Ronin (DC Comics)

Did You Know?

• In 1998, Darren Aronofsky signed a deal with New Line Cinema for a film adaptation of the graphic novel.
• Animation director Genndy Tartakovsky has stated that Ronin was one of the major influences on his animated TV series Samurai Jack.
• Ronin was one of the inspirations behind the creation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Concept and creation

The ideas for Ronin came together while Miller was doing extensive research into kung fu films, martial arts, samurai comic books and samurai ethics for his work on Daredevil. He remarked that the aspect of the samurai that intrigued him most was the ronin, the masterless samurai, the fallen warrior, and that he felt modern men are ronin, cut loose without something greater than themselves to believe in. Ronin was in part inspired by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's manga series Kozure Ōkami, which Miller could not read at the time and had to rely on the artwork for his understanding. According to former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, Ronin was originally slated to be serialized as part of an anthology series alongside work by Walt Simonson and Jim Starlin, but publisher Jenette Kahn persuaded Miller that DC Comics would give him as much freedom as he desired. Despite being both written and drawn by Miller, Ronin was created using the full script method, with a full panel-by-panel script written for each issue before any drawing began, though Miller made revisions in some cases. For example, when drawing Ronin #1, he had planned a brief skirmish between the demon and the ronin from which Virgo rescued the ronin, but realized the story needed something big to release the tension, so he added an explosion and a demon shot across the city, eliminating an extended sequence involving the ronin and a woman and child. One critic noted a rawness to the storytelling with serrated artistic edges that were later buffed out in Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, and lurid colors and intricately detailed, crosshatched art describe the dystopia.

Plot

A nameless samurai in feudal Japan pledged to guard his master, Lord Ozaki, from assassins. The demon Agat, seeking revenge for Ozaki stealing and hiding his blood-powered sword, took the form of a geisha and killed Ozaki. The sword required the blood of an innocent to become strong enough to destroy Agat. As the samurai prepared to perform seppuku at his master's grave, Ozaki’s spirit appeared and ordered him to find the sword and keep it from Agat until he could defeat him. The samurai became a ronin, wandering for years before finally confronting Agat at his castle. Because the sword had never slain an innocent, it lacked the power to destroy the demon. The ronin impaled himself with the sword, also piercing Agat, and as Agat died, he cursed the ronin, trapping both their souls inside the blade until someone could free them. Eight centuries later, New York had become a lawless wasteland after social and economic collapse. At its center stood the Aquarius Complex, headquarters of the Aquarius Corporation, founded by Peter McKenna, the inventor of biocircuitry; his wife Casey McKenna, head of security; and Mr. Taggart, who funded and controlled the company. The Corporation produced biocircuitry, a self-organizing, self-repairing plastic-based electronics system directed by Virgo, the complex’s artificial intelligence. Virgo worked with Billy Challas, Aquarius’s ward, who was born without limbs due to a genetic defect and possessed telekinetic powers, to develop his abilities and test prosthetic limbs. Billy experienced vivid dreams about Ozaki, the ronin, and Agat, and he and Virgo were puzzled by the dreams’ detail and historical accuracy, as his education had not covered feudal Japan.