JapanSugoi

With all the hype about Spiderman 3 opening, we thought you might be interested in the Japanese manga version written and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami 池上遼一 .

This manga was originally published from January 1970 to September 1971 in Monthly Shonen Magazine and was one of 2 Marvel characters to have a manga (the other being Hulk: The Manga published in Weekly Bokura Magazine and which has never been reprinted). The Japanese Spiderman manga more closely follows the original storyline unlike the Toei TV versionスパイダーマ which featured monsters and robots.

In the Japanese manga, high school student Yu Komori 小森ユウ is bitten by a radioactive spider which gives him spiderman powers. Initially, Ikegami both wrote and drew the stories but soon after Kazumasa Hirai became the writer while Ikegami continued with the artwork. Later stories departed further from the source material, and included scenes of sexual and gruesome imagery not featured in the US originals.

In 1996, the Japanese manga were reprinted in their original format. Marvel Comics released English-language versions of the stories from December 1997 to April 1999 but only 7 out of the 13 Japanese stories in total were fully translated, with several notable edits to remove some of the violent scenes. The final issue (#31) began the translation of the 9th story, but was left incomplete by the title’s cancellation.

If you’re interested in obtaining these manga, try Ebay (for the English translated version) or asking a Japanese friend to help you look for old copies at bookstores in Japan.