Spider-Man Manga

I thought I'd storytime something different.
I never hear anyone talk about this here, so I'm guessing it'll be new to most of you.

This came out in the 70's, when Marvel were trying to break into the Japanese market, but found that, although the Japanese love Spider-Man, they were luke-warm about the comics, so they hired the guy who would go on to create Crying Freeman to create a Japanese Spider-Man.

Not to be confused with the TV Japanese Spider-Man, with the giant robot.

These writers took Spidey in some darker directions than they did at Marvel. Characters tended to stay dead, and Yu always seemed to stay psychologically damaged, when Peter keeps bouncing back.

These translations were printed in the 90's, and pretty much sank without a ripple. I suspect they only kept the series going that long because reprints are cheaper.

Also, I think what killed it in the West was the by-then archaic 70's Astroboy-like art style, when everyone else was using a Dragonball/Sailor Moon style.
And of course black and white artwork was as good as a bullet to the head in the 90's.

You could also blame the way it straddles Manga and Superhero, two fandoms with very little crossover. The complete obliviousness of the two scenes to each other still hurts hybrid titles like Empowered and Spinnerette.
Lol, we all shop in the same comic stores, but it's like we're on different dimensional planes, occupying the same space, and only the comic book shop guy can see us at the same time.

This story was when the creative team were really beginning to hit their stride, starting to step away from the source material.

I guess this was kind of a prototype for Indian Spider-Man, wasn't it? Aunt Maya, lol.
These's even a Japanese J. Jonah Jameson, and an MJ expie.

So did Dan Slott kill Yu off in Spider-Verse, or did he just pick on the OTHER Japanese Spider-Man, the one with the giant robot?

I think seeing the old characters and the stories retold like this really throws the differences between manga and comics into sharp relief. It's more than just speed lines and big eyes, whatever that stupid Mangaverse tried to do.
And it's more than decompression. Ugh, Marvel have been decompressed so much it's a wonder Greg Lands hasn't just popped like a balloon full of meat.
We need to re-compress the comics. Just fucking recompress them right the fuck back up, it's like comics have prolapsed like a traffic cone.

But Spidey's still a guilt-wracked neurotic. That never changes.
Although this Spidey is noticeably more grim in action. He doesn't crack jokes.

I don't think this Spidey had an Uncle Ben, so I guess he's driven by civic duty, although he clearly does not enjoy his work. And he is the only super-hero in his world, every other super is a villain, or an involuntary menace at best. So he can't just walk by and say "Screw it, the Avengers or the FF can handle it this time."

...

Really, these three issues are a bit of an oddity, even in this series, there isn't that much action, and two issues spent just setting up the situation. But I think the power of the final scene pays it all back.

Thematically there's more in common with The Ring or The Grudge. Although the woman isn't a ghost per se.

...

fuck off to where you came from

Repeated page here, except for the guy's head.
Weird, maybe a censored page and they printed both pages without realising it?
I think it proves my long standing theory that reprint editors don't actually do anything.
Hell, I've been pointing out the same two transposed pages in every Tank Girl 2 collection for years, and it never gets fixed. And a whole pages' worth of speaks bubbles on the wrong page in Marshall Law: Cape Fear that never gets fixed, no matter how many times they reprint it.

And you can just stay where you are and fuck yourself, darling.

That's because this is the board for Western comics and cartoons.

this is Interesting will have to look up the rest of it, Thank you for posting.

Face it, Marvel made it. It can be posted here.
Just like that shitty Marvel/Attack on Titan crossover comic.

Worth noting that Marvel skipped over some chapters and also probably altered the order if I recall correctly. Plus, this was fully scanalated a few years ago, and having personally read it it's not hard to see why Marvel's localization was short-lived. It starts out as a very Japanese Spidey interpretation, but it turns into this very mystical melodramatic seinen involving a guy who happens to be Spider-Man. I'd argue that the shift in tone and divergence from the source material hurts it more than it helps, because Yu ends up being this angsty protagonist with very little to ground him during his I Don't Wanna Be Spidey Anymore periods. At least Peter had a supporting cast to bounce off of.

She was hardly Mary Jane. She came to the city to find her brother because their mom was sick, and kinda just exists after he died. I certainly don't recall her (or Aunt Mei) appearing regularly by the end.

I'm bitter that we'll never get to see that Hulk manga written by Kazuo Koike.

Goes on /a/.

what trickery is this?

Like we'll ever explain to a summerfag like you.

If it's capeshit, it's automatically ours.
That includes Japanese-original capeshit, like Hero Academia, Don't Meddle In My Daughter, and One Punch Man, so it certainly includes Supaider-Man.
So why don't you stop trying so hard to fit in, sit down, shut up, and Lurk Moar.

The Japanese did that, too. I have an original Sun Comics printing of volume 2, and also a 2000's reprint (cashing in on the films, nae doot) of volumes 1 and 2, the volume 2 of the reprint contains totally different material despite being the same size. The Sun Comics volume 2 seems to be a lot further on in the story.
The reprint starts with the origin, and then Electro shows up pretty much immediately and they fight.

Just had another look, and they appear to have two different writers, but the same artist, maybe there was more than one series?
I also have two volumes of the original Marvel Spider Man reprinted in "manga format", with only colour on the first few pages. It reprints the first Ditko story, then skips the rest of his run entirely.

being this mad

Thank you for the storytime, it was an interesting read. It kind of reminds me of old Italian Superman comic.


Not quite. Bone and Cerebus were both black and white and pretty popular, especially if you consider that they were self-published indie books. Hellboy also started out as black and white.

Yeah, but they were indies, which, unlike in the 80's, were a counterculture.
A superhero book in black and white in the 90's was in kind of an uncomfortable place.

In the 80's, B&W indies were an extension of the mainstream, you had a lot of indie superhero titles.
In the 90's, that shit could get you lynched. The 90's indies were trying to be fashionably closer to the undergrounds, and the fans, at least, were actively hostile to superheroes, the fans, publishers and creators.

I can tell you from experience that it was EXACTLY like Evan Dorkin's Northwest Comix Collective. I think by the time he did that story, he was getting as sick of comic fans who hate comics as I was.

The Nips have always been more extreme than the West in their comics/films/vidya/whatever. When they want to be dark they go full edge, and on the other hand when they want to be cute they go full autism. It's just part of their culture. Especially during the '60s and '70s.