In Ninjak #4, available from Valiant Entertainment on October 13th, 2021, Ninjak and Myna track down the location of the next Daylight meeting to take out Kingmaker before he can destroy another country’s intelligence network.
The Details
- Written By: Jeff Parker
- Art By: Javier Pulido, Beni Lobel
- Colors By: Andrew Dalhouse
- Letters By: Dave Sharpe
- Cover Art By: Fernando Dagnino (cover A)
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: October 13, 2021
Wait! Don’t Forget To Sign Up For The Comical Opinions Newsletter.
It’s 100% FREE. Sign up NOW!
Was It Good?
What a difference a month makes. There’s a lot going on in this comic, and I’m not talking about just the plot. Based on the solicit information we’ve received from Valiant, the art direction in the internal pages, and the schedule for the next issue, it’s fair to say this title is going through some serious changes.
Parker’s story is great in this issue. Ninjak and the team figure out the location of the next Daylight meeting and make their way to the secret location to assassinate Kingmaker and his mind-reading living weapon, Siphon. The intrigue is intense, and the outcome promises a long road ahead for our cybernetic ninja hero. Snappy dialog helps keep the story moving when there are a lot of stakeouts happening, and the Daylight weapons used to maintain security are clever.
So, let’s talk about art. If you’ve read our previous reviews, you know we’re fine with Pulido’s art style as a personal choice for anything else but this. Pulido’s style and Ninjak simply don’t go together. This is an action comic and Pulido’s style doesn’t work for action. There’s no cleaner way to put it.
Here, the art duties switch a third of the way through to Beni Lobel and it makes a world of difference. The art isn’t perfect. I’ve definitely seen better. But the changeover improves the reading experience drastically. The only thing holding the art from being better is the retention of the bizarre color palette by Dalhouse. The sickly, burnt oranges and yellows don’t do Lobel’s work justice.
The art change is one change that’s immediate. The others are not as clear.
The solicit describes this issue as the end of the current arc, but the arc doesn’t conclude anything going on in the story. If anything, it ends the first act of the story on a significant “to be continued…”
The other change lies with the shipping schedule. According to the preview page at the end, Ninjak isn’t coming back until sometime in 2022 with artist Mike Norton. It’s not clear if Pulido ran into a commitment conflict or if Valiant decided to take Pulido off art duties. Either way, the issue ends on a vague story note, we don’t know when issue #5 is coming next year, and the title will have a new artist going forward.
Where does that leave this title? It’s anyone’s guess, but it’s fair to say we won’t see Ninjak for a while, and if we do, it will be a very different-looking comic.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
First, read up on how we got to this point via our NINJAK #3 review.
We begin with Kingmaker and Siphon interrogating a captured CIA agent aboard Kingmaker’s yacht. Siphon pries whatever info he has from his mind (which isn’t much) and throws the brain-dead agent overboard.
Elsewhere, Ninjak putters around town as a pedestrian to keep tabs on a government official who plans to attend the next Daylight get-together. With some wicked scooter shredding and impossible leaps, Ninjak breaks into the official’s limo and forces him to reveal the next meeting location in… Hawaii.
Myna and Ninjak take up position on a cliff near Kingmaker’s yacht to watch guests as they’re brought on board. Ninjak knows the real threat is Siphon, and he plans to snipe her first before going after Kingmaker. Unfortunatley, Ninjak doesn’t know what Siphon looks like.
During the opening speech, Kingmaker activates a device that kills the assassins masquerading as guests with lei garlands designed to choke the targets to death. Ninjak realizes the woman who selected the lei garlands is Siphon, but before he can find her and take the shot, Siphon reaches out with her mind powers and attempts to destroy Ninjak in an astral tug of war. We conclude the issue with Ninjak impressing Siphon with his mental discipline, a shot fired, and Kingmaker calling on the world to do his bidding.
Final Thoughts
NINJAK #4 ends the first arc in this larger story with a “to be continued” rather than a definitive ending. The art jarringly shifts from one artist to another for an improved, albeit uneven, reading experience while the writing offers up the most compelling entry in the series so far. Valiant’s preview information and the solicit description cast the future of Ninjak in doubt, so we’ll see what 2022 holds for the MI-6 cybernetic ninja assassin.
Score: 7.5/10
We hope you found this article interesting. Come back for more reviews, previews, and opinions on comics, and don’t forget to follow us on social media:
If you’re interested in this creator’s works, remember to let your Local Comic Shop know to find more of their work for you. They would appreciate the call, and so would we.
Click here to find your Local Comic Shop: www.ComicShopLocator.com