Valiant Entertainment 2015
Written by Matt Kindt
Illustrated by Khari Evans
Coloured by Ulises Arreola & Chris Sotomayor
Lettered by Dave Sharpe
Ninjak has been run ragged by the deadly Roku, who systematically destroyed Ninjak’s life--his home, his contacts, even his relationships. But resilient as always, Ninjak defeated Roku and must now rebuild. But not everyone has abandoned Colin. In fact, despite their differences, the Eternal Warrior will remain one of Ninjak’s closest allies long into the future.
There’s a reason Ninjak is one of my favourite characters and with everything Matt’s thrown at him lately he just continues to elevate the character. I wasn’t really sure that setting the new arc so far in the future was something I was going to enjoy but as usual I was proven wrong, mainly in large part due to the back up story which is illustrated by Andres Guinaldo, does pick up where the last one left off.
It’s nice to see that the Eternal Warrior and Ninjak can still work together and that he hasn’t lost all his allies. I do like the way that Matt demonstrates the inherent differences in their approaches. Colin’s always been the down low use stealth guy while Gilad has always been an in your face take direct action kind of guy. While you’d think with such drastically different styles they’d have a hard time working together but as we see here there’s an appreciation between the two, though unspoken and often grumbled about, that they have for one another.
Once their search for Fakir takes them to the Himalayas it’s great to see Colin in that suit. Khari and the boys do such a great job with how powerful and imposing the boys look all decked out for action. Actually the whole story is well done, from the use of angles and perspective to the backgrounds (which the Himalayas yeah that’s impressive) really keep the flow moving along nicely.
The Undead Monk has been gone for a long time now and it’s nice to see that his influence is still being felt. After all it seems that many a character in the Valiant Universe has benefited from his tutelage. Will they or won’t they ever be able to bring him back is another story entirely but it’s nice that someone is still trying, even if he’s the bad guy. However his (Fakir) involvement means something bigger is in play and I cannot wait to see how the boys find out who’s got Fakir on their leash pulling the strings.
In the Lost Files it’s time to see the aftermath from the last arc. Colin’s always proclaimed to be a loner and more comfortable as a Mercenary. Whoever has the money to hire him and all so his time with MI-6 well that’s caused him nothing but trouble since the series began. Though his parents were all agents of various organizations from everything we’ve seen of his early years Colin doesn’t play well with others.
In one regard he’s like me, he doesn’t like people, much like Green Eggs and Ham, we do not like them on a boat, we do not like them with a goat, we do not like them here or there we do not like them anywhere.
I look forward to him getting back to who he was before all this happened. Getting his life back together, picking up the pieces and doing what he does best.
I still think this is the strongest book Valiant has and with each issue the creators here keep stating the case for that be so.