Elektra # 3

Ah, Greg Horn. You either love him or hate him. Personally, I find it difficult to dislike art that looks so accomplished. Others dislike his realism and his, ahem, representation of the female form. Whatever, he still paints cracking covers. (Oddly, though, his recent Secret Invasion images, particularly for the male characters, are a little underwhelming, to these eyes anyway.) This is probably the most iconic image of the series of Elektra covers that he painted - in fact I thought it was the cover for the first issue initially, so well known has this picture become. It's not the sexiest image of the series (that was for the preceding issue, in my opinion, if you want to check it out). However, by holding back on highlighting the obvious attractions of her skimpy costume, Horn has instead produced a breathtaking picture that contrasts threat and danger with beauty. And that sweat! Serious kudos for actually suggesting that superhero activity can be strenuous!

I have ranked this cover no 228 as part of a long term project I am producing on my own blog 'marvel-ous' on blogspot.com re: my favourite marvel comic book covers. Please visit http://dmstarz.blogspot.com and check out the other covers that have made my top 250.