REVIEW: 'Ninjak' #3 by Jeff Parker and Javier Pulido

 

NINJAK #3

Writer: Jeff Parker

Artist: Javier Pulido

Publisher: Valiant Comics

Release Date: September 15, 2021

Cover Price: $3.99

"SOME OF THE COOLEST ART AROUND" - THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"A LOT OF FUN" - SCREEN RANT

The critically-acclaimed team of JEFF PARKER and JAVIER PULIDO continue their globe-trotting adventure with the Valiant's top superspy... and the secret behind Ninjak's mysterious enemies is revealed!

One look at Pulido's pages and you'll see why NINJAK is one of 2021's most talked-about comics.

Score:

★★★★☆ (4/5)

'Ninjak' by Jeff Parker and Javier Pulido has been a bullet train of an action comic with eye-popping visuals and non-stop fighting. Save for the opening sequence, issue three takes a more investigative pace with new revelations that provide some shocking details about the Daylight organization. It's the most in-depth issue, with more dialogue, exposition, and flowcharts? You'll see. 

Up to this point, Parker's script has been pretty straightforward, very much steeped in Mission Impossible-type spectacle and urgency. It's given Pulido free rein to interpret the storyline as only he can with the art. A confluence of avant-garde page design and bright monochromatic colors make this series unlike anything else on the shelf. 

After Colin and Agent Myna survive a train derailment, an attack by mutated assassins, and now a band of mercenaries on Neville Alcott's estate, they try to find those responsible. Since the leak of the real identities of MI6 agents, the leadership has been under fire and marked for death. Clues lead to a research facility where the mind-reading powers of the siblings from the first issue are explained. It's here where things get weird. 

The descent into the bowels of the facility exposes some wild revelations about how these counteragents were recruited and trained. It's some sci-fi-inspired brainwashing that's illustrated in only the way Pulido can. It's hard to describe to do it justice but imagine flow charts that run horizontally and vertically with each octagon within containing important information forcing the reader to turn the page ninety degrees. The entire design is intricate and dense full of color and shape. 

'Ninjak' continues to be a wild spy action series made all the more mind-blowing by Pulido's unique design work. The series looks like nothing else in comics. New revelations reveal the methods that Daylight has employed to take down MI6. Parker has upped the intrigue and stakes with a game-changer issue for the series.