Ninjak #24 Discussion

[grendeljd]

If anyone would like to hear our OTV:VCR podcast discussing/reviewing this issue [and Divinity III: Shadowman #1], please follow the link;

http://onlythevaliant.com/episodes/vcr103/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks to any who listen in

[greg]

So, that feminine looking Darque figure at the end of Ninjak #22 was... feminine.

[grendeljd]

So, that feminine looking Darque figure at the end of Ninjak #22 was... feminine.

Yuuuuup.

[Brapbrap]

so how much money are we willing to bet that he uses the sword on roku

[Phoenix8008]

so how much money are we willing to bet that he uses the sword on roku

Not if she's going to have time enough to reform her ways and become part of the good guy team as shown in the Book of Death splash page.

[grendeljd]

so how much money are we willing to bet that he uses the sword on roku

Not if she's going to have time enough to reform her ways and become part of the good guy team as shown in the Book of Death splash page.

I'm with brapbrap - but I'll take it a notch further than he may have meant. I think he will use it on Roku, but instead of literally killing her as the prophecy seems to indicate will happen, I think it might just purge out the evil Darque influence from the neck spike & maybe return her to a more pure self as Angelina Alcott.

[jmatt]

I'm kinda wondering if he'll kill Jack Boniface. It's obvious that Shadowman is making his way back into the VEI universe, and they may want to simply disappear all of the stuff that led to the title's end. So if he kills Jack or his incarnation of Shadowman, that opens up the possibility that someone else became Shadowman all those years ago.

He's the one character I can think of that Valiant might want to erase entirely.

So, I can't recall. Has the Shadowman we've seen in Stalinverse been referred to as 'Jack'? Perhaps that Shadowman has an entirely different backstory and will re-emerge (along with the Red Brigade) once Stalinverse comes to a close.

EDIT: Ooops, cancel that. Just read the thread about Jack returning in some kind of mini. Although it was just a quote from Warren using the name. Possible head fake? Prolly not. Still like my Crazy Theory though.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Not listended to the podcast yet but hopefully someone has picked up on the fact that on the last panel of Ninjak #22 the Shadow 7 were confronting Colin King in his civvies, the first page of #23 it's full on Ninjak outfit in the middle of a big fight!!! This is just plain bad planning and editing!! Typos are one thing but this is just unprofessional. To the people who read Marvel and DC do you see as many editing cock ups as we get in the Valiant books?

Must try harder!

As for the book, I enjoyed the Sandria parts of the book, some of Ninjak's dialogue was amusing although I'm not sure I want the character to be wise cracking. Not sure I liked the cartoony recap style art, recap yes, but that art choice was odd.

The Rasputin reference was good as I'd literally just read the Baba Yaga story. Not sure how the head of Rasputin moves around though? Kindt has a weird imagination (mostly in a good way)!!

Horrendous editing blip aside, I thought this was an 'ok' read - 3.25/5

[jmatt]

Not sure I liked the cartoony recap style art, recap yes, but that art choice was odd.

Thanks for reminding me, I loved the recap idea for the title. And the way it was told on a magical embroidered garment made sense in that each of the little snippets were limited to just a few panels without tons of detail to get in the way. Much better than if we had just seen Sandria reciting out loud a retelling of the events of his life.

The cartooniness gave us nice little chapters for each of the major events in his life. Great idea and innovative presentation.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Not sure I liked the cartoony recap style art, recap yes, but that art choice was odd.

Thanks for reminding me, I loved the recap idea for the title. And the way it was told on a magical embroidered garment made sense in that each of the little snippets were limited to just a few panels without tons of detail to get in the way. Much better than if we had just seen Sandria reciting out loud a retelling of the events of his life.

The cartooniness gave us nice little chapters for each of the major events in his life. Great idea and innovative presentation.

Ha ha I didn't pick up on the fact it was on the tapestry, that makes a bit more sense as to why it was there...I read it as a weird interlude first time around. It was clever how Kindt worked this into issue #23 which is obviously for newer readers and yes I'd much rather this method than one of the characters verbalise it.

[JCP]

Not listended to the podcast yet but hopefully someone has picked up on the fact that on the last panel of Ninjak #22 the Shadow 7 were confronting Colin King in his civvies, the first page of #23 it's full on Ninjak outfit in the middle of a big fight!!! This is just plain bad planning and editing!! Typos are one thing but this is just unprofessional. To the people who read Marvel and DC do you see as many editing cock ups as we get in the Valiant books?

Must try harder

I didn't catch that but great observation. Your twitter exchange with Dino about it was great!

[Dallow Spicer1]

Not listended to the podcast yet but hopefully someone has picked up on the fact that on the last panel of Ninjak #22 the Shadow 7 were confronting Colin King in his civvies, the first page of #23 it's full on Ninjak outfit in the middle of a big fight!!! This is just plain bad planning and editing!! Typos are one thing but this is just unprofessional. To the people who read Marvel and DC do you see as many editing cock ups as we get in the Valiant books?

Must try harder

I didn't catch that but great observation. Your twitter exchange with Dino about it was great!

Well I tried to be subtle about it but it did need saying, that was poor editing as the cliffhanger in the previous issue was Colin King reaching for a blade surrounded by the Shadow 7. Dino took it in good spirits though!

[BugsySig]

I'm kinda wondering if he'll kill Jack Boniface. It's obvious that Shadowman is making his way back into the VEI universe, and they may want to simply disappear all of the stuff that led to the title's end. So if he kills Jack or his incarnation of Shadowman, that opens up the possibility that someone else became Shadowman all those years ago.

He's the one character I can think of that Valiant might want to erase entirely.

So, I can't recall. Has the Shadowman we've seen in Stalinverse been referred to as 'Jack'? Perhaps that Shadowman has an entirely different backstory and will re-emerge (along with the Red Brigade) once Stalinverse comes to a close.

EDIT: Ooops, cancel that. Just read the thread about Jack returning in some kind of mini. Although it was just a quote from Warren using the name. Possible head fake? Prolly not. Still like my Crazy Theory though.

I really think the only way to salvage Shadowman for any sort of new series is to kill off Jack and start over with a new Shadowman...maybe even go back to the mask holding the power/loa.

[jmatt]

I really think the only way to salvage Shadowman for any sort of new series is to kill off Jack and start over with a new Shadowman...maybe even go back to the mask holding the power/loa.

That's why Jack makes sense to me. I didn't dislike the first incarnation too much (Magpie storyline was good), but if they're gonna wipe someone out of existence, I vote for Jack.

[Brapbrap]

so how much money are we willing to bet that he uses the sword on roku

Not if she's going to have time enough to reform her ways and become part of the good guy team as shown in the Book of Death splash page.

I think thats from the averted future, darque got treed instead of becoming a geomancer so that sequence in BOD where not-unity fights darque is probably not going to happen

[Phoenix8008]

so how much money are we willing to bet that he uses the sword on roku

Not if she's going to have time enough to reform her ways and become part of the good guy team as shown in the Book of Death splash page.

I think thats from the averted future, darque got treed instead of becoming a geomancer so that sequence in BOD where not-unity fights darque is probably not going to happen

We don't know that the group shown was actually there to be fighting against Darque. And unless Ninjak actually uses his newly enchanted sword to erase Darque from existence (which is NOT gonna happen I'm sure), then Darque is still free to get un-treed sometime later and become a big bad guy again and he could be the one they were fighting against in that picture. Either possibility is open.

[jmatt]

... then Darque is still free to get un-treed sometime later and become a big bad guy again and he could be the one they were fighting against in that picture. Either possibility is open.

I'm never quite sure whether I like or dislike the idea that we're really not sure whether the future in BoD happens.

Although it's been some time since I read it, I wonder if that was supposed to be definitively answered and just wasn't conveyed strongly enough.

[Phoenix8008]

... then Darque is still free to get un-treed sometime later and become a big bad guy again and he could be the one they were fighting against in that picture. Either possibility is open.

I'm never quite sure whether I like or dislike the idea that we're really not sure whether the future in BoD happens.

Although it's been some time since I read it, I wonder if that was supposed to be definitively answered and just wasn't conveyed strongly enough.

I believe that VEI intend for the individual events shown to indeed happen at some point if they were to continue printing comics for enough years. That gathering of heroes to fight a big evil will likely happen - but who/what that evil will be wasn't exactly nailed down from what I remember. As for the 'prophecy' being kinda vague, that's how prophecy is supposed to be. That way VEI isn't totally painting themselves into a later corner, they're just pre-selecting a color palette for the future that they can work into some future event and make it match up 'enough'.

[depluto]

This is a great book! Consistently surprises me with how well the book handles a pretty large cast of characters and takes Ninjak out of his spy-world and into these fringe worlds.

[Brapbrap]

so how much money are we willing to bet that he uses the sword on roku

Not if she's going to have time enough to reform her ways and become part of the good guy team as shown in the Book of Death splash page.

I think thats from the averted future, darque got treed instead of becoming a geomancer so that sequence in BOD where not-unity fights darque is probably not going to happen

We don't know that the group shown was actually there to be fighting against Darque. And unless Ninjak actually uses his newly enchanted sword to erase Darque from existence (which is NOT gonna happen I'm sure), then Darque is still free to get un-treed sometime later and become a big bad guy again and he could be the one they were fighting against in that picture. Either possibility is open.

Will have to check the comic but im fairly sure that they are fighting darque, i think the sequence went on later to show gilad getting stabbed by darque in that same fight

[jmatt]

Will have to check the comic but im fairly sure that they are fighting darque, i think the sequence went on later to show gilad getting stabbed by darque in that same fight

That's my recollection as well.

[ShadowTuga]

Gotta throw a huge amount of love to this book. Matt Kindt is really pulling a great story right now- but it's weird that Ninjak's best stories are Deadside related, imho.
Sandria killing Roku was crazy. And that mini trip to Colin's subconscience? That was so *SQUEE* awesome!!!!!

I'm seriously hyped for this book- and the eventual return of a Shadowman series, also.

[jmatt]

Whoa whoa whoa. Sandria killed Roku?

[ShadowTuga]

Whoa whoa whoa. Sandria killed Roku?

I typed that, lmao.
Nevermind, bad posting skills (was trying to write a sentence about Roku's death but midway switched gears- did not read my posted msg. I meant "wow, Sandria is behind this."

[jeremycoe]

Whoa whoa whoa. Sandria killed Roku?

I typed that, lmao.
Nevermind, bad posting skills (was trying to write a sentence about Roku's death but midway switched gears- did not read my posted msg. I meant "wow, Sandria is behind this."

Yeah, I was really confused and had to go back to the issue for a second.