Who the hell is Ronin Now?

Okay. I posted sometime last week in the Z-Cult forums about Ronin, the newest member of the new New Avengers. Basically, after disappointing everyone last time by having us wonder for the better part of a year who this mysterious Ronin character was, Bendis peed in all our cornflakes by revealing that 'he' was nothing more than a two bit Daredevil supporting character. Now that Millar's Civil War has broken up the New Avengers- well, really, it's just taken Iron Man and Sentry out of the lineup- it gives Bendis a chance to do what he does best- assemble a team of a-listers and B-listers and make us care about the B-listers while the A-listers act as filler. And of the B-listers on this new, New Avengers? Ronin. Again. But this time, with Echo (the previous Ronin) on the team under her own name, there's a new mystery figure in the suit. Guess who it is, Bendis asks less than a year after pulling the exact same gimmick with the same suit.

But I care.

What?

Bendis gets a lot of flack, and as far as I'm concerned, he is a very, very overrated author. But whatever his flaws are, he has a couple amazing talents, and chief amongst those is the ability to take the key, essential kernels of an existing character that quite possibly no one but Bendis likes and attach some new elements that make this old character a new character for everyone. My primary example is Luke Cage- if you had told me two years ago that I would be ready to pick up a subscription to a monthly title about the man once known as Power Fist, I'd have laughed, but now Luke is simply one of my favorite Marvel characters. And though he drug her subplot on way too long, he did much the same thing for Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Woman. I never gave two craps in a bucket about either Spider-Woman, but the way he writes her, it's clear she belongs on the new New Avengers.

Did I give you the lineup? No? Ok, here it is.

Echo (sort of a female taskmaster, a forgotten ex girlfriend of Daredevil's)
Ronin (back to this in a sec, I promise)
Iron Fist (speaking of B-or-C listers)
Luke Cage
Wolverine
Dr. Strange
and last but not least,
The Amazing Spider-Man.

Bendis is going to make me give a rat's ass about Iron Fist, and I can't help but be impressed.

Okay, back to Ronin.
Clues:
"There will be another person in the Marvel Universe without a theme… without a motivation … or who may have lost their desire to wear the costume they were wearing, and this person will don the costume as the masterless samurai of the Marvel Universe for the time to come.”

and
"“Some people will love it … and some people will hate it. "
this should be taken to read "Brian michael Bendis and three other people will like it, most won't care, and everyone else will hate it."

and
“It’s someone with a long history in the Marvel Universe. There are quite a few people it could be, and it’s not necessarily the person you immediately go to, but it’s someone I have an affection for who also has a history of donning a guise that best suits his or her mental tone. And this is his or her mental tone right now. And it just so happens there is a costume that needs filling and a person who can fill it, and so it’s taken."

there are some key hints in there, most notably "It's someone I have an affection for" and "History of donning a guise that best suits his or her mental tone..."

and then the next big hint comes in New avengers #27, an action packed screed that hits all the right notes and features super-artist leinil Yu, who, while not the literally best artist I have ever seen, is extremely good and EXTREMELY FAST, able to put out three books a month (unlike, say, Finch, who makes us wait 6 months between each supposedly monthly book of the Ultimates). Anyways, here's the panel.



There are not a lot of people in the Marvel Universe that know Cage, but don't know Spidey well enough to know that he's gabby in a fight.

As a matter of fact, I can only think of three people who know Cage better than Spidey-

Misty Knight, Black Panther and Jessica Jones.

Now, since you're probably reading this as my friend and not as much as a fellow comics fan, it's worth reiterating that the Ronin suit is originally a drag suit.
Since Black Panther's been wearing the same duds since the beginning, it boils down to Misty and Jessica, and I gotta throw my suspicions that it's Jessica Jones.

Has a long history in the Marvel Universe? No. But according to Bendis? yes.
Chose the wrong side in the civil war? (took off with her and Cage's kid to Canada) Well, possibly check.

Skilled Fighter? Eh. But has Super Strength and durability.

Has a history of changing costumes? Check- as both Jewel and Knightress.

anyways, I'm gonna go be with my family now. I'm probably all wrong, and we're going to find out it's another bit daredevil character no one's ever heard of because of Bendis's neverending hardon for Daredevil (see the first half of the above comic book for proof).