“It all comes down to this! Ninjak – plus his black-ops backup squad of Livewire, Punk Mambo, Doctor Mirage, and GIN-GR – have been sent into Mexico City to destroy an indestructible target! But their quarry – The Jonin, the Ninja Programme’s seemingly ageless former sensei – has assembled his own strike force of improbable powers to meet them head on!”

The final pages of Ninja-K #8 had me giddy with excitement as possibly my favourite character in the Valiant Universe made his reappearance (needless to say if you haven’t read the previous issue, spoilers will be found ahead – though if you pay attention to the cover you can figure that out)

Both this and the previous issue of Ninja-K have built upon the slower paced Ninja-K #6 with an explosively frenetic story that is all action and very little plot. I’m not complaining about that, however, as Juan Jose Ryp is unleashed to depict the havoc of battle as only he can. With his kinetic and hyper detailed style, Ryp barrels us through the conclusion of the current chapter in Colin King’s life with all the delicacy of a hot knife through a helium balloon. It is glorious, thanks in no small part to Jordie Bellaire’s colouring work that bring out the detail in Ryp’s work and allows the reader’s eye to flow along the artwork.

Christos Gage clearly wanted to let the artists shine, and in doing that they pull a comic that suffers in the plot department into must buy territory; Gage’s plot could easily be simplified down into a single line (but then if you can break Lord Of The Rings down to “people walk a long way to return stolen property” you can break everything down quite a bit, so this is a meaningless criticism, and I am aware of that). But it’s a single line that brings back one of my favourite Valiant characters, sets up an interesting new faction in the Valiant Universe and leaves our hero surprisingly vulnerable while providing some freaking amazing visual set pieces.

Sometimes, simple is exactly what you need.

Story: Christos Gage Art: Juan Jose Ryp
Colours: Jordie Bellaire Letters: A Larger World Studios
Story: 8.5 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

Valiant provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.