Costume Spotlight: Elektra

I'm pretty sure every one knows what Elektra looks like.

But just in case, when Elektra first appeared in Daredevil #168 (November 1980), she wore this classic outfit:

And she's worn that pretty much ever since. There have been some variations, such as this white version she wears on occasion...

...and Ultimate Elektra wore a black outfit similar to the 2003 film version (I can't confirm whether the Ultimate version was based on the film version)...

...but mostly it's been the all-red outfit, to the point where one of the biggest complaints fans had against Daredevil (2003) was that Elektra didn't wear red. (They fixed this for the Elektra solo film, which is the only thing they got right.)

Daredevil season 2 (2016), however, has Elektra wear a more practical outfit with a mix of black and red:

This month, Marvel gave Elektra her own series, and Elektra #1 (February 2017) features a suit that, while clearly more comic-booky than the Netflix, is clearly inspired by it:

I don't think that the series will go farther than that and give Elektra a French-Cambodian heritage, but stranger things have happened.

Country Spotlight: Sokovia

This one took me by surprise, though it probably shouldn't have since it's become such a turning point in the MCU.

In Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 2015), we're introduced to an Eastern European country called Sokovia. Sokovia is a major part of the story as that's where Baron Strucker's base is, that's where Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver live, and that's where Ultron decides to attack. It continues to be important in Captain America: Civil War (May 2016), because it's where Zemo's from and it's (obviously) a large part of the reason behind the Sokovia Accords.

Here's the weird part: I'm not entirely sure why they created Sokovia for the movie. In the comics, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are from the Eastern European country Transia, and that would've worked just as well.

Regardless, Sokovia is here, and it makes sense that the comics would eventually use it, which they did in Captain America: Steve Rogers #5 (September 2016):

Sokovia also appears in issue 7. Whether it'll become a staple of the Marvel Universe like Wakanda or Madripoor remains to be seen.

Costume Spotlight: The Atom

This is The Atom, aka Ray Palmer.

This is The Atom, aka Ryan Choi. Choi first appeared after Ray Palmer disappeared following the events of Identity Crisis (2004).

The CW introduced Ray Palmer to the Arrowverse in the season 3 premiere of Arrow (October 2014). They originally wanted to use Ted Kord/Blue Beetle, but DC said he was tied up elsewhere. So they basically did a find-and-replace on all instances of "Ted Kord" in the script and called it a day. Instead of being a science professor at Ivy University, Ray Palmer is a technology CEO who builds himself an exosuit.

And if you think I'm being too harsh, check this out: Ray Palmer uses the ATOM suit in six episodes of Arrow season three and one episode of The Flash season one. We don't find out it can shrink until Arrow season four.

Anyway, last year DC ushered in Rebirth, which was supposed to accomplish several different things, one of which was bringing back fan-favorite characters that the New 52 had shuffled off. One of these was Ryan Choi, who appeared in DC Rebirth #1 (May 2015).

As you can see, Ray Palmer is still wearing his classic costume. But when Ryan Choi debuted (again) at The Atom in Justice League of America: The Atom #1 (January 2017), it was in a costume very reminiscent of the tv version.

Group Spotlight: Strategic Scientific Reserve

The Strategic Scientific Reserve is one of the most interesting additions to the Marvel canon that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made. Basically, what they did is use real history to fill in a story gap and create a connection to the present that wasn't there previously.

In the comics, you have Project Rebirth, which seems to be just an Army experiment, and then later on you have SHIELD. But the MCU said, "well, in real life the CIA was preceded during war time by the OSS? What if SHIELD was the same way?" Enter the SSR. This also allowed them to give the Howling Commandos ties to SHIELD despite not being led by Nick Fury in this continuity.

Which brings us to another alternate reality, but one in the comics this time: Spider-Gwen. Spider-Gwen is set on Earth-65, which is similar to the main Marvel universe on the surface, but with differences here and there. The differences generally fall into one of two categories - (1) characters are the opposite of what you'd expect; Peter Parker was the Lizard, Matt Murdock is the Kingpin, Frank Castle is a cop, or (2) women are put to the forefront; Gwen Stacy is Spider-Woman, Peggy Carter runs SHIELD, Captain America is named Samantha Wilson.

In Spider-Gwen #2 (November 2015), we get a lot of Captain America's backstory. The first part comes in a flashback, where we see the SSR in action:

But we don't learn it's the SSR until a text piece in the back, which gives a fuller history of the character:

It's not the 616 universe, which is a little disappointing, but I'm hoping this is the first step to learning the organization existed there in some capacity as well.