Over the decades, Daredevil has had almost as many love affairs as he has had foes to fight. However, among the women who have come in and out of Matt Murdock's life, his entanglement with Elektra Natchios is perhaps the most iconic, but it was a relationship not destined to last.

Elektra Natchios was created by Frank Miller as Matt Murdock's past lover and introduced in Daredevil #168 by Miller, Klaus Janson, and Joe Rosen, released in January 1981. Since her debut, the character has been a staple of Daredevil canon and a driving factor in Matt Murdock's actions, both in his personal life and in his secret vigilante life as Daredevil.

In the current Daredevil series, Daredevil: The Woman Without Fear by Erica Schultz, Saladin Ahmed, and Michael Dowling, Elektra takes over the cowl from Matt and acts as Daredevil herself. But her creator, Miller, knew from the beginning that these two were doomed to fail. He addressed the dangerous ion between the two in an interview with Inkl:

Character comes logically, but a lot of it's just the needs of the story. And I with Daredevil, it always struck me that the lead character would be this godlike figure in tights showing off his physique, whereas all the female characters would be almost all civilians, and they'd mostly be romantic. And so with Elektra, I wanted to combine the romantic side but mix it up with being an antagonist, a femme fatale, and constructing a long, tortured love story between the two.

Daredevil and Elektra Were Destined to Destroy One Another, According to Frank Miller

The Fiery Couple Could Not Control the Flames

In Elektra's debut in Daredevil #168, she is introduced as the alluring Greek beauty and Matt's one-time love from college. However, after her parents were killed, Elektra turned to the criminal organization known as the Hand and became a trained assassin. When she and Matt meet again, the woman Elektra has become is starkly different from the woman Matt fell in love with. He cannot allow her to operate with such flagrant disregard for the law and human life. However, Matt still harbors the same love from their early days in spite of Elektra's path.

Tortured or not, Daredevil and Elektra continue to revolve around each other and somehow always find a way to return to each other's side.

Despite the difference in morals, Matt and Elektra are constantly drawn to one another by a dangerous spark that neither can extinguish, no matter how hard they try. Various iterations of the couple, from comics to movies, have portrayed Matt and Elektra's relationship in different ways; sometimes loving and other times violent. Miller, as Elektra's creator, always intended Elektra to play a different role in Daredevil's life.

Daredevil and Elekra Were Never Meant to Be Endgame

But That Doesn't Mean Their Romance Isn't Important

Elektra acts as the dark side that Murdock refuses to embrace but cannot fully avoid. Murdock's strict moral code goes against everything Elektra and The Hand stand for. However, Murdock can never fully view Elektra as the dangerous adversary she is, as part of his heart still longs for her. When all cards are played, both Daredevil and Elektra are a threat to each other. Miller's vision of Daredevil and Elektra's relationship could only have ended terribly for both of them, as Miller himself described the two as sharing a "tortured ion":

All of it did get back to the idea that they had this tortured ion. And, I mean, it was mutual. They would've wound up killing each other.

Tortured or not, Daredevil and Elektra continue to revolve around each other and somehow always find a way to return to each other's side. Depending on the occasion, their reunions can range from deep ion to a battle royale. Yet neither Daredevil nor Elektra can resist the other.

Daredevil #168 is available now from Marvel Comics.

Source: Inkl