Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja is a comic book about an American ninja set in an unspecified near future where World War III has started. It was written by Larry Hama between 1989 and 1990. The first appearance of Nth Man and Alfie O'Meagan was in Marvel Comics Presents #25 in August, 1989.
[edit] Synopsis
The series starts in medias res with American soldiers parachuting into war-torn Moscow in an attempt to rescue the Nth Man. Using TV news commentary as an plot exposition device, it is revealed that the war was caused by Alfie using his psychic abilities to neutralise all nuclear weapons on the planet and upsetting the balance of power.
As the story progresses, we learn that Alfie has grown up in an orphanage along side John Doe (the Nth man of the title). Doe was adopted by an elderly Japanese man who just happened to work for the CIA's "Black Ops" division. He was raised as a ninja, taught to kill without regret.
While in the orphanage, O'Meagan had visions of possible futures (the "could-be's") and over time, his powers grew so that he was able to control matter and produce other effects that were against the physical laws of the universe.
The story has many numerous twists and turns, as Alfie gains vast power while losing his sanity. When the Soviet Union launches biological weapons, Alfie's attempt to turn them harmless backfires. Using a narrative jump of one year, we see that that the biological weapons were turned into a mutagenic virus, and millions are transformed into psychotic, cannibalistic "moots".
The storyline is complex, following numerous characters through war zones, plague-ridden post-Apocalyptic landscapes, time, and space. The conclusion of the story makes use of a paradox and the John Doe and O'Meagan are shown to be responsible for their own origins.
[edit] Relationships to other marvel comics
The series is not set within the fictional marvel universe and the characters of those series are treated as fictional comic book characters. O'Megan draws upon those comics as inspiration transforming his size and appearance to resemble that of Galactus, and that of a female character to resemble the Silver Surfer.
[edit] Other appearances
The Excalibur team of superheroes ran into Alfie O'Meagan in his alternate reality in ExcaliburGalactus, except for the helmet which he only wore on one occasion. After a fight in which Rachel Summers ferociously unleashed
the full power of the Phoenix Force on Alfie in his Galactus form and brought him to his knees, the team was sent back to their native reality, Earth-616 when Nightcrawler pushed "Cancel" on the remote control of Alfie's television, which nullified everything that had occurred. #27. Here Alfie had assumed a form and giant stature similar to that of (wikipedia.org)
