This week Luke and Devin are going back to college with their friends Elektra and Matt Murdock for Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra and Ultimate Elektra! Greg Rucka brings some collegiate bonding, white boy criminals, and then it gets followed up with a much worse and more confusing sequel.
Our new cover art is by Traci Shepard who will get a full shout out on the next episode in 2 weeks.
Issues Covered:
- Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra #1-5
- Ultimate Elektra #1-5
Check out the show notes and images after the jump!
Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra #1-4 – 2002
Writer – Greg Rucka, Pencils – Salvador Larroca, Inks – Danny Miki, Colors – Andrew Hou, Joy Ang and Arnold Tsang of Udon, Letters – Chris Eliopoulos
Elektra Natchios moves into her college apartment at Columbia University with the help of her dad and meets her college roommate Phoebe McAllister. They talk about music, order pizza, Elektra shows her martial arts skills. Phoebe wants to be a musician and Elektra isn’t sure what she wants to be and then they have a feminist guitar session. It passes the Bechdel Test! Thanks Greg Rucka.
Time passes and they see Calvin “Trey” Langstrom bullying Melissa Beckerman. He does the whole “you’ll have to take it from me” so Elektra almost breaks his arm and he surrenders and the two other women decide to start training with Elektra and Master Stone. That gives Melissa more confidence when dealing with Trey.
Later on Elektra sees Matt Murdock working out as a gymnast and hard wants his dick. Elektra is embarrassed about her crush but finds out about him and then ends up meeting him after he got out of class and greets him with roses. Foggy is also there, but Matt is too horny for Foggy and they go on a long date. Elektra meets back up with Phoebe to talk juicy goss only to find that Melissa was assaulted.
Trey assaulted her and they report it to the police who think because of who Trey is a politician’s son, she will drop the allegations. A week passes and Melissa goes home without telling her parents why and Trey shows up to gloat about the police dropping the case and Phoebe adds Trey’s name to the Men Who Rape section of the bathroom wall.
Elektra follows up with the police who were told to drop it so Elektra stops to see her father because she’s questioning the law and Melissa returns with a new resolve to train.
That night Elektra breaks into Trey’s room, and disables him and threatens him to stop. She is caught by a mysterious figure in black and they fight. When she gets the upper hand she runs away, not seeing that it was Matt Murdock the whole time. The next morning she goes to see Matt and says she loves him and they cuddle.
When she returns she found out that the Provost’s Office is bringing them to Student Court for defaming Trey and Elektra finds out her father’s laundromat was burnt down. They help Elektra’s father stay with Master Stone for the night, Matt notes a clue, and when Phoebe reminds them about the case, Matt volunteers himself and Foggy to get it dropped.
Matt breaks into Trey’s room to see if the scrap of cloth he found smelled the same, Trey sees him, they briefly fight and he gets out. Matt in disguise shows up saying that it wasn’t Trey who burnt the place down and she says she doesn’t care and he probably hired someone which, Matt why didn’t you look it up, and he runs off. Matt goes up to the city and just listens in and coincidentally hears two guys, Monk and Craight, in a bar talking about how they got paid for burning a place and confronts them.
Elektra is mad at Matt because she thinks he is the mysterious figure which is ridiculous, you know. She does the whole “I’m trying to prove you aren’t blind” thing and stops when he doesn’t stop her from almost punching him. Matt tells her Langstrom was arrested and Student Court dropped the case.
Unfortunately Langstrom’s father, who looks like Walter Peck, meets with the DA to try and force her to drop the case which she refuses. Trey blames it on Elektra who beats the shit out of his son and tells him to destroy her life.
Trey goes in disguise like a shitty ninja to attack Melissa again but this time she uses Stone’s techniques and beats him instead and runs to Stone to share the news. Elektra hears this and is pissed.
Trey meanwhile steals a gun from his father and his dad kind of apologizes but is still like “make her pay”. Melissa and Phoebe plant a location for Trey to hear about where Elektra is going to be alone, and Matt overhears and is concerned so Phoebe tells Matt where Elektra will be while Elektra gets those sais.
When Phoebe and Melissa get back they find Elektra’s goodbye note. Elektra meanwhile gets the drop on Trey who is really upset and Matt stops her from killing him. Trey uses the chance to run so Elektra only knocks him out. Matt says he is only here for the law and he doesn’t want her falling to rage and reveals he is Matt and apologizes for not doing it sooner which unsurprisingly doesn’t help.
She doesn’t believe him about having powers, and even though he says he loves her too, she says it is too late and that he is a threat to everyone she loves and she would give up Matt. She clips Trey’s artery giving Matt the choice to follow her or save Trey and Matt has to save the shitbag.
When Matt gets home, he finds Elektra left roses with Foggy and told him to pass on the message that she was sorry.
Ultimate Elektra – 2003-2004
Writer – Mike Carey, Pencils – Salvador Larroca, Inks – Crimelab Studios, Colors – Aron Lusen, Letters – Chris Eliopoulos
In a really dumb bit of retcon, insurance is refusing to pay Dimitris (previously Stravos) for his laundromat because they think he burnt it down – which yeah they dropped the court case but ugh. So Leander and Paul, his cousins, want to buy a share in the business to help. Elektra is concerned about the deal because she doesn’t trust her cousins, but it goes through.
Meanwhile Foggy and Matt got internships at Ecker Summers and Lyall with Matt working with Walter Savage. Matt is still distracted by Elektra but refuses to follow her because she asked him not to – which – not really? Also Matt hears about the problem.
Time passes and Dimitris gets two new washers and is introduced to Mr. Cullen who will handle the bills which Dimitris isn’t happy about and he is suspicious now but his cousins have names on the loans, and unaware to them, the cousins are using it as fronts for money laundering along with other businesses.
Matt goes to check in on Elektra in the dojo since she dropped out of her classes and cut her friends off and they go into a fight.
Meanwhile, Mr Cullen working with Savage on a plea deal because they have a big name they can turn over.
The Cousins hear about it and want his ledger and plan a hit on him. Savage takes a break from getting the testimony from Cullen to meet with Matt and Foggy while Elektra confronts her cousins. She wants to pay off the debt and when they try to force her out, she kicks the ass of the guard, which is when Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin comes in. Probably happened before he got sent out of country due to Spider-Man antics. He came because he heard about Cullen.
back at the Law Offices they attacked by gunmen, Billy Roth and The Deacon.
Kingpin forces Elektra out of the offices so she goes out the window to listen in. Cullen doesn’t know about the Kingpin connection but they still want to kill him. All Kingpin wants is the ledger and suggests that they hire Elektra instead of the shitty body guard. Elektra follows his car.
At the offices, Matt pretends to be unconscious as they look for Cullen and uses the confusion to take out the lights and get the drop on one of the guys by hitting him with a law book and then Matt gets back on and the police come and the Cousins hear about how the assassins failed.
Elektra meanwhile got to Kingpin’s base and heard him calling in an assassin from his Chicago branch.
The Cousins meanwhile find out Cullen, now under police protection, has a thing for… you know. Having sex with sex workers and at work, Matt hears Cullen mention Natchios.
Elektra gets offered work – she will pretend to be a sex worker to steal the ledger from Cullen, and her father’s debt is forgiven. The police aren’t bothered by him hiring a sex worker apparently and Elektra finds the book but is caught by Cullen who then gets killed along with all of the police by Bullseye, a bald guy with a Bullseye tattooed on his head. . Bullseye comes over and gets the book, is interrupted by the police, Elektra fights him briefly and when more police come they both run.
Meanwhile Matt goes in and finds the recordings of Cullen indicting the Cousins and Savage finds out that Cullen is dead.
Elektra gets home and her father sees her covered in blood, finds out the gist but the police show up, see Dimitris covered in blood and arrest him, and Bullseye burns the ledger.
When another lawyer wants the recordings, Savage is cagey about sharing them and Dimitris gets the shit beaten out of him by the police for knowing nothing.
The Cousins point out their concern about Elektra not being mentioned and she shows up, angry about what happened to her father.
Meanwhile Kingpin is invited to meet with Savage who it turns out is working with the Cousins and offers to let him buy the copy of the ledger for 10 million dollars. Kingpin is unhappy and plans to have Bullseye kill everyone.
Elektra thinks the Cousins hired Bullseye, they say they didn’t and she gets the drop on them for a deal with help from Matt. Matt gets a confession out of Leander blaming the Kingpin for using Pointdexter and he gives Matt, unaware that Elektra is there, the location of Bullseye’s mail drop and they talk about how they’re only working together for now because they are going the same way with Elektra wanting Bullseye and Matt wanting the Ledger.
Meanwhile Kingpin plans to kill Savage.
Matt shows up at the maildrop, gets into a fight but gets Bullseye’s address and Elektra dons the red Elektra clothes. When they get to the hotel they don’t find the book they need, they do find guns, and then proof that Savage is going to be killed
He makes it into the courthouse, Elektra goes in from an upper floor and Matt barely stops him in time, Bullseye makes a crack about the movie coming out and kicks Matt’s ass, and Elektra comes in with barely enough time to save him. Savage ends up getting killed but Elektra finds the recordings so Elektra sucker punches Matt and takes the Ledger.
Bullseye returned with the empty case and Kingpin puts a call out on Elektra and the Cousins who quickly sell her out.
Elektra meanwhile visits her father who wants her to stop and she refuses and then returns to her father’s store and when the men come in, she hides.
Matt goes to Elektra’s father and finds out she plans to give the ledger back.
Elektra disguises Phoebe who acts as a distraction so Elektra can get in and confront Kingpin and hands him the ledger. She explains how she got it, and how Kingpin could fake some documents in exchange for her father’s page being removed and the charges against him being dropped. Kingpin agrees and calls in Bullseye whose arrest would free her father and has the two of them fight. Elektra ends up up throwing cleaning chemicals at him which fucks with his central nervous system and she finishes him off and Kingpin offers her work if she ever wants to be an assassin.
Matt arrives too late, finding Bullseye who is arrested, Dimitris is freed and Matt shows up. He reveals that the paperwork her father signed was a deed of gift meaning her father had no more rights to it, wouldn’t be tied to it, and that would have freed him from Fisk and the Cousins and she wouldn’t have had to fall to darkness and he leaves her alone.