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Wolverine: Miniseries
Elektra & Wolverine: The Redeemer
Haunted by her own father's death, Elektra finds that killing her latest target's daughter -- the only witness to the murder -- is more difficult than expected, especially after Wolverine is hired to protect the girl.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published May 10, 2002
About the author
Greg Rucka
1,388 books1,845 followersGreg Rucka, is an American comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on such comics as Action Comics, Batwoman: Detective Comics, and the miniseries Superman: World of New Krypton for DC Comics, and for novels such as his Queen & Country series.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
August 27, 2012
I've been a fan of Yoshitaka Amano's artwork since first encountering it in Sandman: The Dream Hunters, so when I came across this three-part miniseries in my local comic book shop (which is what I have rather than the collected hardcover indicated here), I snatched it up. I don't think I've read Greg Rucka before now, but this oversight is, as of this writing, remedied.
Rucka's taut crime narrative of an assassination gone wrong is riveting from the start. I know very little about the character of Elektra except for the so-so Daredevil movie starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, but she is presented here as a straight-up ninja, hyper-competent in her abilities, fluid and lethal enough in her abilities to kill Wolverine (if he could be killed), and yet presenting a human side as well, when she kidnaps, rather than kills, the daughter of her assigned target. Wolverine, who'd been brought in to bodyguard the teenager, must now track her, and the revelations about the girl's parents, that they had been involved in the life-altering surgeries to provide the Canadian with his adamantium bones, and that they may have experimented on their own daughter using Logan as a template, spin the story into double-crossing and conspiracy.
Amano's art throughout is simply gorgeous. His renderings of Elektra paint her as elegantly balletic and fierce in her determination, while Wolverine is showcased sans his trademark haircut and as a brutal bruiser. Greys and blacks predominate for this dark story.
This graphic novel (although it's more of an illustrated novella) was a wonderful serendipitous surprise, and although it's now ten years old, I'd recommend it to anyone able to find it.
Rucka's taut crime narrative of an assassination gone wrong is riveting from the start. I know very little about the character of Elektra except for the so-so Daredevil movie starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, but she is presented here as a straight-up ninja, hyper-competent in her abilities, fluid and lethal enough in her abilities to kill Wolverine (if he could be killed), and yet presenting a human side as well, when she kidnaps, rather than kills, the daughter of her assigned target. Wolverine, who'd been brought in to bodyguard the teenager, must now track her, and the revelations about the girl's parents, that they had been involved in the life-altering surgeries to provide the Canadian with his adamantium bones, and that they may have experimented on their own daughter using Logan as a template, spin the story into double-crossing and conspiracy.
Amano's art throughout is simply gorgeous. His renderings of Elektra paint her as elegantly balletic and fierce in her determination, while Wolverine is showcased sans his trademark haircut and as a brutal bruiser. Greys and blacks predominate for this dark story.
This graphic novel (although it's more of an illustrated novella) was a wonderful serendipitous surprise, and although it's now ten years old, I'd recommend it to anyone able to find it.
August 21, 2022
Today I finally gave a chance to this gem. I love work of Rucka when it comes to comics, and it surprised me how much I enjoyed this. Illustrations by Amano are so brilliant I could dive into them and live there happily. Though not typical comics, more like illustrated novel, the storyline is very emotional, lots of action and very good written characters. Loved every bit of it!
September 10, 2019
Me ha encantado esta novela gráfica, y es que Greg Rucka escribiendo sobre Elektra es una maravilla. Siempre profundiza en el personaje, sus miedos, pasiones, deseos, etc; cosas que a veces se echan de menos en los comics hechos por otros. Greg Rucka esto lo plancha tanto aquí como en los comics.
Detalle: ¡No tenía ni idea de que Lobezno era un canijo! jajajajaja.
Detalle: ¡No tenía ni idea de que Lobezno era un canijo! jajajajaja.
November 29, 2015
Closer to 3.5 stars, mainly due to Rucka's leaden prose. The characters are well drawn and the plot well-executed--if a little familiar--with punctuating illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano casting a certain chaotic and brooding mood over the whole. His painted pieces are especially strong, but some of the sketches take some time to make sense of. Rucka is an experienced writer of both novels and comics, but I've never read any of the former and so was surprised by the stilted syntax, overuse of parataxis, and shortage of variety in the vocabulary.
July 21, 2018
This was a pretty good read. Pretty good. The action scenes were spot on, my good man, spot on, I say. The artwork was pretty amazing at times. But the background if the story--the character's motivation, the villain reveal, the mystery of the plot--were not well executed. I do believe they could've been better shown. Or something, because the story lacked a good magnetic power with me. Still, all in all, could've been WAY worse.
June 18, 2013
I love Elektra and I love Wolverine and I love this comic for its exploration of those two. It doesn't bog down with the usual sexual dynamics, and it is kind of crudely dialogued, but it is a brilliant look at who these two characters are as people, and I very much enjoyed that.
August 7, 2011
While the artwork was, as expected, beautiful, but I found it to be distracting from the prose.
April 9, 2018
Not a typical comic. It was more of an illustrated novel featuring the lush art of Yoshitaka Amano and Greg Rucka's writing that delivers a great superhero tech-thriller with heart.
March 20, 2019
The story was all right - but Toshitaka Amano's art is always a treat.
September 20, 2019
Zabierając się za omawianą lekturę nie spodziewałem się tego co zobaczyłem, bowiem nie jest to komiks, a opowieść z ilustracjami. Dobra opowieść, choć na początku, póki się nie rozkręci to jest... dość nudna. Całość podzielono na trzy części i chyba najbardziej podobała mi się ta środkowa.
Elektra dostaje zadanie zlikwidowania pewnego naukowca za bagatela 8 milionów dolarów. Łatwa kasa, więc zabójczyni podejmuje się zadania tak, aby nikt po zgonie nie miał wątpliwości, że to był wypadek. Jednakże na miejscu, po wykonaniu zlecenia, sprawy się nieco komplikują. Avery, córka zamordowanego, jest świadkiem całej sceny morderstwa. Udaje jej się uciec i tak się zaczyna pościg. Elektra chce poprawić swój błąd, a ludzie opiekujący się dzieckiem, z niejakim Kieferem i matką dziewczynki, Veronica Connor, wynajmują do tego zadania Wolverine'a...
Starcie tych obu musi być emocjonujące. I w sumie jest choć tak naprawdę najfajniejsza część powieści to ta, kiedy dochodzi do interakcji na linii Elekta-Avery. Spięcia pomiędzy tytułowymi wojownikami też będą, ale nie były one na tyle ciekawe, aby zatrzymać mnie na dłużej.
Akcja zmienia się co chwilę, bo zleceniodawcy zarówno Elektry, jak i Wolverine'a mają własne, ukryte pobudki. Tyle z fabuły. To co mi się w sumie podobało to rysunki, choć przyznam, że na obecną chwilę się nieco zestarzały to nadal mają w sobie to coś. 3/5. Mogło być lepiej, ale i mogło być gorzej.
Elektra dostaje zadanie zlikwidowania pewnego naukowca za bagatela 8 milionów dolarów. Łatwa kasa, więc zabójczyni podejmuje się zadania tak, aby nikt po zgonie nie miał wątpliwości, że to był wypadek. Jednakże na miejscu, po wykonaniu zlecenia, sprawy się nieco komplikują. Avery, córka zamordowanego, jest świadkiem całej sceny morderstwa. Udaje jej się uciec i tak się zaczyna pościg. Elektra chce poprawić swój błąd, a ludzie opiekujący się dzieckiem, z niejakim Kieferem i matką dziewczynki, Veronica Connor, wynajmują do tego zadania Wolverine'a...
Starcie tych obu musi być emocjonujące. I w sumie jest choć tak naprawdę najfajniejsza część powieści to ta, kiedy dochodzi do interakcji na linii Elekta-Avery. Spięcia pomiędzy tytułowymi wojownikami też będą, ale nie były one na tyle ciekawe, aby zatrzymać mnie na dłużej.
Akcja zmienia się co chwilę, bo zleceniodawcy zarówno Elektry, jak i Wolverine'a mają własne, ukryte pobudki. Tyle z fabuły. To co mi się w sumie podobało to rysunki, choć przyznam, że na obecną chwilę się nieco zestarzały to nadal mają w sobie to coś. 3/5. Mogło być lepiej, ale i mogło być gorzej.
August 2, 2021
Picked up this over a year ago while perusing a comic book shop and it’s been sitting on the TBR shelf ever since. Finally decided to dive in as an interlude palate cleanser in between completing one book and starting another. Thought it would take me through the weekend but finished it in one day. It was interesting because two longtime favorite icons lead one series from different directions but then by the end you learn both are merely supporting characters.
July 22, 2019
I have been an Amano fan for many years now so I was really exited when I finally got the chance to acquire this book. Sadly the story and the storytelling in it is just so plain and boring. I must agree with one of the reviewers saying it reads like a bad fan fiction because it does. I expected more.
May 1, 2024
4.5 Stars
This was an interesting read, as I've read quite a bit of Elektra and basically zero of Wolverine. Rucka is a great writer and really seemed to nail and respect the characters. The art is also stunningly beautiful! I wish we spent more time with Avery, as she's the heart of it and I never really learned to care about her.
This was an interesting read, as I've read quite a bit of Elektra and basically zero of Wolverine. Rucka is a great writer and really seemed to nail and respect the characters. The art is also stunningly beautiful! I wish we spent more time with Avery, as she's the heart of it and I never really learned to care about her.
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January 27, 2021Make Elektra canonically Asian you cowards!
July 13, 2012
The year was 2004. I was voting for John Kerry (*sigh*) at a polling place located in a rather stately library, and I was stuck at the end of a very long queue of other restless Americans. Just as I got in, the cover of a book caught my eye and I picked it up, intending to idly flip through it and set it back down. 208 pages later, and still in line, I did. Hello, this shit was enthralling.
The book was Greg Rucka and Yoshitaka Amano’s Elektra and Wolverine: The Redeemer. Comic book fans, be warned that it’s really more of a novella lavishly graced with exquisite full-color art than a traditional graphic novel. And while I’ll tell you straight up that it was the fluid, vibrant panels on the cover that drew me to the book, the art needed bones on which to drape its banners, and the spare little story is neat (in both senses of the word) and satisfying.
Now, I had read a lot of my brother’s comics in high school (Batman, Green Arrow, X-Men) and I had found it off-putting that in most cases, the artists who do the covers are not involved in any way with the art inside the book. From time to time, I still am unhappily surprised when I am promised something on the cover, and open the book only to discover I have been sold a bill of goods (Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives, I’m looking at you. In fact, I found the art in this book so weirdly repellent that I had to stop reading it.). This is most assuredly not the case with Redeemer. The glossy pages are full of sketched lines that seem to breathe on the page, the palette muted as if cast in the gray angles of a snowy dawn – until Elektra strikes, and blood founts on the pages and streams from her lurid, flowing scarves.
Although the wretched Elektra film they made (I liked the tattoo-guy effects, though) touches slightly on the book, Redeemer is, strangely, a story about women. No matter the advantage, be it advanced education, martial arts training or metahuman strength, there are still roles to play and lies to tell in order for women to live in a man’s world. Elektra, ninja assassin, traditionally costumed in a scrap of red leather complete with thigh-high boots, is introduced this way, posing as a Russian cleaning woman:
"Perhaps a little tall, perhaps a little too broad across the shoulders, but her face was to die for, and her black hair seemed to catch light, and then to destroy it. Then the guards discovered that Katya Semonova’s English was broken at best, and that she smelled of vodka and horrible body odor, and they had never bothered her again."
Her latest assassination goes wrong when the target’s daughter Avery happens in at the wrong moment. Rather than kill the girl, Elektra instead flees the scene. After some time to reflect, Elektra returns to steal the girl, now in the protective custody of her mother, a scientist with a link to Wolverine’s past, and Wolverine himself. There are interesting tensions everywhere: between Wolverine and Dr. Connor, between Elektra and Avery, Avery and her mother, and of course between Elektra and Wolverine. There is also a lovely tension in the design of the book itself – the hand-off between written word and the illustrations literally made me gasp in several sequences.
Wolverine is the ultimate foil for a gang of ladies. He’s not a man’s man; Wolverine one-ups that: he’s a guy’s guy. Short, hairy, and irritable, he just wants to be left to himself and his casual, shirtless days of chopping wood in the pine barrens of Canada. Of course, if he’s left alone, he can’t rescue a girl who’s been kidnapped by a ninja!
To sum up: this is an eminently readable and visually fantastic book, no matter what you may generally keep on your shelves. If you haven’t read it, you can probably find a copy at your fine local library. I mean, I didn’t even have to check it out. But you so totally should!
The book was Greg Rucka and Yoshitaka Amano’s Elektra and Wolverine: The Redeemer. Comic book fans, be warned that it’s really more of a novella lavishly graced with exquisite full-color art than a traditional graphic novel. And while I’ll tell you straight up that it was the fluid, vibrant panels on the cover that drew me to the book, the art needed bones on which to drape its banners, and the spare little story is neat (in both senses of the word) and satisfying.
Now, I had read a lot of my brother’s comics in high school (Batman, Green Arrow, X-Men) and I had found it off-putting that in most cases, the artists who do the covers are not involved in any way with the art inside the book. From time to time, I still am unhappily surprised when I am promised something on the cover, and open the book only to discover I have been sold a bill of goods (Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives, I’m looking at you. In fact, I found the art in this book so weirdly repellent that I had to stop reading it.). This is most assuredly not the case with Redeemer. The glossy pages are full of sketched lines that seem to breathe on the page, the palette muted as if cast in the gray angles of a snowy dawn – until Elektra strikes, and blood founts on the pages and streams from her lurid, flowing scarves.
Although the wretched Elektra film they made (I liked the tattoo-guy effects, though) touches slightly on the book, Redeemer is, strangely, a story about women. No matter the advantage, be it advanced education, martial arts training or metahuman strength, there are still roles to play and lies to tell in order for women to live in a man’s world. Elektra, ninja assassin, traditionally costumed in a scrap of red leather complete with thigh-high boots, is introduced this way, posing as a Russian cleaning woman:
"Perhaps a little tall, perhaps a little too broad across the shoulders, but her face was to die for, and her black hair seemed to catch light, and then to destroy it. Then the guards discovered that Katya Semonova’s English was broken at best, and that she smelled of vodka and horrible body odor, and they had never bothered her again."
Her latest assassination goes wrong when the target’s daughter Avery happens in at the wrong moment. Rather than kill the girl, Elektra instead flees the scene. After some time to reflect, Elektra returns to steal the girl, now in the protective custody of her mother, a scientist with a link to Wolverine’s past, and Wolverine himself. There are interesting tensions everywhere: between Wolverine and Dr. Connor, between Elektra and Avery, Avery and her mother, and of course between Elektra and Wolverine. There is also a lovely tension in the design of the book itself – the hand-off between written word and the illustrations literally made me gasp in several sequences.
Wolverine is the ultimate foil for a gang of ladies. He’s not a man’s man; Wolverine one-ups that: he’s a guy’s guy. Short, hairy, and irritable, he just wants to be left to himself and his casual, shirtless days of chopping wood in the pine barrens of Canada. Of course, if he’s left alone, he can’t rescue a girl who’s been kidnapped by a ninja!
To sum up: this is an eminently readable and visually fantastic book, no matter what you may generally keep on your shelves. If you haven’t read it, you can probably find a copy at your fine local library. I mean, I didn’t even have to check it out. But you so totally should!
December 4, 2015
2.5/5
"No way in hell he was going to let that happen to another soul, and it didn't matter how confused and lost that soul might be"
Fui con la idea de leer un/a cómic/novela gráfica, pero me encontré con una cosa totalmente distinta.
La idea de que este contado como un libro y que las ilustraciones acompañen, me gustó, es una gran idea. El problema fue que tiene casi 200 páginas y llegó a resultarme pesado y aburrido en partes.
El libro se divide en 3 partes:
La primera: me sorpendió y me gustó hasta ahí. Al terminarla sentí que me faltó mucho, osea, sentí que le sobraban páginas porque no me contó casi nada.
La segunda: fue la que más me gustó. Al principio me resultó pesada, pero después se puso más interesante y el final estuvo bastante bien.
La última: fue la que menos me gustó. Se me hizo muy, muy pesada.
Lo que más me gustó fue la relación que se desarrolla entre Elektra y Avery, pero todo lo demás fue un gran meh.
Sentí que tenía mucha acción, cosa que en forma de novela gráfica hubiera quedado muy bien, pero al ser contada, pierde un poco y bueno, como ya dije 21556454: resulta pesado de leer.
Resumiendo: la idea no está mal, pero la historia no me dejó nada cuando la terminé. Se me hizo larga y difícil de seguir.
"The anger was a physical pressure in his stomach, trying to climb out, and he could feel the rage expanding in his heart, like a trapped animal bouncing off the sides of its cage"
October 7, 2012
"It was a look Elektra had worn herself, a look born in another life, when she had seen her own father murdered. The memory and the emotion broke free so clean and so clear that for a moment she forgot everything else, where she was, why she was there. The girl staring at her, Elektra staring back, the dead man in the bed, and Elektra could smell the gunpowder and her father's blood as if it were yesterday."
May 18, 2014
I was surprised at the overall artfull nature of this Marvel mashup. Succinct story and believable characters. Wolvie as you know him, Elektra as you probably don't, and two additional women who are fairly well-rounded. I enjoyed the little touches -such as alternating page color and the cliffhangers. Strongest, I think, was the writer's interpretation of Logan's inner life. The illustrations were all over the place, some very startling and compelling, some messy and hard to make out.
May 19, 2008
Pretty good for an illustrated novella, only there is just as much eloquence as you'd expect from so short a story. Would have been interesting to read the same thing drawn out a bit. Amano's artwork was truly beautiful as always, but really doesn't compare to most of his other illustrations that I've seen before. Tales of the Genji would blow this out of the water, but it was pleasant enough.
July 28, 2007
I was rather disappointed with this offering. The artwork could have been one for the ages, but it took a backseat to short-story style of narrative. In other words, too verbose. These 2 characters deserved a more exciting mini-series.
May 31, 2010
The art is absolutely gorgeous. Worth checking out from the library just to look at. Storyline is more like a detective/asassin/bodyguard thing with a mystery than what you'd expect of the title characters. stand alone. lots of character introspection.i might even buy it!
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January 29, 2022The slashing katana of Rucka's narrative voice matches the subject matter perfectly. The exquisite beauty of the art is the perfect counter-point, melding savagery with artistry in a true homage to both protagonists.
April 22, 2009
This gets 4 stars for the art and 2 stars for the writing.
August 12, 2015
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
October 17, 2015
Honestly this reminded me of subpar fan fiction.
April 28, 2016
Very different unusual marvel creation here. The art was good but very different. And the story was all around OK
April 5, 2017
Liked the story more than the art. I prefer graphic novels with more realistic art.
July 18, 2013
Beautiful, beautiful artwork. Story is action-packed. Lovely to read.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews