Japanese manga
Spider-Man: The Manga is a Japanese superhero manga series written by Kōsei Ono and Kazumasa Hirai and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami which retold the story of Spider-Man in a Japanese setting. It was originally published in Japan from January 1970 to September 1971 in Monthly Shōnen Magazine.[1] The comic began by loosely adapting American Marvel stories, but over time, Ikegami introduced more original material.[2] The manga features Yu Komori as Spider-Man's teen alter ego, and takes place in a Japanese setting.[3] Within the Marvel Comics multiverse, its reality is designated as Earth-70019.[4]
Premise
A junior high school student named Yu Komori (小森ユウ, Komori Yuu): A bright and intellectually-gifted, yet outcasted and withdrawn teen genius, is bitten by a radioactive spider during a scientific demonstration, which imbues him with spider-like superhuman abilities, like the American Spider-Man's counterpart, Peter Parker and after a tragic mistake committed by accidentally mis-using his powers, which results in him unintentionally killing someone, a guilt-ridden Yu is driven to do good and atone for his irresponsibility, under the alias of a masked vigilante: "Spider-Man". Yu faces Japanese versions of villains such as Electro, the Lizard, Mysterio, and the Kangaroo. The series also featured counterparts of Aunt May, named "Mei", and J. Jonah Jameson, who is the publisher of the newspaper publishing company, where Yu is employed as a freelance photographer and which has an anti-Spider-Man stance.
Publication
Initially, Kōsei Ono wrote the stories.[5] On completion of the sixth story, Kazumasa Hirai became the writer.[6] Ikegami continued to provide the art. The first few stories featured analogues to several of Spider-Man's villains and supporting cast, while maintaining an altogether darker, grittier and moodier tone and atmosphere, compared to the original Spider-Man comics. The later Hirai-written stories deviated further from the source material, being more tonally mature, adult-oriented, violent, while including obscene content, such as profanity, sexual and gruesome imagery of a kind not seen in the original American Spider-Man comics. The later stories involved less comedy, were more dramatic, and had more realistic art, reflecting Ikegami's later style. The majority of the manga's stories focused on Yu's struggles with his alter-ego as Spider-Man and his normal life as a high school student. The negative sides and consequences being a super-powered vigilante brings on to his life, along with his character-arc of initially utilizing his powers for solely selfish gain, to using them to do good and for genuinely altruistic reasons, out of a sense of responsibility, despite being constantly tormented by negative emotions and the burden and misery being Spider-Man brings on to him, while also being careful with the use of his spider-powers and controlling his darker side and grim thoughts regarding his life as Spider-Man and struggling with the increasing tension being a masked vigilante brings on to his relationships with his close ones, being extremely similar with the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run on the Amazing Spider-Man comics.
The books were reprinted in their original format, with the original Japanese text, in 1974, 1976, 1996 and 2006. The covers were updated, with the first three reprints to feature a picture of Spider-Man holding a flower. This image was originally a foldout 1971 calendar included with the original monthly printings. A number on a bottom-left of the cover indicated the story arc reprinted within.[7]
The English-language version of the series was reprinted by Marvel Comics across thirty-one issues from December 1997 to April 1999. Eight out of the thirteen Japanese stories in total were fully translated, with several edits to remove some of the violent scenes. The final issue, #31, began the translation of the ninth story and was left incomplete due to the title's cancellation.[8]
Reception
According to Ikegami, the series did not get a popular reception in Japan upon its initial release, and Hirai taking the writing duties only caused the reception to get "picked up a little".[9] Daniel Stein, author of "Of Transcreations and Transpacific Adaptations: Investigating Manga Versions of Spider-Man", citing political and cultural issues, described this reception as "less than stellar".[10]
The reception in the United States upon the release there was described by Stein as "not too successful".[11]
