Elektra battles Bullseye, yet again. It’s kinda sad that after a couple of decades now, we’re still getting retreads of an old story. It’s not a complete recapitulation, or regurgitation, of the classic storyline though. In many ways the Elektra/Bullseye showdown is the best part of this series thus far. Bullseye is the only one in this series that wants to kill Elektra for all the reasons a real bad guy should, for the freakin’ fun of it! Everyone else who’s come after Elektra has been out to kill her in order to collect the $82 million price on her head. In this issue, we finally find out what has prompted this bounty, and where the money is coming from.

So, lets discuss the inevitable appearance by the Marvel mascot, master of mayhem, and perpetrator of ponderous sales, Wolverine. Yes, faithful readers, Wolverine shows up on the last two pages of this issue, yet garners a garish cover appearance. I’ve said it before, and I’ll stand by what I’ve said. I really do love Wolverine, especially his new series Wolverine: Weapon X, which is becoming quite a good read, but please Marvel moguls, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Having Wolverine swoop in for the rescue is a little off the mark don’t you think? We have Elektra and Bullseye fighting each other again, for goodness sakes! So, why not let Daredevil be the one to swoop in? Yeah, ole’ Matt Murdock doesn’t want to have anything to do with Elektra these days, and his love life, as usual, is a mess. Seeing him instead of Wolverine coming to Elektra’s rescue would have been so much more fitting though. I mean, if we’re going to retread familiar territory, why not let ole’ Horn head in on the action?

Mann’s pencils, with their minimal background, but great choreography of hand to hand combat scenes fit this mini-series. Elektra is solely focused on the task before her, which is staying alive, and little else, so that’s what we see visually as well.

Before we turn our attention to next month’s adamantium laced blood fest, let’s not forget about Norman Osborne’s role in this series, and in Dark Reign overall. Doesn’t he just give you the creeps? I’ll take a Skrull invasion any day over this guy. Osborne is too realistic a danger and potentiality in real life, to be a simple “super villain.” That’s why he’s so scary. He’s an all too real caricature of an all too real possibility.