"Deathfist Ninja GKaiser" is a new series from underground comic book publisher Techno Comics, writer Jim Freedan, and artist Jen Brooks. "Deathfist Ninja GKaiser" has a fun idea for a comic book series, one that could provide tons of laughs and fun, yet a horrible execution hampers this series in more ways then one. The story of "Deathfist Ninja GKaiser" revolves around a fifteen year old boy named Richter. Richter is a rebellious teenager who is constantly late for school, gets into racing matches with the school bullies (as in they chase him, and he runs away), and his potential love interest can't help but feel that Richter is a bit of a coward. Suddenly out of nowhere (and I do mean NOWHERE), Richter is pulled from his world into a fantasy world, given a new shinny suit of armor, and told by an old wizard that he is now the warrior GKaiser, who, with the Manga Sword, is now destined to save this world from the evil Dark Shinobi (man, who came up with these clever names). Lets get the story out of the way before I tackle anything else.

One thing I should make a point of is that there is nothing wrong with this story. While it may sound a little on the silly side, I think the whole point of the series is that this is supposed to be some sort of parody on all of the "guy/girl gets sucked into another world and ends up being the one who will save it" genre. While most heros of this genre are a little apprehensive about their new role, they normally take their new responsibility fairly easy and without too many problems. Richter is not like this. He complains, he curses the wizard out for bringing him to this new world, he goes all out to try and make sure that he doesn't get sucked into the wizards plot, and he's constantly poking fun at the suit he's been given (he particularly dislikes his "cape," which is actually a scarf). The wizard, contrary to most wizards in other manga series, seems totally clueless most of the time, and it even takes him several pages into the first issue before he starts to suspect that he may have summoned the wrong person who was destined to save the world. So we're starting off terrific. The story seems to be in place, the humor is all there, and it appears that this will be a fun series. Unfortunately, the premise is about as much enjoyment as I actually got out of the title. Seeing as how I was just praising the character quirks just a minute ago, now I have to jump on the characters personalities too. While I did laugh at the wizard quite a bit, the sad fact of the matter is so far there are no real characters in this series you're supposed to root for.

The only character to receive any real sort of personality is Richter himself, and, quite frankly, he comes off as a being a bit of a jerk. His attitude may be fun for the first several pages (not chapters, PAGES), but you just get tired of watching the little punk do nothing but cuss people out after awhile. Admitingly, I would probably be freaking out too if I was sucked into another world other then my own and told I was now supposed to save it, but he not only acts like a jerk around the wizard, but around his mom and girlfriend too, which makes me wonder if this guy isn't just going to be a major pain for a good portion of the series before we see any redeeming qualities in him. As for the other characters, you don't actually see his mom, his girlfriend Liz does little more then complain about what a coward Richter is, and the bully Chad spends the whole issue chasing Richter around and not doing much else. These characters may be on the cover (sans mom), but when it comes to usefulness they really don't raise the bar very high. However the REAL low point of the series is the artwork! Now the artwork is, in my opinion, very weak for a number of different reasons. The first thing I need to tackle are the character designs and backgrounds. To put it simply, the character designs are lifeless and the backgrounds don't really look all that great.

Most of the character designs have stupid raggy hair, they have very little in the way of body movement, and none of the drawings ever look three dimensional. Sometimes when a character is walking, the background will suggest that the character is walking diagonally, while the character is literally walking straight at us. It’s as if the artist attempted to give us the illusion that the artwork is three dimensional, but the whole thing ends up looking extremely unconvincing instead. Action sequences are also poorly drawn, as a fight to the death looks more like a five year old trying to draw Superman for the first time. It all comes off as being very sloppy and amateurish. In fact, don't take my word for it, just take a look at the scan below:

See what I mean? I mean, what is this supposed to be, a parody of the old 60's "Batman" show staring Adam West? There is just no life in that drawing at all, and action sequences only work if the drawings are fluid enough to make them look exciting. Scene's of comedy and drama appear to try and mimic the anime style, but those too just come off as poor imitations instead. The book also has this printing problem that involves various shades of grey's. Unfortunately, the printed version of "Deathfist Ninja GKaiser" has every shade of grey you can imagine, none of which is kind on the eyes, and all of it looking like it SHOULD be in color instead! To some credit though, I have read this series online where the comic strip is posted in color, and the color does greatly help the artwork, but without the colors in the book, the various shades of grey just look drab and murky, and it actually makes some of the artwork look worse then it originally was! Heck, you can see on the cover I posted above that the color makes the artwork look better for yourself. I can't alter the grade based on how the strip looks online though, because the book I'm holding is what most people will be buying, and in no way can I say "Well the book looks ugly, but if you read it online AFTER you've bought the book it looks good there!"

Best line in the whole book.

In fact, I think the saddest point of this whole experience is that while the main character kind of annoys me, I was willing to give the series a chance to see if the potential I saw in the idea got fleshed out to its full potential. But the poor artwork and horrid grey shading has all but scarred me away from ever wanting to buy another issue. Hopefully the publisher will put this series on hold until they can find a way to publish the series in color, but the final product is practically unreadable, and I just can't recommend it. Well, maybe I can recommend reading it online, but I really shouldn't have to do that.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -