Written by Matthew Pardue
This week I’ll be talking about a webcomic that’s considerably less grounded than the Girl Genius world of impossible science, immortal mutants, and zombie-making bugs. Much like last week’s review, today’s focus is more or less a dramatic comedy. Unlike Girl Genius, The Adventures of Dr. McNinja reads like something Michael Bay would write after snorting the cremated remains of Timothy Leary. The title does a good job of preparing new readers, insomuch as you can be prepared; this, clearly, is a story that doesn’t take itself terribly seriously, deals in absurdity, and has fun along the way. Obviously, you’ll need some suspense of disbelief—yet, perhaps, not as much as you’d think. So many characters and events are completely beyond the realm of possibility that, once you’re accustomed to the setting, it seems to grow its own brand of twisted logic. It’s like Army of Darkness, or everything Terry Pratchett’s ever written: after you get on board, you’ll only lose the immersion when something happens contrary to the theme. So long as it fits the established framework, no matter how bizarre or unlikely a person, action, or development is, it makes a weird kind of sense.
Now, to finish the job and seal the interest of anyone who likes this brand of humor while also scaring off our less outlandish readers so as to not waste their time:
And that, my friends, is the title character (Dr. McNinja) bartering with Dracula over the fate of Benjamin Franklin (not the original; that’d just be ridiculous. This one’s a clone) on Dracula’s moon base, with the deal being that Dracula won’t turn Franklin into a headless horseman if Dr. McNinja dies and cheats death so that he can tell Dracula, who is getting bored of life, what the next world is like. Only after reading this explanation out of context do I have a good sense of just how strange this webcomic really is. When you follow the story, you work up to the crazy; you start off accepting, maybe wide-eyed, this doctor from a family of masked ninjas. Then you meet Franklin’s clone and accept him too. Then you hear about Dracula—he’s plausible, given what you’ve already seen. When you reach Dracula’s moon base, it’s entirely logical. Of course this setting’s Dracula would live on the moon. Where else would he be?
For both of you who’re still with me, here’s some further background information: as I said, the good doctor comes from a line of other ninjas, who wear masks their entire lives so that, should they be betrayed and need to flee, they can take off their mask and transition easily into a new life, as no one’s ever seen their face. Against the wishes of his parents, Dr. McNinja runs a modest medical practice (when he isn’t on the moon punching Dracula) with his receptionist, Judy (she’s a gorilla), and his apprentice/sidekick, Gordito (the twelve-year-old Latino gunslinger with a mustache he grew by sheer force of will; he also rides a velociraptor named Yoshi). Other major characters include King Radical (the monarch from an Alice in Wonderland-style dimension which operates on action movie logic), Mitzi and Dan (Dr. McNinja’s parents; the first is a demolitions expert, and the second has a mustache on the outside of his mask and occasionally shoots poison from his eyes), a recent addition, Dr. McLuchador (a lucha libre wrestler/physician who, possibly because they have to fight over a similar theme, doesn’t like Dr. McNinja), and—sweet Shiva, these sound like ideas from South Park’s rejection bin (I’ve found that I say “good Lord” and its variations too frequently, so I’m trying to branch out). Yet, I swear that it’s so much fun to read, not just in spite of, but because, the story has the same relationship with normalcy that the CDC has with E. coli.
My proof is this page of the Doctor fighting the undead protector of NASA astronauts by channeling…ninja-stuff, I guess, through the theme song from Ghostbusters:
On that note, clearly the webcomic has violence. Like Girl Genius, however, it’s relatively tame and portrayed more as a spectacle. Everyone also keeps their clothes on (thankfully, given that the main characters are an adult male, a middle school student, and a gorilla [actually, I guess Judy doesn’t keep her clothes on]). The rare instances of profanity are covered up by black bars for comedic effect. At its least child-friendly moments, I’d say the story never moves beyond PG-13. Benjamin Franklin does try to eat someone’s hair at a few points during one arc, but that’s a brand of creepy that you can’t really put a rating on.
That’s about all I can say about The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Summing up individual plots would only leave you confused (more so than you may already be), so just have a look and see if you’re entertained. Stick with the story for a while; if you give it a chance and your humor runs in this general vein, I think it’ll grow on you.
Start here: http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/1p1/. There’s a short arc before this one, but both the creator and I recommend not beginning with it, because it’s just weird, even by the comic’s standards. Instead, you get to read about McNinja curing a Paul Bunyan (yes, a Paul Bunyan). You can thank me later.