No creator works in a vacuum. In some way or another, everything we conceive is based off of something else that came before, and in Chris Hastings’s long running action comedy The Adventures of Dr. McNinja that’s no more apparent. Its hero is very clearly a tribute to Marvel Comics character Deadpool, them both being wacky masked ninjas that embark on violent yet absurdist adventures and constantly bulldoze down the fourth wall. In fact, Hastings went on to write a Deadpool miniseries and even admitted the similarities between the two properties himself, so if you enjoy him there’s a lot for you to like here. However, there are enough tonal differences in McNinja to keep this from being a real problem.
McNinja is quite skilled in healing the sick, though despite what the family name would imply, his competence as a ninja tends to vary between either what would make for the funniest gag or whatever would come in handy that moment. Aiding (and occasionally abetting) him are Gordito, an adolescent with a perfectly naturally grown handlebar moustache, a receptionist gorilla named Judy and Gordito’s loyal steed Yoshi (said steed is a raptor). We’re provided with not one but two villains that are also satires of fast food mascots, in the forms of Donald McBonald who has a recurring sinister plan involving hamburgers that cause excessive gas, and King Radical who is a self consciously hip version of his real Burger King self, but with as much extensive backstory as Adventure Time’s Ice King. The Doctor’s family also play a recurring role- his traditional minded mother Mitzy and clueless father Dan serve as thorns in his side while also remaining sympathetic in their own right, as they don’t know any other way but what they’ve been taught and can’t fathom what their son sees in medicine. His awkward wannabe hip hop brother Sean gets a lot of laughs.
Much like its main source of inspiration, McNinja revels in its lack of sense and reason, purely operating on whatever would get a chuckle. It does have a good sense of continuity, but there’s a heavy Freakazoid-ish feel to the proceedings. It’s pretty much a pure farce, as sometimes the plots twist towards something more intense and we’ll briefly get a powerful moment, but those seem to be happy accidents more than anything. Events such as demonic unicorns disguised to blend into the real world, wizard possessions, lumberjack viruses, criminals with lobster claws and ongoing rivalries with pterodactyls are the name of the game. The cast reacts to the madness around them with straight faces for the most part, usually opting to follow the late Roger Ebert’s “funny hat” theory, although there are occasionally spots where the barrier is broken and a character has to comment on what just happened because they can no longer resist. In fact, a lot of the author’s annotations are even funnier and sharper than some of the strips themselves.
The art in McNinja is always at least consistent, but there is a noticeable jump in quality over the strip’s run. The character models and backgrounds have a generally clean American comic book look to them, and the expressions are well done- including McNinja himself who only has eyes and eyebrows to work with, though that’s all he really needs. There’s a switch from black/white to color halfway in (provided by one Nedroid), and it’s well varied with a slight mute. The action scenes are always good, and while they’re generally not kid friendly there’s definitely not a try-too-hard feel to them either. The jokes have plenty of bite but at the same time there’s nothing tasteless, as it engages in a good deal of self censorship and knows that less is more when it comes to certain punchlines. It’s easily a property that pleads to be on evening to late night TV, perhaps alongside the equally as absurd Axe Cop which McNinja once had a crossover with.
Dr. McNinja has gradually become one of the more popular comics for the web for a good reason. Despite what I said earlier, it’s no cut-and-paste job- it’s still its own entity due to things it’s uniquely good at. Click here for the strip as well as a slew of merchandise and such, and before I close out this review I did manage to get in contact with Deadpool himself to discover how he feels about the controversy. He gave me a rather poignant and definitive reply, if I say so myself.
Sadly, he didn’t stay long enough to give his opinion on Oscar night.