Post by Admin on Jun 8, 2020 22:10:25 GMT
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Nth Man: Why Marvel's Ultimate Ninja Deserves Another Chance
Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja is one of the wildest comics Marvel ever published, and this cult classic deserves another moment in the sun.
By the late 1980s, franchise mastermind Larry Hama and artist Ron Wagner had both helped make G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero one of the decade's biggest successes for Marvel. While that title is still celebrated and ongoing today, Hama and Wagner's other Marvel creation, Nth Man, The Ultimate Ninja occupies a far more peculiar space in Marvel history.
Although the series only lasted for a little over a year, it still stands as one of the weirdest and most criminally overlooked Marvel tales ever published.
At the stark of the story, the head of an orphanage answered his door to find a burning woman holding two infants. She prophesied that one would grow up to very good, and the other very bad. The trouble is that the owner did not know which would be which, but as Alfie O'Meagan and John Doe, grew into adolescence, the differences between them became abundantly apparent. Alfie always had his nose in a comic book, whereas John always got into trouble. Alfie ended up adopted, whereas John was recruited by the CIA.
When Alfie went on to develop reality-warping powers, he used to disarm the world's nuclear weapons, seemingly confirming him to be the proverbial good egg. However, Alfie grew into a mentally unstable and emotionally stunted man with a god complex made all the more terrifying by the fact that he wielded the actual powers of a god. In fact, the only person who could stop him was John, who was a legend in the Cold War that evolved into World War III.
Much of the action itself takes place against the World War III backdrop, with Alfie's de-nuclearization only pushing the major world powers into further chaos rather than saving them from it. At the comic's opening, John the Nth Man escapes execution by the KGB, who pursue him throughout much of the comic as he tries to fight his way to his childhood friend to talk some sense into him.
The story is extremely ambitious in its scope, juggling Alfie's fantastical omnipotence as ably as Nth Man's covert military operations. Unfortunately, the story only ran for 16 issues and never fully enjoyed the freedom to explore all the characters and plotlines it set up. However, the creative team managed to complete Nth Man's story with a time-skip that helped resolve the overarching plotline, but there was just no salvaging the poor sales and visibility of the title.
Though Nth Man debuted in the anthology Marvel Comics Presents and briefly appeared in an issue of Excalibur, it was not set in the main Marvel Universe, so its ability to synergize with other Marvel titles proved limited.
That certainly did not stop the title from referencing Marvel history. As a fan of classic Silver Age comics, the mad god Alfie O'Meagan often took the form of Galactus and shaped the world around him to conform to classic Marvel Comics. It made for a self-aware metatext that would be far more comfortable in the 21st Century than 1990. Despite its Cold War trappings, there's no doubt that the storytelling and artistic ability of the book transcended much of its time.
The late '80s are seen as a turning point for mature storytelling in comics as The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen displayed the full range of ambitious ideas that could be brought to mainstream comics. Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja did the same thing, showing the horror of a mother who learned of her child lost in the Vietnam War with as much emotional depth more capably than any competing title on the stands in that era.
While it seems like every era of Marvel history has been revisited in one way or another, Nth Man remains an increasingly-distant part of Marvel's past. Although numerous recent Marvel stories have revolved around visiting alternate timelines and parallel worlds, the world of Nth Man has gone untouched for the better part of three decades. In the most technical sense, Nth Man still "exists" somewhere in the Marvel Multiverse, and he's just waiting for his chance to make a comeback.
Nth Man: Why Marvel's Ultimate Ninja Deserves Another Chance
Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja is one of the wildest comics Marvel ever published, and this cult classic deserves another moment in the sun.
By the late 1980s, franchise mastermind Larry Hama and artist Ron Wagner had both helped make G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero one of the decade's biggest successes for Marvel. While that title is still celebrated and ongoing today, Hama and Wagner's other Marvel creation, Nth Man, The Ultimate Ninja occupies a far more peculiar space in Marvel history.
Although the series only lasted for a little over a year, it still stands as one of the weirdest and most criminally overlooked Marvel tales ever published.
At the stark of the story, the head of an orphanage answered his door to find a burning woman holding two infants. She prophesied that one would grow up to very good, and the other very bad. The trouble is that the owner did not know which would be which, but as Alfie O'Meagan and John Doe, grew into adolescence, the differences between them became abundantly apparent. Alfie always had his nose in a comic book, whereas John always got into trouble. Alfie ended up adopted, whereas John was recruited by the CIA.
When Alfie went on to develop reality-warping powers, he used to disarm the world's nuclear weapons, seemingly confirming him to be the proverbial good egg. However, Alfie grew into a mentally unstable and emotionally stunted man with a god complex made all the more terrifying by the fact that he wielded the actual powers of a god. In fact, the only person who could stop him was John, who was a legend in the Cold War that evolved into World War III.
Much of the action itself takes place against the World War III backdrop, with Alfie's de-nuclearization only pushing the major world powers into further chaos rather than saving them from it. At the comic's opening, John the Nth Man escapes execution by the KGB, who pursue him throughout much of the comic as he tries to fight his way to his childhood friend to talk some sense into him.
The story is extremely ambitious in its scope, juggling Alfie's fantastical omnipotence as ably as Nth Man's covert military operations. Unfortunately, the story only ran for 16 issues and never fully enjoyed the freedom to explore all the characters and plotlines it set up. However, the creative team managed to complete Nth Man's story with a time-skip that helped resolve the overarching plotline, but there was just no salvaging the poor sales and visibility of the title.
Though Nth Man debuted in the anthology Marvel Comics Presents and briefly appeared in an issue of Excalibur, it was not set in the main Marvel Universe, so its ability to synergize with other Marvel titles proved limited.
That certainly did not stop the title from referencing Marvel history. As a fan of classic Silver Age comics, the mad god Alfie O'Meagan often took the form of Galactus and shaped the world around him to conform to classic Marvel Comics. It made for a self-aware metatext that would be far more comfortable in the 21st Century than 1990. Despite its Cold War trappings, there's no doubt that the storytelling and artistic ability of the book transcended much of its time.
The late '80s are seen as a turning point for mature storytelling in comics as The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen displayed the full range of ambitious ideas that could be brought to mainstream comics. Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja did the same thing, showing the horror of a mother who learned of her child lost in the Vietnam War with as much emotional depth more capably than any competing title on the stands in that era.
While it seems like every era of Marvel history has been revisited in one way or another, Nth Man remains an increasingly-distant part of Marvel's past. Although numerous recent Marvel stories have revolved around visiting alternate timelines and parallel worlds, the world of Nth Man has gone untouched for the better part of three decades. In the most technical sense, Nth Man still "exists" somewhere in the Marvel Multiverse, and he's just waiting for his chance to make a comeback.