I haven't read the new Ninja Battles Comic that comes with the figures yet, but according to the story on the home page it doesn't seem to stay with the comic continuity. I know it's just a freebie with the figures, but if they're going to make a comic about the Arashikage Clan I would hope that they'd at least try to keep it kind of in continuity. Since when did the Hard Master become Storm Shadows father and not his uncle? Where did these new apprentices come from? And who is the Iron Master; I thought the swordsmith for the clan commited suicide when Zartan betrayed him. Why do they always have to mess up on set continuity?

For even more fun, the Ninja Battles comic art doesn't match the figures in the package, and in the Ninja Battles comic the Hard Master is assassinated differently than he is in the Ninja Battles DVD in the package. I guess it's just the way it is when you have 3 different parts (comic, DVD, figures) being produced at the same time.

Is it just me or does it seem like every time Hasbro comes up with a truly inspired GI Joe idea, something goes wrong?

Crimson Sabotage was under ordered and the Ninja Battles is incoherent.

You really need three solid cases for a pattern, but the trend seems clear. Good idea = problems.


Richard J.

Maybe Storm Shadow's father was the original "Hard Master" and then his brother (who became the latter "Hard Master") took his place... only to die by Zartan's arrow much later.

Just a thought... :)

I haven't seen the DVD yet, but the comic is VERY clever. If you look closely at the "Death of hardmaster" page you can see that it shows a guy with a GUN, but the text is vague. That may just have been an image illustrating ninjas with guns. It says somehting like "The hard master was killed with a modern weapon". Meaning that if those images are interpreted a certain way, The hard master still might have been killed by a compound bow with a sound intensifier. A "modern weapon".

Even the angle of the "kill shot" does not show what exactly killed him.




On a side note, could the IronMaster have lived through his suicide attempt? Sounds unlikely to me...

If the Iron Master is Ohinashi from the Marvel series, then he is dead. (Sorry, I haven't been able to find Ninja Battles yet, so I can only guess what is happening by posts like this.) Zartan found the swordsmith sprawled over his sword after committing seppuku (ritual suicide). However, his twin daughters seem to live on under the service of Cobra as "Vypra #2" and "Vypra #3"...

(Funny how everybody that Cobra Commander has ever screwed over ends up working for him; i.e., Zartan, Firefly, Storm Shadow, the Arashikage Red Ninjas, etc. etc...) :rolleyes:

Where could I find a picture of Ohinashi?

Maybe the iron master is just a different guy. (I.E. The guy who took over Ohinashi's job when he died.)

Pic of Zartan and Ohinashi:
http://www.geocities.com/firechief420/m084_18.jpg
Sure doesn't look like the Iron Master from the Ninja Battles comic.

I finally watched the DVD... There are so many changes that it would be really hard to make this match Marvel continuity. I could see the comic POSSIBLY being fit in, but the DVD rewrites all sorts of things...

The Arashikage dojo attacked by BATs???

well so much for collecting this dvd and comic for future value if hasbro couldnt keep with the marvel story line. but i havent kept up with all the comics from marvel and DD. so how much is truley different with DD than marvel?

I'd like to see someone address this issue at the convention roundtable. If you can't keep continuity within one subgroup, or even one boxed set for Pete's sake. . .why even offer them as extras???


-PJ

well so much for collecting this dvd and comic for future value if hasbro couldnt keep with the marvel story line. but i havent kept up with all the comics from marvel and DD. so how much is truley different with DD than marvel?

D.D. has really tried hard to retain the previous Marvel continuity. I have not seen many inconsistencies that couldn't be explained. One e.g.: the "rebirth memories" of Dr. Mindbender's clone, that differed markedly from the Marvel series where he was reanimated by the Transformers. This could probably be explained fairly simply by a good writer. Otherwise, I have no complaints about their continuity...

However, for obvious reasons, there are glaring inconsistencies between the animated stuff and the comics. It would be hard to reconcile many of the tales without some serious shuffling!

I'd like to see someone address this issue at the convention roundtable. If you can't keep continuity within one subgroup, or even one boxed set for Pete's sake. . .why even offer them as extras???


It seems to me that this set was originally intended to be released in some other form. Maybe the short DVD animations were supposed to go on TV. I'm not sure.

It seems like the reason the characters in the comic were drawn incorrectly is probably that this was drawn a while ago. Before the Jinx and other characters were redesigned?

I just read this comic and it is one of the worst attempts at a comic I have come across-

The comic and filecards don't match

The figures and characters in the book don't match

The story doesn't follow the marvel or dd continuities

The can't even call the characters by the right names - good going Destro

No publisher or artist info is weird too - I guess it is not a DD book

You can tell very little time was spent on this book and it really shows.

Bad, bad, bad

I just read this comic and it is one of the worst attempts at a comic I have come across-

The comic and filecards don't match

The figures and characters in the book don't match

The story doesn't follow the marvel or dd continuities

The can't even call the characters by the right names - good going Destro

No publisher or artist info is weird too - I guess it is not a DD book

You can tell very little time was spent on this book and it really shows.

Bad, bad, bad

I think it's more an issue of a lot of creators being involved, and not enough coordination. If you're the art-director with a limited budget for this set, and the comic art is sent to you with the wrong design for Slice, you probably don't get to have it redone...

I paid the 17.99 for this set for only one thing, The Ninja playset. Diorama here I come.... The rest of it is all trash! Or cannon fodder for My kids fire Crackers.

Hasbro knows that most of the G.I. Joe collectors are in they're 20's and 30's like myself and have been closly following the continuity for over 20 years. Do they just not get it? if they're going to go to the trouble of making the set (whiich I did like) you'd think they would put some effort into keeping it coherent and in contenuity. I was really looking forward to reading the comic but I can't believe how bad it was. They obviously did research to find out the names of some of the charecters in the comics, but didn't bother to make them correct.

Anybody have any e-mails or anything of the people in charge of this stuff?

you can contact Brandon Jerwa on his website. If you write something, he MIGHT, respond to you...

I'd really be interested to hear what he has to say.

here is the link:

http://brandonjerwa.proboards24.com/index.cgi

Thanks, I'll let you know if he responds. I suggest everyone else e-mail him too.