Review: Samurai Jack #11 from IDW Publishing

Samurai Jack #11
Writer: Jim Zub
Artist: Andy Suriano
Publisher: IDW publishing

Synopsis: You know who he is and you know his backstory. But just in case let me bring you up to speed…His name is Jack and he’s a samurai. Transported from fuedal Japan to the distant future by the evil and semi-omniscent Aku, Jack must fight his way back to the past and to his home.

The Genndy Tartakovsky character continues his adventures in the pages of Samura Jack #11, written by Jim Zub and drawn by Andy Suriano. The team stays true to the character’s artistic roots and delivers a book that could easily serve as a storyboard for an episode of the popular Cartoon Network series.

We encounter Jack in a future that could be an alternate reality for all of the fantastic elements present. As with the animated show, the focus is not on the future as a period so much as an event. A happening that must not happen; it’s a paradox that works well for the book, as it drives the story along. Jack must always keep fighting for a way to keep fighting to prevent the terrible dystopia created by Aku. Whew, still with me? Good.

With the Threads of Time having failed to send him home, Jack has no choice but to seek out the help of a wizardly ally. After dispatching a giant insectoid he meets the wizard in his cavern home. They discuss, in between coughing fits, an alternative method for returning the samurai to the past, one that is accomplished through the use of his magical katana.

The rest, as they say, is history. As stated earlier, the book stays true to tradition in visual style, dialogue captions and most especially during action sequences. In between those heavy action sequences we get some comic relief from Jack’s wizard ally, a welcome relief from what would otherwise be a hack and slash fest. It all comes together quite nicely though, as a simple adventure story, one of an infinitude in the life of the samurai.

5/5 stars

By Adam Cadmon

Follow Adam on Twitter: @K1NG_OF_J4CKS

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Adam Cadmon

Adam Cadmon is the pen name for a man who has been writing for a few years. Heâ€™s done his share of straight-laced writing, college press, blogging, some other not very glamorous technical writing to keep the bills paid. Itadakimasu.