“If I ain’t in this issue, I’m gonna be on this cover!”
X-Men: The Manga #1
Marvel Comics (March, 1998)
WRITER/ARTIST: Hiroshi Higuchi
TRANSLATION: Mutsumi Masuda
RETOUCH/PRODUCTION: Dan Nakrosis
EDITOR: Glenn Greenberg
With the increase of mutant criminals people are getting worried about these people who have developed strange powers. That includes the adoptive parents of Jubilation “Jubilee” Lee, who want to connect her to the Mutant Control Center, a group that claims to want to help mutants. However, a giant “Sentinel” robot comes to claim her but she escapes to the mall, where she accidentally makes an arcade game explode like she did the family VCR. The Sentinel follows her but is stopped by Storm, a mutant with lighting powers, Rouge, who can fly and has superstrength, and Gambit, who can turn playing cards into explosives. They are nearly taken out by the Sentinel until Jubilee uses her plasma energy powers to distract it. Running off she bumps into a man named Cyclops. Is he there to help?
Yeah, if for some reason you haven’t guessed this is a manga version of the 90s Fox Kids X-Men pilot “Night Of The Sentinel”, or at least the first portion of part one. It’s a fair adaptation, though it shows Gambit flirting with Storm at one point and the art style gives Jubilee a different feeling that her show counterpart. She just looks too cute compared to the US version, where she’s cute if you’re a boy her age maybe but the manga version loses some of her edge.
Otherwise if you like the episode you may like the story. It’s just an adaptation, which Marvel themselves already did in X-Men Adventures. I can see wanting to release this alongside the Spider-Man manga I’ve already finished reviewing, but it’s a story the reader should already be aware of, just with a cuter version of Jubilee. Unless you’re really into manga you might as well just watch the episode.
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