Review: Ninjak #18

I was going to give this series a break because I’ve found that I rarely enjoy the follow-up after a really good story arc. “The Siege of King’s Castle” was extremely good and tied up all the loose ends of Kindt’s run in a lot of ways. It felt like a fresh start was coming. And then “The Fist & The Steel” instantly revisited the Shadow Council with this issue. I don’t mind that it’s set a bit in the future. In fact, ever since the one shot showing how Ninjak dies happened, I’m all for periodically venturing into this character’s future.

The problem I had is that this didn’t feel like a fresh start and while I can appreciate the fact that the main story and the backstory tie into each other and subsequently the “Dead Side” story arc as well, nothing is particularly interesting here even without comparing it to the last arc. They’re chasing down the creepy guy with extra arms. They talk a lot and it’s okay because Kindt writes a great partnership between Colin and Gilad. The goal of the remaining member of the shadow council is to bring back the Bleeding Monk. Clearly there’s something there that I don’t know because reading a lot of Harbinger kind of answered this question for me, but we’ll see what Kindt has up his sleeves. It’s just that this issue feels really mellow coming off the last story arc.

The art is weird. It’s not bad and shows a lot of talent, but I didn’t like it on this series. Only when Colin was in the Ninjak gear did he look cool. Gilad looks goofy. He just looks off and I didn’t get the same sense of his character from looking at him. Every character’s facial features are bogged down by an excess of extra lines. Instead of adding style and detail, it makes everyone look more like a California Raisin. It’s a personal taste for sure, but much like this story arc, it wasn’t a great fit for the series after “The Siege of King’s Castle.”

The likelihood of me reviewing the next issue is pretty slim. I’ll likely read it as a fan. Having read the previous 17 issues of Kindt’s run and figuring out that the first issue in the arc always sets the style and experience for the complete arc… well, I kind of know what to expect. Since I’m not loving this issue, I can expect the same for the next few and that’s okay. Doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it, but you also probably don’t want to read the same review over and over either. Because of Kindt’s fantastic writing style you can’t just skip this arc if you don’t enjoy the issue, you’ll need the details here and for that reason it’s enough to keep buying and reading.

[su_box title="Score: 3/5" style="glass" box_color="#8955ab" radius="6"]

Ninjak #18 Writer: Matt Kindt Artist: Khari Evans Publisher: Valiant Comics Price: $3.99 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

[/su_box]

Review: Ninjak #17

Well… I probably should have seen this coming. In retrospect, that’s what makes Matt Kindt a strong writer because he was able to pull one over on the readers and yet still deliver all the clues to have made the discovery for yourself. With long con reveals there’s two outcomes: the first is the result of bad writing, it’s a complete surprise because the story didn’t actual build towards the reveal. The second is what Kindt did. He gave you everything and the result is a satisfying statement of, “How did I miss this? Damn.” It’s so rare that I have the fleece pulled over me that I was actually happy that I didn’t catch everything in the story and yet looking back… all the clues were there. Oh, and this issue is just Roku versus Ninjak, but not in the way you think. I don’t know where Kindt takes the story from here. The landscape is different for Colin and it’s almost strange that Kindt has squashed the status quo that’s barely been established in this shared universe still in its infant stage. That is one of the reasons I keep reading Valiant. The landscape is constantly changing and just when you get too comfortable they blow it up. It’s never bad, though. It’s never forced feeling like say anything that Marvel produces. If anything, Valiant is the anti-Marvel.

Because the story starts with a reveal and is centered around that reveal I won’t be talking about the issue any further. I can’t even talk about the backstory this time because, as always, it’s connected to the main story. I will say once again though, that that is how you do a backstory. If it’s not actually feeding into the main plot line, then it’s just padding the page count.

Both artists on the issue deliver stunning art. The sequence between the first two pages is just magical. I had the benefit of scrolling up and down with my mouse which almost made it look like an animation. Even without that you’ll still get a similar effect with print or digital. This really is the best the book has looked since the first story arc and that’s not really a slam since everything after it looked incredible as well, this arc has just raised the bar.

I hate reviewing the end of an arc. I never know whether or not to spoil the shit out of it or just hold back like I’ve done here. It’s why I skip them. It’s not to hold back attention from the issue, but as a courtesy I chose not to spoil it for readers. At the end of the day, my goal with any review is to give you info on why you should or shouldn’t read it and you decide from there. If I spoil it all you don’t have much of a reason to check it out. Hopefully this review still convinced you to check it out and really the entire “Siege on King’s Castle” storyline.

[su_box title="Score: 4/5" style="glass" box_color="#8955ab" radius="6"]

Ninjak #17

Writer: Matt Kindt

Artists: Diego Bernard with Alisson Rodriguez

Publisher: Valiant Comics

Price: $3.99

Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

[/su_box]