Ninjak finally reaches Roku!
Creative Staff:
Story: Matt Kindt
Art: Cafu
Colors: Ulisses Arreola
Letters: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
Silent might! Ninjak is on the hunt for the woman who took everything from him – the sadistic assassin known as Roku! When Roku’s trail leads to a heavily guarded citadel in the Nevada desert, silence is of the essence as Ninjak undertakes a dangerous stealth mission where even the faintest noise could mean execution! But even if Valiant’s top super-spy can reach the woman once known as Angelina Alcott undetected, will he truly be able to face the former love of his life?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I still vividly remember way back in my early comic book days when I got a copy of that early GI Joe issue that gave us a Snake-Eyes story told from his perspective. It was something that sounded exciting but it was surprising as it was a dialogue-free issue. Thost can be a challenge not just for the writer and artist to produce effectively, someone always does it once in a while, but also a challenge for the reader because you have to take in the story through a different lens. And where we all apply different value to things, some feeling that a dialogue-free book isn’t worth the same as one with “story” in it, these can be a real challenge for the consumer to get into.
With Ninjak having wrapped up its future storyline and given us the details about Roku and her shared past with Colin now all out in the open, this issue keeps us firmly rooted in the here and now and without the kinds of “fantastic” that we’ve had for several issues now. Colin’s gotten the information on where Roku is and his guilt has him wanting to go there to try and reconnect with Angelina, if she’s in there, and save her from what she’s become. This has him heading to the citadel that’s been constructed in the Nevada desert where he uses all his skills as a ninja/spy to do it. When the two do connect there are no real surprises here in how she reacts, tossing him over the ledge, as she’s fully committed to who she is and a simple hello ain’t gonna cut it. What this group appears to be raising in the citadel is intriguing, but having not read most other Valiant books I’m not entirely sure of its significance just yet.
The big stars of this book are Cafu on the artwork and Ulisses Arreola on the color work. There’s a lot told visually here in seeing Colin use his skills to their fullest to sneak in and deal with an array of opponents and Cafu nails the design well. There’s a very good flow to it all with what it wants to achieve and the pacing is engaging as it keeps building and ramping up with each new opponent and push forward until he reaches the top of the citadel. The shift in dynamic there is well done as you can nearly feel Colin catching his breath before it all goes to hell for him once again. Cafu’s work here is spot on with what it does in telling the tale with minimal dialogue and that’s impressive.
In Summary:
That said, for most casual readers that will make this a very fast book. The pacing keeps you flipping pages quicker and quicker to get to the explosive point and that’s the intent of it. There’s a lot to like in digging into the individual panels to see how Cafu achieves what he does but it’s something that a lot of casual readers won’t do, instead likely griping a bit about how “light” the book is. I’m of a mixed mind on it because it does work and works well, but it left me wishing for just a bit more to latch onto for this arc and what’s to come, particularly as a very casual Valiant reader with this as my only ongoing of theirs.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: December 7th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
