A dazzling blend of gritty noir and superhero zip,
Ninja #, the new independent comic by Edmund Alexander Sims and Jason Adam is worth checking out if you want to remember just how much fun reading a comic can be. Some of the best parts of comics are the little throw away moments when a superhero suddenly finds himself interacting with your average everyday Joe. There's a moment like this in the first issue of
Ninja # (by the way, it's pronounced "Ninja Number". I thought it was "ninja pound" at first). The eponymous hero, who looks like a kimono-clad pissed off version of the 'Have a Nice Day' smiley face, is in the middle of a fight with a teleporting bank robber whose head is best described by his name-- Tunnel Diode. The two rampage through a suburban home and wind up in the room of a teenage kid playing a video game (hilariously, it's Pac-Man). The normal comics bit of the kid recognizing his hero and lending in his hand to help happens, but then the villain blasts the kid away, turning a familiar comics moment on its head.
Sims and Adam play on our expectations of what we expect to happen in these kinds of comics, but it's not cynical or deconstructive. From the first issue, it seems these guys are genuinely in love with the goofiness and absurdity of the superhero comic and are interested in wringing it for all its worth. The result is reminiscent of
Sin City, but without the self-importance. You can almost see these guys sitting around saying, "Wouldn't it be great if..." and then jamming each new idea into the story. While the first few pages suffer under the weight of too much exposition, the banter between Ninja # and crime bosses and the police is clever enough to sustain you until you get to the rumble between Ninja # and Tunnel Diode, which has all the thrill and scope of a summer blockbuster. Here's a comic with enough danger and menace to make even the most sophisticated and jaded comic reader feel like a kid again.
Get Ninja # at
www.ninjanumber.com*Full Disclosure: Ninja # is drawn by my pal Jason Adam and that's how I nabbed an advance copy. I told him I would only review it if I could be totally honest.Labels: books
