Elektra (Marvel)

"I am Elektra Natchios. Not even the stars are safe in the sky."

- Elektra

Elektra is an anti-heroine from the Marvel universe and is known to be an on-and-off ally of Daredevil. Elektra has peek athletic abilities, martial arts skills and enhanced agility. She starred in a film with the same name, which the film has met with mostly negative reception from critics.

Backgrounds
Elektra has mixed backgrounds and the cannon associated with them is often base-break for fans trying to keep track of a single continuity. What is established as constants are that she is a Greek assassin. Elektra is from a wealthy family that embodies the concept of 'Old Money'. Eletra's mother, Christina, died giving birth to Elektra, leaving her father Hugo Natchios to raise her as a single parent.

Hugo was Greek diplomat and used his position to open a variety of doors for himself and Elektra. Hugo's prestigious position would eventually attract the wrong kind of attention and he would be targeted by terrorists, the chaos of the experience (the exact nature of which depends upon version) would ultimately cost Hugo his life, leaving Elektra with a chip on her shoulder from age 20 onward. Matt Murdock, AKA the "Daredevil", tried and failed to save Hugo Natchios (in most versions) but with his failure Elektra decides that a strong and extreme response is needed.

Training
Elektra leaves the law abiding life after her father's death and drops out of college to make good on her notion of being prepared for the extremists of the world. Elektra uses her wealth and contacts to join the martial-arts organization, Chaste, in China. Chaste taught it's members any known martial-art but made certain it's students had the mental discipline to use them responsibly before-hand with some of the more inherently treacherous ones. Elektra, being denied ninjutsu by her teachers until she was ready, began to resent them and became easy pickings for agents of rival organization, The-Hand, to recruit her.

The-Hand taught Elektra all the disciplines Chaste would deny her until she could be trusted and under The-Hand's instructions Elektra became a deadly living weapon, the trade off they demanded in return was for Elektra to work as an assassin for the group. Elektra would eventually free herself of The-Hand's reigns over her and left, both because she eventually found the work to be too ethically murky and because she disliked the notion of being controlled just as much as she disliked the notion of being coddled. Once free of The-Hand, Elektra became her own boss as a private assassin-for-hire. As her own boss she could select only clients she felt comfortable serving, which also meant she would routinely be asked to kill criminals and terrorists, giving her a chance to make people like those that killed her father pay.

Elektra would come into contact with Daredevil on her missions more than once, some times as a target, other times as an obstacle between her and her target. Elektra and Daredevil would have an on and off romance and complicated love/hate relationship. The precise nature of which has morphed through-out the years. Where Daredevil would show mercy, Elektra would not, preferring to fight extremes with extremes and incidentally get paid well for it in the process.