Ninjak #3
Written by Matt Kindt
Art by Clay Mann & Butch Guice
Inks by Seth Mann & Brian Thies
Colors by Ulises Arreola
Letters by Dave Sharpe
Cover art by Lewis LaRosa, Dave Johnson, Rafa Sandoval, Antonio Fuso & Brian Reeber
Valiant Entertainment
Release Date: May 20, 2015
Cover Price: $3.99

Ninjak #3 could not be better than issue #2 was. At least, that’s what I thought. For some reason the creative team seems to be on a mission to make each issue better than the last, just to spite me. Do you know how hard it is writing these reviews, when I keep having to say “this book can’t possibly get any better!”?

Writer Matt Kindt has had more Eisner and Harvey Award nominations than I can count, and it’s easy to see why. I’m not sure if he pitched this book to Valiant or they pitched it to him, but it doesn’t matter, just be glad that it exists. Honest to God, Ninjak has got to be the coolest spy/ninja hybrid in the history of spy/ninja hybrids. No, I can’t name any others, but still. This issue starts with edge of your seat action and it doesn’t stop until the very last panel, and then the floor drops out from underneath you. Mix in with that the regular flashbacks we’ve been getting from Ninjak’s childhood AND the back up stories of his past missions, and you’ve got one heck of an entertaining comic book.

As I just mentioned, there are two great artists working on this book. Penciling the main story is Clay Mann, who’s fantastic. There’s several full-page panels in this issue, and all of them actually NEED to be full-page panels, because of all the action that he conveys throughout the issue. Non superhero action is sometimes hard to pull off in a comic book, but not for Mann, he does an awesome job. Then, there’s the backups that are drawn by the legendary Butch Guice, whose artwork really doesn’t need any praising by me.

OK, almost every first issue is good. Second issues can be a mixed bag. Sometimes they’re really good, sometimes they’re not. But, when you get THREE awesome issues in a row? Yeah, that’s something that’s not that common. You knew it was coming, and I’ll say it for the third time-THIS BOOK CAN’T POSSIBLY GET ANY BETTER!!!!!