“Man, not another multiversal incursion. This is the third one this year! And it’s only April!”
Spider-Man: The Manga #10
Marvel Comics (May, 1998)
WRITER/ARTIST: Ryoichi Ikegami
TRANSLATION: Mutsumi Masuda & C.B. Cebulski
RETOUCH/PRODUCTION: Dan Nakrosis
COVER DESIGN: Jeffrey Huang
EDITOR: Glenn Greenberg
Someone in a Spider-Man costume and with web shooters is going around Tokyo attacking people for no good reason. However, it’s not Yu because he tossed his costume away, wanting nothing more to do with Spider-Man…yet every now and then he does get concerned about Spider-Man’s reputation and this fake Spidey. However, he gets some good news because Rumi is coming back for a visit.
What they got right: Ikegami does a good job setting up this threat of a new evil Spider-Man and the public’s reaction. Checking the manga (on the off chance you’re keeping track the last few pages of this issue bleeds into volume 2 of the untranslated manga digests) they kept the name of a play or something written in English in the original manga the same as the translation, just flipping or retouching that sign so the text is the same with the page image flipped.
What they got wrong: Did he just trace over actual photos for the action star in the first attack? I think he did that for the aforementioned wide shot of the city with the sign but it doesn’t look nearly as off-putting because the actor and crowd don’t match up with the art style of the rest of the comic.
What I think overall: A good start to this adventure and it’s nice to see Yu’s love interest back in the game. Hopefully this will be more Mary Jane than Gwen Stacey.
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