U

Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra Vol. 1

featuring Greg Rucka and David Mack

(Art by Salvador Larroca, Danny Miki, Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti)

Two stories.  In the Ultimate Universe, university students Elektra Natchios and Matt Murdock meet for the first time and romance blooms between them.  However, tensions arise over their differing methods when confronting a remorseless abuser.  Then, in the original Marvel Universe, the assassination of a key witness puts Daredevil on the path to confronting the Kingpin and his newest enforcer, Echo.

I'm not sure that 'Daredevil and Elektra: The College Years' (don't worry, that's not really the title) was the right way to introduce these characters to the Ultimate Universe, but I do respect that they get equalling billing on the cover and, for the most part, this is actually Elektra's story.  The truth is though, that this doesn't really do anything groundbreaking with the familiar characters.

I will applaud Rucka's story, however, for calling out the real-world injustice of rich white boys who get away with raping and abusing women because their daddy's rich and powerful.  The injustice of it in this story hits very hard and is just a fraction of the real injustice that woman have to deal with in the real world.  Interestingly, whilst usually I'm on the side of the 'killing people is wrong' heroes, here's I was definitely on Elektra's side when she decides to kill this guy who won't stop and keeps getting away with it.

The back-up story here is just a single comic issue long and doesn't really have anything of particular interest beyond introducing us to Echo (you should watch the 'Echo' TV show; it's much better than the pathetic racist/sexist/ableist frothing fanboys would have you believe).  As well as not doing much, I really didn't like the visual style of the story, with a mixture of caption boxes and words build into the artwork, which comes across as confusing and very messy.

3 out of 5