Usagi Yojimbo

Super Name: Usagi Yojimbo

Real Name: Miyamoto Usagi

Aliases: Miyamoto Usagi Ronin Samurai

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Creators: Stan Sakai

Gender: Male

Character Type: Animal

First Appearance: Albedo #2 - Albedo Anthropomorphics #2

Appears in: 290 issues

Birthday: n/a

Died: None


Origin:

Usagi grew up in a small village in the Northern Province. Usagi's father, Magistrate Miyamoto, was the head of the village. Very little is told of Usagi's life before he leaves for training.

Creation:

Miyamoto Usagi was created by Stan Sakai, and was inspired by the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi. This makes his name, Miyamoto Usagi, a simple pun--"Usagi" simply means "rabbit" in Japanese. Yojimbo means "bodyguard", and is not part of his name. Usagi is a Ronin, or masterless samurai, and walks the warrior's path having adventures in a feudal period Japan populated by anthropomorphic animals.

Usagi has been loosely tied into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe since the 1980s resulting in a number of crossovers in both series. He has also appeared in both the original 80's animated series and the more recent animated series that began in 2003 (see below for other media).

Character Development:

Usagi's childhood and training is told through a series of flashbacks across several stories, including:

Homecoming Part 1 & 2 (Critters V1 #10 & Critters V1 #11)
Samurai! Part 1 & 2 (Usagi Yojimbo V1 #1)
He was very close with Mariko, his childhood sweetheart. He vied for her attentions, along with other petty rivalries, with his 'friend' Kenichi. When Usagi and Kenichi became of age to begin their samurai training, Usagi's father send them off together to train at the Dogora Fencing school in the city of Sendai.

Major Stories:

Life as a Samurai
Dark Days

Powers:

Adaptive
Agility
Claws
Danger Sense
Feral
Gadgets
Intellect
Longevity
Penance Stare
Stamina
Stealth
Super Hearing
Swordsmanship
Unarmed Combat
Weapon Master