Valiant writer Teases new spy (Ninja-K)

     Valiant  Entertaiment has been a fresh and exciting superhero publisher for a few years now, but there’s never been a better time to start reading. Last month saw the launch of a new X-O Manowar series, with writer Matt Kindt and artist Tomas Giorello taking one of the company’s flagship characters on the first step of an epic space saga. Now one of Valiant’s other prominent heroes will be getting a similarly fresh relaunch, when Giorello and writer Christos Gage begin a new Ninja-K series this November.

Many Valiant characters mash up different pop culture influences, and Ninjak is a particularly awesome example of that: a combination spy and ninja who slices his way through all kinds of enemies. His most recent series, written by Kindt, explored some magical and metaphysical territory. Gage’s run, by contrast, will focus more on the spy element and on the history of the secret program that created Ninjak — especially since a mysterious someone has started killing off people involved in the program, Watchmen style. The title of the new series, Ninja-K, emphasizes Ninjak’s role as the latest iteration of a long-running program (going all the way back to Ninja-A and Ninja-B).

In an interview with EW, Gage teased his plans for the series, which kicks off with a special 40-page first issue. Look for it this November, and check out the first cover from Trevor Hairsine 

         CHRISTOS GAGE: The great thing about Ninjak is he’s a terrific character with a cool high concept: What if James Bond was a ninja? He’s a super-spy who uses ninja techniques along with fancy spy tech. He works with the British MI6 but he’s also a freelancer and does whatever he wants. He has become the go-to super-spy of the Valiant Universe, if you will. One of the things I love about the character is you can tell many different kinds of stories with him, as Matt Kindt and his collaborators have shown. You can do spy stories, you can do crazy high-tech that’s almost sci-fi, Matt did some semi-horror, and you can do straight up superhero action (Ninjak is part of Unity, the Valiant superhero team).

We’re looking at it as, going back to the James Bond analogy, every Bond movie is its own experience. You don’t have to have seen Diamonds Are Forever to enjoy Skyfall or On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Each one is its own big, epic story, and that’s how we’re approaching it with this relaunch. What I think Matt did wonderfully with his run on Ninjak is he really delved into the backstory of Ninjak himself: His personal past, where he got his training and abilities, his childhood. There’s no reason for us to redo that, so we’re looking at the past of the Ninja program itself. Matt established that Ninjak is actually Ninja-K, so there were Ninja-A, -B, -C, and so on. We’re going to start looking at the history of the program. What happens is, someone is going back and killing people who have been associated with the Ninja program in the past. Ninjak has to figure out who’s doing it and why, and obviously he’s gonna be a target himself.

SOURCE : EW.