• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

  • Reading Orders
    • Marvel
    • My Marvelous Year
    • DC Comics
    • All Comic Book Publishers
    • Most Recent
  • Beginner Guides
    • Beginner’s Guide To Comics In 2025
    • Marvel 2025: Where to Start?
    • DC 2025: Where to Start?
    • Best of Lists
    • Tablets for Comics
    • Guides for Digital Readers
  • Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
    • DC Comics
    • Comic Book Movies
    • Comic Book TV
    • Video Games
  • Podcasts & Video
    • My Marvelous Year
    • Best Comics Ever (CBH)
    • CBH on Youtube!
  • About Me
    • My Favorite Comics of All Time
    • Columns
    • CBH Monthly Email
  • Support Comic Book Herald
    • Ways to support
You are here: Home / Featured / Ninjak #1 Review

Ninjak #1 Review

March 24, 2015 by Anthony Wild 1 Comment

After making his first appearances in the series X-O Manowar and then becoming the backbone of the team Unity in the eponymously named series, Ninjak comes to us as a part of the “Valiant Next” wave of new series from Valiant comics. We actually get two stories in this issue, both written by Matt Kindt; with the main story set in the present and the back-up being a look into the mysterious past of Ninjak.

In the first story, with art by Clay Mann and Seth Mann, we get thrown into action at a fairly quick pace as Ninjak is in a Russian containment center after a woman named Roku. We’re told via a report from Neville Alcott – Ninjak’s handler from MI-6 – that Roku feels no pain, is a master (mistress?) of improvisation and has had genetic tailoring done to her hair, which can cut through metal and allows her to use it to garrote or even behead a man! By the time Ninjak arrives, the guards are all dead she’s well on her way to making her escape.

Ninjak issue 1
The beginnings of a stable and caring relationship?

Needless to say, Ninjak and Roku’s first meeting goes about as friendly as you can imagine. A few intense and well choreographed action beats occur and their confrontation eventually takes them outside the facility. It’s then that Ninjak informs Roku that she’s free to go; just like that. We’re told his mission from MI-6 was actually to free Roku from the Russians, not keep her imprisoned. Surely this can’t possibly come back to haunt him at a later date…

Ninjak blows stuff up
He’s always got an answer for everything!

From there, we see Colin King (Ninjak) receiving information about the next step of his assignment from Neville Alcott about, going after the true target, a man named Kannon, who is one of the leaders of a black market arms organization called Weaponeer.

It turns out that Roku was set lose as a part of this next mission where Ninjak goes undercover as a man named Henry Collins, who supposedly had Roku freed as a show of good will towards Kannon. We also get a brief comedic scene where it’s revealed that Colin is code named “Ninja-K” by MI-6 and his seemingly being caught unaware of a possible pecking order.

Ninjab
I guess “Ninjak” sounds better than “Ninjab”.

The rest of the story is spent with undercover Ninjak infiltrating the ranks of Kannon. Of course Roku shows up, as she is the right-hand woman of Kannon who is happy to have her back…

The back-up story, with art by veteran Butch Guice, takes place 10 years in the past and takes a peak into Colin King’s very first assignment; which is to get a woman named Julie out of North Korea. While he was ultimately successful in his mission, he got his butt handed to him in the process and needed to be extracted; not the best of starts. Like the first story, it’s continued into the next issue.

There’s a lot of set-up in this story; a promise of things to come. It’s not unheard of with a first issue and the front heavy action sequence in the story helps keep things exciting.

Filed Under: Featured, Reviews Tagged With: Ninjak, Valiant Comics

Heroically Support Comic Book Herald!

Comic Book Herald is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a qualifying affiliate commission.

If you like Comic Book Herald, and are able to donate, any small contribution will help keep CBH alive and updated. Donate here! Or, support My Marvelous Year on Patreon for exclusive rewards! Thank you for reading!


CBH Monthly Newsletter



Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. III says

    May 15, 2016 at 2:00 am

    Good god… this whole storyline is filled with so many predictable cliches, that it out does anything that DC and Marvel has done in the past few years, and that’s saying something… just how easily amused are you????

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

The My Marvelous Year Podcast!

Apple PodcastsRSS

CBH Monthly Newsletter!

Amazing Spider-Man Marvel GIT comics collection
My Marvelous Year Podcast and Reading Club 1

Recent Posts

  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of June 2025 July 1, 2025
  • 2011 Pt. 4: Spider-Man: One More Day Redeemed??? And Venom is a Soldier now! June 30, 2025
  • 2011 Variant Cover B: Best Comics of 2025 So Far! (W/ Zack Quaintance) June 23, 2025
  • The Best Comics of 2025 (So Far!) June 18, 2025
  • 2011 Pt. 3: Hickman’s FF, SHIELD, & Secret Warriors June 16, 2025
  • Extra Issues – Dykes to Watch Out For (1983) June 9, 2025
  • 2011 Pt. 1: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade June 9, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of May 2025 June 4, 2025
  • 2011 Variant Cover A: DC and Marvel cross over, Zack has a really compelling dream, and Dave runs the Eisners now June 2, 2025
  • 2011 Pt. 2: Uncanny X-Force, X-23, & Wolverine (Pt. 1 is delayed) May 26, 2025
  • 2010 pt. 10: The WORST Spider-Man Comics of All Time?! And FrankenCastle (again) May 19, 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover E: Thunderbolts Review w/ Tiffany Babb May 12, 2025
  • Extra Issues – Lucifer Pt. 2 (2000) May 8, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 9: Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Bucky on Trial, & Invincible Iron Man May 5, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of April 2025 May 1, 2025

Popular Articles

DC Rebirth Guide

Batman Reading Order

DC New 52 Reading Order

Marvel Ultimate Universe Guide

Civil War Reading Order

Marvel Cosmic Reading Order

The Best Comics of All Time!

Deadpool Reading Order

Justice League Reading Order

Complete Thanos Reading Order

X-Men Reading Guide (Modern Era)

Age of Apocalypse Reading Order

Modern Marvel Universe in 25 Trades

Best Tablet For Digital Comics

Is Marvel Unlimited Worth It?

Footer

New to Comic Book Herald?

Hey there - my name's Dave and this is my comic book blog. It's my way of sharing my borderline obsessive addiction to the comic book medium, and to help you enjoy the comics!

Most people that come here are looking for my Marvel reading order guide. You can probably also get a sense if CBH is for you by taking a look at some of my recent favorite comics.

If you like what you see, check out the CBH monthly newsletter . Or, leave a comment on the blog here, I'm always looking for new awesome people in the comic book community.

More on Comic Book Herald

  • Home
  • About
  • Support CBH
  • My Marvelous Year
  • Monthly Newsletter
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

Recent Posts

  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of June 2025
  • 2011 Pt. 4: Spider-Man: One More Day Redeemed??? And Venom is a Soldier now!
  • 2011 Variant Cover B: Best Comics of 2025 So Far! (W/ Zack Quaintance)
  • The Best Comics of 2025 (So Far!)
  • 2011 Pt. 3: Hickman’s FF, SHIELD, & Secret Warriors

Copyright © 2025 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in