I was never a big Daredevil fan growing up, although every time I picked one up I ended up reading it until the end. I saw the movie yesterday, and really liked it, enough to go out and try to find a copy of Daredevil #181, known as the “Death of Elektra” issue. I have seen this described in several places as one of the best single comic books ever made, so I don’t expect to find a copy for cheap at my neighborhood gamer store. Can anybody advise me on where I could find a reprint of that issue, and/or all the surrounding issues? Was the entire storyline called 'Death of Elektra"? If not, then what was it called? Can anybody recommend websites with some images from the stories in question?
By the way, anybody on here care to expound at length on what made Daredevil #181 so great? Elektra wasn’t the first mainstream comic character to be killed, was she?
This bio of Electra explains it, (SPOILER, obviously)
http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/e/electra.htm
The whole storyline has been reprinted, fairly recently.
However, since Marvel Comics still hasn’t gotten the hang of giving books titles instead of numbers, you’d need to look for Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller, Volume 2.
On the bright side, that whole book is substantially cheaper than buying Daredevil #181 (let alone all of the other issues).
I’m curious; so what is that issue worth? How many issues were part of that storyline?
I’ve got it. I started subscribing to Daredevil when I was 8, which means I have about 10 years worth of Daredevil, starting at issue #173.
I don’t know if I can say what made it special, other than that it was a great, action-packed double-issue, with some incredible art.
I suppose one thing that was significant about it was that Daredevil himself was fairly heroic up to that point. And then…
after Bullseye killed Elektra (following a spectacular maximum-security jailbreak that he executed using a headache capsule), DD found himself in the position of having Bullseye’s life in his hands. DD was hanging from a wire by his knees, holding Bullseye in one hand. With the words, “You won’t kill anyone, Bullseye. Ever again,” DD purposely drops Bullseye to the pavement below. DD spends the next several issues obsessing over Elektra’s death, imagining that she’s alive, and going so far as to dig up her body. Bullseye ends up largely paralyzed, until he is “kidnapped” by a wealthy Japanese wacko around issue 197 and undergoes some major surgery that restores his movement. DD then administers another savage beat-down to Bullseye in issue 200.
But that’s another story-arc. Of course, I’m going by memory; the issue is in a box in my closet, buried under many other things. I’m not digging that sucker out unless someone is willing to buy my entire collection.
Kurt Busiek and I had a conversation about that on rec.arts.comics.(something)…marvel.universe I think, but it might have been .misc
Anyway, we both agreed that a meeting of the “real” Daredevil (the one who’s a kid at heart and loves being Daredevil for the sheer fun of it all…who invented a third secret ID just for shits and grins) should have a crossover with the dark, grim, driven Batman type that’s been running around since issue #150 (note that the Grim Daredevil has now been around longer than the happy-go-lucky one).
Fenris