Elektra

First Appearance: Daredevil #168

Seriously?

Yep, number four on my list is Ms. Elektra Natchios, the Greek ninja ex-lover and would be assassin of Daredevil, the Man Without Fear.

“What’s Elektra’s deal?”

Elektra’s creator, Frank Miller, described her as the deadliest woman in the Marvel Universe… yet we’d never heard of her until 1981, which is why she makes a pretty good prefab villain.  Daredevil had been fighting crime and sleeping with leading ladies since the early 60s, but somehow, he’d never even mentioned Elektra Natchios.

I won’t get into Elektra’s various convoluted and questionable origins, and instead, focus on her story as it played out in the pages of Daredevil. 

From Wikipedia:

She became the chief assassin in the employ of New York City’s premier crimelord, the Kingpin. She attempted to kill Daredevil after he tried to stop her from terrorizing Ben Urich. The Kingpin then assigned her to kill Matt Murdock’s partner, Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. When Nelson recognized Elektra as Matt’s college girlfriend, she was unable to kill him.

Elektra was fatally stabbed by Bullseye with one of her own sai in a battle over which of them would be the Kingpin’s assassin. Elektra managed to crawl over to Daredevil’s house before dying in his arms as Bullseye watched the two, hidden among a crowd that had gathered to see what was going on. Later, members of the Hand stole her body and attempted to resurrect her. Daredevil, with the assistance of Stone, a member of Stick’s order, intervened, defeating the Hand ninja. Daredevil then tried to revive Elektra himself. Although his attempt failed, it did have the effect of purifying Elektra’s soul. Elektra’s body subsequently disappeared with Stone.

“Why’s Elektra a prefab villain?”

Mostly because, like the Fury, she comes out of the gate fully formed, and “dies” at the end of her first story.  Her introduction immediately changes things up for DD, and opens doors to his past we didn’t even know about.