Ava is one nasty villian ad she is the focus of this graphic novel. Her lack of nuance is the books major flaw but the art and raw intensity of Miller's storytelling makes it a solid success. The pictures are awesome!

Despite the sometimes obvious and familiar plotline, "A Dame To Kill For" manages to remain fresh, entertaining and draws the reader into story. The art is superb and the dialogue and narration are great as well. Very entertaining. A dark noir classic.

Equally as good as the original, this follow-up centers on the character named Dwight. He's fallen for a certain woman's lies, and has had enough. The story centers on his trying to exact revenge on her, and he recruits our hero Marv from the original Sin City in the process. Interesting, if you know the outcome of the first story. My favorite device used here was the showing of the same bar scene from Sin City. I am a huge fan of cross-referencing stories, and I've never seen this used so well in a graphic novel before. So, like I've said before, any doubts? Get some. Pick up some more Sin City today.

I am using several business law textbooks for my self-study.Comparing to others,this book is difficult to understand.The selection of the Cases differs from others which makes me confused.Structure of the content differs too.It's a complicated book to understand for a self-studying person.

Some texts can be so completely dry, and this one has the potential to be so. Yet this book reads easily, and is kind enough to emphasize much of the text with highlights, boldings, and other wonderful devices to help draw your attention to important details. This book also has a fantastic variety of cases to point out certain aspects of the law. I would definately recommend this one if you are studing the law!

This book is even better than the excellent business law textbook I used (but no longer have) in college in the late 1960's. It has all the utilitarian features necessary for a textbook but likewise has enough depth and user-friendliness for a home reference tome.

The only significant criticism I can offer is that, for a book in this very high price range, it should have a more durable binding. It does have full cloth-covered hardback covers *but* the page section is only "perfect-bound" (i.e., pages held together merely with glue) rather than having a sewn binding. It seems to me that a ... book should have a sewn binding! I've noticed how most books classified as "textbooks" have such very high prices yet have rather cheap bindings. It's no wonder a college education costs a small fortune these days--- the textbook price alone is enough to drive one into penury, and even then the book(s) will eventually fall apart under very heavy use.

Anyhow, this book is wonderfully useful in its content and for that reason I recommend it highly.

I don't know if Miller intended this as a story in which Elektra would actually be revived--if he did, he mucked with Marvel continuity way too much to make it work.

For me, the book gets 3 stars because of Miller's excellent draftsmanship and storytelling, and Varley's dynamic colors. Miller's work didn't look this good again until 300 was released.

But the story is just not there, for me. Miller indulges himself in a personal exploration of isolation and despair with Matt Murdock (Daredevil) spending an enormous amount of time watching and waiting for an outside force (Elektra) to show up and make him whole again.

Now while I've always liked Murdock's particular flavor of angst--more than anyone in the Marvel Universe, the blind guy in the too-loud world should be entitled to brood--he just comes off as thoroughly helpless in this story. Maybe that's what Miller wanted, that sort of flailing desperation, but it didn't play for me. I've read the story a number of times, hoping to "get it," but it always comes up short for me.

04/22/02 - I just reread this yesterday, and my opinion is unchanged. The last 20+ seem to lose track of what the first 40+ pages are about. The action is striking, but only the most obvious of story's questions are answered. Ths story yearns to be substantial but ends up superficial, and some of us prefer SOLID chocolate bunnies at Easter.

This one's good for Miller completists, but if you want a really ripping Frank Miller Elektra story, I recommend Elektra: Assassin, his brilliant, funny collaboration with Bill Sienkiewicz.

Frank Miller, often considered one of the great modern comic storytellers, is best known for his Batman epic "The Dark Knight Returns" However, Miller returns to his roots by doing some work on Elektra and Daredevil, where he first got started in the comic industry.
Everyone knows that Elektra is dead. She was murdered by the deadly Bullseye, impaled upon her own sai (You can see the awesome battle in Miller's 'Daredevil Visionaries: Volume 2'). When Matt Murdock, Elektra's college boyfriend and the blind superhero known as Daredevil, begins to have eerie dreams of her rising from her grave, he becomes unnerved. Is Elektra back? And why? He discovers that one of his old enemies may be revived, deadlier than ever...
I enjoyed this book mostly because it was written out of the comics continuity, so you don't have to get bogged down in the chronology to understand it. The story is told from Matt Murdock/Daredevil's point of view, which is good to see, because I don't remember many of Miller's older Daredevil works being told from this perspective. This book only gets 4 stars because I was hoping for a lot more (The book is oversized and is just 75 pages long). It seems as though Miller could have written a lot more, but chose instead to make this book more 'choppy' for a more psychological effect. It didn't really work too well.
In summation, 'Elektra Lives Again' is a good book, and Frank Miller is still one of the best in the industry, but it isn't as good as his early run on Daredevil. The art is impressive and the plot interesting, but Miller fails to capitalize on what could have been an immaculate triumph of a story. Instead, he leaves many blank spots and tries to let you fill in the rest. If you're a big Daredevil or Elektra fan, you'll want to read this, but be forewarned - you may be let down.

Elektra Lives Again

The story of Daredevil and Elektra is literally a stand-out Romeo and Juliet of the comic world. Frank Miller created the perfect fallen hero in Elektra, shaped her psychological complex to suit her name and tied her to Daredevil aka blind lawyer Matt Murdock, the epitome of the blind lover and moral code. There is now a current monthly comic book for Elektra, the point of her death muddied by Marvel's desire to capitalize and it falls flat.
One cannot remix Bach.

The Elektra back story is simple:

Part One: Elektra became a ninja assassin for the evil Hand after the death of her father. She betrayed the Hand after learning their skills/secrets then going solo. The Hand came after her and eventually the assassin Bullseye fatally wounded her and she died in Daredevil's arms.

Part Two: The Hand decided to resurrect Elektra and make her an undead slave/assassin. Daredevil interceded and through sheer force of will, purged her soul of the evil spell right before she came back to life. However she disappeared right after her heard a single heartbeat. He was left with the doubt of whether or not she lived.

Part Three: Elektra joins with a rogue gov't agent in Elektra Assassin to stop essentially a demon/anti-Christ from becoming the President of the USA. In print, she succeeded, some argue that in reality we need her even more than fantasy allows.

Elektra Lives Again.
The Hand---persistent to a fault are at the resurrection game again. Anyone. An assassin Kirigi, Bullseye, Elektra---the Hand have this fanatical need to have a Prime A Leader Assassin. Low self esteem in ninja cult, I suppose. This time they want to first kill Bullseye (who is in prison for killing scads of folk---he's kind of like Hannibal Lecter with the ability to turn anything into a weapon-anything, we're talking orange seeds here and use him to kill. To ... Elektra, ... Matt, ... anyone. Elektra alive and avoiding the love of her life Matt Murdock is hot on the Hand's trail to stop all of this madness.
Matt begins having psychic dreams about Elektra and what her soul is going through because of the link resurrecting her has created between them.
What makes this interesting is that though Matt uses his fighting skills, his heightened senses and amazing acrobatics, he never dons the Daredevil costume. That's the first mark of this work being superb.
The second mark is the silence of Elektra and her ability to move through the real world as a shadow, a dead woman, a ninja, a ruthless assassin committed to doing what's right no matter the fall-out.

Frank Miller's point in all of this carnage and Elektra dying one more time is that this is their destiny. Elektra must deal with these dark assassins and have Matt as a tugboat of light to keep her near the line of goodness. When Matt cradles Elektra, killed by a dead Bullseye he finally can accept her death---the fact that she's dressed all in white as a nun is wonderful imagery.

The art of Lynn Varney is tired. I mean that as a compliment. Everyone looks haggard, worn out, tired. And that's how they should look. These people are something slightly different from the normal superheroes/villains in the sense that it's all personal with them and they willingly ... and will die (sometimes several times) for the Good Fight. The battles are intensely personal and gory, violent to the degree of shocking but that's what a real fight should look like. And when you get right down to it, these are some mentally unbalanced folk. Even Matt. And they should be. That's what I mean by personal, this comes as close as possible to almost reality. Of all the superhero films out there, this should be made into a film. Not necessarily a trilogy but maybe one or two that really convey the horror and pity and sadness of this whole beautiful, bloody, twisted tale.

Five Stars.

Miller's works might not be deliberately designed to inspire boys to go on a vigilante killing spree, but since they have no other themes than making violent attacks on criminals look cool to teenagers one wonders what else they could be for. This is one of his worst offenses. Don't show this stuff to your children, and get professional help if you enjoy it yourself.

This is by no means Millers best work, but it is definately worth picking up if you enjoy sin city. It's basically a collection of short stories, each different and not necesarrily related. The art work as always is very very good, and as always the stories are entertaining. Keep 'em coming Frank! .... no? .... oh... (drops head in sorrow). Oh well.

This is a very good colection of the shorter sin city pieces. What I like most about it is that you can see Frank Miller's art style progress to the form it's in now. Many great stories with the sadistic sin city twist. Not for the week-hearted!

"Give Me Liberty" tells the story of young Martha Washington, a precocious african-american girl growing up inside of the horror of public housing - "The Green" (a hideous development of the "Carbrini Green" projects of Chicago). At the dawn of a new century, a fascist president helms an America that features everything evil we can expect of the "New World Order" - including domination by corporations and an insurmountable gap between rich and poor. Abolishing term-limits (with each succesiive inauguaration, the crowds of supproters seems to be inversely proportional to the armed guards) the President spends most of his time reminding us how happy we should be thanks to him. At first trapped in Cabrini, Martha's savage misfortunes provide her an odd escape - first institutionalization, then (because it will clean her record) enlistment with PAX, a sort of corporate backed citizen's army. As a soldier on every one of America's frontlines, Martha witnesses how America's new empire is born, even as its dying. The enemies of course are not the Russians, but competing corporations (mostly theme parks and fast-food companies). In case you haven't caught on, "Give Me Liberty" is all about an advanced American state slowly disintegrating under its own weight. The country is soon gripped in civil wars - rather than a single conflict, the fighting is disorganized, along state, muncipal and corporate lines, and further complicated by various non-aligned factions, like the amazon women of the "First Sex Confederacy" and tribes of Native Americans armed with their own missiles. Even the left-wing administration that (briefly) suceeds Rexall is overwhelmed by the evil that is the new century.

While the story of America is compelling, "Give Me Liberty" actually suceeds because it never abandons Martha. Rather than some empty-headed figure upon whom "Give Me" can stamp its story, Martha is strong-willed, convincingly intelligent and surprisingly sympathetic. We never pity Martha nor can we condemn her for the ends she must take (which are violent - there's a fair amount of gore in the story). The future landscape of America is compelling, yet the story appears heavy-handed in some spots (the orbiting laser cannons are overtly phallic; the fst-food wars are fought by robots styled after the avatars of many Fat-Boy restaurants; genetic engineering creates an army of hyper-intelligent mutants used as living computers - like the "Pre-Cogs" of "Minority Report"; other clones include an army of beautiful but super-strong blondes who manage to escape the billionaire who bred them; then there's a mysterious surgeon general who seems patterned on Darth Vader - always masked, speaking in short sentences and never leaving any doubt of his homicidal mania). Still, the story can rely on our being continually focused on Martha. In that respect, "Give Me Liberty" does not dissappoint.

Well, that's a Frank Miller's story. You know about Frank Miller, he's always a genius. In this particular book he had the help of Dave Gibbons (Watchmen's illustrator), that is always the warranty of a good drawing. But the book has troubles. It's not like "Dark knight returns" or "ronin", Frank Miller's classics. It's... softer. I mean, it's good, but do not expect classic Miller's type of stories. But worth the prize. You must buy it.

While dated, this third issue is still unmatched in breadth and depth of scholarship on this rather obscure topic. The legacy of Alexander of Macedon in Central Asia will certainly grow as more digging occurs in the region, and this book will be a valuable reference. One quibble is the lack of a complete and thorough update of the references, including footnoting the latest archaeological finds. Regardless, this text is essential for anyone interested in the ancient history of India, Central Asia, and the Hellenstic world.

This is one of very few studies available on the Greek kingdoms in Bactria (Modern Afghanistan.), and western India (Modern Pakistan.). W. W. Tarn treats the history of these Indo-Greeks as part of the general history of Hellenism. The only other major study, V.K. Narin's "The Indo-Greeks", treats the subject from a more Indian perspective. None of this should be important to the person who loves to read history-- the subject matter of a nearly legendary lost kingdom on the edge of the world, is fascinating in and of itself. This is a scholarly book, but it reads much better than the title would lead you to think

Ever had one of those days where everything went wrong? For Larry Munro, a day to pick up his pal, Concrete, blew up (literally!) at the gas station. An innocent flirt with a girl leads to trouble as the girl's boyfriend just happened to rob the gas station and ready to runaway. Guest who the gotta be the driver? Will this change his life forever?

This collection is one of the best comicbook that takes on real life situations without letting the superheroes element disturb your attention. A nicely executed story and the ending will ask you a provoking question about the event in the book. What would you do if it actually happen to you?

These are not the stories that made Frank Miller famous, and if his creative output over his career had been limited to what is countained here, he never would have become famous. These are some very early stories in the career of a man who would eventually (elsewhere) come to redefine the comic book medium. Thus these stories are not the timeless classics on the level of (or even close to) "Dark Knight Returns," "Batman Year One," "Sin City," or "300." In fact, in one case, you don't even get to read the entire story. The first story arc in this compilation only gives you 2 parts of what appears to be a 4- or 5-part story, because Miller only drew 2 of the issues. Also, Miller's artwork here is much more conventional that one might expect, as he hadn't yet fully developed the unusual style which characterizes his later works. (I thought the art was similar to that of the 1982 "Wolverine" miniseries which he penciled)
Furthermore, the one issue which he writes does not bear the gritty, realistic quality which made the above-mentioned works so good.

On the positive side, you do get to see here all the work that Frank Miller ever did for Spider-Man, which includes 5 issues as penciller, one as writer, and 22 comic book covers. Also included are 2 more recent pictures which do appear more "Milleresque" (one of which is the cover to the book, so you can see it on this website, the other a beautiful shadow-portrait of Spider-Man and Daredevil).

The stories themselves are entertaining, as long as you aren't expecting "classics" which redefined Spider-Man's character. The issue written by Chris Claremont has a well-developed villain/anti-hero (as is typical for Claremont's writing), and the final story, written by Denny O'Neil, also is quite a good read. In addition, astute Miller fans will notice some of the qualities that would become even more prominent in his later art -- particularly the large, well-defined eyes and lips, and the creative use of shadow. And you get to see Miller's early artistic take on such characters as the Punisher, Dr. Doom, and Daredevil (before he began penciling DD's monthly titles).

In short, if you are a Frank Miller fan (like me), you will undoubtably find something to enjoy in this book and you'll be glad you bought it. But if you are just looking for some good Spider-Man back issues, and don't have a particular appeciation for Frank Miller himself, then you should look elsewhere. You can find other, better stories at a cheaper price. This book was published because Frank Miller's name was on it, and it is probably best suited for his fans.

Until recently, most of the hardcover reprint collections from both Marvel (the Marvel Masterworks series) and DC (the Archives series) have focused on either the "Golden Age" or the beginning of the "Silver Age" of comics publishing. The success of both the X-Men and Spider-Man movies, and the increasing market for graphic novels in traditional bookstores (rather than just the direct-to-market specialty stores) has both of the large publishers looking to see what they can repackage and gain some "found" money (i.e., don't have to pay for production, just publish and rake in the dough).

I'd decry such simple-minded money-grubbing except that along the way the art department of both companies must have gotten involved, because some of the most recent repacks have been providing comics scholars like myself some much-needed works that were previously only available to a few people (e.g., the Spirit archives) or forgotten by many, such as this collection of Frank Miller's earliest comics work. Sure, Marvel is pushing this not only on Miller's name (and the furor over his Dark Knight Returns 2) but also because it's Spider-Man, for gosh sakes. But if you want to see where Miller's style (both writing and artistic) evolved from, this is the book.

I remember owning a couple of these comics in their original form, but never connected them with Miller, whom I later admired for Ronin and his work on Daredevil and Batman. If anything, the stories here are the weak points, because they typically come from stand-alone "annuals" or team-up books, where Marvel often had a revolving door policy for writers and artists. The two best comics here are those that reveal Miller's work with cross-hatching (Spider-Man Annual #14) and the unique panel arrangements and interest in Eastern themes (Marvel Team-Up #100).

I'm not sure this is worth [the price], for the originals don't have the complex color separations that benefit from this nice paper. But as an archive resource, and for Miller fans, it's easier than hunting down the originals in dusty bins.

First off: This is NOT The Dark Knight Returns starring Spider-Man. A lot of people semm to be expecting a huge new Frank Miller Spidey tale, and are bummed out over getting some really old reprints from Miller's early days, before his style was fully formed. For those that know what they're getting, The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man is a fun trip down memory lane. The stories, with one exception, aren't written by Miller, and the one he wrote was drawn by Herb Trimpe; You won't be getting the Miller writing/art combo that made him famous, but the stories are fun, if somewhat standard. The production values for the book are great- It's a really beautiful package, and the colors look awesome. In addition to the reprinted stories (Guest starring The Punisher, Moon Knight, Power Man & Iron Fist, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, and Doctor Doom, among others), there is also an extensive cover gallery, featuring ALL the Spider-Man covers Miller ever did, and the dust-jacket features a brand-new Miller illustration. For a long-time fan of both Spidey AND Miller, like me, this was money well-spent. Loads of fun!

this was really a disapointing run of Orion stories. THE Mystery of wither Orion and Darkseid are really father and son is never resolved. Just a big fight scene at the end,which is very under-welming.

Dare I say it? Walt Simonson writes and draws Jack Kirby's characters even better than the King himself. Now don't get me wrong, I like Kirby. I wrote a very positive review of the trades that collects the first half of his original New GOds series, but this is even better! In many ways it is a sequel to Kirby's work and also follows a similar style at some points. It is, however, much faster paced, and free of some of the out of date comic book conventions that were prevelant during Kirby's time. Simonson's art is also stunning ... for the most part. Ironically, the cover of the trade is one of the book's worst pieces of art so don't let that turn you off. The other covers, collected inside, are much better. I guess they weren't used because they were not as representative of the whole story.
In this fantastic story Darkseid finally discovers the secret of the anti-life equation and goes about taking over earth. This is one of the paralels that this book has with KIrby's original New Gods, which also featured a Darkseid plot on earth. I totally disagree with one of the other reviewers who critisized the book for having a long fight scene. True, the fight scene took up a whole chapter, but it came at the end of a well written storyline. Taken on its own, it would be boring but as a whole it is a fitting climax to a well written, intellenget story.
This book also features short Tales of the New Gods, which spotlight different New GOds characters. Sometimes it character development and at other times it gives us interesting glimpses into the origins of these classic characters.
In fact, these short stories are even better than the main storyline. This is a brilliant story about ORion's birth and another about Granny Goodness's past. Guest artists on these short stories include FRank MIller, Jon Bogdanove and Klaus Janson.

...Orion is one of the most powerful and compelling characters in the DCU! What makes Orion so intriguing is his state of conflict between good and evil. Though Orion is a "hero", he's likely to treat his foes with measures as ruthless as the most heartless of evildoers. But though he is a "dark hero" he's no angst-driven crybaby. Orion is a creature of sheer will whose first impulse is to directly attack whatever threatens him. Walter Simonson has captured the spirit and character of Orion beautifully. This collection is a must have for both fans of Kirby's Fourth World and newcomers alike.

This qulity comic novel which is heavily influenced by Ayn Rand'sATLAS SHRUGGED. Like Rand, Millersees the greatest threat to freedom not in obvious totalitarians but well meaningidealists who are incompetent or paternalistic or both.The fact that the heroes are minorities is irrelevant to the story and only a bigot or a moron would focus on that in discussing this work.

When I stumbled upon this gem of ultra-cynicism, I thought for a moment that John Carpenter had got his hands on the Miller psyche'. Alas, no. What came out of this reading was such a complete skewering of Bigotry that the backwoods, context-skipping, agenda totting me-me-me creationists would practically bend over backwards to either look the other way or assassinate by character with the dreaded PC word. Wasn't this the dreaded semantics of hypocritical supremacy Miller that was cutting against? By the way, since when were names like FEMINAZI ever "PC".
Watch out for the Anti-Martha's who recommend books about Natural Selection( Darwins Black Box ) that they only heard about from other people who heard it misquoted by the ICR, and then try to bring it up in a review of a UBER-COMIC.
Anyway,this work illustrates how Miller's resurrection,( Sorry, no mythical-inference intended) led to the making of 4, count em'4 Batman movies. Now tell me Burton didn't have this kind of egala-mania in mind with "Batman Returns". Just admit it and give credit where it is due. This one will endure.

At last, Frank Miller has given us a comic book for all Americans and a hero who represents the real America. It's strange to think that a medium like action comics, that wastes so much of its energy trying to reinforce the stale values of an America that hasn't existed since the middle of the last century, could be such fertile ground.

It has opened my eyes to the potential of comics to tell stories that have relevance to the modern world, not some lilly-white America that's been dead for decades.

I would have to call this his best, most mature work to date.

Buy it, or else!