6 Weirdest Superhero Comics When in the Hands of Japanese Manga
Japanese mangaka have an extraordinary talent in creating illustrated stories with extraordinary plots, they are great at blending foreign cultures with their manga creations. But there are also times when a mangaka takes over or tries to develop an American hero comic in their own style, the results are strange. So, just take a look below at 6 superhero comics that have become strange in the hands of Japanese mangaka.
1. Spiderman
This Japanese version of Spiderman was published in 1970s, the manga started very well telling the story of Yu Komori like Peter Parker, a high school student who was bitten by a radioactive spider, got super powers, learned all about responsibility and blah blah blah.
But that all changes in Issue #3 when Yu beats the villain Electro to death, after which he realizes that this enemy is actually the older brother of the woman he likes. From here the Japanese Spidey murders continued.
In Issue #6, he defeated The Lizard by throwing him into a crocodile cage to be eaten alive. Even in one of the editions, Yu also tried to stop gang-rapes, but in the process, he was mistaken for one of the perpetrators, thus completing the gloom of one of Marvel's flagship superheroes.
2. Hulk
Released around the same time as the Spider-Man comics, the manga version of Hulk reimagines Bruce Banner's story as a Japanese scientist named Dr. Araki who was a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing and was later hit by another gamma bomb.
because of this past, the manga has a very strong anti-war undertone, with the Hulk often lamenting how sad it is to see humans hurting other humans, etc. And this is the worst part of the Japanese version of the Hulk. Why? Every time he starts to feel sad, the Hulk starts crying over and over again, to the point that you'll forget about Marvel's savage Hulk.
3. The Justice League Origin: Wonder Woman
The origin story of Wonder Woman by manga creator Shiori Teshirogi, part of the official 2018 Batman and The Justice League manga, begins with several evil characters and a depressed girl trying to enter a concert hall. That's when Wonder Woman appears out of nowhere and binds them with her Lasso of Truth.
It turned out that the young woman had a ton of dynamite under her dress and wanted to carry out a suicide bombing at a concert to kill some high ranking politicians. The woman then cries that she doesn't want to die and Diana thanks her for telling the truth "as if the girl had a choice, tied with her magic lasso."
Diana then talks about growing up in Themyscira and promising to protect the girl. Then the comic ends and we are left to assume that Wonder Woman took the girl to Amazon Island, does she like it or not? This is definitely the weirdest opening for a big DC character.
4. The Batman
When Jiro Kuwata obtained the license to produce Batman comics in Japan in the mid-1960s, the license must have read "Strange bin Magic", because that's what he did.
The hero of the story is still Bruce Wayne, but he's got a new group of villains, starting with "Lord Death Man," a man in a Halloween skeleton costume who wields an automatic weapon. He is also a yoga master who seems to be able to stop the heart for successfully faking his death, TWICE.
Then there is “Dr. Faceless”, who looks like a scientist with a face full of scars, which drives him crazy and burns all artwork depicting faces. The character resembles the Full Face version of Two Face, but is much dumber and later destroyed by an unnecessary plot twist.
The next enemy is "The Human Ball", a man in a rubber suit whose powers can only be bounced off, and Batman stops him with a kick. Well for him he only became a human with one ball, try two balls might be vulgar.
5. Justice League Monkey Punch
Before he died, Monkey Punch, creator of the acclaimed Lupine the Third, completed an official collaboration project for DC Comics in which he redesigned Justice League in his own unique style.
The illustration was later released through the official Warner Bros Japan account on Twitter. From this we can see that our heroes seem to be on a diet because they all look skinny and Superman himself is similar to Om-Om, and Aquaman seems to be a shampoo commercial model.
6. Crossover Iron Man/Space Brothers
Space Brothers is a popular manga, anime and even live action film about Japanese astronauts Mutta and Hibito Nanba. It's basically a slice of life story mixed with a lot of comedy, so it's really weird that writer Chuya Koyama ended up writing an official crossover between Space Brothers and Marvel comics.
This crossover story, was only published in the November 2016 issue of the lifestyle magazine FRaU for some reason. The story itself begins when Mutta is doing some routine work on the Moon, then Iron Man flies and tells Mutta that he must return to Earth with him.
On board the Iron Man, he and Black Widow explain to Mutta that he won a free trip to Hawaii but the tickets are in his name so he has to pick it up himself. Therefore his mother asked Iron Man to pick up her son with such an insignificant reason. WTF!!!
The comic ends with Mutta asking Tony to share his technology with the space agency because his ship can travel from Earth to the Moon in 25 minutes instead of three days. Tony says he'll think about it, in the sense of "No," and it's the only thing that reflects Tony Stark's personality perfectly, so this crossover works.
Comments