The Pull List – Ninjak #10
After the clash with The Coalition, Ninjak is assigned a mission that revisits the covert history of the Ninja Programme. Colin learns about NInja-H, the 80’s era Ninja agent that fought for the United Kingdom during the Cold War. Ninja-H was an elite agent that was badly injured and was rebuilt to cyborg ninja. Given powerful weapons and upgrades, granting abilities similar to a pisot, Ninjak-H was a one-man army. Hidden in cryofreeze and stored in a warehouse for decades, Ninja-H awakens and reassumes his protocols of protecting the United Kingdom with any force necessary. It’ll be ninja against cyborg ninja for Ninjak’s latest mission.
Issue 10 brings Ninjak into the consequences of Ninja-C and The Acclimation Bureau. The rogue Ninja-C had brought to light all of the MI6 dark secrets about the Ninja Programme. One of those secrets was the chamber holding Ninja-H, who was believed to be dead. The experiments on Ninja-H made him a powerful warrior that relied on brutal force than traditional ninja tactics. Enhanced with a shoulder-mounted cannon, a giant arm blade, and a force field; Ninja-H was a top killing machine that the MI6 closed for a hidden reason.
Writer Chris Gage explores Ninja-H as a torn character, one that lost a part of his humanity to become a deadly weapon. It’s an interesting conflict that Ninjak has to fight, with the best the 80’s technology powering Ninja-H. (Which was more than just music and video on cassette tapes, and the Nintendo Power Glove). Larry Stroman visuals are action pack with cannon blasts, force fields and throwing stars flying out of the pages. The cybernetics visual of Ninja-H has that nice retro vibe that makes shows off the bulky robotics of the time.
This has been a fun break small tale between big story arcs in the latest Ninjak series and it shows off another unique type of ninja in the complicated Ninja Programme. But evil doesn’t get a break, and Ninjak will have to prepare himself to take on past enemy from the past in next month’s issue.