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06-02-2021, 02:32 AM | #3221 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,572
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issue 246
First Netho Diaz art. Dawn of the Arashikage starts. Senior Advisor Harada appears at the scene of the battle which happened off-panel between issues. Lots of dead Red Ninjas, a handful of Arashikage Clan as well. Hopefully none of the recently-named new Arashikage but we probably won't ever know. Storylines like this with a large extended Arashikage Clan family would be perfect for getting into the history of the underdeveloped Joes from Ninja Force. Harada gives a play-by-play narration of the battle similar to Willem Dafoe's Paul Smecker in Boondock Saints. His narration leads us easily to believe that he is speaking more from personal prior associations than from pure observation. One member of the Arashikage is highlighted here. A "traveling mendicant ninja" who is master of the Iron Palm. He was seen in Trieste. Maybe the young man who was with Storm Shadow in his first appearance of the modern half of ARAH. Then he is named, Genji. Senior Advisor Harada is attacked by a wounded Red Ninja and defends himself. He is a member of the Arashikage. Does anyone have an extended family tree of them with all the new additions since Marvel? Dawn, Genji, and Obake recover nearby. We are treated to a Vietnam flashback moments after Ramon, Dickie, and Wade are shot down. We learn (for what I believe is the first time) that Snake-Eyes was being called by that name as early as his LRRP days, at least by Tommy. Stalker saves Snake-Eyes’ life in this memory. In the letters page, a reader repeats Dawn's initial age of "15." At the end of this story arc, Larry quietly ages her up to 17 off-panel. Another reader asks if the Joes have their own Chaplain.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
06-02-2021, 06:28 PM | #3222 |
Bridge Layer Driver
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Ft. Wadsworth
Posts: 737
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I remember thinking Harada was going to be another of Zartan' disguises, so I took all of his info with a grain of salt. Yet it appeared he was an entirely new character. I expected him to be named "the Secret Master", but I don't think he's had any additional screen-time since this story. Has he?
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>>Chuck X Goren's GI Joe Comic Book Index<< |
06-06-2021, 03:21 AM | #3223 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,572
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Quote:
I remember thinking Harada was going to be another of Zartan' disguises, so I took all of his info with a grain of salt. Yet it appeared he was an entirely new character. I expected him to be named "the Secret Master", but I don't think he's had any additional screen-time since this story. Has he?
Harada could come back as a strong narrative character to use for sort of tying up the Arashikage story. I don't think Hama has any goals to end the story wrapped up neatly with a bow as long as they can keep making money from it, but I am an advocate for that outcome. I think this title deserves a badass well-constructed ending in which people die and there is an outcome to the war with Cobra, winners and losers on both side. Like a Hama version of DDP's World War III. So that in the future if anyone asks, we can say that "this is how GiJoe ends" even if there are other continuities or whatever. My primary checklist would be seeing the final status and future plans of the Arashikage Clan, acknowledgement of whether Dawn has eliminated most of the Red Ninjas, and seriously some awareness of Tommy's position as the new Hard Master or something like that. Plus: who is his dad and what is his relationship to the old masters? Maybe we don't need that but it's a pretty big question mark to me. Obake Obaason can just step down or die and leave him the full leadership. Tangential to that, the elimination of the Blue Ninjas completely. We are so dang close to that with all the Kansas base / Destro stuff. I want to see that resolved and finished and maybe just an acknowledgement that AI is now just part of the future world including the future of the Joe team to some degree. It's a reflection of our world as well in that respect. Plus did Tommy's dad have something to do with the Blue Ninjas, what was their initial Arashikage origin point and how does that tie in to the worldwide Arashikage Clan from before? Let's face it, they originally had some Arashikage ties of some kind but they're really separate thematically and in practice now, so it's almost two separate threads. I don't know what kind of resolution I would want to see for Destro and the Baroness. A happy ending hopefully but maybe he has sins to atone for despite being a somewhat good whitehat. She certainly does. Zartan requires the most at this point. I don't consider him a ninja but if he retired to become a bladesmith for the Arashikage at the end, that would be dope. If Buzzer or a different peer joined him, that would be cool too. He's been such a back-and-forth character with his constant betrayals, murders, and attempts at amends that I would like to see him finally make good, or finally just commit seppuku (noting that he's not a samurai). Cobra Commander should either die, go to supermax, or get away. Honestly I kind of feel like the Cobra organization has been so obviously and intentionally portrayed as being broke and structurally failing throughout this part of the story that if Cobra just went bankrupt and stopped paying their troops, I could see Cobra Commander and Mindbender just kind of driving off together and continuing their abusive friendship. Or the twins kill them for betraying the Crimson Guard, that might be satisfying. Mindbender could almost be Operation Paperclipped into the Joes. Definitely don't want Dawn or Sean to kill either of them and Tommy is too far beyond vengeance also. There are so many Joes that I don't know how you end them all except to say that they can just keep fighting the good fight. There really aren't that many who need an ending. The Joes I would touch base with for a final status check would be Stalker, Scarlett, Roadblock, I guess Duke + wife, Hawk, but actually a lot of them like Jaye and Flint haven't really been around a lot for personality development in a while. Snake-Eyes would need a resolution which would come in the form of something with Dawn and Sean honoring him in a meaningful way. Not knowing how long the series will go, in a way Snake Hunt exists as a gigantic flawed ending for ARAH until such a time that it's farther into the rearview mirror. But I would hate to see the series just keep going forever under different writers and never resolve, or end abruptly without resolution. Ha ha the worst thing ever would be if it ended definitively under Hama and then the ending was undone by another writer who didn't understand the source material like a decade later to revive it. Can you image that we're all sitting around in retirement homes in our 80s reading it going "this doesn't make sense, in issue 35 this other thing happened."
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
06-06-2021, 05:07 AM | #3224 |
Shabba
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: England
Posts: 1,352
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I read this part of the run online last year in lockdown. I can't remember, but did Harada give any clues as to nature of the Arashikage clan's role or status in relation to the Japanese government? If I remember rightly, he was a liason between the two, so it suggested that this old ninja clan wasn't just some organisation of assassins, and it wasn't completely secret and unknown.
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06-07-2021, 12:54 PM | #3225 |
Cyber Warfare Specialist
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 3,661
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Issue #247 is live to discuss. Yo Joe!
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06-07-2021, 07:29 PM | #3226 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,572
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issue 247
The park is closed and the guests are being vacated. Dawn enters a staging room full of costumed employees such as Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, Godzilla, Pokemon, and more uniquely Dream of the Endless. Dawn uses a stolen costume to swipe a handheld data device from one of the officers under Harada's watch. Dawn goes to a local crime den and uses her creepy Snake-Eyes voice to demand guns. Great line: "It's all so hard to believe! First, that Ninjas are real, and second, that they have advanced I.T. skills!" Harada describes the extended history of the Arashikage going back to 1868. He details their relationship to the Japanese government and other ninja clans. We are treated to a flashback of the first Joes on an early mission into the Middle East. Snake-Eyes is going in to the building to secure the lower floors while the rest of the team takes the upper floors to extract the leadership. Four silent pages including an extended quick reload moment. Dawn begins her assault on a ninja compound in Japan. At the PIT, the brotherhood of Stalker, Scarlett, Storm Shadow, and Snake-Eyes Sean gather to address a request for aid from Obake Obaasan. Storm Shadow is freely walking in the PIT at this point, which is after his formal Joe mission with Zap. Soon Zartan will join the Joes on a mission, furthering his own redemption arc. In the letters page, Sevian "The White Clown" Gerebidian writes in about death and Larry gives a lengthy explanation of the finality of death in comics. Then he talks about how meaningless comic character deaths can be when they are temporary or able to be retconned. He also promises that a "major" Cobra character will soon die, which I guess means (ironically) Dr. Venom.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
06-07-2021, 07:44 PM | #3227 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Boulder
Posts: 1,572
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Quote:
I read this part of the run online last year in lockdown. I can't remember, but did Harada give any clues as to nature of the Arashikage clan's role or status in relation to the Japanese government? If I remember rightly, he was a liason between the two, so it suggested that this old ninja clan wasn't just some organisation of assassins, and it wasn't completely secret and unknown.
Ninjas date back to the 15th Century Sengoku Period (not long before the discovery of America and about the same time as the construction of Machu Picchu and the Spanish Inquisition). Samurai had codes of honor which made them less convenient for Lords and Princes than using ninja who were more flexible. The Koga and Iga Clans arose early. The Arashikage was a minor rural Class which went largely unnoticed until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Japan needed a secret service and several clans were recruited to for clandestine espionage organizations. During the Russo-Japanese War, the Arashikage demonstrated advanced infiltration and fighting but they refused to integrate with other clans. They remained aloof and retained their own secrets. After WWI, the Arashikage claimed to retire and reformed themselves as a school. However it was still suspected that they were doing occasional contract work for the Japanese government (coming from Harada this just means that they WERE doing this work but he’s trying to keep it mysterious and not identify himself yet). He then talks about the death of the Hard Master, the defection of Tomisaburo, the appearance onto the scene of Snake-Eyes and GiJoe, the creation of the Red Ninjas as a mercenary army, and hearsay about Firefly being connected somehow.
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9/1/22 - A Day Which Will Live in Infamy Steevy Maximus - "that Nazi imagery was quaint" |
06-12-2021, 06:30 AM | #3228 |
Shabba
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: England
Posts: 1,352
|
Quote:
Yes, it happens in the current issue 247. Harada’s history lesson:
Ninjas date back to the 15th Century Sengoku Period (not long before the discovery of America and about the same time as the construction of Machu Picchu and the Spanish Inquisition). Samurai had codes of honor which made them less convenient for Lords and Princes than using ninja who were more flexible. The Koga and Iga Clans arose early. The Arashikage was a minor rural Class which went largely unnoticed until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Japan needed a secret service and several clans were recruited to for clandestine espionage organizations. During the Russo-Japanese War, the Arashikage demonstrated advanced infiltration and fighting but they refused to integrate with other clans. They remained aloof and retained their own secrets. After WWI, the Arashikage claimed to retire and reformed themselves as a school. However it was still suspected that they were doing occasional contract work for the Japanese government (coming from Harada this just means that they WERE doing this work but he’s trying to keep it mysterious and not identify himself yet). He then talks about the death of the Hard Master, the defection of Tomisaburo, the appearance onto the scene of Snake-Eyes and GiJoe, the creation of the Red Ninjas as a mercenary army, and hearsay about Firefly being connected somehow. |
06-16-2021, 02:02 PM | #3229 |
Cyber Warfare Specialist
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 3,661
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Place holder
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06-16-2021, 02:06 PM | #3230 |
Cyber Warfare Specialist
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 3,661
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Issue #248 is live to discuss. Yo Joe!
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