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Webcomic / The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

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Dr. McNinja: Could this boy's youthful innocence and exuberance be what I need to keep my dark and troubled soul in check?
Dr. McNinja's Inner Voice: (You're not a dark and troubled soul. You're a doctor who wants to be Batman.)

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja (alternate title: Rule of Cool: The Webcomic) was an action-comedy webcomic by Chris Hastings and Anthony "Nedroid" Clark,note  and the love child of the Rule of Cool and the Rule of Funny.

The webcomic is offline as of September 2023 pending a hosting change, but is still available in print and is well preserved in the Wayback Machine in the interim.

The story unofficially note  begins with the eponymous omnidisciplinary doctor, who is also a Ninja, discovering that the McBonald's restaurant chainnote  has created a burger bearing his name (marketed based on the burgers giving people "silent but deadly" farts). Naturally, he solves this copyright infringement by battling Donald McBonald himself.

The next arc, "Meet The Doctor And His Friendly Staff" introduces Dr. McNinja's gorilla receptionist, as the two of them race against time to save a patient with Paul Bunyan's Disease (an illness which turns children into giant lumberjacks) from both his lumberjacking tendencies and from some hunters who hunt giant lumberjacks.

"So What IS A McNinja?'' introduces the Doctor's family, who are very disappointed with him for not becoming a professional ninja. The McNinjas' origins are revealed, and of course there are pirates.

The next morning, the Doctor finds a raptor in his office ("There is a Raptor in My Office"). This turns out to be the tip of the iceberg, said iceberg being a conspiracy involving paleontologists-turned-banditos, organic jetpacks, MySpace and NewsCorp. At least the Doctor gets a sidekick out of the deal: a gunslinging, mustachioed 12-year-old named Gordito.

"D.A.R.E. To Resist Ninja Drugs and Ninja Violence" begins with McNinja facing a hard choice: Will he help his father defeat 80's action movie star Frans Rayner and his army of drug-enhanced ninja mooks? Or will he help the clone of Benjamin Franklin create a medicine to cure death?

...And everything after that point simply must be seen to be believed.

What's interesting about the comic is Hastings' sheer commitment to the utter weirdness. Every bizarre twist gets a completely straight reaction from the cast, and can have repercussions that stretch over multiple chapters. The overall effect is like a geodesic dome of absurdity, where every time the authors throw in a killer weatherman or cyborg bears or zombie Ben Franklin re-enacting the "Thriller" music video with situationally-appropriate lyrics, the plot becomes that much more believable. In the words of Chris Hastings, "Dr. McNinja lives in a world that operates like a Mortal Kombat stage" (but Cumberland, Maryland is a real place), so if you're a stickler for scientific and historical plausibility and blow a gasket whenever you see Hollywood Physics, please stay far away from this webcomic.

And just to prove the series hasn't hit the peak of absurdly awesome yet, in Summer of 2010, Doctor McNinja took part in a crossover with Axe Cop. In addition, on November 7, 2011, the doctor faced down with Saxton Hale. He lost, but the very idea of such a fight was awesome.

On August 3rd, 2015, Chris Hastings announced that the current storyline would be the last. Hastings fulfilled this prophecy on January 19, 2017, with the comic's final page. A backup of the comic can be found here

If you are looking for the trope named for the webcomic, see McNinja.


The Adventures of Dr. McNinja provides examples of:


Should anyone need the services of a ninja or doctor, my office is always open.

Alternative Title(s): The Adventures Of Doctor Mc Ninja, Dr Mc Ninja

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