I write this first entry on my new blog as I am in a period of reflection. This time last year, I was on holiday in Japan for the first time ever. I was expecting to be picking up lots of manga/anime related goodies on this trip, and don’t get me wrong, there was lots of that. But I was genuinely shocked by the amount of Marvel merch I picked up whilst I was there. This ranged from figures, gashapons, plushes and (the focus of this article) comics.

Marvel has a long history of working with Japanese publishers and production companies. This dates as far back as the 1970s where Toei were licenced to make a live-action Spider-Man show which not only introduced Spidey to a new audience, but also originated the hero summons robot to fight a giant monster tradition that carries on to this day. Publishing wise, Marvel has worked with Kodansha for many years on a variety of projects. They have produced three Spider-Man manga – one in 1970, another in 2004 and one most recently in 2019 (which we will get to soon); adaptations of Hulk and X-Men; and the first English language release of the Akira manga. In addition, several top talents from the manga and anime industries have done both interior and cover work for Marvel’s US publications including Tsutomu Nihei (BLAME!, Biomega) who wrote and drew the 2003 Wolverine: Snikt mini-series; One-Punch Man artist Yusuke Murata who has drawn several Spider-Man variant covers; and studio trigger artist Shigeto Koyama who has also drawn several covers including the jackets for the Japanese editions of Ms. Marvel.

In the last two years, we’ve seen Marvel partner with both Kodansha and Shueisha’s Shonen Jump to produce several new titles featuring both established and rising talent presenting their takes on Marvel’s top heroes. I was aware of these titles before I went to Japan, but not overly familiar with the contents. By some crazy timing, the first two had just been released in the week of my arrival which I ended up picking up, and the advertising for the last one made me aware enough to order a copy when I got back home. The first of which we will be looking at is Secret Reverse – part of Marvel and Shonen Jumps’s Super Collaboration.

Out of all these new titles, on paper, it is the most intriguing because it is written and drawn by Yu-Gi-Oh! creator Kazuki Takahashi. In addition, it is entirely in colour, printed left-to-right and is the same size as standard US comics. They clearly aimed to make it as authentically Marvel as possible, whilst also presumably making it easier for a potential English language release.

Secret Reverse is a done-in-one adventure which doesn’t aim to break the mold. Tony Stark is invited to a gaming convention in Japan to see a demonstration from Kaioh, the CEO of Kai-Oh Company and creator of “Secret Reverse” – a popular card game. Peter Parker is also in attendance, visiting his friends Masaru and Hiromi – who is the daughter of Kaioh. Kaioh reveals to the attendees the Deathal Machine, a new device that will enhance Secret Reverse and revolutionise gaming. Inviting Stark to the stage to participate in a demonstration, he shows how his machine brings the cards in the game to life and can even enable him to absorb their power. Stark warns him after that such technology is too dangerous, but Kaioh has plans to sell it to the military. Hiromi reveals her father – a once passionate gamer – has not been the same since he found a card on his desk seven years ago that seemed to possess him.

It turns out that Deathal is a creature from another dimension ruled by an artificial intelligence infused species which plan to invade this world with Kaioh’s assistance. An eavesdropping Spider-Man encounters Kaioh, which promptly leads to a traditional superhero team-up as Spidey and Iron Man face-off against Deathal, whilst Masaru and Hiromi try to appeal to Kaioh’s human side.

As you can probably tell from this brief plot synopsis, this is a very Yu-Gi-Oh! inspired Marvel Team-Up. Kaioh is very reminisent of the villains Yugi Moto would clash with, and the Secret Reverse card game bears more than a passing resemblance to Duel Monsters. But given the author, this is sort of to be expected. Masaru and Hiromi are also characters you would typically find in the shonen genre and are clearly there to be the non-powered characters younger readers can relate to. But the main question is, does Takahashi have a good handle on the Marvel characters?

As it’s in Japanese (which I only know a smattering – I used Google translate’s camera function whilst reading), I can’t comment on how faithful the dialogue is to traditional Iron Man and Spider-Man portrayals, but the two of them for the most part seem to be in character. Stark is his usual confident self and Spider-Man appears to have the required level of snark, with his inital enounter with Kaioh and Deathal being a high-point – though I must confess, it is slightly weird to see Peter Parker being a fanboy for a trading card game.

Takahashi hasn’t worked on an ongoing series in quite a while, having only done one shots and short works since Yu-Gi-Oh! finished. He’s clearly had a lot of time on this one which shines through in his artwork. Takahashi has often expressed his fandom for American comics, so this is clearly a passion project. Iron Man is definitely on point, as Takahashi opts for the armour that has been the basis for most of the suits worn in the Marvel Studios movies. His Tony Stark is also just right, and resists the temptation of making him look too young. With his Peter Parker, it’s mostly good, but at times, he does look a bit too young and seems to resemble a main character in a high school manga. The highlight though is definitely Takahashi’s depiction of Spider-Man, where he appears to be cutting loose the most. The second half of this comic is largely action based, and Spider-Man dominates most of this section whilst Iron Man is mostly relegated to blasting stuff. It is a perfect melding of Japanese and American styles, with Spidey dancing across the pages in a ton of unique poses and having a gangley appearance that contrast nicely to his musclebound opponent.

The layouts are also fun. As you’d expect from a shonen manga creator, the panels sizes and shapes are mostly different from you’d see in American comics. There’s a particularly good double page spread towards the end where the panels depict Spider-Man jumping towards Deathal flow into the main image of the spread. We’ve seen plenty of manga influenced artists working for Marvel with high degrees of success, but it is particularly cool to see a legendary Shonen Jump artist use his unique style with Marvel characters.

This isn’t a reinvention of the wheel or character defining story for either Spider-Man or Iron Man. But it is a fun story that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it is a true treat seeing Takahashi’s take on these iconic characters. Hopefully, he’ll give it another crack down the road, I definitely wouldn’t object to see him doing more Spider-Man.

There aren’t currently any plans to release Secret Reverse in English, though I feel given Takahashi’s pedigree, it being fully coloured and in western reading format, I’d say it’s got a good chance. Whether it be from Marvel themselves, or possibly licencing it out to Viz Media. For now, if you want to pick up the original Japanese version, you can order it from CDJapan here.