkiewicz is an amazing artist, but an incredibly strange, hyper-stylized one. Frank Miller did an excellent job crafting a story that matches the insanity and skewed perspective of the art. The story sounds crazy...and it is. It's played out in the head of a psychotic Assassin who starts in a mental hospital, and an alcoholic, obsessive government agent with whose head she's been messing. It reads like a fever dream. It's no wonder later writers just decided the whole thing was a hallucination. But again, on its own, or even as an extension of Miller's Daredevil world, it's a great read.
NATE: Is it better than All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder? I heard that was hilarious.
JORDAN: Um…yes, this is better. And I don’t know if that’s supposed to be funny…
NATE: I’m bored of Elektra. Let’s pitch a new television series:
PSYCHIC NINJA MAGIC!!!!! Here’s my idea, right? There’s a young kid from Harlem. We’ll name him Roger Walker. He’s from the wrong side of the tracks, but he’s got a heart of gold! One day, he’s running from some bullies (cuz they’ve got KNIVES!!!), and he’s backed into a corner. It’s looking bad, he’s done for, right? But all of the sudden, his backpack starts glowing. Turns out, the little amulet he inherited from his granddad (who fought in World War II) is actually an access portal for PSYCHIC NINJA MAGICIANS!!!!!
You with me so far?
JORDAN: Hang on… his grandfather gave him an amulet, which he stuck in his backpack… but the amulet is an access portal? So… Psychic Ninja Magicians start leaping out of his backpack? That could be fun, but really, the psychic and magician parts seem superfluous. A backpack that spews ninjas is pretty sweet on its own. Plus… the whole psychic ninja magic thing doesn’t lend itself to family-friendly stories, it tends towards more psychotic “mind-freaks”. Oh, yeah, another thing I didn’t mention about the Elektra comic: it was originally an “Epic” comic, intended for mature audiences.
NATE: You didn’t let me finish! The Psychic Ninja Magicians are played by the WU-TANG CLAN! So Rza and Gza hop out and slap the snot out of the bullies. Roger’s completely confused by this, when a DRAGON comes into the alley and starts breathing fire at ‘em!!!!! They look screwed until Method Man jumps out’ve the bag and throws up a magic shield, then calms the dragon down with a soothing psychic rap ballad, featuring Mary J. Blige.
JORDAN: … and this is… a series?
NATE: It WILL be. I’ve just gotta talk to the Wu. They’re nothing to (bleep!) with.
Ok, let’s get back to Elektra. Here’s why I’m mad at you:
1. You started talking about books that come AFTER this mini, which ain’t the point. You’ve still gotta convince me to read THIS story.
2. You actually ADMITTED that this is not a story that should be described, when YOU were the one that picked this out of ALL Elektra stories!
Focus, man! Take this back to Step One: Froot Loop ‘Lektra is in the Cuckoo House, she makes herself better through sheer force of will. THEN what?
JORDAN: Ok… she somehow finds out The Beast wants to cause nuclear annihilation, so she sets out to stop him. And her tool in all this is Agent Garrett, a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent. She gets him blown up, S.H.I.E.L.D. makes him a robot, and eventually, she swaps his brain into Wind, making him president.
NATE: She gets Garrett blown up, KNOWING that S.H.I.E.L.D.s gonna turn him into a robot?
JORDAN: No, I am pretty sure she thought that’d be the end of him. She didn’t CARE about him or anything. She was using him. But once she found out he was still alive, she’s already got her psychic hooks in him, why not keep using him, right?
NATE: Sigh. I’m just…sigh.
JORDAN: What’s wrong, Nate?
NATE: Well, I’m worried. Frank Miller always worries me.
Batman: Year One is one of my absolute favorites, but his Dark Knight was only okay, and 300 was a sketchy half-thought mess, and I didn’t read his Daredevil: Born Again (but I want to), and his Sin City was…let us say “inconsistent,” and everything he’s done recently is Joel-Schumaker-Akiva-Goldsman-bad. But for some reason, I’m really excited about the idea of him directing The Spirit (or I would be, if there wasn’t green-screen stuff involved).
Problem is, he KNOWS he’s a good writer, so he phones it in sometimes.
JORDAN: Well, this is Dark Knight era. It does suffer a little from what you might call "over-the-top-itis", but the hallucinatory nature of the story sort of... excuses that. I think this is up there with his better Daredevil work. Born Again is probably better, but I like this better than Man Without Fear.
NATE: Hrm.
All right. I liked the Bourne movies, and when I worked with Sienkiewicz, he seemed cool. Well done, Jordan! Despite your penchant for alluding to things that don’t so much matter all that much, you’ve swayed me to give this book a look…as soon as I’ve written the pilot to Psychic Ninja Magic.
RATING: WR (Worth Reading)
I-I-I
...I agree whole-heartedly. I'm speechless.
Also, let me throw out that this is one of Miller's most underrated works. Bill S.'s art works so well for the nature of the story, it's frightening. Just a rare combination where the perfect writer and the perfect artist ended up working on the perfect project for both of their sensibilities.
Posted by Muldrate on 2008-02-13 18:24:36
Football for me on this one...
I tried to read Elektra: Assassin once and by a quarter of the way in was more confused than Nate building a time machine and travelling back to 1994 to edit the X-Men titles.
You failed to persuade me a second attempt would end any differently, Jordan.
Posted by Ben Morse on 2008-02-13 22:55:26
Best Graphic Novel Ever?
I love how contentious any discussion of this book is. To me this is one of the best, before Sandman and Invisibles and all the 90's madness, It's only Elektra Assassin and Morrison's Doom Patrol that can compete with Alan Moore's reinvention of super-heroes.
Sienkiewicz' artwork is amazing and was definitely at the vanguard of those artists of the 80's who showed more influence than just Kirby & Ditko and took the whole format of the comic book into more mature and surreal places.
It may make little sense in terms of continuity but i find that to be Marvel's error in not embracing this Miller's greatest chapter of his re-invention of Daredevil.
Posted by yll_foundations on 2008-02-14 17:35:00
The thing about Elektra is, I think all the really good stories about her... are not about her. She was great in Miller's Daredevil, but that was really about Matt. There's this, but again, she remains a mystery, and Garrett is the main character, in many ways. In Bendis's arc on the more recent Elektra book (which I thought was good) again- Elektra is a shadowy mystery, the LMD was the main character. I think when she actually takes center stage, her stories are not as interesting.
Posted by Jordan D. White on 2008-02-14 18:21:58
Octopus?
Ok i know at the end of the movie when all the kids show up on the beach and are hugging their parents and telling orf their adventures. Data tell his parents about "there was this giant octopus". When and where was this i have seen that movie i don't know about a hundred times and i have never seen an octopus. I am guessing it was cut out because it was cheesy...but he references it later, so they shoulda changed the end. He coulda said something about the "Pinchers of Power". Guess if i get the dvd with extended seens it will be there.
Posted by flat4sti on 2008-02-18 07:56:24
Yeah, I was just goofing about the octopus. Apparently, the scene is out there to be watched, but I've never seen it.
And... one quick YouTube search later, and I have seen it. Yeah, it's pretty cheesy. Not actually my favourite part.
Posted by Jordan D. White on 2008-02-18 18:09:35
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About this blog:
By day, he’s a mild-mannered comic book editor! By night, he’s an obsessive sports fan!
By early morning, he drinks coffee and then runs! He’s Nathan Cosby, and he has thoughts about things.
This is them.
 | About the author:
Nathan Cosby has somehow managed to become an assistant editor at Marvel Comics. He can make helicopter sounds with his tongue and edits Power Pack, Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four, Spider-Man Family and helps with all the other All-Age stuff. He is really good-looking and likes Gummi Bears.
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