Ronin (comics)
Encyclopedia
Ronin is an alias used by multiple characters in the . The Ronin identity was created by Brian Michael Bendis
and Joe Quesada
, though the characters who have adopted the identity were pre-existing characters created by other writers.
The name "Ronin
" refers to the Japanese
term for a masterless samurai
, a lone warrior.
in Japan.
Maya Lopez first appeared as Ronin in New Avengers #11 (November 2005), though the character appeared on the covers of several earlier issues.
New Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis
revealed in the introduction to the New Avengers Vol. 1 Hardcover collection that his original intention was to make Matt Murdock
the true identity of Ronin, but could not do so due to a conflict with the plans for the character in the Daredevil comic book title.
. He attempted to hand the costume back to Echo after she was rescued from the Hand, but Echo declined and allowed him to keep it. Clint Barton later resumed his Hawkeye identity during the start of the Heroic Age
.
" crossover between the Hawkeye & Mockingbird
and Black Widow titles. The new Ronin initially starts assassinating spies and eventually targets Mockingbird and Black Widow. He is later revealed as Alexei Shostakov, Black Widow's ex-husband (aka Red Guardian
).
Writer Jim McCann revealed "We're going to learn that there is far more to the Ronin identity than anyone knew, pre-dating Hawkeye and Echo before him. Why does Ronin exist? That's a central mystery we will tackle."
version of Ronin first appeared Ultimate Spider-Man
#108. Ronin is one of the multiple personalities
of Moon Knight, and was created to infiltrate the Kingpin's (also known as Wilson Fisk) service. The Kingpin tells Ronin to prove himself by retrieving Spider-Man.
Ronin drives a school bus into Midtown High School and starts firing a gun to get Spider-Man to fight. Kitty Pryde, who has recently enrolled there as a student, confronts him, but is knocked unconscious shortly before Spider-Man arrives. The two engage in a brutal battle that is mirrored in a fight between Moon Knight and Ronin in his mind (since they are two different personalities within the same person); Ronin knocks Spider-Man unconscious in the end (The Moon Knight personality is also apparently "killed"). Ronin uses Spider-Man's own web-shooters to leave the high school, and takes him to the Kingpin, who interrogates the hero at his hideout.
Kingpin then attacks Ronin, revealing that he already knew his identity. Ronin is then taken to a river by two of the Kingpin's henchmen and shot in the head. Somehow he survives this and goes to the police to provide evidence about Wilson Fisk's attempt to murder him. He has to reveal his secret identity to do this, but it does lead to the arrest of the Kingpin and the media referring to him as a hero.
Brian Michael Bendis
Brian Michael Bendis is an American comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim for his self-published, Image Comics and Marvel Comics work, and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics, with his books selling consistently highly for over a...
and Joe Quesada
Joe Quesada
Joseph "Joe" Quesada is an American comic book editor, writer and artist. He became known in the 1990s for his work on various Valiant Comics books, such as Ninjak and Solar, Man of the Atom...
, though the characters who have adopted the identity were pre-existing characters created by other writers.
The name "Ronin
Ronin
A or rounin was a Bushi with no lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege....
" refers to the Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
term for a masterless samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
, a lone warrior.
Maya Lopez
Maya Lopez was the first person to don the Ronin identity. A deaf woman with photographic reflexes, Maya became Ronin to investigate the Silver SamuraiSilver Samurai
The Silver Samurai is a fictional character in Marvel Comics' universe, occasionally a superhero and more often a supervillain. His first appearance was in Daredevil #111...
in Japan.
Maya Lopez first appeared as Ronin in New Avengers #11 (November 2005), though the character appeared on the covers of several earlier issues.
New Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis
Brian Michael Bendis
Brian Michael Bendis is an American comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim for his self-published, Image Comics and Marvel Comics work, and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics, with his books selling consistently highly for over a...
revealed in the introduction to the New Avengers Vol. 1 Hardcover collection that his original intention was to make Matt Murdock
Daredevil (Marvel Comics)
Daredevil is a fictional character, a superhero in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby, and first appeared in Daredevil #1 .Living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood...
the true identity of Ronin, but could not do so due to a conflict with the plans for the character in the Daredevil comic book title.
Clint Barton
Clint Barton is the second person to don the Ronin identity, becoming Ronin when he rejoined the New Avengers in the aftermath of Civil WarCivil War (comics)
Civil War is a 2006-2007 Marvel Comics crossover storyline built around a self-titled seven-issue limited series written by Mark Millar and penciled by Steve McNiven, which ran through various other titles published by Marvel at the time...
. He attempted to hand the costume back to Echo after she was rescued from the Hand, but Echo declined and allowed him to keep it. Clint Barton later resumed his Hawkeye identity during the start of the Heroic Age
Heroic Age (comics)
"The Heroic Age" is a 2010 comic book branding that ran through a number of books published by Marvel Comics. It began in May 2010, marking a major change in the status quo of the Marvel Universe after the events of the "Siege" crossover event, much as "The Initiative" and "Dark Reign" dealt with...
.
Alexei Shostakov
A new Ronin was introduced in the "Widow MakerWidowmaker (Marvel Comics)
Widowmaker is a four issue comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics starring superheroes Black Widow, Hawkeye and Mockingbird. Widowmaker continues the storyline staged in Hawkeye & Mockingbird #6 by Hawkeye & Mockingbird creators Jim McCann and David Lopez and the Black Widow creative...
" crossover between the Hawkeye & Mockingbird
Hawkeye & Mockingbird
Hawkeye & Mockingbird is a comic book ongoing series published by Marvel Comics starring superheroes Hawkeye and Mockingbird.-Publication history:...
and Black Widow titles. The new Ronin initially starts assassinating spies and eventually targets Mockingbird and Black Widow. He is later revealed as Alexei Shostakov, Black Widow's ex-husband (aka Red Guardian
Red Guardian
The Red Guardian is the name of several comic book superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe. The Red Guardian is an identity that was created as the Soviet equivalent of Captain America; since the fall of the Soviet Union, the name is no longer officially used, though at least two people have...
).
Writer Jim McCann revealed "We're going to learn that there is far more to the Ronin identity than anyone knew, pre-dating Hawkeye and Echo before him. Why does Ronin exist? That's a central mystery we will tackle."
Ultimate Ronin
The Ultimate MarvelUltimate Marvel
Ultimate Marvel is an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring reimagined and updated versions of the company's superhero characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. The imprint was launched in 2000 with the publication of the series...
version of Ronin first appeared Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate Spider-Man was a superhero comic book series that was published by Marvel Comics from 2000 to 2009. The series is a modernized re-imagining of Marvel's long-running Spider-Man comic book franchise as part of its Ultimate Marvel imprint...
#108. Ronin is one of the multiple personalities
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
of Moon Knight, and was created to infiltrate the Kingpin's (also known as Wilson Fisk) service. The Kingpin tells Ronin to prove himself by retrieving Spider-Man.
Ronin drives a school bus into Midtown High School and starts firing a gun to get Spider-Man to fight. Kitty Pryde, who has recently enrolled there as a student, confronts him, but is knocked unconscious shortly before Spider-Man arrives. The two engage in a brutal battle that is mirrored in a fight between Moon Knight and Ronin in his mind (since they are two different personalities within the same person); Ronin knocks Spider-Man unconscious in the end (The Moon Knight personality is also apparently "killed"). Ronin uses Spider-Man's own web-shooters to leave the high school, and takes him to the Kingpin, who interrogates the hero at his hideout.
Kingpin then attacks Ronin, revealing that he already knew his identity. Ronin is then taken to a river by two of the Kingpin's henchmen and shot in the head. Somehow he survives this and goes to the police to provide evidence about Wilson Fisk's attempt to murder him. He has to reveal his secret identity to do this, but it does lead to the arrest of the Kingpin and the media referring to him as a hero.
Video games
- Maya Lopez appears using the Ronin identity as a PSPPlayStation PortableThe is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
exclusive playable character in Marvel: Ultimate AllianceMarvel: Ultimate AllianceMarvel: Ultimate Alliance is an action role-playing game developed for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox and Xbox 360 by Raven Software and published by Activision. The game was simultaneously ported to the PlayStation Portable and Wii by Vicarious Visions, and to Microsoft Windows by Beenox...
voiced by Marabina Jaimes. She appears masked by default, but has an unmasked alternate costume. A modMod (computer gaming)Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
available for the WiiWiiThe Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
versions of the game unlocks her as a playable character. - The Ronin suit appears as an alternate costume for Hawkeye in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3is a crossover fighting game developed by Capcom. It is an updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. After the events of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disrupted the development schedule for downloadable content for the original game, the additional content was made into a...
.
Toys
- A Minimate of the character was released in the 12th series of Marvel Minimates, in a 2-pack with new battle damaged "Riot-Attack" variant of Spider-Man.
- Marvel Legends released a 2-pack with a Ronin figure and ElektraElektra (comics)Elektra Natchios, usually referred to only by her first name Elektra, is a fictional character in publications from Marvel Comics.Elektra is a kunoichi – female ninja assassin – of Greek descent. She wields a pair of bladed sai as her trademark weapon. She is a love interest of the superhero...
. This figure has an alternate unmasked Clint Barton (Hawkeye) head. - Marvel Universe released a Ronin figure.