What If... Elektra Had Lived?

Or more properly, What if Bullseye Had Not Killed Elektra? This is a Frank Miller story, cuz goddamn, he's the only one who can even touch Elektra. So it's a noir piece, with the Watcher lurking in the shadows with an umbrella, Deep Throating the whole story to Matt Murdock just so he can feel even shittier than he already does. A rare occurrence of a Marvel character learning about an alternate timelime.

What If Vol.1 #35 (October 1982)
Based on: Daredevil #181-182
The true history: Bullseye escapes from prison and kills Elektra.
Turning point: What if Bullseye got shot escaping prison?
Story type: Happily ever after
Watcher's mood: Noir
Altered history: Looking back at the original story, there definitely is a moment when a guard with a rifle says something akin to "drop it" and gets butchered before he gets a shot off. Not so this universe, which has potentially the same guard shooting first and asking questions later. Nice self-homage to Frank Miller's similar splash page pulled from Bullseye's imagination:
Meanwhile, Elektra's accepted a contract to kill Foggy Nelson for the Kingpin. Out of love for Matt, she lets Foggy live, and that's when that psycho Bullseye comes out of the woodwork and kills her for fun and to torture Daredevil. With him out of the way, it's the Kingpin who wants Elektra dead for having betrayed him. He sends a bunch of lamer assassins to kill her.
She hands them their asses, but is wounded, so shows up on Matt Murdock's doorstep. He thinks about bringing her in and then... chooses otherwise. Suddenly, the brownstone is on sale, and the two of them are living it large on the Mediterranean, free from care.
Of course, this is Frank Miller's world, so it probably won't last. Elektra's past will come back to haunt her. Bad stuff will happen in New York City and Matt will be drawn back there. Bound to happen, but for a while at least, Matt Murdock knew happiness. Awwwww.
Books canceled as a result: This would certainly put Daredevil on hiatus, or more probably, just feature him in international adventures at Elektra's side.
These things happen: Through some amazing plot convolutions, Elektra was eventually resurrected and worked with SHIELD wearing a white version of her costume. At some point, she's replaced by a Skrull, but the real Elektra is returned to Earth in the end. She had something to do in Dark Reign, but now we're talking about comics I actively ignored.

BONUS ALTERNATE TAKE
Next week: What if Yellowjacket Had Died?
My guess: Wait... is that a Skrull that died? Or actually Hank Pym? I'm confused.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Also, Murdock was engaged to Heather Glenn at this time, but he often forget about her. So did Frank Miller, aparently.


Roger
just checking in on your blog today and it prompted me to wonder if you had done a What If about Elektra which i see you did. i used to have this is as well as the actual Daredevil issue in which Elektra was killed by Bullseye. it was some of Frank Miller's best writing ever. you really felt the emotions of the character's as you flip from page to page like the growing anxiety when Elektra went from holding her own against Bullseye to . . .well you know. so when i read the What If issue it made me feel a little bit better. good job, i can't believe only one other person commented on this posting.
MOCK! said…
So I'm too lazy to help my wife clean the house and rearrange furniture to bring in a Christmas tree. Instead I'm reading your old What If and Doctor Who posts. I find no reference to the humor issue. I understand it doesn't fit the way you wrote these posts but did you explain why you skipped it entirely?
Siskoid said…
I don't remember if I explained it, but it just wasn't doable in the format and that's about it. I've done some of the longer humor pieces from other issues (like Spider-Man/Man-Spider), but the humor issues does 2-5 silly What Ifs a page, and I would have gotten bogged down for a year giving each one its due.
MOCK! said…
That was my suspicion...Thanks for responding!