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Underground > Comic Books >

Nth Man - the Ultimate Beyond World War Ninja III!

21:34 / 23.04.03

Okay, rampant nostalgia time here. Does anyone remember this odd early nineties series by Larry 'Gun Nut' Hama and, er, someone else? IIRC it involved various millitary types from Russia and America, a white-haired orphan trained in ninja powers by his chinese guardian, the white-haired kid's mate who wound up taking on the powers of Galactus and stopping a nuclear war, and the repercussions of this fiddling with reality. It's been a while since I dug out my back issues, but something about the recent magic/godhood/superheroes themes in Promethea, NXM, and Powers has had me recalling it for some reason.

Anyone else remember what I'm talking about, or was I the only guy who ever read the damn thing?

21:55 / 23.04.03

You mean Peaches? Yeah, I remember that one. When I was a kid obsessed with ninjas and the military, this was a favorite. Completely spun off the GI Joe vein at first and then leapt into straaaangeness by the end of it. The Spetznaz Russian dame. The CIA-strained little Chinese teacher of the white-haired American ninja. The freckle-faced girl soldier. Ah, those were the days. I still have a few of the issues somewhere.

Damn. Now I want to visit my local shop and pick up the ones I've lost. Thanks, velvet.

00:20 / 25.04.03

I own a complete set. It is an interesting series, reminiscent of 1970s Steve Gerber, and an intriguing Marvel artifact if only because it was published with nary a mutant crossover or spandex superhero in sight. I always felt the comic was underappreciated - a classic adventure strip - with nuances missing from its peers. The mythic quality is a precursor to PREACHER, particularly in its observations about control and human virtues like love, fiality and hope. Unfortunately, it had so much going on that you didn't have a clear idea of how it all came together which can be the kiss of death for a newstand comic.

01:41 / 25.04.03

"nary a mutant crossover "

If memory serves, there was a single issue of EXCALIBUR in which the characters from NTH MAN popped up. I can't believe that I remember that...

-Toby

23:18 / 25.04.03

You're correct that the characters appear in Excaliber, or something to that affect. I never read that issue because it came out around the tail end, perhaps even posthumuously, of the Nth Man series. I gather it has nothing to do with the series since it is never referenced in the book. Larry Hama had nothing to do with it.

Yes, it occurred, but it's so tangental that I selectively ignore it. Sort of like Obnoxio the Clown versus the X-Men, do you really recognize that comic as continuity? Ugh.

21:32 / 27.04.03

thank you velvet.

I got the first three issues of this, again like derivative drawn to it from GI Joe and love of ninjas.

From what I remember I left just before the good wierdness started, although still have a mental image of the guy they were all after being 20 storeys tall in one panel (and google only gave my covers for my image search).

Damn it now I have to go into the boxes of comics just to read them.

Velvet I will be sending you the medical bill if one of them falls and injuries me in the process, it's your fault

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

03:08 / 28.04.03

Geez...I remember working at a shop when this came out, and it was just plain bad. I always disliked Larry Hama's writing, and the fact that it was one of 6 new books Marvel shoved on the market that month didn't help much.

Marvel has always done a lot of "dumping" when the comics market is doing well, and their recent doubling of their line strikes me the same way.

03:24 / 28.04.03

I have a friend who swears by this series. He is without a doubt the world's greatest Nth Man fan, and can name every character and recite huge lines of dialogue, not to mention constantly reminding you that Nth Man is more powerful than insert-name-of-favourite-superhero-here.

I need new friends.

23:04 / 28.04.03

I'm kind of glad this comic was brought up because I think it offers an interesting contrast to other books that touch upon "wish-fulfillment." Despite all of the action and power plays, the book systematically strips away the value of power and demonstrates the necessity of love and charity. Alfie O'Meagan, the world's ultimate bully, has the power to do whatever he wants, to gratify his basest and most sublime desire and no one can control him. Sure, he invests John with some meaning but ultimately he kills John as well, demonstrating that even his better half can't physically overcome him. Yet, the character spirals emotionally into ever more hazardous territory as he moves farther and farther away from his humanity because, and this is the crucial thing, he does not abandon his ego. Despite his so-called epiphany near the end of the series, he has achieved greater awareness but without recognizing how worthless his ego/personality is and so, at the end of the book, he can only rely upon the preternatural virtues of John the Nth Man: charity, hope and love.

Nice book.

19:40 / 20.02.07

An issue of NthMan featured the first Marvel (if not the first first) comics work by Dale Keown. I think. The issue had a clown with an axe on the cover. And kids reading Marvel comics.

(it's slow at work today, and I'm combing through old Barbethreads, in case you're wondering how I came up with this one)

Janean Patience

20:49 / 20.02.07

I can't believe there are two separate threads on Nth Man.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

22:20 / 20.02.07

I swear to God I searched before starting another one. Slap me. I deserve it.

00:29 / 21.02.07

This is proof of something.

There's probably a third thread around, even.

'Nth Man' deserves it more than, oh, 'Promethea' anyway.

There should be an 'Nth Man' reread thread, now.

Not that the Invissy reread hasn't seemed to stall a bit. (I'm gearing up to sit and reread all the available 'Planetary' so I've put further advent. of Dane McGowan on the backburner for the moment.) And none of the other reread or group reading threads here ever seem to actually wrap up.

But, 'Nth Man' is short, and clearly close to all our hearts. Those who deny are only lying to themselves.

01:56 / 21.02.07

and as always i'm happy to help people remember their nth love with visual cues. is that oblique enough?

Janean Patience

06:41 / 21.02.07

I'm kind of ashamed to say this, but I never read Nth Man. I can't say I ever heard of it. Am I really, really missing out? Is this the keynote work of 90s comics?

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

13:47 / 21.02.07

I honestly think Nth Man was (a) ahead of its time, and (b) like writing the Tao through the lens of a Curious George book. Nobody should feel bad about not reading it, because in its time and in its context it made no sense and was, in many ways, a Bad Comic by '90s standards.

Hama's a bit like Gruenwald, I find -- he has spectacular ideas, but the actual meat and potatoes of the writing doesn't always have the flair to sell those ideas well. Nth Man holds up a LOT better in retrospect than it did when I was reading it fresh.

Do any Nth Man fans know the Sapir & Murphy "Destroyer" books? There's a HUGE resonance there -- I think Hama must have been paying homage, at least in part.

22:06 / 21.02.07

Tell me more of this 'Destroyer'.

I concur, it's actually not great comics per se, but it does have enough meat on its idea-bones for you to lift your head up from reading it every now and then to go 'huh. that's a little more sophisticated than the other comics marvel was putting out at that time'.

For me the big thing was the unflinching depiction of the horror of violence. And now that I think of it, the almost-metatextual incorporation of Marvel Comics into the story was interesting, too.

18:46 / 26.02.07

I think in a way, Nth Man proves the rightness of Pratchett's theory of inspiration particles, floating through the universe and just whacking into peoples' heads randomly. Nth Man was the product of an inspiration particle which would have been brilliant if it interacted with the mind of Morrison, Moore or Milligan - but instead it found itself slap bang in the mindpan of Larry Hama, a man destined, from birth, to write Wolverine and GI Joe.

In the circumstances, I think it turned out splendidly. Nth Man is the 'special' child of the class which gave us Watchmen, Doom Patrol and Zenith. It deserves our love just as much as any of the so-called 'high-functioning' kids.

03:36 / 27.02.07

Larry Hama is the second half of the twentieth century's greatest writer of boys' adventure fiction. So it is written.

And I'll take his Auger Inn pun and that goofy 'Wolverine' story where Spiral crashes in on Wolvie and Mystique, messes up their hotel room and somehow turns Jubilee into a chains-n-leather submissive attack weapon at the end of time over 'Watchmen' any day of the week.

(No one's ever going to presume I have taste on this board again. Which should help.)

09:16 / 27.02.07

somehow turns Jubilee into a chains-n-leather submissive attack weapon at the end of time

See, that's Hama picking up an inspiration particle aimed squarely at the brain of Claremont...