Ninjas: Classic Or Dud

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Scourge of 80s and early 90s comics, now seemingly out of fashion - who used them well? who didn't? Which comics 'added ninja to taste' most crassly? Were the Turtles comics actually any good (actually this is maybe a separate thread) etc etc.

Effing ninjas everywhere is the main reason I didn't care about Miller Daredevil (except Born Again).

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 8 October 2004 08:01 (twenty years ago) link

Also every roleplaying game in the 80s tried to get ninjas in there - what was that rotten 'Japanese' AD&D supplement? Anyway then they discovered cyberpunk and things got even worse. But that is a debate for I Love Gaming.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 8 October 2004 08:08 (twenty years ago) link

http://www.stillpointcomics.com/Images/Tick-Ninjas.gif

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 8 October 2004 08:42 (twenty years ago) link

http://www.interlog.com/~dgsimmns/tick.gif

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 8 October 2004 08:42 (twenty years ago) link

There were ninjas in (surprise) a Daredevil mini a year or two ago. He falls asleep in his loft and wakes up in cherry blosson-strewn Japan. I'm 70% certain that the caption is actually "Oh, great. Ninjas."

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 8 October 2004 08:44 (twenty years ago) link

That mini was rubbish. Bendis' least fine hour.

― Vic Fluro, Friday, 8 October 2004 11:20 (twenty years ago) link

Was that, um, Daredevil: Ninja?

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 8 October 2004 11:36 (twenty years ago) link

Anyway Tom, you forgot about the CYBER-NINJAS.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 8 October 2004 11:37 (twenty years ago) link

Also, Wolverine v. Ninjas C/D

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 8 October 2004 11:38 (twenty years ago) link

classic- always

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Friday, 8 October 2004 11:59 (twenty years ago) link

Classic in G.I. Joe.

The original Turtles comics were pretty good -- I don't know if I'd call any of them great, but it's been awhile since I've read them. They were certainly much stranger, and less pizza-driven, than the movie (and probably the cartoon, but I'm not sure I've actually seen the cartoon). Cerebus is the closest thing I can think to compare TMNT to (I don't know if the fact that Cerebus guest-starred is the chicken or the egg here) -- something that starts out as pretty straightforward parody, and then starts to develop into its own thing.

(ILG: Oriental Adventures, although it wound up being more "Chinese with ninjas, samurai, and Godzilla thrown in" than "Japanese," if I remember right. The new edition of it is much better in most respects, but also has like twelve kinds of ninjas.)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 8 October 2004 12:18 (twenty years ago) link

Ninja-Kitty!

― Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Friday, 8 October 2004 12:26 (twenty years ago) link

Btw, I bought Elektra: The Hand because it has a minimum of Elektra and a maximum of ninjas.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 8 October 2004 12:49 (twenty years ago) link

I cannot believe this pro-Ninja trend on ILC. Boo to ninjas.

Ninja-Kitty was funny. Whose idea was it to have a 6-issue series about the fluid catlike grace of martial artists illustrated by the stiffest figure penciller ever to work for Marvel?

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 8 October 2004 12:56 (twenty years ago) link

THE ALL KNOWING STARBRAND!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 8 October 2004 13:43 (twenty years ago) link

Ninjas were banished from the DCU in the Crisis. Zero Hour brought them back.

― Huk-L, Friday, 8 October 2004 13:47 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe the Identity Crisis killer was Jimmy Olson as The Turtle in NINJA MODE!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 8 October 2004 13:52 (twenty years ago) link

B-b-but the ninjas in Elektra Lives Again are Satanists!

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:02 (twenty years ago) link

(apropos of nothing on this thread)

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:03 (twenty years ago) link

Actually, I remember the Yakuza making a good showing in the DCU in the late 80s, early 90s.
I suppose Lady Shiva is a sort of ninja, and Shado is an archer-ninja.

― Huk-L, Friday, 8 October 2004 14:17 (twenty years ago) link

Ninjas-not-ninjas played a sizable role (Lady Shiva, Cheshire) in a recent (pretty damn good) Birds of Prey story.

But, yeah, the cowls & the sashes & the no-talking & the "OMG they turn to nothing!" deaths = GO HOME.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:24 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe the world needs more down-to-earth, approachable ninjas who have a sense of humor yet are not anthropomorphic turtles.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 8 October 2004 15:09 (twenty years ago) link

BILL COSBY: ASSASSIN

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:17 (twenty years ago) link

Ha.

Ninjas with moustaches would also suffice.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:21 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe the world needs more down-to-earth, approachable ninjas who have a sense of humor yet are not anthropomorphic turtles.

My turn to say: I LOVE COMICS.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:52 (twenty years ago) link

The ninjas in GI Joe were classic for actually being integral to the mythos.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Saturday, 9 October 2004 03:36 (twenty years ago) link

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