Ninjak #2: Anatomy of a Fight Scene

 

Ninjak #2 Cover A by David Nakayama

I can't enlarge this two-page scene any more due to the way my blog displays wide panels. But I thought I'd take a few close up photos of this mega-panel, so you could drink in all the detail. Plus, doing things this way will get rid of the Valiant watermark that obscured Myna in my review copy.

By the way, in case you missed it, I also talked about this panel in yesterday's review of Ninjak #2.

As you may recall, the flying bounty hunter used her control over the weather to hurl Colin away. This blast of wind sent him flying through the air, crashing through the window, and careening across the interior of the overturned train car.

 

The bounty hunter's blast of wind was so strong that it not only broke the window Colin flew through, but the other train car windows as well. The Design Pressure rating on residential windows usually numbers between 15 to 50. Windows on the low end of the scale can sustain 77 mile per hour windows before breaking. 

I don't know the Design Pressure rating for train car windows. As they're designed to shatter rather than break, I'm guessing their DP rating is higher than minimum-strength residential windows.

In any case, the minimum speed rating of a Category 1 Hurricane is 74 mph. Obviously, the bounty hunter's blast was much stronger than that. A concentrated blast of hurricane-force winds? That's a lot to hit someone with.

Even Ninjak.

 

At first, I thought the lighting on the side of Myna's face, and her jacket, was just the sun shining through the windows into a darkened train car. Now I wonder if some of that doesn't come from the lightning the bounty hunter also hit Colin with.

I also initially thought that the bounty hunter had hit Colin with another burst of hail. But those particles flying through the air look more like window shards now. I hope they don't cut Myna too badly.

The way Ninjak looks so composed just makes me smile. Here he's hurling through the air. He's been blasted by intense storm winds. Yet he's already positioned his body and arms. 

The way he compliments Myna on her tactics, while also apologizing for exposing her to danger, suggests he hasn't lost his focus amid this elemental battle. He's clearly thinking ahead, prepared to absorb this impact. Then, providing he's sustained no broken bones, he's ready to battle on.

What a great panel, full of so much story! Well done, writer Jeff Parker and artist Javier Pulido!

Dragon Dave