COWBOY NINJA VIKING | Review

Cowboy Ninja Viking, mouthful of a name, is an action-comedy comic book written by A.J. Lieberman and art by Riley Rossmo published by Image Comics well known for works such as Spawn and Witchblade. Given how Cowboy Ninja Viking (CNV), will be getting it’s live-action film soon, staring Chris Pratt, I thought I’d give this comic book a go.

CNV is about assassins code named “Triplets” who work for a counter intelligence agency which consists of agents with multiple personality disorders. These agents are trained in various weapons and combat styles based on their personalities (see where this is going?) hence the lead character possessing the personalities and fighting styles of a Cowboy, a Ninja and a Viking. Straight from the name it’s clear that this comic book doesn’t take itself too seriously, but the plot makes for a unique setting and a lot of laughs.

This comic book is very different from your usual D.C or Marvel typical kindda class. It’s very unusual in every aspect, almost bizarre even, but that’s what I love most about it. The art work is very rough with attention mostly given to facial expressions. The comic is mostly in black and white with little bits of color and shade thrown in here and there to give emphasis to various actions. What I licked about this is that each issue has its own unique color theme rather than adopting a consistent scheme. The shading though is done so well and makes the shadows so believable, setting the mood in each scene. The comic book also does something very clever, when each personality is talking or rather reasoning, the word balloon representing its speech is shaped like it’s corresponding weapon. As in, say the Viking personality is talking, the word balloon is shaped like an axe…or when the cowboy is speaking, the shape is a revolver’s…You have to see it for yourself coz this style looks awesome and is very creative.

As for the story? What else would you expect after seeing how the comic book is presented? Its totally wacky of course! Wacky but also very dark and gritty. The humor is absolutely funny but there is a mature theme to it with loads of cursing and violence (not for the kiddies) The story kicks off when the Doctor who founded the agency realizes that the Triplet assassins are getting out of control and need to be stopped. Therefore he enlists the help of the one who was the best out of all the triplets, Duncan, also known as Cowboy Ninja Viking. Some of my favorite moments are the exchanges between the various personalities on how to tackle certain situation…The cowboy wants to go in all guns blazing – The ninja wants to go in stealthily – The Viking just wants to chop someone’s head off…

Now on a personal level, I appreciate when something is done differently. On the other hand, mainstream comic book readers may find a lot of what’s done differently in CNV to be a bit irritating. The comic book tries to be visually stunning, but sometimes over does it. Like in issue 1 the first thing that will irritate you is that the blood is blue. BLUE?! Sure the main color theme in #1 was blue but blood too? C’mon! That just kills the realism in a major way, it even managed to downplay a guy’s face cut in half and ends up looking like child’s play…all coz the blood was blue. Something else that I realized is that the story gets so linear, at some point you think they lost their creativity and just threw in a bunch of random events. Like there was something that goes down in about #6 which I could have sworn similar happened in a previous issue. Another thing is that much of the dialogue gets a bit too complicated for this sort of comic book, I felt I was using too much of my attention for a concept that should be straight forward. Much of these things here n there made it hard at times to finish a whole issue in one go, coz it gets exhausting to read by the time you halfway.

All in all, Cowboy Ninja Viking has got the attention it needed and in the right places seeing as how it will soon be realized into a big budget live-action directed by the guy who did John Wick and of course staring Chris Pratt. This comic book is very lucky it wasn’t overhyped coz it risked being in the overrated category, but…but…goddamn it’s a hell lot of fun to read! The negatives can really hurt it a bit at times, but when it comes down to it, you will always be looking forward to what comes next. It’s a great Sunday afternoon read when you just wanna relax and let loose some madness. CNV is unique, intriguing and it’s world is one you’ll enjoy being a part of.

[Cheers for reading! And always keep in mind: “Shoot ‘em in their privates” – Cowboy]