With today’s character investigation of the Silver Samurai, we present a little variety from the continent’s southeast edge. In Marvel comics, there are not one, but two of these supervillains. They are a father and son team.
Kenuichio Harada was the first Silver Samurai. Writer Steve Gerber and illustrator Bob Brown created the first character. He is a Japanese samurai who uses his abilities to charge his katana and wears silvery metal samurai armor.
Harada was the illegitimate son of Shingen Harada, a Japanese crime boss. While the Silver Samurai begins as a villain, he develops a more heroic journey as the story progresses. Let us go into the story of this master Samurai now that we have covered the essentials.
The First Comic Book Appearance Explored
The Silver Samurai appeared for the first time in 1974 in Daredevil Vol 1, issue 111, titled ‘Sword of Samurai.’ The story starts at 3 a.m. when Daredevil visits Robert and Shanna O’Hara. He has come in to inform them that he has seen the leader of Black Spectre: The Mandrill. He tells them that Mandrill plans to destabilize the government and replace it with one of his own like he wanted to do in the past with three African countries.
While Daredevil sympathizes with Mandrill for his life of being mocked and prejudiced, he promises to stop him because of his ways and the killings he has committed in the past. He decides to deal with all this the next day after he has had some rest; I mean, obviously, it is 3 a.m.
But work as a crime fighter never stops, so he is attacked by the Black Spectre’s latest agent, Silver Samurai. Daredevil is too exhausted to fight and tries to flee, but the Silver Samurai simply cannot be shaken off. Eventually, the Daredevil is rescued by Shanna and her two pets, Biri and Ina. The Silver Samurai is pummelled by the two heroes and enormous cats. Despite being outmanned, he manages to beat off the heroes and flee, vowing to repeat his attack later when he is not injured.
Shanna, Robert, and Daredevil go to Metropolitan General Hospital the next day to discuss notes with Foggy Nelson. Shanna tells them all about how she met Nekra and the Mandrill, her vow for revenge, her subsequent kidnapping in Africa, and her father’s death, which was what ultimately brought her to America. While this is going on, the Silver Samurai and Black Spectre warriors break through the window and attack, knocking Biri and Ina out. During the battle, the Samurai captures Shanna and flees.
When Daredevil tries to stop him, Nekra easily defeats him in combat, and the villains escape with Shanna as their prisoner. When the apish opponent is taken to the Mandrill, he pledges to figure out how Shanna has managed to resist his mutant abilities, which allow him to control women by working on their brains.
In the meantime, Daredevil resurrects and assumes the civilian identity of Matt Murdock in order to return to the scene without jeopardizing his identity. He meets Candace Nelson there, who agrees to join him for coffee. He discovers that she was a former journalism student at Empire State University and that she is in trouble. While she won’t say what it is, she pledges that she will contact him if she comes up with a means for Matt to assist her.
House later, Matt reverts back to his crime-fighter identity as Daredevil and resumes his search for Black Spectre. He tracks down their blimp, which is hovering over the Empire State Building, and investigates. Daredevil discovers the Silver Samurai and Black Spectre warriors attempting to explode the broadcasting tower. Despite his best efforts to stop them, he realizes that he is no match for their ray guns.
The Man Without Fear abandons the combat to climb up inside his enemy’s ship in the hopes of rescuing both Shanna and the Black Widow after spotting the rope ladder leading up to the blimp and concluding that stopping the Mandrill personally will be more effective. With that brave thought, the comic ends with Daredevil hanging from the rope, ready to fight the Mandrill.
A brief backstory to understand him better
There are two Silver Samurais, as said before. So, let us start with Silver Samurai senior, or original, Kenuichio Harada. He was the illegitimate son of the head of Clan Yashida, Shingen Harada, who was also a former Japanese crime lord. Kenuichio learned and mastered the rigorous disciplines of the medieval Samurai as a child and looked for work as a warrior for hire. The first person he worked for was the Mandrill.
In the comic itself, we see some talks about the Silver Samurai’s father’s debts which Kenuichio was paying off. He gets free from the contract with the Mandrill after this and goes on to work for the Viper. Harada worked as a bodyguard for the Viper, a member of the terrorist group Hydra. Since he was helping Hydra members, he clashed with Spider-Man, Nick Fury, Shang-Chi, and Black Widow on the original S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.
Following his father’s death, Harada tried to fight with his half-sister, Mariko, to become the leader of the Yashida Clan. Unfortunately, Ronin Yukio and Mariko’s boyfriend, Wolverine, stood in their way. Later, Harada helped Wolverine to rescue Jessica Drew, an American private investigator, from the grip of the Black Blade of Muramasa. This blade was mystically imbued with its creator’s lunacy. Wolverine was also affected by the sword’s power, but he managed to overcome the spell when Harada took control of the blade. He was picked to be the worthy wielder of the sword and its power as well.
After the death of his half-sister, Mariko Yashida, he became the Oyabun (chief) of Clan Yashida. He attempted to repay the Yakuza for his clan’s debts and restore its honor. He had allegedly impressed Wolverine so much that Wolverine entrusted him with the care of his adoptive daughter, Amiko Kobayashi, despite the fact that he was formerly one of Wolverine’s deadliest foes.
With this background, let us look at Kenuichio’s son, Shingen ‘Shin’ Harada. He was named after his grandfather, Lord Shingen. He used to spend his time committing larceny with Amiko Kobayashi, Wolverine’s adopted daughter. He eventually joined Kade Kilgore’s Hellfire Academy.
He teamed up with Mystique to try to recruit Iara Dos Santos, a freshly activated mutant who soon assumed the code-name Shark-Girl, but they were unsuccessful after battles with both their target and Angel. Later, Kade Killgore recruited him to teach at the Hellfire Club’s Hellfire Academy, where he also worked as a designer.
Silver Samurai later joined the Brotherhood of Mutants as a member of Mystique’s fourth incarnation. Magneto used Silver Samurai to hurt Mystique during his combat with the Brotherhood of Mutants on Madripoor.
Death and resurrection in the comic book narrative
When the Red Right Hand banished Wolverine to Hell, they also dispatched an army to assassinate his comrades. The Silver Samurai is considered one of the friends and accomplices of Wolverine by them. While defending his home, he gets mortally wounded by a troop of ninjas. Harada was shown bent over, his armor pierced by darts. He was stabbed in the chest, and the Yashida Stronghold burned behind him. He drags himself with his last ounce of strength to the grave of his half-sister Mariko and dies there.
In Hell, he was taken before Logan and the Devil. Here, he can be seen blaming Wolverine for the recent deaths. After he was done speaking, the Devil took off Harada’s head and then sliced up his body with the Soulcutter. The Soulcutter’s wounds are such that they can never be healed. He was resurrected later in Krakoa by the Five. He was made responsible for officiating fights at the Arena in the Quarry.
Silver Samurai in X-Men animated series
The Silver Samurai shows up in the fourth season of the X-Men animated series as well. Wolverine is having a mini-therapy session with Professor X, who, it should be noted, is not a real doctor, to figure out why he’s been so stressed recently. Being the sensitive listener that he is, Professor X begins by asking Wolverine what he is afraid of, then lists out traumatic incidents from his past that have profoundly affected him, including the struggle with Proteus and his training from the Weapon X program. All of this is, obviously, not effective. So, Wolverine decides to pack up and leave the X-Men and travel to Japan.
When Wolverine lands in Japan, he meets Oku, a Buddhist monk who teaches Wolverine how to control his rage via meditation. As Wolverine adjusts to his new existence in Japan, he makes friends with Kisara, a girl from the village he is staying at.
Wolverine returns to the temple after a brief scuffle with Kisara’s brother, Soichi, over how “he… has a… wild spirit” and his determination to fight his family’s enemies rather than pay protection money, as Kisara puts it. Logan seems to have regained his balance when Soichi didn’t abruptly grow six extra holes in his body with blood gushing out of them even after he practically challenges Wolverine to a fistfight. This seems true up until Wolverine goes to cut a tree in the forest.
The Silver Samurai appears out of thin air and warns him against interfering with his business. Personally speaking, it seems counter-effective to tell a person who is already minding his business to do so again. Shortly after the Silver Samurai leaves, Japanese mobsters arrive in town demanding protection money from villagers who refuse to pay.
It is less of a refusal to pay and more of ‘I don’t have any money to give you, but the mobsters obviously don’t understand that. Like a hot-blooded young person, Soichi tries to stand up against the mobsters, resulting in Silver Samurai raising the amount to double the standard rate. He gives them two days to pay. To drive the point home and assert their dominance, they set the temple on fire. In an attempt to maintain his composure, Wolverine considers going after the mobsters, but he doesn’t, not yet.
Meanwhile, Jubilee travels to Japan in search of Wolverine. Wolverine finally agrees to help the natives in the village after a lot of contemplation and philosophical thought about his true nature. He then helps them lay traps for the villains who are riding through the forest. Some mobsters manage to make it back to the town, but the locals deal with the majority of them. Meanwhile, Wolverine tackles the Silver Samurai. Wolverine manages to defeat the Silver Samurai and goes back to America with Jubilee.
Silver Samurai live-action venture
Not only was the Silver Samurai a part of the animated series, but he featured in the second film of the Wolverine trilogy as well. It was released in 2013 as the sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand. The film follows Wolverine as he lives in isolation, trying to deal with the guilt of killing Jean Grey even seven years after the incident and his trip to Japan.
Back in 1945, Logan had saved Ichiro Yashida’s life during the atomic explosion. In the present day, Ichiro is dying from cancer and gets Yukio, a mutant with the ability to foresee deaths, to bring Logan to Japan. Ichiro wanted to pay his life debt, he had claimed. When they meet, Ichiro offers to take Logan’s immortality since he views it as a curse anyway, and that ability would help Ichiro to continue living. However, Logan refuses and prepares to leave. Unfortunately, Dr. Green, or Viper as she is popularly known, injects something into Logan’s body that affects his healing abilities.
The next day, Logan finds out that Ichiro has died. When he attends Yashida’s funeral, the Yakuza try to kidnap Mariko, whom he saves. As the story progresses, it is revealed that Mariko’s fiancé conspired with the Yakuza and kidnapped her because her grandfather, Ichiro, left all his property to her. Meanwhile, Logan discovers the parasite Viper had planted in him that affected his healing abilities. He cuts himself open and performs surgery to get the parasite out.
Once he has healed enough, Logan and Yukio go to rescue Mariko from the research facility she was born in. Here, he gets apprehended by Harada and his ninjas. Dr. Green put Logan in a machine and disclosed her plans to extract his healing factor and introduce him to the Silver Samurai, an electromechanical Japanese armor suit with electrified adamantium katanas. Turns out, Ichiro had not died; instead, he was in the body of the armor. He had ordered the Silver Samurai armor to be created entirely of adamantium to extend his life until he could gain Logan’s healing factor. He modeled it as per the original Silver Samurai’s antique armor.
Mariko Yashida saved him by directing the machine Logan was trapped in towards the direction of the Silver Samurai’s sword, freeing him from the machine. In the meantime, Yukio arrives and murders Dr. Green as Logan fights the Samurai. Although Wolverine was able to hack off the armored head with one of the swords, Ichiro dragged Logan over the edge and began drilling into his knuckles to extract his bone marrow, which would be used to condense the essence of Logan’s powers into his body. Wolverine’s life was nearly drained out of him as Yashida grew younger with the help of Logan’s power, but Logan was saved by Mariko just in time. She came in and stabbed Ichiro with one of Logan’s torn claws.
As the armor began to lose power, Wolverine used his natural claws to lift it and fling it down a cliff, killing Yashida and destroying the armor. Logan passes out and gets one more vision of Jean, in which he decides to let her go. Yukio promises to remain by Logan’s side as his bodyguard, and the two depart for unknown destinations. As Logan prepared to leave Japan, Mariko took over as C.E.O. of Yashida Industries and bid him farewell.
The strength of this mighty Samurai
The Silver Samurai is a massive 6 feet 6-inch-tall man who weighs 250 lbs. So he is definitely, an intimidating and strong opponent. Especially when we consider the years of martial arts training that he has. His mutant talent allows him to create a field of tachyonic energy. He can use the energy and concentrate it through anything, but he chooses to surround his katana, allowing it to cut through practically any material on Earth; the only exception to this is adamantium.
He can charge any object and wield it as a weapon, but he likes to utilize his katana. The Silver Samurai is a specialist in the discipline of bushido, a martial arts master specializing in edged weapons, hand-to-hand fighting, and tactics, as well as a master of Kenjutsu, the technique of wielding a katana.
His physical prowess and martial arts expertise make him a tough opponent. He usually wears a lightweight steel alloy body armor suit that is modeled after ancient samurai armor but is composed of contemporary protective materials. The Silver Samurai holds a typical samurai long sword, or katana, and has previously handled both Muramasa’s Black Blade and Clan Yashida’s Honor Sword.
He prefers to wield the katana, but he likes to play with shurikens and other weapons. He has a teleportation ring, which makes him even more stealthy and mobile. The origins of his ring are unknown, but the effects make up for extraordinary stealth during fights.
Due to his murky history, Keniuchio has significant knowledge of the functioning of criminal groups, which he now uses to help his government defeat such organizations. He knows everything there is to know about samurai history and practices. He’s also a brilliant master of Japanese martial arts, albeit his skills don’t quite match those of Iron Fist or Shang-Chi.
Since he has a villain to hero arc as well, the Silver Samurai makes for a fascinating character. There are many facets of him that one can see in the comics. He is the prototype of the usual morally gray attractive villain. Let us know what you think of him!