Samurai Jack is beloved among viewers for many reasons, not least of which being all the unique characters it introduced throughout the television show’s run. From the boisterous Scotsman and endearing Canine Archaeologists to the conflicted Ashi, virtually every character on the show is someone’s favorite.
Unsurprisingly, a world as expansive as the dystopian future where Samurai Jack was set was filled with interesting people fans never got to meet. Thankfully, the various Samurai Jack comics made over the years, though not necessarily canon, introduced even more new characters that felt right at home in the world Genndy Tartakosvky created.
10 Hob And Stein
Hob and Stein did not work for Aku, nor did they bear any ill will toward Jack— the samurai just happened to walk into their crosshairs by unfortunate coincidence. In “Checklist” by Jim Alexander, Ricardo Garcia-Fuentes, and Mike DeCarlo, the two robots decided to test various weapons on Jack, including a pulsar cannon, a boomerang with razor-sharp edges, a grappling net gun, and even a missile.
Thankfully, Jack managed to evade most of Hob and Stein’s weapons, and took them out with both his martial arts moves and by turning one of their weapons against them.
9 Professor Kots
Though a fairly mild-mannered scientist, Professor Kots was an instrumental player in Samurai Jack: Quantum Jack by Fabian Rangel, Jr. and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell. Jack approached Kots after learning the professor might have a device that could send Jack back to his native time period.
In reality, however, Kots’ device, the Quantum Ray, was neither complete nor a time machine, but Kots reluctantly used it at Jack’s insistence when Aku attacked Kots’ lab. Rather than send Jack through time, the ray zapped Jack through several dimensions, teleporting him into in the bodies of his alternate universe selves.
8 The Master Of Time
One would think someone called “the Master of Time” might know how to get Jack back to the past. Thus when the Master of the Time announced he was working on a Time Talisman that would ensure everyone was in their “proper place in the time stream,” Jack’s spirit’s were high.
Yet after going through the effort of breaking into the Master’s den with the Thief from “Jack and the Labyrinth,” the samurai again found disappointment. “The Time Talisman,” he discovered, was simply a normal watch with hastily attached “decorations.”
7 Soule The Seer
Soule the Seer debuted in the first issue of the IDW Samurai Jack comic book. There he sent Jack to obtain the Rope of Eons, whose threads could send anyone back in time when reunited. While Jack recovered all the rope’s pieces, the threads were instead used to save his life.
Soule reappeared in “The Quest of the Broken Blade,” attempting to send Samurai Jack to the past with a ritual that would amplify the magic in Jack’s katana. Unfortunately, Soule was too sick to complete the ritual, and he accidentally broke the sword. Soule then died, deeply remorseful over the blade's destruction.
6 Dis And Dat
During Jack’s quest to collect all the threads of the Rope of Eons, his quest led him to Dis and Dat, twin beings whose thoughts, words and movements were completely synchronized. Jack easily lost to the Dis and Dat’s coordinated assault, but thanks to the piece of the Rope of Eons he had already acquired, Jack discovered the twins’ secret: The two had thread from the Rope woven into their vests.
Now able to see the mystic bond created by the thread in the twins’ clothes, Jack severed the connection with his sword, then took Dis and Dat’s magical threads for himself.
5 Gloer The Great
Not every person who possessed a thread from the Rope of Eons was evil, however. While exploring the village of Grantus. Jack met Gloer the Great, the village’s protector. Though affable and good-natured, Gloer possessed a heartbreaking secret: everyone in Grantus, himself included, had been killed years ago by Aku’s robot forces. Believing he had failed his fellow villagers, Gloer used his piece of the Rope to make it appear he and his people were still alive. Jack, recognizing Gloer’s goodness, told the warrior he needn’t feel shame, thus giving Gloer the peace he needed for his spirit to depart.
4 Big Brooz
Samurai Jack met Big Brooz, a talkative man in a long black jacket, after being captured by bear bounty hunters in Samurai Jack: Lost Worlds #3 by Paul Allora and Adam Bryce Thomas. Jack helped Brooz and their fellow captives escape, but the bears then explained they’d captured Jack by mistake, and that their job was to apprehend beings who’d unnaturally cheated the afterlife.
Once the bears left to track down their former prisoners, Brooz reappeared, this time without his large black jacket… exposing a large hole on both sides of Brooz’s body. Instead of alerting the bears, Jack let Brooz leave to live another day.
3 Samurai Jack Robot
In Samurai Jack: Lost Worlds #1, a disheveled, reclusive Jack (resembling his appearance in the show's final season), learned that another Samurai Jack had become the idol of an entire village. Jack’s immediately attacked the supposed imposter, although the second Jack seemed eager to avoid conflict.
The two fought, equally matched, until Jack cut off his imposter’s head. Yet Jack’s doppelgänger still lived, and explained it was a robot village scientists created to teach their fellow villagers values. Realizing the robot’s importance, Jack had one of the scientists rebuild it, all while making sure no one realized the robot wasn’t the real Jack.
2 Mako The Scribe
The final issue of IDW’s Samurai Jack series by Jim Zub and Andy Suriano revisited the possible future first shown at the end of the fan-favorite episode “Jack and the Travelling Creatures.” Readers were introduced to Mako the Scribe, a man who dedicated himself to chronicling the lives of important figures of history.
Mako sought to interview Samurai Jack, whose ongoing battle against Aku had over time made him well known across the universe. Mako the Scribe was undoubtedly a tribute to the real life Mako, who was the original voice actor for Aku.
1 LaMarr
Mako was not the only actor from the show paid homage to in the IDW Samurai Jack comic’s last issue. After trying many times in vain to find Jack or a reliable source to recount the samurai’s adventures, Mako the Scribe finally met LaMarr, a man who knew Jack personally.
LaMarr took Mako to the war camp of the Righteous, a rebel group dedicated to stopping Aku, and finally had the chance to meet Jack, who was the group’s leader. LaMarr, of course, was based on Phil LaMarr, who played none other than Samurai Jack himself.
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