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?

Super-Powered Comics: Dark Avengers Assemble

Thanks once again to the fine folks at my local library, I have had the chance to check out the beginning of Marvel’s “Dark Reign” from its focal point, Dark Avengers. Specifically the trade of the first six issues, titled “Assembled”.

The first issue is spent just assembling the new team. In case you haven’t heard, the Dark Avengers are sort of a reverse Thunderbolts, a bunch of criminals dressed up as heroes but still distinctly evil. Two members of Iron Man’s Mighty Avengers hold over, the war god Ares and the Sentry, a character too messed up in the head to go anywhere else. In addition, we have Spider-Man (really the Venom symbiote wearing Mac Gargan), Hawkeye (the assassin Bullseye), Ms. Marvel (former Thunderbolt Moonstone), Captain Marvel (Noh-Varr, the former Marvel Boy), and Wolverine (Logan’s son Daken). Led by new head of HAMMER Norman Osborn in his guise as the Iron Patriot, they are the new generation of Avengers.

Never do we really get an explanation of why Norman decided to go this route. He may have had to work for it, but other Marvel books clearly show that he could have formed a team of less famous but more stable (and manageable) actual heroes. He could probably still keep Moonstone and Daken around with little or no trouble and avoid the high probability of Venom or Bullseye going crazy. But clearly the concept is more important than the reasoning, as we quickly move on to the team’s first (secret) mission: to save Doctor Doom from a crazed Morgan Le Fey.

Now as far as I know the last time we saw Morgan was in the first few issues of Kurt Busiek’s Avengers relaunch in the late nineties. That story gave us a near pitch perfect story starring every Avenger on the roster facing an epic time-warping threat. Here we get some demons and an unkillable woman hellbent on Doom’s destruction. She does a lot of damage, the Avengers kill her repeatedly, and a few issues are wasted on what is basically an extended fight with the team’s own idiocy. I suppose this is supposed to show the team’s inability to work together, but all it shows me is that anyone who bought this wasted $12 for these three issues.

Issue five is straight forward Bendis at work. Norman goes on television for an interview about his history as the Green Goblin and the identity of his Avengers. The other team members interact, mostly like twelve year old schoolboys, with the exception of Noh-Varr and Moonstone, who retreat to her bedroom. Noh-Varr learns that the other “heroes” are really villains and leaves.

Issue six closes the trade with the Sentry murdering an entire legion of Atlantean dissidents. We get another brief meeting of Osborn’s Cabal and hints that Osborn’s Green Goblin persona is pushing for control once again.

Writer Brian Michale Bendis likes his decompression, but I have to say that I would feel gypped if I spent $4 an issue for this at their LCS. Even with my library grab, I feel like I am not getting as much story as this trade should have. The story here seems pointless and far from the flagship of an entire line of titles. If this was my only view of Dark Reign, I would say “:No thanks”. Even though Mike Deodato produces art far and away better than anything he has done before, this book still falls flat on its face. Not Recommended.

Super-Powered Comics: Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu

I gave my review of Rampaging Wolverine a few weeks back. Now its pseudo-sequel has hit the stands. While the previous one-shot was inspired by Marvel’s seventies era magazine Rampaging Hulk, Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu holds its inspiration in the classic martial arts magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. And unlike the previous book, this one proves a bit weaker.

The opening story by up and coming writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Kody Chamberlain (whose last name is missing the second A). You might expect some kind of kung fu masterpiece. Instead we get a Deadpool/Shang-Chi team up involving a motorcycle race against multiple criminal organizations. It features an oddball storytelling style in the vein of Deadpool’s own title. Very little of Shang-Chi’s own personality is allowed to shine through.

The second story by novelist Mike Benson and the Marvel Noir alumni team of Tomm Coker and C.P. Smith takes an interesting track. Set in Hong Kong, the captions are completely in Chinese with English subtitles running along the bottom of the page. This is clearly done to increase the cinematic feel of the story. In it he comes in to conflict with another master warrior. The young fighter wants him dead and much of the next several pages is spent in a brutal kung fu battle. A much more solid update of the Master of Kung Fu.

The final comics story, “The Vaccuum [sic] of Memory”, is by former Moon Knight writer Charlie Huston and Spanish comic artist Enrique Romero. Romero has a knack for channeling a classic Marvel style and it shows here in Shang-Chi’s battle with his old friend Midnight (a.k.a. Midnight Sun). The story handles the history of both characters surprisingly well, as Midnight continues his appearance and enhanced abilities from old issues of Silver Surfer. (Don’t ask me to explain; it would take too long.) The two friends battle before Shang-Chi ultimately embraces his old friend.

The final four pages are devoted to a prose piece by Dark Tower co-writer Robin Furth. Instead of a short piece of prose as in Rampaging Wolverine this is instead anecdotes told by Shang-Chi about his own life. While not much to write home about, it does feature excellent spot illustrations from classic Shang-Chi artist Paul Gulacy.

All in all, I think Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu is much weaker overall than Rampaging Wolverine. Shang-Chi has proven himself a much better character for long form fiction than short pieces like this. That shows quite well here, although the debacle that is the opening story couldn’t be made in to a good Shang-Chi tale with any amount of padding. I understand Deadpool is a hot commodity at Marvel now, but that is no excuse to make Shang-Chi play second fiddle in his own (rare) book. While I hope this doesn’t mark the end of Marvel’s black and white magazine-inspired books, I can only give Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu a Mild Recommendation.

Super-Powered Comics: Rampaging Wolverine

With the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on DVD today, I thought I would go back and look at the single best release the movie gave to us. (I still haven’t watched the film yet; expect my review in the near future) That title is a one-shot called Rampaging Wolverine from just a week before the film. Behind a painted cover by Nelson are forty-eight pages of glorious black and white art. The concept harkens back to Marvel’s magazines of the seventies and eighties. I still miss Savage Sword of Conan, so I gave it a try as soon as I saw it in Marvel Previews.

Joshua Hale Fialkov and Paco Diaz Luque open the book with a tale called “Sense Memory”. The story details Logan’s first experience with Madripoor. Pirates get involved, and Wolverine uncovers secrets in both the present and the past. It brings back great memories of the early Claremont/Buscema days of Wolverine, a time period I still fondly remember.

“Unconfirmed Kill” by Chris Yost and Mateus Santolouco is by no means as strong a story, but it does offer a short and clever play on Logan’s healing factor.

“Kiss, Kiss” is a prose story by Robin Furth with spot illustrations by Nelson. Furth may have been reading Lord of the Rings before she wrote this one: it involves Wolverine’s battle with a giant spider. Even so, the story does have a couple clever bits in it, and just the embrace of superhero prose in the book makes me happy.

“Modern Primitive” by Ted McKeever closes out the book. The author of Metropol and Eddy Current seems like an odd choice for the Canadian mutant, but his art style actually offers a pretty cool Logan. The story is a rather straight forward affair about his battle with a giant baboon (no, seriously, it is a giant baboon), but the story really isn’t the star here. McKeever’s art is not for everyone, but if you enjoy it at all you will get some fine work in this one.

Though no story but the lead are rock-solid, Rampaging Wolverine offers a compelling and entertaining package. The art is beautiful through-out, and even in black and white, forty-eight pages with no ads for $3.99 is a steal in today’s market. A black and white follow-up book is on Marvel’s schedule in the near future, this one starring Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. If it is as good as Rampaging Wolverine it too will deserve a Recommended.

Super-Powered Web: Linking Up!

Saw Star Trek over the weekend. No, it doesn’t have anything to do with superheroes, but it is one amazing flick. Still haven’t seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine and after Trek I think it may be even more disappointing.

Anyway, here’s a few super-powered links worth checking out:

• The Source - the DCU’s new blog offers more coolness than I have seen from either of the big two for quite some time!
  
  
• X-Men Origins Wolverine: Weapon X - a surprisingly entertaining Facebook flash game. Somewhat limited, but fun for a few minutes a day at least.
  
  
• Green Lantern DC - Not Quite Safe For Work... Yeah, DC might want to start registering some domain names before this happens again!
  
  
• El Santo Comics at From Parts Unknown - a look at Mexico’s own real life superheroes. Fun article.

Got any more quality super-powered links for me? Be sure to post them in the comments!