Review by Ian Keogh

A delicate balance of power among territorial gangsters was shattered when Tombstone was shot at his daughter’s wedding (see Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War). It’s led to a scramble to expand operations among other New York ganglords, and in Hell’s Kitchen that’s the Heat, an organisation of former police officers.

Gang War is set while Elektra is acting as Daredevil and keeping a promise made to Matt Murdock not to kill, which impedes her normal manner of operations. She’s aware the Heat must have some form of backing, and her mission is to discover who that is.

Erica Schulz writes a relatively straightforward action thriller, with Elektra heading from place to place, yet always on the back foot, at first because the Heat are protected by a mysterious new character skilled enough to sneak up on Elektra and battle her to a standstill. That’s not her only surprise. Schulz provides a convincing internal voice for Elektra as she goes about her business, and justifies why she works better alone than alongside other superheroes dealing with the gang problem. She keeps in contact, though.

While Schulz handles her end with efficiency, what lifts Daredevil: Gang War to the best of the tie-ins is the astonishingly good art of Sergio Dávila. He brings poise, athleticism and grace to dynamic martial arts combat, and those poses are to die for.

When the identity of the mysterious masked woman is revealed, there’s an unsubtle info-dump, the comparison Schulz tries to draw is never really convincing, and the emotional buttons are never adequately pushed. On the other hand even these days it’s rare you get four chapters of a superhero graphic novel drawn this well.