Geeks of the Round Table

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2/26/14

Web Comic Wednesday: The Adventures of Dr. McNinja



Do you need to see anything else to understand why you should see this web comic in all its glory? There is a GIANT LUMBERJACK fighting a T-REX. Anything else I can say here is moot. But fine, I'll say things anyway, its probably what you came here for.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is a comic about a ninja who is also a doctor. Does that sound absurdly silly? Well, what if I told you his receptionist was a gorilla, and his sidekick was a raptor-riding child bearing the most magnificent mustache this side of Burt Reynolds? Then it might be starting to sound crazy-awesome.

Dr. McNinja and his associates protect the city of Cumberland, Maryland from a variety of threats, including but not limited to Dracula, zombie ninjas, 80's action stars turned super villains and “the most radical man in the radical lands”, known only as King Radical.

The Doctor himself comes from a family of Irish ninjas, and his main interest in superhero and ninja skills in general come from an obsession with wanting to be Batman. Despite his best attempts as always being the hero, his ax-crazy nature as a ninja often comes out, especially in the beginning. He has issues with obsession in general, as seen when he tries to thwart King Radical, but is still highly skilled in both doctoring and ninja...ing.

I can't even begin to list all of the side characters here and do them any justice. There the time-traveling mayor, the rest of the McNinja family, who are disappointed in their son's choice of career, the citizens of the Radical Lands, the Doctor's mentor Ben Franklin (a clone of the original) and the list just goes on.

The Good
If you enjoy crazy-awesome, then this one of the best things out there for you. Nearly everything runs on a mixture of rule of cool (you kind of have to be familiar with tvtropes to understand me, huh?) and the best cliches of 80's action movies.
Well, the ones not in here.
But you know what? They're still good stories in the conventional sense. There's still an arc, still character development in which they find out things about each other and themselves, and the twists and climaxes are still clever and exciting. Creator Chris Hastings has worked on Deadpool since the this comic has come out, and reading it you can certainly see why.

There is a fine line being being awesome and being off-putting and confusing, and this comic has a fantastic grasp of where that line is. There is a point where Dr. McNinja has to surf a rocket-powered robot from Dracula's moon-base back to Earth, and in context every single one of those words makes sense.

The Bad
I can't think of much to put in here. If you're looking for something artsy or dramatic, this isn't your comic. If you like Tarantino's movies, or just want to read something that's off-the-wall fun with little to no limits, then this is definitely up your ally.

The Verdict
LUMBERJACK. FIGHTING. T-REX.
In case you'd forgotten.