[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/eb/Phantomleagues.jpg]

The father of this beautiful woman is a scientist by the name of Professor King--and there's something he's mad about!  In particular, this mad scientist is a marine biologist, and he's been performing experiments on the affects of radioactivity on marine life.  Shunned by the scientific community, he performs experiments under the suspicious and watchful gaze of his "busybody" secretary and his young, money-grubbing assistant who can't wait to sell the results to the highest bidder.

In the midst of all of this drama swaggers in our hero, another scientist going by the name Dr. Ted Stevens who's been sent by the government to investigate the strange deaths occurring at the nearby beach.  This is paradise lost, indeed!

Ms. King, somehow convinced her father means the experiments for the greater good, vacillates between flirtation and weariness when encountered with the stranger.  Egads, that sly, tall, dark, and handsome stranger even catches her right out of the shower, and struggling with the zipper on the back of her form-fitting dress, she has no choice but to ask him to help her with the zipper.  Pleased, the distinguished (and coincidentally single) doctor takes his time running his hands up the small of her back.

And while the so-called "phantom" hugs fisherman (and almost the distinguished, snazzy doctor) blindly underwater, I find that the most unfortunate character is neither one of the phantom's victims, nor the poor turtles exposed to radiation for no good reason.  The most unfortunate character in the film is Ethel, Professor King's secretary.  As curious a woman as she just tends to be, Ethel is first threatened with a harpoon hanging in the office by the good doctor himself.  He feels she may be attempting to peek into his office, and will no doubt inform anyone with enough money of anything she just happens to glimpse.  Poor Ethel is threatened yet another time when the young, impetuous assistant to Professor King also becomes suspicious of Ethel's characteristically "female curiosity."  Casually stroking the office harpoon, looking at Ethel threateningly, the assistant calmly suggests she not inform the good doctor of his plans to sell his radioactivity experiments to some higher (and no doubt foreign) power.

You may find this hard to believe because most people were made to read the book in high school but I never was. I didn't care about the book. I never read anything by Louisa May Alcott. You may think that all writer have to have read the classics like Little Women but I never did. In high school I didn't know I was a writer. I didn't even like English that much. I did have a good English teacher in 10Th and 11Th grade who turned my upon Huckleberry Finn and Mark Twain but not Louisa May Alcott. It wasn't until I got into college that I found about my love of the classics but even then while studying Shakespeare I never gave a second thought to this book called "Little Women."

I watched those two movies back to back. It took me a little bit of time while watching Katherine Hepburn prance around her living room imitating a man to really get hooked. I also didn't mind the black and white screen. I remember back when we didn't have a colored television, only a black and white tube and I really starting getting interested. Katherine Hepburn played Jo March as the second oldest girl. Meg played by Frances Dee was the oldest. Amy was played by Joan Bennett and Beth by Jean Parker. I enjoyed the scenes of when they all were together but it was sometimes difficult for me to understand their language.

Some of the words were quite difficult for me to hear because I never hear them used that way. I do remember the most used saying was "Christopher Columbus." I am sure there must have been are reason for this catch phrase but again I am showing my age because I don't know what that means. Some of the scenes were quite rehearsed and dramatic. When Beth was on the bed holding Jo and telling her that she is okay and has accepted what is to become oh her, and that how Jo is like a bird and Beth is like a Cricket, this scene to me was not real. I found it hard to believe. I still don't know why Beth died. They never said so I am not sure if it was a recurrence of the Scarlet Fever she had almost died from when she was younger or what it was. To me this was not an answered question like why did they call their mother "Marmee?"

I did love the ending with Jo running into the professor. Did she really love him though? After reading on wikipedia some history on Louisa May Alcott, the intention was not for Jo to find a man to marry. Because the book was first published in two parts, the first in 1868 followed by the second in 1869. Alcott says she had to find a love for Jo because her readers didn't like her not marrying Laurie. A complete novel was published in 1880 but before that she published a sequel called "Little Men" and then in 1886 "Jo's Boys." These are two novels I never knew existed but I intend to find at my local library.

When the second movie started I just had to stay and watch it because the man who came on the first time said that this next movie was done in technicolor and starred Elizabeth Taylor. He didn't specify which character she would play so I assumed it would be Jo but I was wrong. After looking up the information on TCM.com, Elizabeth Taylor played Amy. It was June Allyson who played Jo. When I was watching this I did not know who was who. I never watched a lot of Elizabeth Taylor movies. I only saw her on "Taming of the Shrew" with Richard Burton. I fell in love with that movie too. So it was quite a surprise because she didn't really stand out in the movie as a star. Although I liked it being in color, the acting was awful. They didn't emphasize how poor the Marches were. June Allyson overacted the part and could not compare to Katherine Hepburn.

Again lots of questions were not answered like why did Amy put a clothespin on her nose at night. In one scene Amy and Beth were in bed and Beth said something to the point of saying that Amy would have a beautiful nose one day. In the first movie I never saw Amy put a clothes pin on her nose. According to Wikipedia Amy did this because her nose was flat, apparently something happened to her when she was child to make it flat. But also the question of why Beth died was not addressed. Why did Aunt March, played by Edna May Oliver in the 1933 version and Lucille Watson in the 1949 version, not like Jo and took so well to Amy in both films? Both ladies played the spinster very well and I liked the way she interrogated Meg in the 1933 version about catching Meg and the lovely young man, John Brooke, embarrassing. She made Meg confess to loving Mr.Brook, played by John Davis Lodge in the 1933 movie and then by a much better looking actor, Richard Stapley in the 1949 version.

Finally, some other facts you may not know is that the Louisa May Alcott's story "Little Women" had been made into a movie five times. The first was a silent film in 1917 in black and white. The second was in 1919 and also a black and white silent film starred Dorothy Barnard as Jo. The first was the 1933 version with Katherine Hepburn and the then the 1949 version with Elizabeth Taylor. And the latest version which I also did not know about is one made in 1994 with Susan Sarandon as Marmee, Winona Ryder as Jo, Trini Alvaredo as Meg, Claire Danes as Beth and Kirsten Dunst playing the younger Amy while Samantha Mathis played the older Amy.

I find though that the major theme is how these four sister overcome their character flaws. Meg is very vain but marry's a poor man instead of a rich man.Jo has a hot temper and must learn to control herself so she can let others into her life. Amy is selfish and with the help of the spinster Aunt March learns to grow up in England. And poor Beth. she was the baby and her shyness became something she overcame when Mr Jame Laurence gave her the piano as a reminder of his niece who passed away. I find this ironic because Beth also dies.

So to sum this up, both movies were entertaining. From someone who never read the book, I am intrigued. I hope you find this review helpful into whether or not you would like to see the movies. Since I haven't read the book, I now believe I will.

Starring:  James Best

Running Time:  69 minutes

Release Date:  June 25, 1959

Now, if you've already seen this film you may be thinking, "But Ursula, this isn't an apocalyptic film!"  I beg to differ, however.  This is not apocalyptic in the world-ending sense of the word, but The Killer Shrews is apocalyptic in the sense of the end of a microcosmic small island.  Rife with racial stereotypes that I will get to later, The Killer Shrews does deserve some praise.  For one thing, the lead lady Ann, played by Ingrid Goude, is actually a strong character.  Unlike the women characters in Panic in Year Zero!, Ann actually takes action--and doesn't seem to feel too sorry about it either.

Well, who is Ann and what is her part in the mini-apocalypse?  Ann is the daughter of Marlow Cragis, the scientist.  Again, unlike other movies where the scientist's daughter remains blissfully unaware of the horrors her father concocts in a deep, dark basement somewhere, Ann is actually very aware of the monstrous killer shrews reeking havoc on the island--she may even have helped in the initial experiments...  Before any of her male counterparts perceive the gravity of their ecologically screwed situation, Ann expresses doubts and guilt right from the beginning.  Is this social commentary?  Well, I don't think so.  In my opinion, Ann is meant to represent the audience--someone who saw it coming from a mile away and just wants to know how and when it's going to be over.  In this way she is a sympathetic character, leaving her as easy prey for the male lead.

In any case, while her character defies at least some stereotypes, there is another character that simply exemplifies them.  A black boat driver, whose name escapes me due to his apparent insignificance, is the first one to be consumed by the giant shrews.  From the branch of a small tree, he yelps unintelligibly for help--in vain.  In most science fiction  or horror films of this time, "people of color" of any kind are simply absent, but when they are present they are either objectified, horribly stereotyped, comic relief--or all of the above.  This should serve as no surprise.

The movie's dismal budget leaves a great deal to be desired, depending on your perspective.  The killer shrews themselves, of course, have static faces that float around on the screen--presumably moving the remainder of their invisible bodies.  There actually are plenty of shots of supposed killer shrews running around shrieking and poking their terrible snouts desperately under doors.  But these animals are dogs dressed cleverly in shrew suits.  Nothing wrong with that.

The other budget pitfall occurs on the set.  All of the nail-biting suspense takes place in one large room, with people simply disappearing behind its one door when they are no longer needed.  One of the scientists emerges from the door holding a tiny shrew, explaining to the male lead, played by James Best, how they came to be transformed into man-eating beasts.  The audience, however, sits waiting to be let into this elaborate lab of theirs.  No cages of irate shrews, no smoking beakers or vials of any sort.  Just a door.

The real kicker comes at the end, when the only surviving members of the cast, Ann, Thorn, and Marlowe crawls into "impromptu armor" in order to escape to the abandoned boat.  Don't take my word for it, check out the film.

Starring:  Dirk Bogarde

Running Time:  96 minutes

Louis Farr is a man with a secret; and a successful career in law and a loving, beautiful wife give his secret a much greater weight.  Louis Farr is homosexual--a crime punishable by prison time in his home of late 1960's London.  He is a member of a faceless subculture, one of men on the fringes of society, ashamed of their feelings of love for one another.  Farr is content with denying his lustful urges for one particular young man, and reaping the benefits of good reputation.  Content, of course, until he finds that his would-be lover committed suicide in prison under the pressures of blackmail. 

A very controversial and challenging film for its time, Victim deserves a great deal of praise.  Quickly, though, I will mention one of the pitfalls of the film:  the soundtrack.  The orchestra is much too dramatic--even for a film containing such grave social commentary.

Moving on, one of many of the film's triumphs lies in its "normalcy."  There are no queens, and no overdone effeminate gesticulations--just people trying to keep themselves out of the glaring eye of public scrutiny.  Not to mention, Farr's sexuality is not rigid.  He feels what can be categorized as lust for "Boy" Barrett, the aforementioned young man; this does not mean that his love for his wife is a false one.

In fact, Mrs. Farr is aware (although not happily) of her husband's potential bisexuality.  She knew before they married, and hoped a ring of Louis Farr's finger would calm his... "tendencies."  However, once the blackmailers get too close for comfort, Mrs. Farr does not falter--preferring to remain supportive of her husband's stand:  to have the law against homosexuality challenged in court.

So, what makes this sensitive take on homosexuality so special?  The fight.  Farr sacrifices his untarnished career to bring this injustice to the foreground.  Whether or not you are interested in LGBTQ issues, this is an important film to take a look at.  It will help to shatter even today's misconceptions of the social boundaries placed on sexuality and love.

As Disney began to identify with the children's market, his style began to change. By studying Mickey Mouse's change of appearance over time, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould demonstrated that Disney unconsciously discovered the evolutionary principle of “neoteny” (Gould 1980, p. 104). Because we mammals require parental care for an extended period of time, we developed a natural affection for the baby face (big head, large eyes, bulging craniums, weak chins-in short, the “cute” look) so that we remain attracted to our young.

As Gould pointed out, in over 50 years of gradual transformation, Mickey's appearance has grown backward, from adult to baby (pp. 95-107). Walt Disney might not have known the scientific principle, but his identification with the family market was conscious. Not only does Mickey Mouse gradually grow “younger,” but he also becomes increasingly better behaved. The use of juvenility in Disney's house style is developed out of a prolonged process of experimentation; it is connected to Disney's role as a perpetuator of the American dream in the family setting.

The mature Walt Disney played the role of educator and cultural guardian. This role was not very different from that of the Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Andersen. Disney's storytelling-original as well as adaptive-had the same motivation as that of the collectors and writers of nineteenth-century fairy tales, who believed these stories should be a tool of domestic education. Their view led to the “refinement” of the old wives' tales: removing coarse language, minimizing sexual and excremental references, and so on (Carter 1990, p. xvii); similarly, Disney's classic tales carry this sense of “refinement.”

Disney's classic stories are references for life's many challenges, yet also cast a sweetened reality for the wives and children of the traditional household. At the same time, Disney's masterpieces can indeed underscore a reality that tastes more like dark chocolate than candy. When Disney's classics have happy endings, they do so only in the context of greed (Snow White), social discrimination (Dumbo), the destructive nature of humanity (Bambi), sacrifice (Old Yeller), the cycle of life and death (Perri), and cruelty (Cinderella). As the narrator of Perri explains, “Death is a necessary evil; some die that others may survive.” Or as Bambi's theme song reveals, “[L]ife may be swift and fleeting; hope may die.” Bambi can be regarded as Disney's response to a time of darkness, even though it was conceptualized, based on Felix Salten's book, before World War II. The film preserves Salten's themes of life and nature while spinning a poetic realism to portray human destruction.

In Bambi, nature, represented by a harmonious animal world, is set against a common enemy - namely humanity. As film critic Leonard Maltin described it, “The drama in Bambi is one of understatement, and its effectiveness is great. Dialogue, which is kept to a minimum, is used in a quiet way to contrast the vociferous nature of the film's climaxes. Man is never shown in the film, yet the simple statement by Bambi's mother, after a frenzied chase with dozens of deer running for shelter, that "man [pause] was in the forest" creates an impact no literal device could accomplish” (Maltin 1973, p. 56). Although Bambi survives the forest fire caused by the faceless humans-a happy ending, one may suggest-the film is overshadowed by environmental destruction and anguish. Its ending is cathartic, bringing about a release of negative emotions rather than providing a lighthearted, “happy” resolution.

In this context, the adorable portrait of the animals in Disney's house style is an effective tool for teaching children about the love of nature as well as the nature of love. Love can be defined as a necessary good that motivates one to confront death for the sake of others' lives. It is an engine of survival.

In general, Disney classics demonstrate a balance between entertainment value and artistic quality, revealing life's various challenges and expressing the diverse emotions that a child might feel. They seem to follow certain thematic patterns, some appealing to children generally and others relating specifically to girls. These themes are addressed individually in the discussion that follows.

Alice's Wonderland

The Alice theme involves the exploration of an imaginary world that is full of illogical wonders. From a child's point of view, the world is magical and strange, often overwhelmingly incomprehensible, so this theme is an attempt to identify with children's confusion and to encourage them to go on with life's journey. Obviously, the entire Alice in Wonderland is about meeting strange people in strange places. But the Alice theme also recurs in many Disney classics: the visit to the whale's stomach in Pinocchio, the dream of the pink elephants in Dumbo, the Never-Never Land in Peter Pan, the “Jolly Holiday” episode in Mary Poppins, and so on.

The journey to the strange world always provides a new perspective on life. Most of the time, Disney's adventurer does not return to reality, concluding, as Dorothy does in The Wizard of Oz, that “there is no place like home.” The protagonist in Disney's classics gains new insights about life through the magic of Fantasia. Figuratively, Walt Disney's version of Alice's wonderland is Disneyland itself.

The Pinocchio Symptom

The Pinocchio symptom is also a key element in Alice in Wonderland. Instead of the strangeness of the world, this theme refers to the strangeness of the fast-growing, constantly transforming body of a child. The Pinocchio theme is about coping with growth and socialization. It identifies with children's feelings of being out of control in both body and mind, best represented comically when Pinocchio is partially turned into a jackass.

Usually accompanying the Pinocchio symptom is the realization that things will turn out all right in time-that is, when the potential of the character's humanity is fully realized. Beneath the Pinocchio symptom is the promise of the ugly duckling's transformation into a swan (the motif of the ugly duckling being best known through Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of that name).

Bambi's Lament

Perhaps because he identified closely with the tradition of fairy tales in great literature, Walt Disney was not afraid of discussing the loss of loved ones with children through stories. The death of Bambi's mother is certainly the most memorable moment in all of Disney's tales. But the theme also has many variations-for example, the imprisonment of Dumbo's mother, Old Yeller's rabies infection, and the entire cursed kingdom in Sleeping Beauty. Most of the time in children's films, the loss of a loved one is implied rather than portrayed.

The loss of the natural mother in Snow White and also in Cinderella is a good example. This theme is a main ingredient in the fairy tale tradition. Years ago, as Angela Carter explains, “The maternal mortality rates were high and a child might live with two, three or even more stepmothers before she herself embarked on the perilous career of motherhood” (1990, p. xix). Even with the present-day low rates of maternal mortality, the danger of the world and the unpredictability of life remain. Storytelling is a human way of coping with the hardship and complexity of life; the theme of loss and the cycle of life are crucial to children's mental health.

Dumbo's Flight

Dumbo's flight is particularly fascinating. In contrast to European literary themes that Disney inherited through the tradition of children's literature, it is the most “American” in terms of its social and political assumptions. It dramatizes the idea that, if one finds one's own individuality and strength, one can rise above hostile circumstances and become successful. It encourages children to pursue their dreams and live up to their potential. Structurally, Dumbo's flight requires a character who is socially unpopular and/or emotionally confused.

Like Dumbo, not knowing what to do with his life, the character will go through a painful process of self-realization. When the dream is realized, the character will surprise the crowd in triumph. Dumbo's flight does not recur very often in Walt Disney's films because Disney's mantra is more about “never giving up your dream” than about actually “realizing your dream.” Nevertheless, this theme will eventually become central to contemporary Disney girl culture.

The Cinderella Fantasy

Similar to Dumbo's flight, the Cinderella fantasy is about coping with hostile circumstances; however, unlike Dumbo, Cinderella finds love rather than a career. Like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella is passive. She has a good heart but no ambition. Escape, not success, is the incentive.

Unlike the case with Alice, the ordinary little girl who finds selfcontrol in dreamland, Cinderella's journey is incomplete without her Prince Charming. Although this theme has been heavily criticized for presenting a passive model of femininity to girl viewers, in Walt Disney's defense, he did not produce many princess stories in his lifetime, even though the box office receipts suggested that they had universal appeal. Loved by the public, the Cinderella fantasy is a dream of glamour, a fantasy about transcending the meritocracy of modern life through wish fulfillment in the imaginary space.

Moreover, some men continue to try and bring down female action heroes. One of these men is Don Feder, who wrote in his article “Wimps Whiners Weenies: Men in Movies Today,” that in female action heroes' movies women are “fearless and indomitable” which means men show no contrast to them. As a result, male characters end up playing the fool and being helpless. Feder believes that this is not what the public wants, even when these movies feature famous directors or actors, and therefore they do not do well in the box office. Notwithstanding, if we take a look at the box office earnings of “Tomb Raider, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Charlie's Angels,” for example, we can see that they passed the mark of 100 million dollars. These numbers prove patently that Feder was wrong in his assertion.

Then we have the statement from Elliot Lederman, Universal's Senior Director of Licensing, in 1999; he affirmed that despite the popularity that the television show “Xena the Warrior Princess” was obtaining back then, we should not expect “a rash of female Rambos anytime soon”. What is more, he added that “there hasn't been a successful female action hero since Wonder Woman. Other studios have tried to create them, but Xena is the first successful one and it's going to be tough to follow the trend.” As we have been able to experience or witness, this statement is highly inaccurate, because we could very well say that after Xena there has been a rash of female Rambos indeed, and it was not so tough to follow the trend. Nowadays there are numerous, and many successful, female action heroes and they just keep coming. However, not all of them are accepted by the public, but it is only the minority that goes through that process or problem.

Christina Larson has a theory as to why some female action heroes underwent this lack of acceptance. She states in her article “Seven Mistakes Superheroines Make: Why The Latest Action-Babe Flicks Flopped” that she believes that Hollywood overreached when dealing with this type of women since studios did not stop to think or analyze why exactly audiences loved female action heroes. What they did instead was to come up with a formula that they thought was the one that had brought about success to previous female action hero's movies: they placed beautiful women with well-shaped bodies wearing tight costumes and then they made them fight in them. Apparently, they thought that that was all it took to make a female action hero movie successful. They based movies on the protagonist's good looks and sex appeal, but, actually, that formula was virtually wrong, which was a fact proven by the low box office income that movies like these obtained. What Hollywood should have realized, adds Larson, is that the movies that feature female action heroes that did well in the box office, did not only show a pretty woman with a nice body and revealing clothes, but they also showed them as strong, witty and successful. She makes an excellent comparison between a female action hero who was accepted by the public and one who was not:

Lara Croft may have originated as pure male fantasy - but on the big screen, she became erudite, well-traveled, a working photojournalist, and went home at night to a house worthy of Architectural Digest. On the other hand, Elektra [...] might turn heads in her tight-laced scarlet bustier. But her personal magnetism doesn't measure up: she's a gloomy assassin who suffers from nightmares, insomnia, and OCD. Plus she hates her job but can't - or won't - figure out what to do with her life.

As we can see from this quote, Lara (“Tomb Raider”) is a successful, happy woman who has got her life under control, while Elektra is a woman who is not happy and has definitely no control over her life, she does not even knows what she wants. Lara emanates a positive feeling whereas Elektra does the opposite, and no one likes negative feelings especially coming from an action hero, so it is no wonder the audience rejected the latter.

We can find a correlation to the latter fact to what we see in the opening images of the Charlie's Angels DVD version. The first thing we see is the dark figure of a man walking towards the screen and from that man three women are formed: the Angels. Moreover, the fact that Minerva was both a fighter and a searcher of peace also reminds us of female action heroes. These women do not use violence unless absolutely necessary, which shows a contrast to what male action heroes do in practically every movie, and is also in connection to what the god Neptune did when he chose to create the horse. Moreover, she was also smart and handled different skills; we can also see these same attributes in female action heroes. Besides being extremely skilled in combat and martial arts, the three “Charlie's Angels” speak Japanese, German, know how to dismantle a bomb, can drive a race car, know how to scuba dive, and Natalie even knows how to recognize a bird from its singing, what helped them find the location where Bosley was being kept hostage. In “Alias,” Sidney Bristow has multiple skills; she also is remarkably skilled in hand to hand combat, she speaks several languages, knows how to operate multiple state-of-the-art technological gadgets, etc. Lara Croft from “Tomb Raider” can also fight anyone skillfully regardless the weapon of choice or chance, or even with her bare hands; she also speaks different languages, escapes from her enemies time and time again, even by falling down a waterfall and emerging unharmed, and much more.

Another goddess, Venus, was the goddess of beauty and love and was born full of charms, so much so that all the gods were fascinated with her and they all wanted her as their wife; another goddess yet, Diana, was the queen of hunting and therefore she was of a savage nature. The best example of this nature was how she caused the "death" of Actaeon: one day when Diana was bathing in a creek Actaeon was unfortunate enough to accidentally come close that place, what angered Diana so much so that she turned him into a deer.

We can see then two more attributes that these goddesses had and were passed on to female action heroes and, why not, to many women in general nowadays. In the case of Venus, she was so beautiful that men were captivated by her, which is reminiscent of how the public today accepts pretty action heroes (which constitutes the majority of them) much more than they do the ones that are not so. However, beauty is not the only thing that the public wants to see, although it certainly does not hurt. In movies like “Elektra” and “Catwoman” that star Jennifer Garner and Halle Berry respectively, both very beautiful women, the earnings and reviews for them were not good at all and so those movies were big flunks. However, if more attributes are added to beauty then the formula for success could be reached. What we find in the goddess Diana is one of the attributes: she is aggressive, and if a man crosses the line with her then she will make sure it will cost him dearly, which is a feature that we also find in female action heroes.

We could dare say that the female action hero icon did not enter the protagonist world of Hollywood and did not become so widely accepted simply over night, but it actually did so in steps. What seems to have been one of the steps was the introduction of women with secondary roles bearing female action hero characteristics in male action heroes' movies. This is the case, for example, of one of James Bond's movie, “Tomorrow Never Dies.” In this movie, the traditionally strong, solitary and famous for his many sexual conquests hero James Bond, in this instance played by Pierce Brosnan, ends up accomplishing his mission with the help of no one else but a woman named Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh. Ironically enough, he could not have done it all by himself, like he had always done so in the past, and he needed the help of a woman. Another man in the same situation was Jackie Chan who is recognized for always portraying characters that are extremely skilled in martial arts, always works alone and always succeeds. However, in one of his latest movies he teamed up with a strong woman played by Claire Forlani, as was the case of “The Medallion.” Now women have moved on from the shadow of the male action hero and are doing the work all by themselves, having become the protagonists of their own adventures.

Humbert, Juan. 1984: 41, 42, 44.

Ibid. 45.

Ibid. 62, 63.

Elektra is a woman who was revived from a fatal wound by a master called Stick. He then becomes her trainer until it is time for her to leave; when she does she becomes an assassin. A criminal organization called The Order of The Hand hires her to seize a father and his daughter, Mark and Abby Miller. However, she becomes attached to them and decides to team up with them against the ones who hired her.