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DAREDEVIL
#114 cover by
Marko Djurdjevic |
By Marc Strom
Ninjas always equal entertainment.
Over in his main series, the Man Without Fear has once again come to blows with the villainous ninja organization the Hand, along with their newest agent,
Lady Bullseye. And on December 24, it all hits the fan in DAREDEVIL #114 as the action gets cranked up to 11 courtesy of writer Ed Brubaker and artist Michael Lark.
Marvel.com picked out some of the greatest martial arts battle royals from a variety of titles, starring Iron Fist,
Daredevil,
Wolverine and more. Walk with us through the halls of Marveldom as we remember some of favorite stories starring those always lovable—and usually very deadly—ninjas!
MARVEL PREMIERE #22
The mysterious Ninja—yes, Ninja actually was his name—haunted Iron Fist almost from his first appearance, and the two came head-to-head in a glorious fight sequence which saw the Ninja use his mystical abilities to transport them both to a bizarre alternate dimension. Here, where the rules of physics did not apply, Iron Fist had to prove that he really could adapt to any fighting scenario as the ground literally kept getting ripped out from under him.
DAREDEVIL #174-175
Daredevil has his first full-on encounter with the Hand—those nefarious ninjas behind his most recent woes in "Lady
Bullseye"—and thankfully he's got one of the most lethal fighters in the Marvel Universe,
Elektra, to watch his back. Together, the Man Without Fear and his former lover took down as many agents of the Hand as they could in a race along the rooftops of Manhattan. Frank Miller brought fans all-out urban ninja warfare in this stunning storyline that really let readers see what Elektra was made of for the first time!
WOLVERINE (1982) #1-4
Wolverine takes a trip to Japan to find out what happened to the woman he loves,
Mariko Yashida, and has more than a few tussles of his own with the Hand along the way. And if you thought fighting the Hand in New York was bad, just try facing them on their home turf! Even "the best there is at what he does" needed a little help on this one, with the two-faced Yukio along for the ride for all the wrong reasons.
UNCANNY X-MEN #256-258
The "Acts of Vengeance" swept through many of Marvel's books in 1989, and UNCANNY X-MEN proved no exception as the
Mandarin kidnapped
Psylocke, brainwashing her into becoming his personal bodyguard! Without any pesky moral inhibitions to bar her way, Psylocke really let loose on Wolverine, taking him down for the count!
ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM-UP #15-16
All right, so
Shang-Chi isn't technically a ninja, but that doesn't make him any less awesome!
Peter Parker takes a trip down to Chinatown and winds up helping Shang-Chi take down a whole cadre of goons out to return the Master of Kung-Fu back to his estranged and villainous father. And while two of them against a hundred gun, chain and knife-wielding baddies might seem a bit unfair from a statistical standpoint, these two heroes have it more than covered with their unique styles of hand-to-hand—or hand-to-web—combat.
DAREDEVIL #114 kicks into stores on December 24.
Check out the official Marvel Shop for your favorite Marvel Heroes!
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