REVIEW:Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe #2 Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!

Having broken into the MI6 headquarters and stolen the elusive Asset #147 for the nefarious Roku who hold the lives of his best friend’s family in her clutches, Ninjak is on the lamb from The heroes of Unity!

Ninjak vs the Valiant Universe # 2
Writer: Aaron Schoenke and Eliot Rahal
Artist: Joe Bennett
Inker: Belardino Brabo
Colorist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: David Sharpe
Cover Artist: Kevin Wada, CAFU with Andrew Dahlhouse
Variant Cover: Frances Portela, Andrew Dahlhouse, Joe Eisma & Gabe Eltaeb
Editors: Josh Johns and Benjamin Peterson
Publisher: Valiant Comics

What You Need to Know:

In a touching precursor to this tale, Nigel has asked Colin to be his guest, and is showing him around is palatial British Countryside estate. He has asked Ninjak to be the Godfather of his newborn daughter. Despite who he is and what he does for a living, we know that Colin and Nigel are the best of friends.

So remember the last issue when Ninjak was blackmailed by Roku who has Nigel’s Wife and daughter held captive? Well, he was forced to break into his own headquarters and steal an item of great importance, Asset #147 (We learn what it’s called in this issue). Now on the run from his Unity Team pursuers: Bloodshot, XO Manowar, The Eternal Warrior and Livewire, Colin must get the prize to Roku before she does unspeakable things to Nigel’s Wife and Daughter, and he is being tracked by an injection of Nanites that Roku placed in him to keep him under her control. No Pressure Colin! In a brief moment of Reprieve, Colin opens the Asset to see just what was so important. It appears to be a book.

What You’ll Find Out:

Enter the Quiet Forest. A lone hunter creeps up on a Grizzly Bear. A man draws back his bow, and the Hunter is shot in his shoulder. The Bear escapes free of harm, but the hunter is not so lucky. The Eternal Warrior tells him that he must leave because this forest is under his protection.

Livewire confronts Gilad (The Eternal Warrior, one of the Immortals in the Valiant Universe) and tells him that Ninjak has gone rogue and that he has taken the Book of the Geomancer or Asset #147. He says that he should be the one to put Ninjak down, but he hopes that he can find him before Bloodshot does. (Foreboding Much?)

Enter Ray (Bloodshot) riding his motorcycle, and tracking Ninjak with his Tech skills. Awfully handy to have a techno-path on the team. He has tracked Ninjak to an old Warehouse. As he attempts a stealthy approach from above, Ninjak sees him on a small mirror and detonates an explosive that sends Ray falling through the roof, and his legs after him. Hobbled by the loss of his legs, Ninjak knows that Bloodshot will not be down long, and will eventually heal. So he sprays him frozen solid with liquid Nitrogen. It’s kind of a fast-paced sequence.

What Just Happened?

Having escaped Bloodshot, and stealing his bike too, Colin heads towards his rendezvous with Roku to save Nigel’s family. It’s not long before he meets another of the Unity Crew, XO Manowar, the Intergalactic Emperor and Bearer of some pretty substantially powerful Armor.

This is a pretty bad thing to happen just now, but a truck gets in the way and Ninjak narrowly maneuvers under the body of a semi as Aric (XO Manowar) easily swoops away from danger. We get a brief scene of Bloodshot analyzing Ninjak’s Blood, and sensing that he has foreign Nanites in his system. Then back to the Cab of the truck, where when Aric was questioning the driver, Colin pops out of the cab window with an EMP dart to paralyze Manwar. Off he goes into the woods to make his escape.

Ninjak makes it as far as he can before taking a rest beside a tree and notices he has a broken rib. In a short time after XO Manowar catches up with his Thermal vision and spots Colin. As he sets his aim, Gilad shows from behind asking that he be the one to make the kill.

As Gilad unsheathes his Axe and Ninjak his swords, we see that Ray has caught up and is dragging his body up to a tree branch for a clean shot at Colin. As they begin to fight, Ray takes his shot, and we see that the Screen on Roku’s Computer says Ninjak Offline! To be Continued.

Rating: 8 / 10
Final Thought: Reading Valiant comics is a lot of fun. It’s like getting to see what your favorite Avengers characters would do in a different Universe, and they rarely disappoint. There was a good amount of character cameo’s in this book, and it moves pretty swiftly as a story. This is a good one to pick up to get acquainted with the Valiant U. More Importantly, have you seen that they hired Real Actors to portray the characters in this story? Including the Green Ranger himself Jason David Frank! It’s clear the Valiant has some big things planned, and their writing and art are superb. I recommend this book as a good primer to be your gateway to these major players in the VCU or Valiant Comics Universe!