Review by Ian Keogh
W. Haden Blackman opens Bloodlines with Elektra at a crossroads, considering much of her previous life as being subservient to others in one form or another, and now wanting a change that removes her from New York. The solution is locating an assassin named Cape Crow whose killing days predate Elektra’s birth, but who now has a contract on his own head with several people looking for him. Elektra’s task, though, is to bring him in alive. To make matters more difficult, he’s been tracked to Monster Island. This may not seem like Elektra’s comfort zone, but Blackman’s been upfront about a need for change.
Equivalent artistic ambition hasn’t been seen on Elektra since Bill Sienkiewicz drew her in the 1980s. Under Mike Del Mundo she sweeps across painted spreads seen multiple times in assorted situations reflecting the captions, as does the unsavoury cannibal Bloody Lips, Del Mundo switching from muted colours to bright with the occasional pen and ink (or digital equivalent thereof) interruption. Some pages are a standard six rectangular panels, but others will be slashes broadening toward the edge of the page or a selection of bubbles. All new character designs are memorable, a lesson in visual imagination knocking even better Marvel artists into the shadows.
Monster Island is just a starting location as Bloodlines reads for some while as if there’s been a consultation regarding what Del Mundo’s happiest drawing. There’s no need for a page of undersea predators, but it looks fantastic. On the other hand, although everything reads well, until we hit the fourth chapter there’s no need for Elektra either. It could be Black Widow or Mockingbird, or perhaps Batwoman, who Blackman wrote in a similar self-questioning way, but the fourth chapter pulls us back to the thoughts Elektra was having right at the start. It’s cleverly written as a shared experience with Bloody Lips as a brief, but memorable horrific connection.
Elektra’s musings spur a light plot heavy on action and it seems likely it’s going to be dragged into Reverence, but there is a payoff featuring a good twist. It leaves Elektra with some unfinished business and with a target on her back.
