[Comic Book Review] Valiant's NINJA-K #9

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[Comic Book Review] Valiant’s NINJA-K #9

Joshua Winchester

July 17, 2018

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PopCultHQ received an advance review copy of NINJA-K #9 from Valiant Entertainment. Available July 18th, 2018, the creative team for this series features writing from Christos Gage, art from Juan José Ryp, colors by Jordie Bellaire, and lettering from Dave Lanphear of A Larger World Studios.

Here’s PopCultHQ’s spoiler-free review of…

NINJA-K #9

Written by Christos Gage
Art by Juan José Ryp
Colors by Jordie Bellaire
Letters by A Larger World Studios

Cover A by Carmen Carnero
Cover B by Alan Quah
Interlocking Variant by Clayton Crain
Ninjak Icon Variant by Adam Pollina
Pre-Order Edition by Jesse Hamm

The super team vs. super team smackdown you’ve been waiting for!

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!

VARIANT COVERS

PopCultHQ’s Comic Book Review:
NINJA-K #9

Writing:

The battle is still going and it’s anyone’s guess as to who will come out on top. Christos picks things up from issue #8 with what can only be described as battle royale going on. It is quite literally non-stop action for the majority of the book, broken up by dialogue exchanges between Ninja-K and his comrades. What will come from this all-out and how it will affect Ninja-K and the success of his mission against the Jonin? All will be revealed with this latest chapter.

Art:

Juan really served up amazing art again here. This is the kind of thing that really helps sell a great comic book. It’s the artwork. Whether it’s low-key, or high paced fast moving action sequences, here in issue #9, Valiant/Ninja-K fans and fans of Juan’s body of work will really appreciate all that he delivers for them to read and enjoy.

Jordie does it again. And again and again. She really taps into this fantastic color palette and channels it into her work as colorist. Costumes, scenes, armor, weapons, skin tones. The works. All these things are given that Jordie Bellaire winning touch which gives the whole comic a truly enhanced sense paired to the art and story.

Cutting his lettering teeth on another Ninja-K installment, Dave brings it. With the previous issue and this issue, full of near non-stop action, that means lettering of a very dramatic nature like with explosions, but also lettering of a more human nature, involving exertion, pain, and the like. Furthermore, this reviewer felt that here, as with all previous issues of the series, that Dave’s lettering truly gave a strong voice of realism to every person. Hero, villain, even robot, each was heard loud and clear inside the mind’s eye, courtesy of Dave.

PopCultHQ’s overall assessment:

It’s an all-out brawl to the death here. Every instance of sabotage and adventure leads to fights like these. The kind that carry over from one issue into another. And the outcome will not surprise readers, but will certainly give a shock of what direction the overall story is heading. Highly recommended and encouraged to be read.