To everyone’s surprise, Ultraman’s latest ventures in the world of manga have just been released on the Viz manga app/site for free! Join Ethan dive into the first two chapters and see the latest on the web!
These manga chapters were released for free over on Viz’s website which you can find here. Please support the official release. Obviously, you should have read the manga before reading this review, there will be spoilers, especially because these chapters are free.
Recap
Chapter One
In New York, someone is attacking the city. The Avengers have scrambled to defeat them but Spider-Man is focusing on saving the lives of civilians, recapping his backstory to us. Ironman stops him and chews him out, even slapping him, insisting that “sacrifices have to be made” and that it’s more important to stop the cause of the destruction than to rescue people; That should be the job of S.H.I.E.L.D, who I guess would do that when cleaning up all of the exploded buildings. Just as Spider-Man is about to ignore Tony Stark’s words he’s jumped by the perpetrator of this attack, Doctor Victor von Doom and his Doom Bots. Peter goes from one Robert Downey Jr. monologue to another, as Doom mouths off to him before they do battle.
Doom manages to hit Spidey in the chest with a missile and, as he throws him aside, Spider-Man is picked up by a train. This is a page that looks like juggernaut of the Isekai genre, Truck-kun themselves, was about to make a cameo. On board the train, just as Spider-Man wakes up, he is greeted by the one other person on the train, Dr. Doom, who throws him out again, revealing that they have passed into the Land of Light, the world of giants, not just Japan but Ultraman’s Japan.
Chapter 2
Waking up in this new unfamiliar place, Peter (Spidey) laments all the lives he couldn’t save. A kaiju attacks, the military fly in and they say they have located Peter (the kaiju) before they attack the it.
Swinging into action, Spider-Man takes in his new Japanese surroundings and goes to save the man he sees just standing there. Just before he reaches the man, we learn that it’s Hayata and he transforms into Ultraman, hitting the kaiju to bring the chapter to a close.
Fun Fact: The kaiju, Peter, first appeared in episode 26 of Ultra Q.
The Bad
Other than my personal displeasure with the clearly-designed-for-tablet-use Viz manga reader (would a guided view like Comixology had killed ya?), my only real complaint is Ironman’s “Let them die” speech. I know Tony’s always been a pragmatist, and is also a rich capitalist, but even then this felt way out of character for him; maybe not on the level of Ma and Pa Kent from Zac Snyder’s Man of Steel, but it was kinda jarring. I’m sure this is to set up the contradicting themes between Uncle Ben’s “great power speech” and Tony’s “it’s more important to stop the cause of the threat then to save people” and use those themes to draw a connection between Spider-Man and Ultraman’s desire to save everyone. This said, it makes a lot of sense to use Spider-Man’s mentor figure from the most popular recent iteration of the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Good
I really liked the art; it’s very solid stuff. What stood out a lot to me was the visuals during their train ride. It was very clearly inspired by opening visuals of the original Ultraman series and there are a lot of other neat little nods that, if the Wiki didn’t point them out, I might have missed. For example, Peter the kaiju and the dimension hopping train itself which turns out to be from Ultra Q episode 28. It shows a lot of love and attention to detail with this that I appreciate.
The Conclusion
My few quibbles aside, this was really neat! I can’t wait to see where we end up going with this series. As I mentioned when I covered the announcement over on my and Sean’s review of episode five of Ultraman Arc, trying to steal Ultraman’s power is a very Dr. Doom thing to do. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends with a climatic battle between Ultraman vs. Ultraman Doom and Spider-Man vs. Alien Mephilas, or something. Either way I’m all in for this and I can’t wait for the next chapter!
What did you think? Is there anything in particular you hope to see out of this crossover? Did Ironman’s speech also remind you of Pa Kent from Man of Steel? As always, I’ve been Ethan: Writer, reviewer and interdimensional crossover facilitating train conductor for The Toku Source. I’ll see you next time!
