Well, it didn’t take very long for me to return to
the strange world of Dr. McNinja. Part ninja, part doctor, all Irish (?)- and
completely insane, in this volume Doctor McNinja experiences a number of
space/time continuum bending adventures. First, The McNinja family has their
annual battle with a clan of pirates and we learn the not-so terrible secret
behind how McNinja was able to obtain a degree in every field. Then McNinja and
a time-travelling clone of the mayor must hi-jack a space shuttle to prevent sentient
dinosaurs from outer space from retaking control of the earth. Lastly, McNinja
and the mayor clone end up in an alternate time-line in the future, during which
said space dinosaurs have ruled the world with an iron stumpy fist for 2
decades.
While I very much enjoyed this volume and hope to
get my hands on more titles in the future, this volume wasn’t quite as good as
the first. The biggest problem was that there was a lot of references to works
I hadn’t read yet. Dr. McNinja has been a web series for years and those
stories have been reprinted before. Yet, Dark Horse Comics has only published 2
volumes; neither of which contain any of the stories that Christopher Hastings
references to in his editorial comments.
Also making this story not quite as good as the
first is the quantum mechanics of the plot. I love time travel and alternate
timeline stories. These tales are very good. However, they may be a little too
good. One thing that makes me a fan of Doctor Who is the Timey-Wimey/
Wibbly-Wobbly nature of time travel- meaning time can be rewritten. In this
series, time can’t be rewritten, thus if someone travels in time, they create parallel
universes, much like Marty does in Back to the Future (parts 1, 2, and 3- but
mostly 2.) There’s even a chart in the last story that makes some of the
timeline confusion involve a little less head scratching. It helps, but it’s a
lot of information to keep straight.
Lastly, I want to give kudos to the short story at
the end of this volume. I mentioned in my review of volume 1 that Dr. McNinja
reminds me so much of Axe Cop, that I heard Axe Cop’s voice when McNinja talks.
Well, in this book, I’m hearing double as McNinja and Axe Cop meet for a tale
that involves pizzas that turn it’s eaters into blobbish mutants. No, this isn’t
an allegory for the obesity problem in America in relation to fast food. Well,
it might be, but I think it was unintentional. The team-up was also and I hope
the two heroes of the bizarre will reunite real soon. Hopefully, the big-wigs
at Fox will take note and add Dr. McNinja to their Animation Domination line-up
on Saturday nights. (As well as renew Axe Cop for some new episodes.)
Worth Consuming.
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