Was there ever a canon explanation of why the elf from The Defenders went around shooting people?

Was there ever a canon explanation of why the elf from The Defenders went around shooting people?

Steve Gerber left the book without revealing who the elf was and his successor David Kraft decided it was better to just kill the elf and not explain anything. I don't know if anyone else has explained it.

Also Gerber did a Spider-Man team-up story with Howard the Duck, where the elf's son was out for revenge because of the truck that ran over his dad.

Other Elf With a Gun moments from The Defenders.

I think Gerber just really liked killing middle-class conformist slobs.

One running gag in The Defenders has Hulk repeatedly wrecking this poor guy's house and it's supposed to be OK because it's a suburban house and suburbanites are evil. Gerber was an odd fellow.

...

Jim Shooter's parody of Gerber, as a Hollywood phony who thinks he's a rebel, was not very well written ('cause it's Jim Shooter) but it's also not unfair.

Saw this in the catalog and my first thought was: "Because Gerber?"

I really need to get around to reading that stuff.

Steve Gerber was a treasure that was taken to soon

At least it's not a monkey this time.

>You're not a man!
>You're an elf - With a gun!

The ELF's were time traveling assassins who eliminated people who would bring about the end of the world. Read Defenders #122-125, it explained everything

That was a retcon.

The Elf was just a morbid gag; a serial killer who was supposed to never get caught.

>mfw Gerber is one of my favorite writers and Shooter is one of my favorite editors
>mfw these two men disliked the hell out of each other

>“In interviews, Gerber would reveal that the Elf was nothing more than a backhanded metaphor for the chaotic and inexplicable nature of everyday existence, the “beast in the jungle” that you can spend a lifetime planning for but which still comes as a surprise or maybe never comes at all.”

That's why I think it was impressive Kraft didn't try to explain it and just had him run over by a truck. That's true to Gerber's spirit and he didn't try to give some literal explanation like that bit in Defenders 122-5.

I hope Marvel Masterworks will reprint Kraft's run now that they've finished with Gerber's.

FWIW Jim Shooter claims Gerber liked the parody. Which may not be true (Shooter has his tall tales), but Gerber's self-parody in "Infernal Man-Thing" is actually pretty similar, so it might be true.

Will Elf with a Gun be in the tv show?

The TV show will be DINO (Defenders In Name Only).

Most of the real regular Defenders are either tied up with the movies (Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie) or too obscure (Nighthawk).

There is a Daredevil and a Luke Cage right there.

Daredevil was never a Defender and Cage only ran with them occasionally. They're just helping out because most of the Defenders have been captured.

Valkyrie was in the movies?

She's sated for Thor: Ragnarok.

I heard she was going to be in Dark World, and look how that turned out. Plus having a Valkyrie operate under the codename Valkyrie when there are a lot of them is silly.