Storm Shadow, aka Tommy Arashikage

Cobra, Arashikage clan ninja

by Dave McAwesome

Ah, the 'other' ninja in the G.I. Joe universe. Before the world ninja population exploded at around G.I. Joe #60, there were two ninjas, Snake-eyes and Storm Shadow. They wore black and white, respectively, except the good guy wore black and the bad guy wore white. This is what frat guys call, "deep," in-between keg stands. Yeah, deep. Like the kiddie pool. Those of us with more than three brain cells shrugged and focused on what was really important: ninja fight scenes. (Those of you with more than seven or eight brain cells...I don't know, I guess you guys build particle accelerators or something.) Anyway, those of us squarely in the four-to-seven-brain-cell range wanted to see Snake-eyes and Storm Shadow fight pretty much since day one. No reason. It's not like we knew the backstory yet. All we knew was that one ninja was a G.I. Joe and the other was a Cobra. Jain cosmology demands that they fight in order that universal balance be maintained.

The basic story behind Storm Shadow is that he fought alongside Snake-eyes in Vietnam. During a mission, he was shot, and Snake-eyes went back to bring him onto the chopper. After the war, Snake-eyes' family was killed in a car accident (involving the man who would become Cobra Commander). Storm Shadow (Tommy Arashikage) took Snake-eyes to Japan and into his family's ninja clan. The elder Arashikage, the Hard Master, trained them. Naturally, this being a comic book, Snake-eyes was a little better.

Here's why this stretches the imagination. Realistically, 'a little better' doesn't wash in athletic feats. Babe Ruth was the most prolific hitter of his day, but Lefty Grove still got him out once in a while. When it comes to the martial arts, it's even more dodgy. If you get caught by a strike in just the right spot, you go down. You can't always be 'a little better,' which is what is implied. Never have a bad day? Never be one step slower than usual? It's human to have off-days. That's what makes this characterization objectionable. It implies that Snake-eyes and Storm Shadow are not human. They're just robots.

Six degrees of Snake-eyes

What happens with the Arashikage clan is pure soap opera. The Hard Master is killed by an arrow. Snake-eyes is blamed. Storm Shadow hates him and uses Cobra to get to him. But the real murderer is Zartan. And he was hired by Cobra Commander and helped by Firefly. The Soft Master finds out this information, but he's killed in a car accident. By 'accident,' I mean 'anti-tank missile.' Storm Shadow eventually learns the truth but he's repeatedly brainwashed, killed or double brainwashed. It's a little nutty. It's also weird how every single character is linked to Snake-eyes' former life. There's a formula to it. A character is introduced. Start with the base number of 5. Add 1 for every page that has a close-up of the character's eyes looking troubled. Subtract 3 if this character is a ninja. Add 1 if the character's name rhymes with 'torm hadow.' Now take this final number and add it to the number of the issue in which he/she was introduced. This gives you the issue number in which it is revealed how he/she knew Snake-eyes prior to his G.I. Joe days.

In my own personal, living room pantheon of martial arts masters, I kept the ninja stuff limited. Quick Kick could hold off Storm Shadow, but would ultimately lose any protracted fight. No Joe was as deadly as Storm Shadow. In fact, most Joes in my world didn't know karate or ninjitsu or awesome-jitsu, which is Jackie Chan's preferred style. Snake Eyes was more of a special ops guy. Zartan was not, as the comics portrayed him, a ninja. Spirit was not, as the TV cartoon portrayed him, Storm Shadow's equal. I was disappointed with how fast and loose ninjitsu was portrayed in the comics.

In real life, of course, ninjitsu is more closely guarded. In fact, ninja clans are all extinct. You've never seen us. We don't exist. Poof.