Elektra: Frenzy
by Robert Rodi, Will
Conrad, Steven Cummings
(Marvel Comics, 2004)

In Relentless, the creative team behind Elektra showed us how the resurrected assassin stalked and executed her prey in a series of global assignments. Now, in Frenzy, the focus is on a single job: the murder of the mysterious religious and political leader of a growing band of freedom fighters/terrorists in the turbulent island nation of Naou.

It's easy enough for an agent of Elektra's caliber to infiltrate the rebel encampment. But her resolve is tested when she tracks down the leader -- who proves to be a charismatic, bloodthirsty 8-year-old boy who claims to be a spiritual prophet reincarnate.

Elektra's solution is, of course, inspired. Even more interesting in this book are the views of her stealthy, ghost-like movements through the camp; her ability to pass unseen -- and sometimes to leave bleeding corpses in her wake -- would be uncanny if this wasn't a comic book.

The coda to this collection is a stand-alone story in which Elektra takes on the simple assassination of a small-time gangster -- but is felled mid-assignment by a tropical flu. Her job isn't quite so easy when her equilibrium is off and she's given to fainting spells.

The art in this collection is clean and stylish, maintaining a standard set by earlier volumes of the ongoing series.

Elektra is one of the most conflicted characters in the Marvel playbook; it takes a lot of sympathetic development to get readers to care about a cold-hearted killer. It works in Frenzy surprisingly well, combining Elektra's strengths and rare vulnerabilities into a colorful package.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
17 June 2006



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