Humanity is preparing to strike back!
Creative Staff:
Story: Kevin Maurer
Art: Cafu
Colors: David Baron
Letters: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
Snakebite! He’s fought the Shadow Seven, journeyed to the Deadside, and bested death itself, but MI-6’s top superspy has never tested his limits like this! When Ninjak is assigned to the Middle East for a seemingly simple extraction, this once-routine mission will quickly turns south when the laws of nature are turned upside down…and mutated soldiers bearing the animalistic abilities of nature’s deadly predators strike from the shadows! Now, Ninjak must hone his lethal skills and channel his inner warrior like never before…or end up at the bottom of the food chain!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Ninjak enters a new phase with this issue after a twenty-six issue run with Matt Kindt at the helm. I had liked a lot of what Kindt had done but everything was just so compressed that it felt like a ton of story ideas where left on the table that could have been explored. The series now brings on Kevin Maurer, making it my first experience with his work, along with artist Cafu that I’ve enjoyed before. The pairing certainly works well and while the series does look to be going for something bigger as time goes on the opening installment feels a lot more grounded than it has in a while, which is both good and bad. That said, the team certainly has earned several issues to get things settled in with the property.
What this opening installment does is introduce us to a Middle Eastern man named Dr. Khan that is the son of an unnamed nation where lots of bad things happen on all sides. Khan has been working some pretty grim types of experiments involving animal and human DNA and that means using lots of captured rebels to try and achieve his goals that will give them more power. We know Khan and his ilk are the bad guys through the straightforward dialogue and background we get, but Colin at least makes clear his distaste in getting involved in this as he doesn’t want to take any sides as neither is good. Neville at least tries to downplay all of it a bit in saying that they’re only after Khan because of the dangerousness of what he’s creating and that he needs to be stopped.
The book provides for a pretty good look at how the capture operation works, allowing us to see Maurer’s style in presenting this. It works well in that it plays serious and showcases some solid tension building that allows Cafu to really drive it home well. There are naturally problems in the way and this comes in the form of Aiden and Emma, two people who signed on for Khan’s program and have taken on animalistic elements. It’s the fantastical element of the story (so far) but one that feels a little more grounded and not as outlandish or over the top as some of the recent material. It’s a solid series of fight sequences and exposition that Maurer and Cafu handle well all while nudging things toward the big picture of the arc as what we got here is simply some of the initial setup.
In Summary:
With a nod toward humanity facing some pretty dangerous things that we’ve gotten a look at in past Ninjak issues, focusing on how mankind is going to fight back in secret isn’t a surprise, nor that it’ll be coming from non-governmental facilities. Ninjak puts Colin back on the job in a decent way here, though I would have liked to have seen more of what had gone on between the last issue and this one with how Colin is situated now. Maurer and Cafu put together a solid book here that’s setting things up well and shows their style and intent. It’s one that feels more grounded toward what Ninjak should be like at times while still allowing for the more fantastical elements. I’m curious to see where it’ll go and how the structure of it will work compared to what we’ve had so far and to see what Maurer can bring new to the table for Colin.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: May 17th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
