Reviews - Ninja Scroll #1

Jigoku Part One of Three

I saw Ninja Scroll offered in Diamond Previews a few months back and decided to try it out. It follows Jubei after the events in the Ninja Scroll movie a few years back. I loved the movie and I'm hoping that the comic book can capture the same atmosphere from the movie.

The first issue is decent with a decent re-introduction to Jubei and his swordplay skills. He quickly teaches two would-be-thieves a lesson and promptly rescues an old lady from some wolves. The old lady invites Jubei to stay the night at her house and that's when the real story starts.

The old lady disappears overnight and Jubei is then attacked by bees, snakes and a flying blade-type weapon. Sound familiar? Those weapons are the weapons of choice for three of the villains from the Ninja Scroll movie. We get to see a cameo of all three at the end of the issue. Nice tie-in from the movie.

Can't say much about the story as nothing has really happened. I think there could have been more meat and more re-telling of the movie. Not all readers are going to be fans of the movie and it seems J. Torres has forgotten about that. The dialog was very light in this issue and what dialog there was...well, let's hope it gets better.

The art by Michael Chang Ting Yu is decent. The perspectives at times distract and the action sequences are difficult to follow. However, the artwork isn't bad and reminds me of those old school Chinese comic books. The inks are light so it seems like the entire issue is pencilled with colours. I've never heard of Micahel Chang Ting Yu before but I hope this his art improves as he gets more issues under his belt. There's a lot of promise here.

Overall a decent first issue. No big surprises and an interesting start to a series that has the potential to be a good read. If J. Torres can capture the atmosphere from the movie, then this will definitely be in my pull list.

DRAGONCRYPT Sunday, October 22, 2006