Publisher: Valiant Comics
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artists: Clay Mann, Seth Mann, Butch Guice and Brian Thies
Colourist: Ulises Arreola
Release date: May 20, 2015
Price: $3.99

From beginning to end, Ninjak focuses on action. So there is very little messing about. For openers, the beautiful Roku tosses Ninjak from a skyscraper window. Roku is such a bad ass with her bright-red, razor-sharp hair, men kill themselves rather than face her. Luckily Ninjak ,and his MI-6 espionage agency are wealthy, consequently Ninjak’s armed with million-dollar grappling hooks and assorted high-tech doo-dads and ho-hums..

Along the way, obligatory backstory rears its debatable head and peaks into Ninjak’s (real name Colin King) childhood and the dysfunctional relationship Ninjak had with his father. While the character development is much appreciated, the only complaint is too much of the first-person writing is expositional.

Like the first issue, there is a cliffhanger to take in, wail endlessly about and then realise you are going to have to buy the next issue. This is followed by a short story (by Kindt, Guice and Brian Thies, inking) about Ninjak’s pre superhero days as a budding MI-6 agent in a London past the fog of Sherlock Holmes but very much in the rainfall of cliché.

While other Valiant comics may have more depth, Ninjak with a mix of espionage and action is tightly plotted and, that rare word in comic book reviews, fun.

Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker