Ninjak #20 Discussion

[Psiot X]

Another month. A new issue of Ninjak to feed the addiction.

Right out of the gate, I was impressed by the dialogue and loved them arguing long enough for spidey to play like ambush bug. I hated the facial drawing of Gilad though and wondered if he was the same person panel to panel.

Ninjak did what? He set hair on fire… It's like that drunk girl that peed on my hat. We were never close again.

Then it got surreal. Loved the deadside art once they went through the port-o-potty to hell. But the plot got a wee bit ahead of my head in that we were making a cure in the now that was really made years ago to maim the little cthuluu head worm before ...

Why did I write we? Maybe I felt like I was there.

Oh god, I wish I didn't when they went into the womb, got wet going in the wrong way, and splooted out into 2001 A Space Odyssey to confront the ancient monolith. Budget was low so we were left with but a woody.

Wow cool. I love the fire angel people. One of them should come to Valiant Earth and start in a comic book.

Mr Immortal talks too much sometimes.

Ninjak vs Horde of fire angels next time in the other world.

Whoa there did Mambo just tongue our favorite ninja into an alternate reality? That's so… err… uhm… Then she spit tea leafs in the wind while we got surreal again and I wandered to and fro surreal again er…

I gotta go pee and take aspirin.

I am befuddled.

I enjoyed it. You?

[Brapbrap]

excellent issue, shame about the art though

[Psiot X]

excellent issue, shame about the art though

It is the faces more than anything.

[jmatt]

We are definitely not in Kansas anymore.

This makes Jim Morrison's celebrity-based alternate reality museum thing look normal. (FVL's A&a)

I was thinking that this was all too weird to understand but the Lost Files epilogue rounded it out and brought me back.

The undead monk says "Mambo, come back..." and then we see Neville finishing the sentence "... come back to us."

Why is she hearing Neville's words through the monk? If I were to read into that too much, I might be inclined to think that the undead monk is somehow Neville Alcott.

An, uh, interesting story line here. But pretty enjoyable. I like when Valiant gets all weird on us.

[grendeljd]

If anyone would like to hear our OTV:VCR podcast discussing/reviewing this issue [and Faith #4], please follow the link;

http://onlythevaliant.com/episodes/vcr87/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks to any who listen in

[Psiot X]

We are definitely not in Kansas anymore.

This makes Jim Morrison's celebrity-based alternate reality museum thing look normal. (FVL's A&a)

I was thinking that this was all too weird to understand but the Lost Files epilogue rounded it out and brought me back.

The undead monk says "Mambo, come back..." and then we see Neville finishing the sentence "... come back to us."

Why is she hearing Neville's words through the monk? If I were to read into that too much, I might be inclined to think that the undead monk is somehow Neville Alcott.

An, uh, interesting story line here. But pretty enjoyable. I like when Valiant gets all weird on us.

I felt like I was trapped in a song by the Cleverly's.



It was a weird trip to the strange side and we even had purple.

[Bl00dsh0t]

Ninjak continues to be a solid read. Valiant (and Kindt for that matter) are doing a great job. This feels like the most cohesive book they've put out over the last couple of years (XO, Harby aside).

Really like the guest appearances without the need to have an 'event'. EW, Punk Mambo and Livewire are all here in this issue. More of this please!

Could the Undead Monk be the Bleeding Monk? If not, I wonder if there are linkages there yet to be explored...

[Phoenix8008]

Stray thought here... Fiery 'angels' guarding a deadside supercomputer filled with knowledge? In early Shadowman issues, didn't Darque spend time in Lyceum (part of the deadside) killing all the angels and stealing all the knowledge there? Maybe somebody (in the future) gets the knowledge back somehow and puts it in a centralized location under heavy guard??

[Dallow Spicer1]

I'm not a big fan of mixing Ninjak and the Deadside although I do like the parasite in Colin's head story. The Dr Silk on the spider was a bit too 'out there' for my taste. The dialogue between Ninjak and Gilad is getting a little too 'buddy' at times, little but too much on 'witty' dialogue to the point it becomes distracting.

That said, I really liked how Kindt brought the main story and the 'Lost Files' story together, thought that was really clever. For me, the Lost Files story was better than the main story as was the art. It impresses me that VEI have stuck with the back up stories for 20 issues now, great value IMO.

Would have been 3/5 but the back up story brings it up to 3.75/5 - clever work by Matt Kindt

[TheeBaldMoose]

I'm not a big fan of mixing Ninjak and the Deadside although I do like the parasite in Colin's head story. The Dr Silk on the spider was a bit too 'out there' for my taste. The dialogue between Ninjak and Gilad is getting a little too 'buddy' at times, little but too much on 'witty' dialogue to the point it becomes distracting.

Maybe because I am new to the VU, but I like the banter these two have, I enjoy it. It shows a mutual respect, EW knows Ninjak is a fighter and vise versa. Now, I won't go and say they are the next Archer and Armstrong team up, but pairing them together for short stints is enjoyable.

That said, I really liked how Kindt brought the main story and the 'Lost Files' story together, thought that was really clever. For me, the Lost Files story was better than the main story as was the art. It impresses me that VEI have stuck with the back up stories for 20 issues now, great value IMO.

Could this have been VEI's idea this whole time? Could they have wanted to do this to try and stretch it out as long as they could, maybe another long run of 50? We can only hope!