The Death Of Elektra

Recently, Marvel reprinted a story from 1982 when Daredevil, the Man Without Fear #181 hit the comic book shelves again. The amazing Frank Miller handled the story and art for this issue. Klaus Janson prepared the finished art and coloring. "Stan Lee presents Last Hand" begins with Benjamin Pondexter, otherwise known as Bullseye, stewing in prison at Ryker's Island plotting his revenge against Daredevil. He does pause when he remembers that Daredevil not only beat him badly but also saved his life at the same time. Mr. Pondexter is allowed to have a gym in his cell because he can't be trusted to work out with the other inmates. He does have medication that the guards have to give him as he occasionally experiences terrible headaches. A certain guard likes to taunt Pondexter when he needs the pills though.

During an interview for a television program that was approved by the warden, Bullseye escapes with the host of the show, Tom Snyde, as his hostage. Hearing from the Punisher in prison that the Kingpin has hired a new assassin, Bullseye decides to pay a freelance assassin named Mr. Slaughter a visit. It doesn't take much to find out that this assassin is Elektra. who is targeting Franklin Nelson (the partner of Matt Murdock in their law firm) as her next target.

Posing as a cabdriver, Elektra is able to pick up Nelson and take him to a location to complete her task. However, the reminder from Nelson that he remembered her when she was dating Murdock may have given her second thoughts because she let him go. This is where Bullseye makes his move as he was following her and the ensuing fight leaves her injured with soon-to-be fatal wounds. Bullseye used his card flip with the Ace of Spades to slit her throat and turned her own weapon on her to impale her. She still had enough strength to crawl over to Murdock's apartment and die in Matt's arms.

Pretty sure that he figured out that Matt Murdock is Daredevil, he begins to rethink this when he walks into a trap where Murdock made it appear he was working on one end of the apartment while Daredevil caught him from behind. It was pretty apparent who murdered Elektra, as Bullseye was wielding her weapons. During the final moments of their battle, Daredevil tries to save Bullseye again from dying in a fall but the villain doesn't stop until DD lets go, this time landing him in the hospital with severe injuries.

Anyone who knows me a long time knows that Daredevil was one of my favorite superheroes. There is a certain darkness to this man who seems to tangle with very real situations. There is almost an underlying message to how he handles his darkness!