Elektra Natchios (Earth-616)

Elektra once defined herself by the men in her life: She was the daughter of a powerful Greek diplomat and the girlfriend of blind American law student Matt Murdock. Her father's assassination, however, left her emotionally shattered, and she withdrew from the world. Her choice led her to Japan, where she attempted to penetrate the secret fraternity of martial artists known as the Chaste. Befriended by the organization's leader, Stick, Elektra honed her fighting skills. However, Stick saw that her hatred of the world was all-consuming and ultimately asked her to leave the Chaste.^{[citation needed]}

Determined to prove herself to her mentor, she infiltrated the rival organization known as The Hand. Wise to her plan, the Hand instead tricked Elektra into killing the sensei with whom she had studied before Stick. Elektra continued to serve the Hand thereafter, becoming corrupted by their ways. Eventually, she rebelled against her handlers and fled Japan.^{[citation needed]}

Early Years

File:Elektra 20.jpg

Elektra

Elektra's mother's character has conflicting versions. In one version, during the birth of Elektra, it was revealed that her mother was gunned down by enemies of her father while vacationing on a yacht. However, Stavros revealed that her mother was shot by a hostage taker when she tried to help. Her mother was shown to be a tramp while another says that she was a brave and honorable woman. As she grew up, her father required that she train in the martial arts where she excelled. She was then required to go to law school where she met and had a serious relationship with Matt. However, after her father was gunned down by assassins, she went to the Mountain of the Chaste to train from them. But she was later dismissed by Stick for bearing too much emotion over the death of her father. ^{[citation needed]}

Elektra thought she could gain the favor of the Chaste if she was to destroy their enemy, the Hand. She joined their order in order to destroy them from within but she ended up killing her former Sensei.^{[citation needed]}

For years, Elektra worked as a bounty hunter and assassin for hire. Having undertaken a contract in New York City, she crossed paths with the blind adventurer Daredevil, whom she learned to be Matt Murdock, her former lover and a former student of Stick. Daredevil disapproved of Elektra's chosen profession, but the two still cared deeply for one another. Together, they fought the Hand, until the Kingpin, the most powerful figure in East Coast organized crime, hired Elektra as his chief assassin. In that role, Elektra clashed repeatedly with Daredevil. Finally, she was contracted to kill his best friend and law partner, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. When Foggy recognized her, Elektra realized she could not carry out the contract and spared his life.^{[citation needed]}

Soon after, the psychotic criminal Bullseye determined that the only way to regain his status as the Kingpin's chief assassin was to kill Elektra. Bullseye impaled Elektra on her own sai, and she died in Matt's arms. Unwilling to part with one of its most talented operatives, the Hand attempted to resurrect Elektra and place her fully under their control through a magic ritual. Stone, a member of Stick's order, completed the process, bringing Elektra back to life after Daredevil had purified her spirit through sheer force of will. Now purged of the Hand's corruption, Elektra left Matt's side, determined to find her own place in the world.^{[citation needed]}

Elektra Assassin

Elektra Lives Again

After Elektra's death and later disappearance of her body, Matt Murdock has been hallucinating about Elektra but it turns out that Elektra is real and alive. Since the Hand is having difficulty finding Elektra, they decided to recruit Bullseye who was currently imprisoned.^{[citation needed]}

The Hand, in recruiting Bullseye, killed him in order to revivify him but under the control of the Hand. They were able to kill him but Elektra interfered and prevented Bullseye's resurrection. ^{[citation needed]}

Fall From Grace

At one time, it appears that Elektra has joined the Chaste in their mountain. The Snakeroot, a part of the Hand, used John Garrett to get Elektra's essence because John has merged minds with Elektra. The Snakeroot took Elektra's essence from John and placed it in a corpse of which they name Erynys. Erynys was tasked to get the About Face Virus for the Snakeroot in order that the merger of the corpse and Elektra's essence can become permanent. Stone goes to help Daredevil find the About Face virus but Erynys was able to stab Stone from behind preventing him from using his invulnerability against known threats. But before Erynys could end it, Elektra arrives forcing Erynys and John Garrett to flee. Upon finding the virus, the Snakeroot arrives to take it. Daredevil and Elektra fought to prevent the virus from being used by the Snakeroot. The Daredevil Hellspawn joined in since it is also interested in the virus. ^{[citation needed]}

During the battle, Daredevil decided to use the virus on Hellspawn. As the Hellspawn transforms into a real person, Erynys, angry at the loss of the virus, stabbed the Hellspawn as he comes to life, killing him. Erynys then seek to complete her life by killing the original, Elektra. During the battle, as Erynys chokes Elektra from behind, she asks Daredevil to kill Elektra so that she could be his lover again. Daredevil, thinking Elektra will find a way, threw her two sais at her. Immediately, Elektra using her skills, was able to reverse their position. However, the sais pierced Erynys body and into Elektra's shoulders. The evil essence that is Elektra returned to her.^{[citation needed]}

Root of Evil

...^{[citation needed]}

Solo Adventures

Elektra asked King Lau and Mac to help her open a Dojo. But because her trust fund is running low, she decided to join a modern dance company owned by Konrad, whom she helped earlier from some ninja gangsta, to earn some money.^{[citation needed]}

At this time, the Architect was calling all super-villains to meet in New York for a competition. All for the purpose to have Elektra kill him so that he can be reborn in a new host body. With the help of Dr. Strange, the Architect was killed but his essence was trapped in the body of demon and caged by Strange.^{[citation needed]}

Elektra also fought several characters including the Four Winds, the American Samurai. ^{[citation needed]}

The Hand, under Gorgon, attacked both Wolverine and Elektra, placing them in their service. Elektra assumed control of the Hand. ^{[citation needed]}

Secret Invasion

Elektra was replaced by a Skrull who took over The Hand, the goal of which was to attract the attention of the "heroes" and provoke them into discovering the Skrull infiltration. ^{[citation needed]}

After the invasion was stopped, Elektra emerged from a downed Skrull ship with other people who had been abducted and replaced, and was taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. protective custody. However, S.H.I.E.L.D. was replaced by H.A.M.M.E.R., and she was not dealt with well in custody. She initiated a break out when Paladin attempted to collect an $82 million dollar bounty on her head, and she was able to defeat him and escape.^[1]

Shadowland

She joined Heroes for Hire and during Daredevil's reign over Hell's Kitchen, Elektra tried to infiltrate in Shadowland and helped the heroes to prevent Bullseye's resurrection.^{[citation needed]}

Attributes

Power Grid^[5]

Powers

Mind Switch: Elektra's strangest gift is her ability to "throw" her mind into those of others. For instance, she was able to track down her enemy, Ken Wind, by temporarily "borrowing" people's minds and acting through them while she hunted around for her prey.^[1]

Discern Target: This temporary mind control enables her to literally sniff out the psyche, or intent, of her targets. It saw extensive use during Elektra: Assassin, in which she was heavily reliant on only her ninja powers. It is unknown how long the effect lasts, but Elektra has gone a full two days or more in another person's mind while they zoned out in hers.^{[citation needed]}

Discern Location: This "mind jump" ability might explain why Elektra is always a step ahead of her competition, or seems to know where her target is at all times. An extreme example would be the time she murdered an ambassador in South America. The man was sitting against the wall when Elektra sought out his mind and trusted her katana to enter his heart in the perfect spot. Unerringly, it did: the sword pierced through thick walling and the politician was slain where he sat. The unusual addition of her telepathic skills make Elektra an accomplished assassin to say the least.^{[citation needed]}

Telekinesis: Elektra has demonstrated telekinetic abilities.^{[citation needed]}

Telepathic Communication: She can communicate telepathically with individuals possessing similar levels of mental discipline, such as the Chaste.

Precognition: She can have some precognitive visions, and see glimpses of future events.^{[citation needed]}

Mind Shield: Elektra has demonstrated an ability to remain hidden and undetected by other telepaths. By using a telepathic technique that she learned during her time with the Hand, Elektra can create a mental shield around her mind keeping herself hidden from not only other psychics but mind locating machines like Cerebro.^{[citation needed]}

Silent Scream: A high powered Chi based scream originally used by Shang-Chi, By focusing on her Chi and puckering her lips together Elektra can use this technique to perform a high pitched scream that can render a person permanently deaf, and/or by furthering focusing on one target can kill.^{[citation needed]}

Abilities

Assassins Instinct: Nick Fury can attest to the usage of this eerie mind control in person. In the 90's, he conducted scientific experiments on the captured assassin and found strange morphology in her brain that explained her phenomenal reflexes, yet sane rationale. Elektra moves with heightened primal instincts but the more evolved parts of her brain remain intact, preserving her intelligence. In other words, she thinks like a woman and strikes like a cobra.^{[citation needed]}

Master Martial Artist: Elektra is proficient in many martial arts originating from China, Siam (Thailand) and Japan. While many of them are unstated, Ninjutsu is the most noticeable one. ^{[citation needed]}

Weapons Master: She is a master of many different weapons. Among the known are Okinawan Sai which are her usual weapons of choice (it is presumed she may have trained with all Okinawan Kobudo weapons), katanas, knives, sansetsukon (3-sectional staff), and (shuriken) throwing stars.^{[citation needed]}

Peak Human Physical Conditioning: Elektra is an Olympic-level athlete and gymnast.^{[citation needed]}

Stealth: Due to her ninja training, she can blend in with the shadows and remain undetected by most humans.^{[citation needed]}

Skilled Acrobat: She is an excellent acrobat capable of many difficult feats.^{[citation needed]}

Expert Marksman: Elektra is skilled with throwing weapons and sharpshooting.

Nervous System Control: She can control her nervous system enabling her to deaden her body to physical pain, control her emotions, and even her bleeding rate.^{[citation needed]}

Pressure point locator: She can locate different pressure points on a person's body. She can incapacitate, paralyze, severely injure, or kill a person.^{[citation needed]}

Weaknesses

Psychic Feedback: It is unclear what the limitations on her psychic ability are. She may be limited by touching distance or to minds easily affected by persuasion; the last time Elektra tried this trick, it was with S.H.I.E.L.D.^{[citation needed]} Elektra was not born with this interesting gift: she mastered it through training and refinement with The Hand. Their fighters share similar powers, which means each of them -- including Elektra -- are mentally linked to The Beast, the relentless demigod of The Hand who has haunted her since she broke rank.^{[citation needed]}

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Elektra’s primary weapons are her twin sais, long daggers with narrow blades and twin blade guards. She can use them to slash, stab, and throw. Her Sai are protected with synaptic snare with bio-metric locks keyed to her nervous system that will deliver a shock that paralyzes any other person who touches it for sixty seconds, to ensure nobody can use them against her again.^[2]

She is also proficient with the katana, sansetsukon (three-sectioned staff), and other martial arts weapons.^{[citation needed]}

Notes

When she escaped from her cell, Elektra was considered an Omega Level threat to the Helicarrier by H.A.M.M.E.R. agent Commander Brothers.^[3]

Links and References

Marvel Directory

References

Template:The Daredevil

[Dark_Reign_Elektra_#1-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Dark Reign: Elektra #1

[Elektra_Vol_3_5-2] Elektra (Vol. 3) #5

[Dark_Reign_Elektra_#2-3] Dark Reign: Elektra #2

[4] Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3

[5] Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Daredevil 2004 Vol 1 1

[4]

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