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Ninjak #1 Cover B by Caspar Wijngaard
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If you're new to Ninjak, he's a British aristocrat who worked as a spy for MI-6. Unlike James Bond, he also took on freelance assignments. These allowed him to sustain a life of wealth and privilege. At least until he broke with MI-6.
Now his former handler, Neville Alcott, meets someone for a pint and a chat.
I get the feeling that Neville was summoned to this meeting, and that Mr. Darbin is higher-up in MI-6 than Neville.
Mr. Darbin's comment suggests that Neville didn't know about the program people within MI-6 ran to control Colin King, aka Ninjak. But in an agency that is all about secrets, who knows all that Neville Alcott knows?
In any case, it was Colin's discovery of the program that caused Ninjak to declare himself a free agent (in addition to not handing in Livewire to the authorities).
There was always the question of how much affection Neville had for Colin. Much like James Bond and M, their relationship should be all business. But when you work closely with people, and come to trust and rely on them, keeping your distance from them is...complicated.
In any case, while Colin may have given up on MI-6, Neville is tracking Colin.
Regardless of Neville's feelings about Colin, Mr. Darbin is clearly more detached. Remember the classic 1960s British TV series The Prisoner, filmed in the height of the cold war? In Mr. Darbin's view, Colin is merely an asset. He will always be owned by MI-6.
He cannot resign.
He can never leave.
Secrets filter through this story. In addition to the secrets which Mr. Darbin and Neville Alcott know, and the secrets that Colin King can not be allowed to know and remain outside MI-6 control, there is the vast information web we call the internet. There is the 24 hour news cycle.
As we live in the Information Age, people will always seek power by discovering secrets, and dispensing them in a way that will benefit them most.
Of course, it helps if you have superpowers. When a man and his sister walk into the pub, we discover that, like Kubo-sama in The Visitor, the woman has mental powers. Unlike Kubo-sama, she can read minds.
Myna, the Songbird agent Neville refers to, is watching Ninjak in Istanbul, Turkey. As she watches him through her binoculars, she also surveys the group of men Colin is approaching.
Constantinople once numbered among the greatest cities on Earth. Now renamed Istanbul, it is largest city in Turkey.
While Ankara is the capital city of modern day Turkey, Istanbul also hosts a large number of embassies. Apparently, the crown prince of an Arabic-speaking country resides at one of them.
As with MI-6, the importance of keeping secrets is important to all of them too.
Myna seems to have chosen her viewpoint well. Through her binoculars, she sees the men surrounding the secret-thief who wishes to leave the embassy.
The man she has been following, Colin King, is not wearing his traditional Ninja garb. Much like the Ninjas of old, he has dressed to blend in at the enemy camp he desired to infiltrate.
As in the James Bond films, we enjoy the occasional humorous exchange. It lightens the mood, and helps us prepare for the violence we know is coming.
The use of the saw as a weapon seems geared to send a message to the victim's employers. The villains no doubt hope that the organization that profited from dispensing the victim's secrets will be cowed by their response. Of course, it also reminds James Bond fans of how a rotary saw was used in the film Octopussy.
Apparently, MI-6 has been highly successful in tracking down all of Colin King's hidden assets, and cutting him off from his personal sources of funds. Why else would a freelance operative who normally works for wealthy clients need a free language app?
This aspect of his preparation, or should I say lack-of-preparation, suggests that this mission may have arisen suddenly.
The retro art style, perhaps geared toward British readers of The Beano, or those who grew up enjoying the adventures of Tintin, softens the action. Unlike Valiant's series Roku, which seemed geared to tween girls but with a John Wick level of violence, the limited color palette and simpler drawing style of new Ninjak series seems much less graphic.
It also reminds me of children's books from the fifties and sixties. Publishers sometimes used a two-color process for printing illustrations, such as black and one other color.
Longtime comic readers might also remember that when freelance investigator Ms. Tree moved from Eclipse Comics to Aardvark Vanaheim in the 1980s, the book adopted a similar color style.
Myna, the agent watching Ninjak, may be young and inexperienced. Still, she notices how Ninjak has gone more bare-basics recently. Is this because he's running low on his own resources?
Or has living life on the run hardened him, and made him a better Ninja? Perhaps, as in the recent James Bond films, Colin has realized that he doesn't need to rely on so many high tech gadgets to get the job down anymore. So, instead of employing a horde of flying drones bristling with weapons, he opted for a more lean-and-mean approach for his current mission.
I must admit: I'm worried about Myna. While Colin King has long waded in
the murky waters of the espionage world, she seems less prepared. She will need to grow into her abilities quickly. Once the man and his sister decide to dispense the secrets they stole from Mr. Darbin and Neville Alcott, she will lose the anonymity that once shielded her.
Hopefully, I've given you a sense of what this new Ninjak series is about, without dispensing too many secrets that will spoil your enjoyment of Ninjak #1. As with Myna, I wish to thank Valiant Entertainment for their trust in me, as well as giving me the chance to give you this advance review.
Despite employing a simpler art style, this new Ninjak series offers up an intriguing story. Jeff Parker and Javier Pulido have loaded a lot of plot into twenty pages. Still, I cannot end this review without a warning.
The last page is a game-changer. Whether or not it blows your mind, it will scatter your expectations to the wind. So be forewarned. Strap on that armor, and weapon up.
Whatever you do, prepare for our secret-hoarding, secret-stealing, secret-imprisoning, and secret-killing world by reading Ninjak #1.
Dragon Dave
