10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About Elektra
3. Thunderbolts Membership, And The Punisher...
Marvel Comics
Despite Elektra having long been regarded as something of a lone wolf in the assassin scene, she did, at one point, join Red Hulk's Thunderbolts - a kind of Marvel Suicide Squad - and even had a fling with the Punisher.
The idea of Frank Castle being used by the government is an interesting enough concept to sell a series by itself, particularly if it's handled with the tone and nuance necessary to tell a good Punisher story. This Thunderbolts series, however, does not fit that bill, and derives heavily from films like the Dirty Dozen in its depiction of a villain-led team-up.
Elektra and Castle also get it on, with both characters suffering greatly from the book's oddball feel and the team's even weirder line-up. For Elektra in particular the series felt like a massive departure, with her presence on the team being one of the many misjudged appearances the character has made since her 1994 return.
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.
