Ninja Week the Conclusion: Comic book ninja!

This site being mostly about super-heroes, I think it would be best to close out Ninja Week with a look at ninjas in one of our most popular topics, comic books. Ninjas have been a major part of comic culture since the ninja craze of the eighties.

The first major character to get related to ninjutsu was none other than the X-Men’s Wolverine. His connections to a ninja clan in the Marvel Universe came in to play in the mid-eighties. It would only be a few more years before Kitty Pryde would become involved, and his evil master Ogun would appear. The Hand would become major villains around the same time in Daredevil, as we also learn that DD went through ninja training. Several other ninja would appear over the years including the revamped Psylocke, Hawkeye as Ronin, Elektra, the Shadowmasters, etc. They would also give the world an alternate reality featuring World War III

Meanwhile, Marvel’s G.I.Joe title would quickly start overflowing with ninja. Snake-Eyes started the ball running, but he would be followed by Storm Shadow, Jinx, Firefly, Slice, Dice and an entire team of ninja known as Ninja Force. Newer comics would give Snake-Eyes an apprentice in Kamakura as well. Often the military action of the series would fall completely to the wayside as the ninja took complete control of the book.

DC on the other hand would remain relatively ninja free. With the exception of the ninja-like Shadowdragon, DC has avoided ninja in just about all forms. Certain characters, like Lady Shiva and Cassandra Cain (Batgirl III) seem quite ninja like without ever being mentioned as such. And of course, Batman Begins gives us Bruce as a ninja.

Independent comics in the eighties and nineties gave us dozens of ninjas, such as C. J. Henderson’s Ninja, the fantasy comic Adventurers tie-in Ninja Elite, Valiant’s secret agent Ninjak, independent magazine Tales of the Ninja Warriors, and Zen the Intergalactic Ninja. Later we would get the ninja of Kabuki and the often quite ninja-like Sohei of Shi. Ben Dunn would rise to success with his parody of manga in all its forms, including ninja, with Ninja High School, a book currently on hiatus (with a planned come back some time this year) but with 175 issues under its belt. And of course, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

TMNT actually started out as a parody of the aformenetioned Uncanny X-Men and Daredevil with the turtles and the evil ninja Foot Clan (a clear play on the Hand). But over the next twenty years of being a multi-media empire, they would become ninja royalty. The Archie published spin-off Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Adventures would even introduce a fifth ninja for the team in the form of the fox-woman Ninjara. I highly doubt more famous ninja exist in the world today.

In recent times, ninja have often become more of a joke, popularized by the internet meme pirates vs. ninja. Antarctic Press, publishers of Ninja High School even created a series about that fight, called... Pirates vs. Ninjas. Adam Warren’s Ninjette is slightly (ok, very slightly) more serious than most, but otherwise funny ninja are often all you can find. Humor web comics like White Ninja, No Need For Bushido, and the ninja doctor named Dr. McNinja. While all fun, this reviewer would appreciate some more serious ninja fare outside of new issues of G.I. Joe.

So, I will leave it open to the audience. Any more ninja I should mention here?

Tales of the Living Legends: The Return of the Golden Age Daredevil!

Up now at Tales of the Living Legends you can find the first page of the new serial featuring none other than the Golden Age Daredevil!

This feature comes from some of the worst quality art scans I have had to work with, so for the first time I will be heavily using Photoshop to edit the pages. Using some of its texture tools has allowed me to darken some of the colors and allow for a smoother appearance of the page.

Daredevil, now known as Coward in the pages of Living Legends is set to be a major player in the expanding Quadrant Universe. Stay tuned for more details soon.

Living Legends 15 Notes

More on Dominique’s plans will appear very soon; this storyline will becoming to the forefront very, very soon.

Who is Starla Prince? Well, that will be a mystery now, won’t it. More will be answered as the secrets of all these characters continue to come out.

I debated as to how graphic I should make the sex in this chapter. I vacillated back and forth on it quite a bit for well over a week. But finally I decided that I needed to establish just how strong the feelings Isobel has for Lash are. And I already well established that I didn’t intend to aim this work at kids. So...

Silver Streak was another character who made his debut as a villain of the Claw. He actually first appeared in Silver Streak Comics, but not until the book’s third issue. Even then he was obviously not the character people wanted to see. What connection does this Silver Streak have to the past character? That will be revealed in good time.

Man, I am mysterious this month! Next month prepared to meet a few more cast members (I am almost done, I promise!) and learn a heck of a lot more about Claw and the Coward. Keep reading, ladies and gentlemen!

Living Legends 14 Notes

Welcome to Riccapoor! The island nation is going to pay a big part in the next few chapters as the battle with the first of our big bads kicks in to high gear!

Luna St. Claire makes her return this month. She remains as cryptic as ever, and I like her that way, but as we close on the continued reasons why the Legends are being hunted, we will learn more and more about her.

Isobel meets Lash, the only man she ever loved. Too bad he doesn’t feel quite the same way. More next month.

The return of another big name from the Golden Age, one who I have been planning literally for months. I strongly considered Daredevil as one of the original heroes of the piece, but ultimately replaced him do to the issue of his name. But I knew that I would have to find away to rename him and bring him back in to the fore-front eventually. He is just far too amazing a character to leave dormant. AC Comics turned him in to Reddevil, Alter Ego turned him in to Double Dare, but he is probably most recognizable to modern comic readers as Dynamite Comics’ Death-Defying ’Devil. And while I appreciate the take Alex Ross and Joe Casey have taken with the character, I think they lose a lot of what originally made Daredevil cool. I want to channel his golden age near-insanity while still updating him for a modern audience. (Erik Larsen’s upcoming use of the character, again!, may have the same feel though. He seems to have a real eye for the golden age. But I digress...)

So... meet the Coward! Expect big things from him in upcoming chapters of Living Legends.

As always, check out every chapter of the story at MHP!