Valiant Entertainment came out with a big fat teaser today:
Enter: Ninjak! Teaser Image from Valiant
Clearly the #SummerOfValiant will be capped with the #FallOfNinjak. Yes, we made that up, but we think it is rather clever.
It looks from the picture that Ninjak will be appearing in X-O Manowar #5, the September issue. Each of the previous teases has been the cover of the first issue of that series, but I am guessing this isn’t a cover to Ninjak, since it prominently features the X-O Manowar helmet.
The drawing in this teaser was drawn by Mico Suayan.
Also, the rumblings on the internet seem to be that Ninjak won’t have his own title (at least, not yet), but will just have an appearance in another series.
Prudent listeners will remember that Ninjak is a character that a few of us thought was most in need of an update, and it looks like we will see the new, updated Ninjak sooner rather than later.
It’s also interesting, if indeed this appearance will be in X-O Manowar, that we will see the first appearance of Ninjak in another title.
The Classic Valiant had a fine tradition of placing character’s first appearances in another title:
- Jack Boniface (Shadowman) appears in the background of X-O Manowar #4
- Turok first appears in the Valiant Universe in Magnus, Robot Fighter #12
- Gilad, the Eternal Warrior, first appears in Solar, Man of the Atom #10
- Bloodshot first appears in Eternal Warrior #4 (cameo), and his first full appearance is in Rai #0
- H.A.R.D.Corps first appears in Harbinger #10
And of course,
- Ninjak first appears in Bloodshot #6
One thing I’ve wondered, ever since Valiant Entertainment got the ball rolling with this relaunch, is how much this new Universe will resemble the original Universe, and how much they would use some of the techniques we saw in the Classic Universe, such as characters first appearing in other books.
We already saw Gilad, the Eternal Warrior, in another title, and this is looking to be the second appearance of a major character in a title that is not their own.
It looks like this is one aspect of the original that we can mark as being continued in the comics of this new Valiant Universe.
Bring on the #FallOfNinjak!
And finally, round 2 of this book:
Ninjak 5 Cover Art
June 12, 2012, 3:16 pm
Tony Soldo (@Tony_Soldo) comments:
It’s a cool teaser, but I’m worried that it’s too soon for something like this. This is the thing I was worried about most about Valiant, as the tightly interconnected universe is cool, I don’t want it to get in the way of the individual characters’ stories. I would love to see crossovers, but I don’t want it to become a joke and meaningless like over at Marvel and DC. I know this isn’t a crossover because Ninjak doesn’t have his own series right now, but I hope this thing doesn’t derail Aric’s story much.
June 12, 2012, 3:19 pm
Sean comments:
I think that is a valid concern, especially that they could introduce new characters at the expense of telling the stories of the main characters. If it is done right though, it could be very cool, and it could progress the stories of both characters.
So far everything has been done right, so I’m optimistic that this will be too.
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June 12, 2012, 8:02 pm
Tony Soldo (@Tony_Soldo) comments:
I am confident that they know what they’re doing, but I’d imagine that there should be a bigger focus on Aric trying to adjust to the modern world a bit more before being thrown into a conflict like this, or maybe it will lead to more interesting things in the future. We’ll see.
June 14, 2012, 3:30 pm
Jeff comments:
Hey guys, The return of Valiant has gotten me back into comics after a LONG hiatus and I am loving it (esp the team of Vindetti and Nord), but I just saw on iFanboy that X-O #5 has a Mr. Lee Garbett as the artist. Wanted to know if you, the experts, have any insight? I love Nord’s work and hoped to see the team together for a long run!
June 14, 2012, 3:56 pm
Sean comments:
@Jeff – Sweet! Welcome back to comics! I noticed that Cary Nord wasn’t illustrating X-O #5, I don’t know anything about that yet though. Hopefully it is just a fill in issue or something, I loved Cary’s work on X-O Manowar too!
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June 14, 2012, 4:51 pm
Jason comments:
There is an image of X-O and the new Ninjak facing off against each other with swords drawn on Valiant’s site under the “News” tab. Pretty cool.