Killers #1 (Valiant) – Review – Thinking Outside The Long Box

Ninja’s J and G have been targeted for assassination and they need to get to the bottom of who is out to kill them. That is the main thrust of the first issue of Valiant’s new comic Killers. Ninja G arrives home to find that her wife has been murdered by ninjas in a botched attempt on her life, so she sets out on an international hunt to find who is behind the assassination attempt.

Meanwhile in Italy Ninja J is attacked in the market place (poor dead fishmonger) and manages to fend off his attackers. Also setting him on a path for revenge. Bringing the two together is a mysterious girl named, Shuriken, who reveals that an artifact is at play and must be retrieved. Seem a little confusing? It is.

Visually the book is great to look at, but there is a lot of “tell don’t show” in the pages of Killers #1. Big chunks of exposition set up the framework for what is coming down the line, and while that is to be expected from the first issue on some level, there are moments in Killers #1 where it interrupts the flow of the storytelling. Maybe breaking up the background that Shuriken is dropping on Ninja G with the action that is taking place with Ninja J could have been effective, but that is second-guessing a finished product.

The premise is great, and the art is really nice to look at. While the delivery may feel a little clunky, and I have that sense that I have with most Valiant books that there is a back story that I don’t know from another series, this has a lot of potential to go some really cool places. I will keep an eye on this one, because in the long run who doesn’t love a good martial arts book!