Ninja Programme

The Ninja Programme is a project that features in Valiant Entertainment.

History

The Ninja Programme was a secret initiative run by the British Government in the time of the Great War. By the time of World War I, the British and Japanese governments had become allies with the establishment of a programme designed to field an elite agent to be deployed in key locations. This operative was known initially as the Ninja who was a practitioner of ninjutsu and sent against enemy forces where he was deployed against Germany in 1917. Such was his skill that he managed to slay many targets despite the mounting advancements the Germans were making at the time thus saving many British lives. (Ninja-K v1 #1) In 1918, the Ninja was assigned a mission by his British handlers to deal with a new nerve agent that the German's were planning to deploy against Allied forces. (Ninja-K v1 #8)

After the war, the operative continued to operate for the British but MI-6 knew that there would come a time when Japan would recall their agent. Thus, they instituted the Ninja Programme whereby they asked Ninja-A with the training of his replacement who became known as Ninja-B who was the first British operative. Ninja-B was already a top level operative skilled in engineering and off-set any skills not taught to him by his mentor by using technology where he made use of a range of equipment in his arsenal. He was noted to had been active in London during 1934 where he engaged various threats against Britain. By this point, MI-6 sought to continue the programme and had Ninja-B begin training a new replacement but came to realise that this process was inefficient. Thus, they decided to formalise a training regimen with them hiring the services of a Japanese warrior named the Jonin who had no loyalty to his country and only served those that paid him. He was responsible for training the majority of British ninja operatives in the project. (Ninja-K v1 #1) MI6 later selected 16 qualified combatants trained in the arts of espionage that were to take part in the Programme. In the first six months, 5 were permanently injured with 3 killed and 6 washing out. (Ninja-K v1 #6)

Eventually, the Programme began to admit women into the ranks with this attributed not as a social awareness exercise but rather because their enemies began to use female operatives. This led to the Jonin training a black female agent who became known as Ninja-G who served for many years. During that time, she had met a man named Thomas who she got romantically involved with until he was killed with the agents handler telling her it was the work of a Russian operative. Ninja-G battled her Soviet counterpart and seemingly died eliminating her target though in reality she had gone into hiding to escape the Ninja Programme. (Ninja-K v1 #4) The Programme was suspended following the Ninja-J incident with new recruits and leadership deciding its future incarnation. Colin King was among the recruits at this point where he succeeded in becoming Ninja-K whilst another recruit was selected as his back-up as K-2. (Ninja-K v1 #6)

Overview

Skilled recruits that were found by MI6 that could not match their requirements were transferred into the Ninja Programme. Recruits told that among the students admitted that a fourth died or suffered permanent injury, another fourth failed, a further fourth begged to quit, and the final fourth being taken as support staff who aided the successful candidates. (Ninja-K v1 #4) Successful applicants required a delicate mix of patriotism and personal ambition. (Ninja-K v1 #6)

A division related to the programme was the Acclimation Bureau which was charged with ensuring that assets remained as assets. This included all types of assets which meant even operatives fell under this category. They kept detailed files on weaknesses in their agents that could be exploited in cases where they went rogue. Members of the bureau also removed distractions such as romantic relationships from their agents in secret in order to keep their operatives isolated and firmly within their control. Such attempts at ghosting these individuals could be anything simply from paying them off to sending a team to remove them whilst leaving behind letters that ended the relationship with the operative after which a cover story was put into place. In situations where an operative had a mental breakdown then the bureau had the individual taken to an MI-6 mental facility until they recovered to be back into the field. (Ninja-K v1 #3)

Members

• Ninja-A : a male Japanese operative who lived in the early 20th century who was sent by Japan's government to aid the British when they were allies where he was initially known as the Ninja before being labelled as Ninja-A. He was responsible for training Ninja-B with the two serving as mentor and pupil until Britain and Japan became enemies with the pair fighting to the death at Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped on the two. (Ninja-K v1 #1)
• Ninja-B : a male British agent skilled in engineering already by the time he was recruited into the programme and trained by Ninja-A with the two operating as mentor and pupil. He offset any lost skills with advanced equipment with him battling his master when Britain and Japan became enemies with the pair dying in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped on the two. (Ninja-K v1 #1)
• Ninja-C : a male orphan taken into the programme where he was placed under the Ninja-B who trained him and was almost a father-figure to the child who by his teens were a skilled ninja operative but before his 30s he had a mental breakdown and arranged an escape from the programme. After gaining his freedom, he uncovered the true nature of the Ninja Programme and the Acclimation Bureau where he became determined in destroying it. (Ninja-K v1 #3)
• Ninja-D :
• Ninja-E :
• Ninja-F :
• Ninja-G : a black female who was the daughter of diplomats that died when she was five with her falling under the care of her uncle who paid for her education where she was recruited by MI-6 in this time to be a ninja operative. (Ninja-K v1 #4)
• Ninja-H : a young orphaned boy who was recruited into the programme where he fought until he was badly injured in an IRA bombing after which he was outfitted with cybernetics to complete the mission to protect the U.K. that resulted in him being placed in stasis. (Ninja-K v1 #10)
• Ninja-I :
• Ninja-J : Roger Thorpe was a black male who was a former ninja agent where through his ki control he could become temporarily invulnerable. (Killers v1 #1)
• Ninja-K :
• Ninja-L :
• Jonin :

Notes

• The Ninja Programme received an entry in Valiant Universe Handbook 2019 v1 #1 (June, 2019).
• In an interview on IGN, writer Christos Gage wrote, "I wish I could take credit, but it's something that's been around a long time. Matt Kindt established that there were "letters" as early as his first arc of the current series, but then someone on Twitter mentioned to me that Kurt Busiek had introduced the idea back in his old Acclaim run. Kurt chimed in to say that was true, but the premise was explained to him by Bob Layton as dating back to o.g. Valiant. So it's a time-honored part of Valiant history!"

Appearances

• Ninjak v3:
• Ninja-K:
• Killers v1:
• Valiant Universe Handbook 2019 v1: (2019)

External Links

• Valiant Wiki Entry

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