By Dustin Cabeal

What has been particularly satisfying to me as a reader of Ninjak is how different Christos Gage’s era of the series has been already. All the familiar elements of the universe are there, but Gage isn’t attempting to continue Matt Kindt’s style. It gives the feel of the torching having been passed. Hopefully, like Kindt, Gage will stay on the book for a great while.

A side note about Valiant titles, they stand out more from other superhero books because each creator jumps on for a two-year stint on the series and each smaller arc is building towards their larger arc until it concludes. Kindt has done this with several books, Venditti did it on X-O Manowar, and it’s been a constant on Harbinger and Bloodshot. Nothing is just dropped or changed because it didn’t work but instead allowed to run its course naturally.

Ninja-K has been all about the history of the Ninja program. It succeeds in adding a lot of details to the world. I find that particularly enjoyable because I like learning about all these other Ninjas and their adventures. The Ninja program is very much Valiant’s Double-O program. Disenfranchised youth that are trained to be spies and leave a trail of the dead while saving the world. That’s what was so great about the first issue of the series, it established itself as James Bond, but they’re Ninjas. Instead of it being just one super-agent though, there’s an incredible history dating back to World War I or II. Valiant is very careful and detail carefully with its past and future storylines, making sure to mention Unit-Y in this issue.

As for the story, we do get to see who our mystery Ninja is, or at least who the story wants us to think it is for the moment. I suspect there’s a bit of a Scream element to the story and that it’ll be more than one person that has come to bring the Ninja program down. The backstory was beautifully done and added a lot of depth to a character besides Collin which was terrific. I’m sure there will be more there later, but we’ll have to wait and see. The present storyline had several great moments. Gage uses the full amount of pages for his story. Compared to other comics this reads like a double-sized issue.

There are three artists on this issue, including the backup story. I enjoyed them all. In particular, the opening artist was the strongest of the three, but the main story artist is wonderfully detailed and precisely the style you’d expect from Valiant and in particular a Ninjak story. The coloring unites all the artists, which is a smart choice on Valiant’s end. It gives it a uniformed look by having the same coloring decisions made throughout the issue. The issue just looks gorgeous from beginning to end.

If you picked up the first issue and it didn’t quite click with you, give it another shot. You may have already made the James Bond connection on your own, but how does that not excite you as a reader? I’ve read those James Bond comics, and they’re boring as shit, this has tech, ninjas, supernatural elements and the rest of the Valiant Universe attached, it's worth the read especially if you’re into superhero comic books.

Score: 4/5

Ninja-K #2
Valiant Comics