At no point does Miller let us into Elektra’s mind she barely utters a word during the entire book as she moves through New York City determined to prevent the Hand from using her killer against her again. Miller first brings her into the story as just a vision during Murdock’s troubled sleep but she becomes more and more of a primal force during the story. Initially she’s just the woman of his dreams and nightmares.

Miller plays it coy as he works Elektra back into Murdock’s life. Miller’s Murdock isn’t a man who is mourning he’s a man whose every thought has become solely about a dead woman he couldn’t save. He doesn’t believe it yet the idea sinks into his life like a virus, infecting his every action and interaction. In this comic, Miller doesn’t write Matt Murdock as a hero but as a man obsessed with the thought that his dead lover may still be alive. Miller would return to the love story again in 1990’s Elektra Lives Again, a story of obsession and desperation as the thought of Elektra haunts Murdock’s days and nights. Miller and Janson gave no explanation for the end but it looked like Matt Murdock unknowingly succeeded he freed his love from the pain and corruption that gripped her soul. It wasn’t that simple as Miller and artist Klaus Janson last pages of Daredevil #190 showed a person climbing an icy cliff wall, successfully reaching the top to throw off her heavy coat and reveal Elektra, clad all in white. It ended nine issues later with Matt believing that he failed at purifying her soul and bringing her back to life. And then he killed her in Daredevil #181 but her story still didn’t end there.

Frank Miller first introduced Elektra into the pages of Daredevil #168 as Matt Murdock’s college flame, from long before the character ever put on a red costume or met Karen Page, the other love of his life. The Daredevil/Elektra Natchios love affar was never a simple one. Boy loses girl for a third time when the church he’s trying to resurrect her in is burned down by some ninjas who are also trying to resurrect her. Boy loses girl when her father is killed in front of her and she leaves the country only to become a ninja assassin who reenters the boy’s life after he’s become a superhero and then boy loses girl again when she’s killed by his arch enemy.

Daredevil elektra frank miller