5 Ronin is a 2011 comic book limited series by Marvel Comics. The series is written by Peter Milligan and features a rotating cast of artists.
The series reimagines various Marvel Universe superheroes (Wolverine, The Incredible Hulk, The Punisher, Psylocke, and Deadpool) as Ronin in 17th century Japan.
5 Ronin provides examples of:
- Adaptational Mundanity: Watari does not have Deadpool's healing factor.
- Adaptation Name Change:
- Frank Castle is renamed Akagi.
- Betsy Braddock is renamed O-Chiyo Braddock.
- Wade Wilson is renamed Watari.
- Bash Brothers: Watari and the Daimyo were brothers in arms before Watari was presumed dead.
- But Now I Must Go: After the Hulk saves a village from an army of bandits, he leaves to go to the temple of Edo.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Wolverine and the Hulk's real names are never disclosed.
- Feudal Overlord: The Daimyo is the brutal tyrant lording over a portion of Japan, using his men to enforce brutal taxes and laws that leave all under his rule suffering. Ordering all Rōnin to be exterminated across the land and enabling mass prostitution rings to flourish for his own perverted tastes, the Daimyo regularly sacks land from farmers and citizens for his own purposes, letting his men freely terrorize and rape anyone they choose, which leads to many people committing suicide after the Daimyo has ruined their lives or dignity. In his most personal act of wickedness, the Daimyo betrayed his close ally Watari to enemy forces, leading the man and his entire army into an ambush where they were all slaughtered just so the Daimyo would have no rivals to his power.
- Geisha: Psylocke is reimagined as a Oiran working at a brothel.
- Manipulative Bastard: Watari appears in each issue, stepping in to rescue or aid each of the other ronin, so that he may gain their help in killing the Daimyo.
- Meditation Powerup: The Hulk does this, attempting to unleash his hidden potential.
- Musashibo Benkei: The Hulk becomes a monk based on Musashibo Benkei, being more than two meters tall whose ferocity is that of a demon.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: After being presumed dead with his face hideously scarred, Watari becomes known as the fool. However, he is only bidding his time so that he can get his revenge on the Daimyo.
- Prepare to Die: The Japanese version of the Punisher, in true Inigo Montoya-fashion:Punisher: You are soldiers of the Daimyo. You razed the house of Akagi. There is nothing more to be said.
- Recycled In Space: Wolverine, The Hulk, The Punisher, Psylocke, and Deadpool, in Jidaigeki Japan.
- Rōnin: Various Marvel characters are reimagined as Ronin.
- Tag Team Twins: Wolverine's epitaph as "The Ronin Who Cannot Die" is due to the fact that he is actually one of a set of triplets, trained to fight in the same way to appear to be one person who could not die.
- Telepathy: O-Chiyo can read minds, which has earned her the nickname "butterfly".
