Elektra is a killer.

Sometimes, that fact gets lost amid stories of espionage, romance and revenge -- but the root of her character is merciless, deadly and unyielding. Relentless captures those traits in a series of assassinations seen from different perspectives. And, it's one of the best collected editions of Elektra on the shelves.

The collection begins with "The Mark," which focuses on a man targeted by Elektra for death. We don't know why, we just know she's already cut her way through a small army of mercenary bodyguards in a chase that has crossed continents. Now, Mr. Prebble has made his last stop and has made a sort of peace with his fate ... although that doesn't stop him from hiring one last team of mercs to try -- fruitlessly, of course -- to stop her. Elektra herself is hardly seen in this chapter, although her handiwork bloodies the pages. At last, in a scene lifted (and drastically abbreviated) for the Elektra movie, she arrives -- as Prebble knows she must.

The next chapter, "The Job," begins a month earlier in a strip club, where Elektra has gone undercover (so to speak) to get close to her targets. Then we see her international pursuit of Prebble from her perspective -- which involves a whole lot more carnage over several weeks than Prebble could relate in his narrative. The end, of course, is the same.

"Power Play," spanning three chapters, takes Elektra to London, where she has been hired to kill an African dictator on a shopping spree. When that plan goes awry, the assassin follows her home to Djanda to finish the contract. Again, before the final act, the story reboots to three weeks in the past and we see it all again, this time from Elektra's point of view, and we get to see how she accomplished the various stages of her plan.

The final chapter, "Dead to Rights," reveals the fate of three powerful men who made the mistake of trying to cut short Elektra's career before she could become a security risk.

Elektra is a killer, and don't you forget it. Relentless discards the trappings of forbidden love and latent heroism, giving us the assassin at her core. It's nice to see it done right -- even if you're not always sure you should be rooting for her.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
13 May 2006