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ELEKTRA & WOLVERINE: THE REDEEMER #3
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Yoshitaka Amano
Editors: Axel Alonso & Jennifer Lee
Price: $5.95 US/$9.50 CAN |
The key to Greg Rucka's success as a writer -- whether it's comics or prose -- is pretty simple to figure out. What he does is to examine an unreal profession or event or person, and he makes it seem quite real, sometimes, even normal. Whether it's a bodyguard rushing to try and intercept a bullet, a British agent struggling with her conscience or an assassin sharing an almost-supernatural emotional connection with a genetically engineered teenaged girl.
Logan finally realizes that Avery Connor is just like him: healing factor, superhuman reflexes... the whole deal. Kiefer and his men-in-black employers want a new killing machine, and the teenager is it. The problem: the girl has bonded with Elektra, the assassin Kiefer hired to kill her father. Kiefer forces the feral mutant with the adamantium claws to help him track Elektra and Avery down using his only bargaining chip: Avery's distraught and vulnerable mother, Veronica.
Amano's sleek art is haunting. The characters often glide slowly across the page like ghosts. Each painting begs to be studied. Color and motion merge into what one could almost see as a dance, a ballet, of humanity at its most extreme. The art occasionally emphasizes the players' emotions, their humanity, but more often than not, it paints them -- and the title characters in particular -- almost as empty shells. Their forms and power are the focus.
Fortunately, the script delves into their humanity. Rucka conveys to the reader the almost invisible sense of sadness, regret and nostalgia that drives Elektra in this story. She is easily the most alien figure in this story, but Rucka tempers that cold exterior with quiet emotional connection to the reader. Wolverine's colloquial attitude helps to keep the story's feet on the ground as well, as does Avery's more normal behavior here.
If one were to describe the core plot, it would come off as cliched, as a forced team up of two extreme characters. But when one reads the book -- remember, this isn't a comic book; it's an illustrated text -- "cliche" is not a term that comes to mind. Rucka's writing draws one into the story and the characters. If you enjoyed this unusual Marvel title, you should definitely check out some of Rucka's novels, notably his first, Keeper.
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