Elektra Natchios (Earth-616)

Early Years[]

Elektra Natchios was born on a Greek island near the Aegean Sea to Hugo Kostas Natchios and his wife Christina Natchios.^[18] Elektra's mother was gunned down while vacationing on a yacht. After her mother's death, Elektra grew up close to her father but was plagued by visions and voices with no known source. She reacted to them through self-harm. Her father eventually sent her away for psychotherapy. As she grew up, her father insisted that she train in martial arts.^[19]

She was 10 when she started training, and, at the time, her sensei mocked her, saying she was just a "little rich girl wasting daddy's money". Two years later, however, she had far exceeded his expectations and he had nothing else to teach her, so he told her about the Chaste, a group of warriors led by the mysterious Stick who studied and trained to master the art of combat.^[20] She managed to find Stick and become his pupil, but he deemed her too angry and abandoned her. Nonetheless, she kept training and caught the attention of The Hand, more specifically a young woman named Aka. Unlike Stick, Aka listened to Elektra and pretended to care for her, thus gaining her loyalty.^[21]

Matt Murdock[]

Elektra's father was later appointed Greek ambassador to the United States, and Elektra moved with him across the Atlantic, where she started attending Columbia University, the same university as the young Matt Murdock.^[1] Aka asked that she tried to soften Matt up to bring him into The Hand,^[21] so, one night, she let herself be seen while he was leaping across rooftops, and provoked him to follow her. She kept dropping articles of clothing as a trail to tease him, but didn't let herself get caught. In the end, Matt was accidentally detained by the police, much to Elektra's amusement, but when they realized he was blind they let him go. The next day, Elektra and Matt went on a reckless car drive and Matt enjoyed every minute. They traveled to a cliff and stood at the edge, where she told Matt they were two of a kind, different from everyone else. They lived on the brink, drawn to the edge, and sometimes over.^[22] She then jumped from the cliff and crashed through an ice sheet and into the water. He leaped to her rescue but could not find her in the water. As he emerged, he realized Elektra was fine and laughing as she sped away in her car. She and Matt started training together, falling more and more in love. One night, Stick woke Matt up and told Matt to stay away from Elektra, telling him that she was dangerous, but Matt did not listen to his old mentor.^[23]

Sometime later, Elektra and her father were held hostage, and a masked Matt burst into the building hoping to help them. Matt managed to save Elektra, but accidentally kicked one of the terrorists through the window and one of the policemen outside started shooting, afraid they were killing hostages. To Elektra and Matt's terror, they shot her father instead.^[1]

Tying loose ends[]

After her father's death, Elektra abandoned all her plans, deciding to leave Matt and the United States, but before moving on completely, she tracked down the man responsible for the assault. She followed him to a church and confronted him. At gunpoint, he then revealed he had hired the terrorists for someone else, however Elektra didn't care. As she prepared to end his life, she was attacked by his bodyguard. During the battle that ensued, Elektra took his eye out, stunning him long enough to complete the job against his boss. The bodyguard then retaliated, but Elektra was saved by a sai hurled from the shadows. As she looked to see who her savior was, she encountered only Stick and assumed Matt had sent him to watch over her. Impressed by the weapon, Elektra left with it and decided to adopt it in the future. Little did she know, the sai actually belonged to an agent of The Hand.^[24]

Eventually, Elektra sought the Chaste once more, but was again turned away by Stick. Determined to prove herself, she rejoined the Hand, their rival organization, whom she served loyally, growing colder and becoming even more corrupted by their ways.^[25][26]

Daredevil[]

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.^[1] They teamed up to fight Bullseye who was losing his mind due to a tumor.^[27] Daredevil disapproved of Elektra's chosen profession, but the two still cared deeply for one another. Together, they fought the Hand.^[28] Daredevil was without his radar sense and teamed up with Elektra against the Hand and their master assassin, Kirigi.^[29] They tried to hunt down Stick, which led to Elektra's final confrontation with Kirigi.^[30]

The relationship with Matt changed when Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, hired Elektra as his chief assassin.^[31] She was sent to kill Ben Urich and came into conflict with Matt.^[32] Matt stopped her and thwarted the Kingpin's plans. In retaliation, Kingpin ordered her to kill Matt's best friend and law partner, Foggy Nelson. When Foggy recognized her, Elektra realized she could not carry out the contract and spared his life.^[33]

Death and Resurrection[]

Soon after, 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.^[14]

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.^[15]

Fall From Grace[]

Alive and pure once more, Elektra joined the Chaste in their mountain.^[15] Later, the Snakeroot clan, part of the Hand, used S.H.I.E.L.D. agent John Garrett to get Elektra's essence, since John had merged minds with Elektra. The Snakeroot took Elektra's essence from John and placed it in a corpse, naming it Erynys.^[34] Erynys was tasked to get the About Face Virus for the Snakeroot so that the merger of the corpse and Elektra's essence would become permanent. Stone went to help Daredevil find the About Face virus but Erynys stabbed Stone from behind preventing him from using his invulnerability against known threats. Elektra arrived and forced Erynys and John Garrett to flee. Upon finding the virus, the Snakeroot arrived to take it. Daredevil, Elektra, and the Daredevil Hellspawn fought to prevent the virus from being used by the Snakeroot.^[35]

During the battle, Daredevil decided to use the virus on Hellspawn. As the Hellspawn transformed into a real person, Erynys, angry at the loss of the virus, stabbed the Hellspawn as he came to life, killing him. Erynys then sought to complete her life by killing the original Elektra.^[36] During the battle, as Erynys choked Elektra from behind, she asked 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, using her skills, Elektra was able to reverse their position. However, the sais pierced Erynys body and Elektra's shoulders. The evil essence that was Erynys returned to Elektra.^[37]

Root of Evil[]

Seeking a focus for her life, Elektra recruited her own order of fighters and mercenaries called the Ryu to oppose the Snakeroot. She proved to be a poor leader, however, and the entire Ryu was killed trying to prevent the Snakeroot from assassinating a set of pure souls. Elektra ultimately completed the destruction of the Snakeroot and the protection of the last soul alone.^[38]

Solo Adventures[]

When Wolverine was driven into animal madness by his mutation, Stick asked Elektra to help him find his humanity once again. She worked with Logan for several weeks to help restore his sense of self.^[39]

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 a ninja gangster, to earn some money.^[9]

At this time, the Architect was calling all super-villains to meet in New York City for a competition 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 a demon and caged by Strange.^[40]

She continued her freelance association with S.H.I.E.L.D.^[41] Hydra teamed up with the Hand to kill and resurrect various heroes as their only personal army, this included Wolverine. He soon became their deadliest assassin.^[42] Nick Fury brought in Elektra paying her over $200,000.^[43] She worked to stop Logan from killing others. Elektra herself was killed by Gorgon and resurrected as a Hand warrior.^[16] Elektra, Northstar and other resurrected heroes attacked the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Black Hawk. Logan eventually came to his senses and wanted revenge.^[44]

Replaced[]

After fighting off Super-Skrulls such as Siri, Elektra was replaced by the Skrull agent Pagon,^[45] who took over The Hand, to attract the attention of the heroes and provoke them into discovering the Skrulls' infiltration to sow fear and doubt.^[46][45]

Return[]

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 breakout when Paladin attempted to collect an 82 million dollar bounty on her head, and she was able to defeat him and escape.^[47] After taking down several H.A.M.M.E.R. operatives she managed to reach Matt Murdock's office to raid his stash of first aid supplies. After being confronted by Foggy Nelson, she collapsed from extensive blood loss due to her injuries.^[48]

Domino witnessed Red Hulk transform but survived his attack. General Thaddeus Ross and Doc Samson used a list of superhumans to track down and kill Domino. The list included Deadpool, Punisher, Thundra, Crimson Dynamo, and Elektra forming Code Red. Elektra confirmed Domino's location, a small bar in Hell's Kitchen. However, Domino had help from X-Force.^[49]

Heroes for Hire[]

Elektra was recruited into the Heroes for Hire and helped them take on Daredevil during his reign over Hell's Kitchen.^[50] She was sent to infiltrate Shadowland^[26] but eventually helped the team prevent Bullseye's resurrection.^[51]

She continued with the Heroes for Hire and battled the Puppet Master who was controlling the minds of the citizens of New York^[52] which lead to a confrontation with the Purple Man at the Raft.^[53]

Elektra and the team battled Spider-Mutated New Yorkers during Spider-Island.^[54]

Thunderbolts[]

She joined the Red Hulk's Thunderbolts strike-team along with Deadpool, the Punisher, and Agent Venom.^[55] The team was gathered to fight an infection that "cannot be cured, it has to be cut out," to be ready to do bad things for a good purpose.^[56]

The Red Leader manipulated the Punisher into hunting down his teammates. When they found out the truth, they arrested him with the help of Hawkeye and the Avengers. Ross disbanded the team and they went their separate ways.^[57]

Pleasant Hill[]

At some point, Elektra was arrested and incarcerated at Pleasant Hill, where her mind and appearance were altered by the sentient Cosmic Cube known as Kobik to turn her into a regular citizen of the village, giving her the identity of Pleasant Hill's Sheriff Eva. While in Pleasant Hill, Elektra fell in love with another inmate, the Absorbing Man, who had been turned into an ice cream vendor named Harold.

When Baron Zemo assaulted the small town, its inhabitants recovered their original appearances and memories. Infuriated by having his life rewritten, Absorbing Man began to wreak havoc together with fellow inmate Whirlwind. Elektra confronted them and convinced Creel to spare innocent lives.^[58]

S.H.I.E.L.D.[]

Some point after escaping from Pleasant Hill, Elektra applied to rejoin S.H.I.E.L.D. in an attempt to cleanse her conscience for the deaths she caused when she crashed the Black Hawk.^[59]

Her first assignment consisted of taking the reins of former agent Phil Coulson's team.^[60] In addition to being tasked with bringing Coulson in for trying to interfere with Captain Marvel's plans to use the Inhuman profiler Ulysses Cain for predictive justice, Elektra's inclusion helped S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill uncover a mole on Coulson's team, who turned out to be Leo Fitz. She had also reinstated Grant Ward as an asset, but she required him to wear an explosive collar with the detonator in her hands.^[59]

Fitz was actually working with Coulson. They were joined by Quake in preventing one of Ulysses' visions, Graymalkin detonating a device in a train. When they arrived, they realized that something was wrong. Elektra had set it up as a trap. She was able to arrest Coulson but Fitz and Quake were able to escape.^[59] When Jemma Simmons woke up as a Deathlok, she was restricted by Elektra. Simmons easily neutralized her.^[61]

Keeping tabs with the Hand[]

Elektra eventually resigned from S.H.I.E.L.D. While in Japan, she got a call from Deadpool asking for help with the Hand. She assisted him and the Avengers Unity Division in preventing the Hulk's resurrection. Through Doctor Voodoo's magic, one of the ninjas revealed the location of where the resurrection was being held but after being tricked with a decoy, they were too late to stop the ritual.^[62]

They fought a resurrected Hulk. They led him to a pentagram where Doctor Voodoo cleansed him. The Beast let Voodoo choose between his brother or Bruce. When he chose Bruce over his brother, the Beast warned that he "made a powerful enemy." When Synapse asked about the resurrected Daniel, Elektra offered to give him a merciful death. With that remark, Human Torch implied that Elektra join the Unity Division. She laughed it off and kissed him, then left.^[63]

Elektra was keeping an eye on the Fist, a terrorist organization that splintered off from the Hand, when she found out that Miguel O'Hara was involved. She attacked him while inside the plane. When she stabbed him, her sai broke. They both decided to talk it over. After learning the location of the Fist, Miguel and Roberta Mendez passed out due to Elektra drugging their drinks. When she was almost at the base, she was confronted by an armored Doctor Sonny Frisco. When Spider-Man (Miguel O'Hara) and Captain America (Roberta Mendez) caught up, they helped her defeat him. The base exploded.^[64]

Elektra interrogated Doctor Sonny Frisco, where they learned that he was brainwashed. After getting the information, the four of them went to Chicago. While inside a Parker Industries corporate jet, the Fist broadcast a message that Chicago would be their first target. Elektra, Captain America, and Spider-Man ran to try to prevent it but it was already too late.^[65] Once inside McCormick Place, Elektra engaged the one behind the curse, Medea. With the help of Cap and Spidey, Elektra killed her and broke the curse.^[66]

Always bet on Red[]

Running from her tumultuous past, Elektra attempted to lay low in Las Vegas, but after meeting Lauren, a bartender abused by her boyfriend, she donned a new suit and taught the people of the casino a lesson.^[67] Unbeknownst to her, she caught the attention of Arcade and soon found herself in the middle of one of his games.^[68]

There, she and some kidnapped celebrities were forced to play to the death against Screwball and her crew, but after watching all her teammates die, Elektra lost her temper and killed everyone, except Screwball, who fled the scene. Having impressed Arcade, he revealed the next level would be to rescue Lauren.^[69] Eventually, Elektra got the upper hand, stole Screwball's helmet, which controlled the whole game, and freed Lauren, but was soon surprised by an enraged Arcade in a mecha.^[70] She was clearly at a disadvantage and was being beaten hard, but Lauren grabbed the helmet and gave Elektra an upgrade, allowing her to beat Arcade.^[71]

A New Devil in Town[]

While continuing their incessant fight against the Hand, Elektra and Stick found a book that could help defeat them for good. When Elektra retrieved the artifact, however, she got caught in a series of traps that seriously injured her. Stick attended to her wounds and managed to revive her, inadvertently also making her remember Daredevil's identity,^[2] after having forgotten more than a year before.^[72] When she recovered, Stick had gotten the book translated and revealed to her that their suspicions were true: the Hand had an ancient counter called The Fist, and it required a King and a Queen, although only one of them could survive.^[2]

When Daredevil was arrested for murder, Elektra reached out to him to make him aware that she felt he was being selfish by allowing himself to be convicted. Daredevil didn't listen and accused her of using him to steal billions, reasoning that she was always the selfish one. Unbeknownst to him, however, Elektra had learned of his plan to have Tony Stark buy Hell's Kitchen at an auction, and outbid him in secret. After Tony called Matt to announce he had lost the bid, Matt reconsidered not fighting to get arrested, feeling that the neighborhood wouldn't be safe without him, but, in court, Elektra showed up and revealed that she'd won the auction and that he could trust her to keep everyone safe. Hearing her words, Daredevil plead guilty to the charge of second-degree manslaughter.^[73]

When he was incarcerated, Elektra paid him a visit and told him about The Fist. Daredevil remained silent until Elektra spoke of the need for a King and Queen, which led him to dismiss her. She insisted it was what he had always wanted, but Matt still didn't trust her and told her off, claiming she had to prove to him she was on the side of Light. Determined to show him she wasn't simply a murderer, Elektra became the new Daredevil in his absence.^[2]

As the devil, she protected Hell's Kitchen against multiple threats, including Knull's invasion,^[74] and the Bullseye clones.^[75] Once Matt was freed from prison, the two reunited and began protecting the city as Daredevil together.^[76]

After Fisk banned vigilantism from New York, several heroes, including the two Daredevils, joined hands to remove him from power once and for all.^[77] It wasn't an easy fight, and there were some casualties (among them, Matt's twin brother, Michael Murdock), but the heroes came out on top. When the dust settled, Matt and Elektra decided to focus on taking down the Hand.^[78]

Elektra was resurrected by the Hand giving her a connection to the demon known as the Beast. This process gave her various enhanced abilities.^[79]

• Assassins Instinct: Nick Fury can attest to the usage of this eerie mind control in person. In the 90s, 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.^[80]

• 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.^[47]
  • 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.^[79]
  • 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.^[79]
• Hypnosis: Elektra has demonstrated the ability to mesmerize others, and as such make them see illusions or other phenomena.^[81]
• Heightened Awareness: Demonstrated the ability to detect a threat to her well-being in the immediate vicinity before they commit the action.
• Telekinesis: Elektra has demonstrated telekinetic abilities.^[79]
• Telepathic Communication: She can communicate telepathically with individuals possessing similar levels of mental discipline, such as the Chaste.^[79]
• Precognition: She can have some precognitive visions, and see glimpses of future events.^[79]
• Telepathic Immunity: 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.^[79]
• 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.^[79]

• Master Martial Artist: Elektra is proficient in many martial arts originating from China, Thailand, and Japan. While many of them are unstated, Ninjutsu is the most noticeable one. She won trophies in aikido, kendo, and karate.^[23]
• Master Assassin: Elektra has mastered many techniques as an assassin. She was trained in the art of killing by Stick, Members of the Chaste, and The Hand.
• Peak Human Conditioning: Elektra is an Olympic-level athlete and gymnast. She had won the competition in both swimming and track from an early age.^[23]
• Enhanced Reflexes: Elektra has been shown capable of preventing Black Widow from shooting her at a close range. She did this by literally slicing through the bullet with her sai.^[82]
• Peak Human Strength: Elektra possesses peak human strength for a woman of her size.^[83] She has been shown to have enough strength to punch through human bodies^[84] and crush a man's jaw in her grip.^[85]
• 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.^[86]
• Master of Stealth: Due to her training as a ninja assassin, she can blend in with the shadows and remain undetected by most humans.^[85]
• Expert Acrobat: She is an excellent acrobat capable of many difficult feats.^[23]
• Expert Markswoman: Elektra is skilled with throwing weapons and sharpshooting.^[85]
• 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.^[85]
• Pressure Point Location: She can locate different pressure points on a person's body. She can incapacitate, paralyze, severely injure, or kill a person.^[85]
• Multilingual: In addition to Greek and English,^[87] Elektra also appears to be fluent in Spanish.^[88]

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.^[89] 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.^[19]

Daredevil's Suit

Elektra's Suit

Twin Sai: Elektra’s primary weapons are her twin sai, 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 biometric 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.^[86]

She is also proficient with the katana, sansetsukon (three-sectioned staff), and other martial arts weapons.^[86]

• Elektra's background in martial arts and her relationship with the Chaste and The Hand have been the subject of various retcons:
  • Originally, in Daredevil #190, it was said that Elektra began training after her father's death, deserting to The Hand after being expelled from the Chaste.
  • Then, in Elektra: Assassin #1, it was revealed she had actually already trained with the Chaste when she was only a child (with Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #2 showing clear evidence of her martial arts training during her retold first meeting with Matt).
  • By Elektra #4, Elektra was apparently never fully accepted into the Chaste, being expelled every time she tried to join the organization, eventually leading her to join The Hand.
  • But Elektra (Vol. 2) #-1 tried to retcon all of the changes to the original story, once again suggesting Elektra had no training prior to her father's death.
  • In Shadowland: Elektra #1, her past is mentioned, but no specific origin is mentioned.
  • However, Daredevil: Woman Without Fear #1 embraced the origin of Elektra Assassin #1, further revealing that she was not only trained by The Chaste as a child, but also by The Hand.
• 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.^[48]
• Elektra (Vol. 3) #16 provides a list of some of the people who Elektra had killed up to that point: Hans Lundin, Pablo Riveria, Helen Krawley, Mark Ellington, Carl Weber, Clark Weber, Roy Simard, Patrick Newell, Tanya Newell, Leo Manning, Kevin Holme, Oliver Callegas, Rafael Arbarca, Alex Stuhr, Scott Nye, Don Watros, Meng Yao, Candy Redman, Chu Paik, Andrew Newheart, Jose Lopez, Krista Lupadi, Keith Louza, Harlan Vanhorn, Koorosh Zaerpoor, Shigeru Yuzuriha, Paul Naylor, Ryan Weatherford, Eugeni Naydenov, Amy Gillette, John Cvetko, Stephen Bechter, Jas Neiger, and Derek Ranta.
  • Three issues later in Elektra (Vol. 3) #19 Elektra states she has killed hundreds of people.

• Elektra appears to be Orthodox.^[90][91]