Elektra

Introduction

According to Marvel Comics, Elektra is the world's most lethal woman and one of Marvel's most cold-blooded characters. She has killed more men than just about any other Marvel character, apart from the Punisher, while remaining one of the most popular heroines in the Marvel Universe.

Family and early life

Elektra was born on the Greek island of Crete in the Aegean Sea to Hugo Kostas Natchios and his wife Christina Natchios. She had an older brother named Orestez Natchios. (In Greek language the name should be Oρέστης - i.e. Orestes with Latin alphabet).

Two contradictory accounts of her family history have been given in various issues. In Elektra: Root of Evil #1-4 (March - June, 1995), it is stated that her father was an aspiring diplomat who eventually managed to gain his first assignment as an ambassador to an unspecified country. However, Hugo and his wife had grown apart. Christina had begun a series of extramarital affairs with no apparent interest in keeping them secret, resulting in personal humiliation for her husband. Popular opinion in diplomatic circles stated that a man unable to control his wife had no business deciding on the fate of the world. When Christina became pregnant for a second time, Hugo was certain the child was not his own.

Hugo confided to his adolescent son that his mother was a whore who was shaming their family. Orestez promised his father that Christina would never again shame them. Hugo failed to understand the meaning of these words. On August 13 of that year, the couple was on holiday in the Aegean Sea. They were located by a helicopter which opened fire on them both. The assassins left them for dead. The couple was taken to a nearby hospital. Christina gave premature birth to Elektra and then died. Hugo recovered from his wounds.

Orestez had hired the assassins in order to indirectly commit matricide. He was horrified by the idea of unintentional patricide and ran away from home. Hugo was the only family left to Elektra. At first, Hugo had no intention to raise this "bastard" child. However, a paternity test confirmed the child to be his own. Hugo was not sorry for losing Christina. He was grateful, however, for her giving him a daughter. He arranged for a beautiful headstone to be placed on her grave. Images of the Erinyes on the headstone implied however that Christina was responsible for her own death.

Hugo grew to adore Elektra. He nicknamed her his "Little Amber" and showered her with gifts. Her favorite gift was a pet dog of her own, named Agamemnon, continuing the pattern of Hugo naming members of his family after the Atreidae. The dog was killed when a nine-year-old Elektra was assaulted by kidnappers. The men were all killed by Orestez, who had grown into an accomplished martial artist after leaving home. He did not explain his presence there. He briefly acquainted himself to his little sister and then left again.

But Orestez had a lasting effect in her life. He advised his father that Elektra needed to learn self-defense. Hugo hired a sensei to teach her the martial arts, beginning her acquaintance with fighting. According to the Daredevil film, Elektra's father hired a new sensei every year, to ensure her skills in the martial arts. The issues were scripted by Dan Chichester and drawn by Scott McDaniel.

Activities as an adult

Hugo Natchios is known to have eventually served as a Greek ambassador to the United States. 19-year-old Elektra first attended Columbia University, New York City, New York. There Elektra met Matt Murdock, the man who would become Daredevil, who became her boyfriend.

A year later, 20-year-old Elektra and her father were kidnapped by terrorists. Matt wore a mask for the first time and started a rescue attempt. Elektra used the distraction to strike down some of the terrorists. However, one of the defeated men fell out of a window. The police assumed the terrorists had started throwing their hostages off the window. They opened fire and killed the man closest to the window: Hugo Natchios, right in front of his daughter's eyes.

Elektra lost faith and hope. She quit Columbia and returned to the study of martial arts. Stick, a member of the benevolent organization called the Chaste, recognized the darkness in her soul and attempted to train her himself, but she ultimately sided with the Hand, a sect of mystical ninja, who trained her as an assassin. She later broke away from them and became an independent agent, and in this role she again encountered Matt Murdock, who was now active as Daredevil. She battled Daredevil in order to force him to help her capture the criminal Alarich Wallenquist, and Daredevil saved her from being killed by Eric Slaughter.^[2] She soon learned of his double identity, and although the pair worked together to fight the Hand, they also came into conflict frequently.

Elektra later first battled the Hand alongside Daredevil and Gladiator.^[3] She then battled Kirigi.^[4] She soon became the chief assassin in the employ of New York City's premier crime-lord, the Kingpin.^[5] She attempted to kill Daredevil after he tried to stop her from terrorizing Ben Urich.^[6] The Kingpin then assigned her to kill Matt Murdock's partner, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. When Nelson recognized Elektra as Matt's college girlfriend, she was unable to kill him.

Some time after her partnership with Wolverine ended, it was revealed that when Elektra was resurrected by Stone, Elektra's evil aspect had been physically split apart from her in its own body as a consequence of the ritual performed by Daredevil. Her darker half, calling itself Erynys, fought Elektra and was killed by her, thus returning the dark side to Elektra's soul.