Villain: The Hand, Kingpin, Flint

Guest Appearance: Stick, the Seven, Elektra, Sensei (all in flashback); Black Widow, Stone

Death: Elektra's sensei (in flashback); Stone

Cameo: Turk, Grotto, Zeke, Injun Joe

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Prologue: Elektra wanders through a snowy mountain pass, climbing walls of sheer ice, driven towards her destination. She falls and blacks out. When she comes to, she is in the presence of Stick and the Seven. She requests to be one of their order. Though the others doubt her, she trains alongside them for the next year, turning everyone's opinion of her towards her favor save her mentor, Stick. He calls her to him and tells her to leave. She wants to know why, as she is as skilled at fighting as any of the others; Stick tells her she has too much baggage of pain and hate- she is unclean. As she leaves, Stone discusses with Stick the dangers of the Hand acquiring Elektra's talent....

Elektra hooks up with a sensei who was also rejected at one time by Stick's order. She wants to train herself to be able to compete in the burgeoning war being instigated by the Hand, as well as to prove herself to Stick. She tells her sensei that she will deceive them by joining their organization and destroying it from the inside out. Her sensei warns her that her plan is foolhardy, but she insists on following through.

As she sleeps, some Hand assassins attempt to kidnap her. She goes willingly. She is taken to an underground chamber where she is given a test to prove herself fit to join them, to fight a target she will find down in a deep well. She jumps down and sees a figure wielding two sai. She quickly overtakes him , apprehends a sai and thrusts it through him, killing him dead. When a torch is brought to bear over the shadows of the well, she realizes who she has killed: her beloved sensei. He had been kidnaped and drugged; now she is part of the Hand. End prologue.

Stone and Daredevil race to Elektra's gravesite, where the Hand is preparing to exhume her body to become their new assassin. Stone knows her first mission will be to kill him as the last member of Stick's order still living. Just as they open her crypt, Daredevil and Stone attack. But where there were only four ninjas recovering her corpse, several more jump up from under the graveyard soil, swords bared. But the Black Widow is there in the trees as their "surprise attack", tossing down gas bombs to set up a smokescreen. As they fight off the ninjas, however, the others are making away with Elektra's coffin, lifting to an awaiting helicopter. Stone gives chase, but it's too late. They are gone.

At the Kingpin's skyscraper office, he survives an attempted assassination by rival gang leader Injun Joe. He realizes he must acquire a new enforcer to help him restore order to the New York underworld. Daredevil heads off to see the Kingpin in the hopes he will have information where the ninja can be found, but as he leaves Stone openly worries to Black Widow about being able to depend on the wild and untamed Daredevil. DD tells the Kingpin that the Hand is trying to bring Elektra back to life and use her in their employ. Kingpin tells him he knows where the Hand has their hideout, but he bargains with Daredevil: he will give him the information if DD agrees to go take out Injun Joe and his gang. DD agrees, and heads down to Injun Joe's hideout and pastes them a good one, and receives the address of the Hand's hideout.

At their church hideout, the Hand nears the end of the rejuvenation process for Elektra. They are stunned to see Daredevil and Stone leap through the stained-glass window, and the fight begins immediately. Black Widow takes the rafters, dispatching ninja archers that fire from above. Stone heads straight for Elektra's body to destroy it, but Daredevil senses a heartbeat- she's been returned to life! Daredevil has become enthralled by the chance that she'll return to life and drops his guard. As Stone prepares to destroy her body, he is cut down from behind by a ninja. Stone is forced to fight off the oncoming ninjas as Matt sets down beside Elektra, preparing to heal her the same way he saw Stick heal Natasha. He "moves energy" in the same way that Stick described, but falls down beside her, exhausted and knowing he was unable to perform the miracle.

Suddenly, the Kingpin's thugs enter with machine guns blazing. As the church cathedral begins to burn down from fire created in the fight, Stone walks over to Elektra's body to apply the final blow that will destroy her body forever. But he stops short, realizing that somehow Matt was able to cleanse her spirit, purge her of the Hand's tainted touch. And as he grows weary from the fighting, and the mortal blow he received, he walks away from her.

DD meets with the Kingpin, who is waiting outside in a Rolls Royce. He reminds Daredevil that the two of them are stuck together- they are the power in the city of New York. Black Widow and DD rush back into the burning church to check on Stone, but all they find are his garments.

Epilogue: On a lonely, snow swept mountain peak, a woman struggles against herself to climb to the very peak. Once she's reached the apex of the cliff, she strips off her heavy coat. It's Elektra!

--synopsis by Gormuu

--panel images provided by Avengers Assemble

--letter pages provided by Aussie Stu

Issues Reprinted
Daredevil #183-191, What If #28, 35,
and Elektra from Bizarre Adventures #28

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.