Written by Jeff Parker
Art by Javier Pulido
Published by Valiant Comics
Well, color me surprised!
I never read any Valiant characters back in their ‘90s heyday other than Doctor Tomorrow. The others didn’t much interest me. Way too extreme ’90s for my taste at the time.
For me, the most extreme ’90s of those Valiant characters not named Bloodshot was Ninjak. A white man who’s a British ninja superspy? Nope.
And yet here I am, in 2021, reading a Ninjak comic. And it’s not just good, but cool, too!
It’s still derivative as all get-out, though. MI6’s deep cover agents have all been identified by an internet leak, such as in the James Bond movie Spectre. Agents are being killed all around the world.
Ninjak is the best assassin in the world, but he’s left MI6 and gone freelance. Meanwhile, the agent tasked with keeping tabs on him gets caught up in the data leak, and of course Ninjak saves her life.
They’re now both on the run and trying to phone home, and perhaps find out who’s actually behind the leak.
Lucky for us, there’s still some zip in placing a full-on spy thriller inside a world where superpowered heroes and mutant men are real and present.
Also, some 21st-century flavors are thrown in. The MI6 agent thrown together with Ninjak is an Indian-British woman codenamed Myna. And Ninjak first appears in the book preventing a Jamal Khashoggi-type journalist from meeting his fate.
But don’t get it twisted: the true star, the main reason to pick up this title, is because Javier Pulido drew it.
Open the pages and be blown away that this avant-garde fantasy of lyrical panel construction and simplistic yet evocative line art is a book about freaking Ninjak.
Pulido shows off so many virtuoso flourishes, including a splash page turned diagonal as a mind-reader digs into the psyches of a pair of old MI6 fuddy-duddies talking shop over a pint.
Ninjak is plenty violent: hands chopped off, men stabbed to death, necks sliced. Yet Pulido’s art stylizes the blood sprays. And he also goes for the close-up and off-camera implied as much as the explicit.
Similarly, Pulido’s illustration of the Ninjak suit is a welcome change from the super-’90s comic book look with the martial arts gi over techy gauntlets and the mask hiding his face but letting his hair run free. Here, all of that is reduced to a black silhouette with purple accents up the limbs.
I was pleasantly surprised by this comic book that remained fast-paced despite having to explain to readers (including me) who the hell Ninjak is.
Well, now I know – this version, anyway. And with this new series, I don’t want to revisit the old books and spoil this mood.
