In Duplicate

In Duplicate

Posted by Brian • June 8, 2017

Original Release Date: February 26, 2013

Phantom Doubles were a power-up in Ninja Gaiden II on Nintendo, which would give your ninja a double that would follow behind him and duplicate every action. They were great for battling flying enemies because you could jump and get one of your doubles suspended in mid-air, and then just slash your sword each time an enemy flew past. The double suspended in mid-air would inflict the damage, while your real ninja was safely on the ground. You could also stack yourself and up to two doubles on the same enemy and inflict lots of damage. They were very useful. Suddenly, I realized they would be a creative technique for Stu and Evil Bad Guy Ninja to use in a situation in which they were outnumbered, so here they are.

The last panel features some uncharacteristically rough artwork compared to most of what we're seeing at this point in the comic's run. The poses the phantom doubles strike as they wail away at Grant's force field are as dull and lifeless as you can get, Evil Bad Guy Ninja looks pretty rough there in the background, and Stu and Sledgehammer Goon look a bit forced, too. I have a feeling I didn't do much planning before tackling the panel, and got too far into it before having a firm idea of what I wanted everybody to be doing, and it just ended up looking sloppy.