They say manga and comics mix like fruit and chocolate, but I enjoy the taste of raisins and other organic tree fodder fused with some processed coco beans.
The Marvel Mangaverse was an early project on the 2000s. A series of issues in which writers re-imagined the Marvel mainstays like Spider-man, The Hulk and the Avengers in the style of a Japanese comic (AKA Manga).
Here’s a nifty breakdown of what I found:
Marvel Mangaverse New Dawn – This is the main story. A truck load of Marvel characters being tossed out into a manga style world. We follow Bruce Banner living on Stark Island where he discovered an energy well, a dimensional portals of sorts. Everything goes awry and Bruce turns into the Hulk, but Godzilla style.
As Bruce approaches the mainland this where the other titles kick in.
The Avengers – Tony Stark is a talking head and Steve Rogers (Captain America) is the US President, that’s right. The story follows Cap, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and the Vision having to retrieve a mecha made up of 4 pieces all of which form ‘Ultimate Ironman’
So basically picture a megazord which turns into Ironman.
Fantastic Four – The four still have cosmic powers, but their augmented using special suits to turn them into huge giants based on their powers. The Human Torch is a girl and Reed Richard only uses his powers to increase his brain power.
Ghost rider – I’ll be honest. I didn’t like this one. The artwork wasn’t great and the story didn’t really grasp what Ghost Rider is. I guess it’s funny and it does tie in the best with the Hulk hitting the mainland.
The Punisher – It’s not dark and gritty, but is it funny. Follow the Geisha Punisher as she tickle tortures the baddies of the underworld.
Spider-man – The most successful of the tales and got it’s own follow up series. Peter Parker’s Sensei Uncle Ben is murdered. Peter dons a guise and continues on his ninja training to find the one who killed his uncle.
X-men – Imagine the X-men mixed with magic and costumes out of Bleach and Sailor Moon. Yes you got it. Overall most of the stories are great. A fun departure from the norm. Characters comfortably re-imagined and integrated into a different cultural style. Similar to Pacific Rim really.
If you ignore a few continuity issues with the Hulk story you’ll get along with it fine.
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