As a kid, I was always fascinated with the idea that G.I. Joe, a team of United States soldiers chosen for their specialized expertise and field knowledge, featured among their core 13 founding members an honest-to-Kurosawa ninja. Snake-Eyes was a favorite of the kids I hung with and also the creators of the Marvel Comics series (though, oddly, not so much on TV.) He was also a forerunner of many things to come, from the TMNT to Elektra to, for some reason, Psylocke, and by the end of the 90s, the ninjas were everywhere. Heck, even one of Ramona Flowers’ evil exes was half-ninja (on her mother’s side, presumably) leading to today’s swapping-places-with-a-log query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) always had a soft spot for Continuity Comics’ Samuree, even if she was inexplicably under-dressed, asking: Which ninjutsu practitioner would you pick as the best if you could only find her, which you can’t, because she’s the best ninja?
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This is a tough one. There are literally dozens of good challengers of the “best ninja” title: Goemon, Ryu Hayabusa, Hattori Hanzo, Storm Shadow, Naruto, several Sentai, Sho Kosugi etc. I’ll go with Ishikawa Goemon, he was the original folklore ninja, starting from 16th century.
Probably Christopher Chance, the Human Target. He can blend in anywhere as anybody, and you’ll never see him coming.