University of Panels

20: Ogun

 

I once described Ogun as a demon ninja (apoligies to Masashi Kishimoto for ripping-off Zabuza's title), and while he can definetly be paralleled in such a manner, he is not a true demon. He is actually an immortal samurai who has lived since the feudal era of Japan. Able to prolong his life through dark magic, Ogun's most deadly ability is not his unsurpassed swordsmanship, but a forbidden art of being able to implant a piece of his concioussness onto another, imparting to them both his skills and murderous ambitions. His most famous apperance was in the six issue miniseries KITTY PRYDE AND WOLVERINE (which is both my all-time favorite X-MEN story and one of my top 5 comics in general), where he attempts to transfrom the then innocent teen Kitty Pryde, into his own personal assassin. What drew me to him was how he appears at the exact moment when Kitty has given into despair (her parents had recently divorced, she was cheated on by Colossus (CURSE YOU JIM SHOOTER!), and just discovered that her father was dealing with Japanese crimelords that Ogun was employed by). This made the idea of Ogun's demonic characterization connect perfectly with Kitty's turmoil, as it represented how when one gives into despair, we can easily subcumb to the worst our soul has to offer. This also makes Kitty's later battle against Ogun all the more compelling as rather than being a simple action cutaway, it's more of a mental battle as Kitty is determined to prove that she is her own being rather than Ogun's puppet. As I mentioned before, Kitty Pryde is my all-time favortie X-Men, which can be primarily attributed to her developing from an insecure teenager, to a strong independent woman. A large part of which can solely be contributed to her conflict with Ogun.

 

Plus this guy was also the one who trained Wolverine in the ways of the samurai!