Elektra: The Scorpio Key (Daredevil) [Paperback]

Brian Michael Bendis (Author), Chuck Austen (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785108432
• ISBN-13: 978-0785108436
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,162,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good writing, horrid art, June 18, 2003

By 

Orlando "mcmachete" (Burbank, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elektra: The Scorpio Key (Daredevil) (Paperback)

Brain Michael Bendis is one of today's greats.
His work on Alias, Ultimate Spider-man, Daredevil, Powers, Ultimate X-Men - not to mention his past works (Jinx, Goldfish, Sam & Twitch, etc. etc.) - is fantastic. He's a constant main-stay at the top of the charts AND he's a fan-favorite.
I was very excited when he was put on to bring back the Elektra title, especially on "Marvel Knights," with it's slightly harder edge.
I don't want to give away the story, but it basically gives insight into Elektra, an assassin-for-hire and an the interesting tale of the scorpion key. Her character has Daredevil roots, but you won't find daredevil as a character in this story. This is about her, and her post-mortem journey (she was killed with her own sai, and yet came back...). The story starts off pretty nicely, but later on, you get disconnected from Elektra's character. Overall, it's a good story - one that I would give four stars.
This is a graphic novel, a collection of comic books - a visual medium with equal importance to art as writing. The story is good. The art however, is absolutely horrid. Chuck Austen is currently the writer on many books, including Uncanny X-Men, Captain America, Superman: Metropolis, The Eternal, etc. He's known as a mediocre writer, with occasionally good stories. Personally, I like some of his stories, while hating others (i.e. - Endangered Species). However, he does the art on Elektra (as he did on U.S. War Machine - except this time with Colors), and his art (if you can call it that) is disgusting. Think Ugly, misshapen Barbie dolls. There is no passion, no emotion in his pencils and his inability to draw (even with computer assistance) at the calibre one comes to expect from professionals takes away from the book, especially considering how beautiful Greg Horn's covers are. The art gets two stars (with a BIG bump from the covers... Austen alone would barely deserve half a star).
So this book overall gets 3 stars. If you really want to get to know Elektra a little bit, maybe check out some of Frank Miller's work first, he's done a couple of quintessential Elektra stories. This book is good and worth buying only if you can get over the art.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Elektra-fying, August 14, 2002

By 

Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Elektra: The Scorpio Key (Daredevil) (Paperback)

Ninja-for-hire, Elektra, once killed by Daredevil's greatest foe returns in ELEKTRA: THE SCORPIO KEY. In the past, she had been the world's most feared assassin. In the past, she had been Daredevil's lover. In the past, she had been killed only to rise again. The story opens with Elektra confronting the man who killed her father. She holds the guy at sai-point and begins telling him a story, letting him know she isn't going to kill him--yet. She tells him how the story began a week ago in Paris, how she was approached by S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Stanley Dreyfuss and commissioned to assassinate Saddam Abed Dasam, ruler of Iraq, and steal an ornate box adorned with two black scorpions poised to lash out with their tails. Of course, there is a kicker, HYDRA, the evil organization that constantly wars against S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Western powers, lurks in the shadows. Elektra turns the offer down flat until she is personally contacted by Colonel Nick Fury, legendary World War II hero and rough-and-tough agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Even when talking to Nick Fury face-to-face, Elektra is reluctant to take the deal, in spite of Fury's offer to erase her record and take her off the Most Wanted list. Only when she finds out the true stakes of the high-level espionage capter--the fabled Scorpio Key--does Elektra swing into action. And her decisions are not going to be popular with the people trying to manipulate her.

Brian Michael Bendis is a very popular writer among legions of comic book fans. In addition to creating and writing his award-winning series, POWERS, he also regularly scripts ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, ALIAS, and DAREDEVIL. All of his work is fast-tracked into the graphic novel format. Chuck Austen is a good artist and has done work on U.S. WAR MACHINE, but has recently taken over the writing chores on UNCANNY X-MEN. The colorist, Nathan Eyring, developed a style over the books that was simply amazing.

Bendis' dialogue, as always with any project he touches, was great and lent itself to explosive artistic rendering. Even the scene where Elektra held Stanley at bay in Paris with the sai under the table showed the motion and the action about to break loose. The action sequences detailed by Austen are absolutely mesmerizing, and--at times--chilling in their execution (literally!) and raw savagery. In Austen's capable hands, Elektra becomes a poetess of death. Nick Fury comes through as the character most Marvel Comics fans know and love. He's tough and irascible, totally devoted to his view of the world and what should be done in it. Nathan Eyring performed an outstanding display of colors, shading mood, action, and suspense with a skill seldom seen in the comics format.

As good as Bendis is, he was a little loose on this graphic novel. Elektra begins by offering a story that lets the reader inside her mind and heart, but by the fourth section of the story, she is distant from the reader, only a series of images played out against a series of media interviews. The fifth chapter keeps Elektra distant, making the reader guess what she is feeling and thinking when there was so much more in the beginning. Also, the twist with Stanley's true nature was totally unexpected and seemed almost to come out of left field although it was planned. The final chapter in the graphic novel really doesn't mesh well with the first five that complete a whole story, but the inclusion helps Elektra fans keep the series all together in trade paperback format.

ELEKTRA: THE SCORPIO KEY is recommended for fans of Bendis' and Austen's work. Comics fans interested in the field of espionage and Elektra will also want to add this one to their collections. People who enjoy Ed Brubaker's and Greg Rucka's writing will want to give Bendis a try if they've not encountered him before. He knows a lot of tricks as a writer, and he shows quite a few of them here.

1.0 out of 5 stars The writing may be good...., January 7, 2008

By 

Rufus McGregor (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Elektra: The Scorpio Key (Daredevil) (Paperback)

But the art is too horrific to be able to tell. Seriously, this is THE SINGLE WORST EXAMPLE OF ART I've ever seen come out of the Big 2.

I'm not even an art buff. I don't know who draws anything. But I now know the name Chuck Austen because the art is SO BAD that even Bendis cannot save the book.

Yeesh!!