10 Incredible Comic Book Panels That Changed Everything
3. The Death Of Elektra
Marvel Comics
Those who are familiar with the character of Elektra Natchios will know that death is never really the end for the assassin, not that Frank Miller would have much say in the matter anyway.
In Daredevil #181, after many issues of on again, off again collaboration with the man without fear, Elektra was fatally stabbed with her own sai by Bullseye, who - until that point at least - was considered to be something of a gag character. It was a shock move at the time, and her death - drawn by Miller and Klaus Janson - was certainly visceral, with it lasting an entire page in the issue.
The image of the character being stabbed and then stumbling to the floor is awful - there are no other words really for it. And while Elektra would later return, no death has weighed more heavily upon a comic book character than her's. It's a key event in the Daredevil mythos, and one that Matt Murdock - and Marvel itself, for that matter - has struggled to reconcile since.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
