Why Elektra Will Ruin Daredevil Season 2

When it was announced that the second season of Daredevil will feature fan favorite lady-ninja Elektra, we were totally ecstatic. The romance, the drama, the ninja-ing. The possibilities are endless, and endlessly awesome. In fact, there's only one tiny problem with Elektra appearing in Daredevil: she's going to completely ruin the show. Why? Read on to find out why some characters are better off dead.

Okay, so the whole ninja thing is pretty over-the-top to begin with, but we're willing to handwave that away. After all, it's kind of hard to complain about realism when you're dealing with a guy who has sonar. But you know what is just too ridiculous to let pass? The fact that Elektra isn't just a ninja—she's also Matt's ex-girlfriend. Coincidences are one thing, but having your evil ex turn out to actually be a ninja assassin is, like, fanfic levels of silly. C'mon.

Considering the big screen Ben Affleck version of Daredevil didn't keep the TV show from being awesome, you might think this isn't going to be a problem. But if you think that, we're guessing you haven't actually seen Elektra, because, seriously you guys. It's bad. Bad, bad, bad. So no matter how awesome Elodie Yung's portrayal of the character is, every time Elektra shows up on the TV, we're going to be cringing with PTSD in anticipation of some unbridled suckage. And that's a burden the show could do without.

Sure, love triangles are all the rage. But guess what, Marvel? You already have one, because we're still totally shipping Matt with either Claire Temple or Karen Page. Maybe Elektra's presence will just serve to push him into the arms of one of his actual romantic interests, but for our money, any time spent showing Matt swooning over Elektra is time much better spent showing him getting down with Night Nurse. Because anything that takes screen time away from Rosario Dawson is a bad idea in our book.

If you look at the long history of disappointing superhero sequels in both television and films, one theme is immediately apparent: they tried to stuff in too many things. And Daredevil season two already appears to be packed fuller than a Christmas turkey. Besides loose plot threads from last season—like the fate of Vanessa, Wilson Fisk, Stick and his holy war, the mysterious Cornelius Van Lunt, and Madame Gao and her "Iron Fist" whatever—we've also got the Punisher lined up as a big baddie for this season. Yes, the folks in charge of Daredevil deftly handled multiple plot threads last season, but history tells us that the more characters you cram into these things, the worse they get. Elektra may just be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

The biggest issue with trying to cram Elektra into a season already full of other cool things, though? You just can't do her justice in a minor guest appearance. Elektra is a cool, complex character in her own right, and trying to tell her story as a subplot to Daredevil's little gang wars won't just serve her badly—it will serve the show badly too. There's a fine line between stealing scenes and derailing the narrative. We're afraid too little Elektra will be as bad as too much.

Hey, don't get us wrong. It's great that the folks at Marvel have all read "Elektra Saga" and "Born Again" and all those other cool Daredevil comic books by Frank Miller. But guess what? It's not 1986 anymore! And in the last three decades there have been plenty of other good Daredevil storylines that would be great on TV, if only Marvel were willing to stop dry humping Miller's legacy and branch out a little bit. Wilson Fisk getting sent to jail, for example, is the perfect setup for an adaptation of Ed Brubaker's classic "The Devil, Inside and Out" story. Instead, it's back to the same old well with Elektra. She was cool once. Too bad for viewers that was 30 years ago.