Ninja Backup

Ninja Backup

Posted by Brian • May 18, 2017

Original Release Date: October 23, 2012

Panel one with the Hypergoon Elite chasing down Ohtani and Renee is a mixed bag. It's a cool composition, overall, but a little bit of refinement would have made it much better. For example, Renee's ponytail is blocking out Sword Guy's face, which could have easily been corrected, but somehow, inexplicably, was not. Also, the exchange between Renee and Stu seems a bit too casual here--Renee's sass is front and center, when honestly, she should probably sound a lot more panicked. It reminds me of Chris Claremont dialogue. The X-Men would carry on this casual, snappy banter while they fought bad guys, with a lot of good-natured smacktalk between teammates and flowery descriptions of what they were doing. It did a really good job of making it sound like they really did have to deal with saving the world all the time, like it was second nature to them. While Renee has been in a lot of scraps by now, I question whether or not she could hold this clear and well structured of a conversation, especially when she is this outmatched. Not to mention Stu is fighting for his life on the other end, as well.

I do, however, like the continuity in panel two. Stu delivers a kick to a goon, but it's the same goon he ducks on the previous page. In this situation, it would have been easy to have Stu already fighting a different goon, but I like that it takes him a couple of pages to bring this one down. Not only does it help tie his entire conversation with Renee together, it also gives the impression that while the ninja might be able to plow through some of the more inexperienced goons, there are also others who are more seasoned and can give the ninja a tougher challenge.