Samurai Jack (comics)

The series is set after the end of the fourth season. Sometime after the events of episode LII, Jack travels through a desert to find a hermit living in a cave, whom he inquires for a way to return to his own time. The hermit reveals that Aku learned his mastery of time travel through an ancient relic known as the Rope of Eons. He studied it, and absorbed its power before destroying it, so others couldn't learn its secrets, although it was possible for one to use the Rope once again if its strands were recovered and assembled together again. Jack embarks on many quests to reassemble the Rope, only to discover that the last strand was in Aku's possession. After Jack fights Aku and manages to take the last strand, Aku responds with a fierce attack that mortally wounds Jack, who is then given a choice to either fully sacrifice the Rope's power to undo the fatal blow, or die. Jack chooses the former, unwilling to lose to Aku, but is forced to escape without accomplishing his goal.

After the Rope was lost, Jack reunites with the Scotsman, only to confront a series of supernatural threats, such as the gender-bending curse of the leprechauns, a villain who can manipulate gravity and an attack on his samurai mentality and focus from Aku himself. He later makes another bid to return to his own time by performing a magic ritual that involved a seer using the spirit of his sword to create a time travel portal, but this backfires and breaks the weapon, leaving Jack unarmed and vulnerable. When Aku learns of the loss of Jack's sword, he stops at nothing to try and finish off Jack by any means necessary, but Jack manages to escape, stay hidden and survive without his weapon.

In 2017, months after the series was revived and finished with the fifth season, IDW Publishing released a new 5-issue miniseries called Quantum Jack, which depicts Samurai Jack hopping from one dimension to the next, searching for a way back to his original form as his honor and pride push him forward back to his own time to face Aku one last time. The first issue depicts Jack as the leader of a ruthless biker gang that ambushes a royal convoy. The second issue depicts Jack as a masked luchador. The third issue depicts Jack in a world ruled by monsters known as Krogo, where he teams up with a group of scientists that control a giant battle robot as Jack slowly starts to regain his memory. The fourth issue depicts Jack as a modern day-style business office employee working in a cubicle for Aku. The fifth and final issue finally reveals how and why Jack has been stranded in time as he makes one last gambit to return to his own time. This series was ultimately collected into a trade paperback.

In 2019, IDW Publishing released a new 4-issue miniseries called Lost Worlds, which depicts Samurai Jack emerging from his hermetic life to discover a town ruled by a doppelganger of himself, who's determined to conquer the world and spread Jack's philosophies, teachings and beliefs, however, the two Jacks quickly clash as the true nature of the doppelganger is revealed.

The Classic Volumes are series of comics based on the events that happened before and during the Samurai Jack television series. The 136-page collection focuses on Jack's origin story and was released November 12, 2013. Simply put, Aku the demon wizard has enslaved Jack's people. Jack inherits a mystical katana and beats Aku in battle only to be sent far into the future where Aku's grip is all-reaching and all-powerful. Thus starts Jack's quest to journey back to his original time so he may finish what he and Aku started. The rest consists of short tales of Jack liberating others from Aku's hold, before passing along to the next town in true drifter style.[39] The artwork for the Classic Volumes is done by Ricardo Garcia Fuentes (commonly known as Micro), who also illustrated Jack in the Cartoon Network: Action Packs comic.[40] Volume 2 of the Classic Volumes was officially released on April 22, 2014.[41]

Samurai Jack appears in the IDW Publishing crossover event between all of their Cartoon Network-owned properties, "Super Secret Crisis War!", which includes Ben 10: Omniverse, Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, Codename: Kids Next Door, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. The crossover shows Aku teaming up with Mandark, Vilgax and Mojo Jojo to form the "League of Extraordinary Villains" and capture Ben Tennyson, Samurai Jack, Dexter, The Powerpuff Girls and (inadvertently) the Eds, as they plan to conquer the Cartoon Network multiverse and take out their mortal enemies. The series also had 5 tie-in one-shots of the League's robot minions invading the dimensions of Johnny Bravo, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Cow and Chicken, Codename: Kids Next Door and The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. This series was collected into two trade paperbacks.