Review by Ian Keogh
Events that began with Elektra’s desire to be somewhere other than New York took her far and wide to previously unimaginable places over the course of Bloodlines. It ended with her accompanied by three others that she’s promised to keep safe, but as the opening pages of Reverence show over Alex Sanchez’s spread, that’s just led to battles with mercenaries across the world. It’s followed up with more, against the Serpent Society and Lady Bullseye.
Over the opening chapter W. Haden Blackman adds considerable logic where over previous Marvel appearances for some characters there had been none. The Assassin’s Guild, for instance is a full service organisation providing pick-up, medical treatments, transportation and power upgrades, while the way Elektra fights against the Serpent Society is new tactics to them.
Sanchez is an excellent artist, but his work takes time, and by two-thirds of the way through his two chapters it was obviously running short. Backgrounds disappear, the layouts become basic, and close-ups predominate, while his final couple of pages were really produced in some rush and fail to meet basic standards. Still, it’s not every artist who could step in for Mike Del Mundo and not let themselves down for most of the gig.
After the initial battles Elektra determines her best course of action is to take the battle to the Assassin’s Guild, and Del Mundo and his distinctive pastel-basted digital artwork is back for the remainder of the book. As in Bloodlines, he creates stunningly designed representational spreads, and rather than sticking to the single style will switch into something different if it suits the plot. Telepaths feature, and Del Mundo’s version of the minds of others is jaw-dropping.
Allowing for cliffhanger chapter endings and the occasional surprise, Blackman’s plot is pretty straightforward, but has continuing momentum as Elektra battles here and Elektra battles there. The different locations and foes are varied enough, and surely every reader familiar with Elektra’s history will know what the final chapter provides. We’ve seen it before, and Blackman and Del Mundo know that and know they have to pull out all the stops. They do. It’s great.
It’s been a long while since any Elektra title looked as good as these two volumes, but that’s not to diminish Blackman’s achievement. He supplies all the right staging points, picks credible enemies and was presumably as astounded as readers when the art was delivered.
