Marvel & Del Rey Collaboration

[SilvaShado]

As announced at the New York Anime Festival, Marvel Entertainment and Del Rey Manga will partner to produce two new manga series based on Marvel Entertainment's highly popular X-Men series.

The manga, created with the cooperation and consultation of Marvel editors, will take the classic characters from the X-Men series and re-imagine them in a manga style. The first project, scripted by the husband-and-wife team of Raina Telgemeier (writer and illustrator of The Babysitter's Club graphic novels) and Dave Roman (creator of the comic Agnes Quill), will focus specifically on the X-Men team. Indonesian artist Anzu will illustrate the two-volume series, which will go on sale in Spring 2009.

It's the X-Men as you've never seen them before, with the storyline fashioned as a private school shôjo comedy. As the only girl in the all-boys School for Gifted Youngsters, Kitty Pryde, a mutant with phasing abilities, is torn between the popular Hellfire Club, led by flame-throwing mutant Pyro–and the school misfits, whom she eventually bands together as the X-Men.

A second manga series follows the adventures of Wolverine, a breakout member of the X-Men team known for his attitude and unbreakable adamantium claws.

~~~~~

When I first saw this, I thought, "uh-oh, bad idea. Another Marvel Mangaverse..." Then I read this part: "private school shôjo comedy. As the only girl in the all-boys School for Gifted Youngsters, Kitty Pryde" and I couldn't stop laughing. This actually sounds funny and possibly good.

I just don't know if I'll remember all the way into Spring 2009.

[Elliot Kane]

The thing I don't get is why Marvel don't actually create a Manga line with original characters if that's what they want. Manga fans don't seem to be that interested in superheroes, and X-fans aren't really likely to pick up an X-Men Manga. Kind of the worst of both worlds...

[The Sonar Chicken]

I saw this off MangaNews days ago. I think that they're trying to "cash in" on the manga factor? After all, even manga has its' own "superheroes" too and there's nothing wrong with trying out a few new things.

Edit: If you want to know more about reactions to this news, here's one from Manganews:

Here, allow me.

WHAT THE F***?

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, it's time for us to bring you news of what could perhaps be the most unsettling collaboration the manga industry has seen to date. Announced just recently at the New York Anime Festival were X-Men and Wolverine - the manga. While Wolverine will (unsurprisingly) be a shounen title, X-Men will be shoujo. The creative teams for the two are as follows:

X-Men - Written by Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman with art by the Indonesian artist, Anzu.

Wolverine - Antony Johnston was named as writer, with the artist to be named later.

Think a shoujo X-Men series is impossible? Think again. Del Rey and Marvel are taking some fairly absurd creative liberties with this series. X-Men will be a shoujo manga, depicting the Xavier Institute as an all-boys' school, in which Kitty Pryde is the only female student. How appropriate, considering Kitty's mutant power is the ability to walk right through walls and any other solid surface as she pleases. According to Newsarama's report, "Kitty is torn between the popular Hellfire Club, led by Pyro, and the school misfits who she eventually bands together as the X-Men."

While I've always thought it would be an excellent idea for Marvel to target the female demographic by providing a "shoujo-ish" take on its universe -- for example; a canonical series about Peter Parker and Mary Jane's relationship, or a highschool drama starring the new X-Men recruits at the Xavier Institute (that is what Academy X was for a while) -- this collaboration comes across as rather strange.

Is it because none of Marvel's own writers are capable of providing drama and romance-filled books that could entertain female readers better than their current line-up of comics? Certainly not. I'd like to think the likes of Brian Bendis and J. Michael Straczynski are every bit capable of providing romance-filled teenage drama as some of the better shoujo writers out there. After all, hasn't Bendis been penning Ultimate Spider-Man for a good few years now?

Whatever the cause, it looks like both Del Rey and Marvel are expecting good results from the collaboration. Will we see a greater female demographic picking up X-Men? Only time will tell. In the mean time, here's the press release for you enthusiasts.

[SilvaShado]

admin said:

The thing I don't get is why Marvel don't actually create a Manga line with original characters if that's what they want. Manga fans don't seem to be that interested in superheroes, and X-fans aren't really likely to pick up an X-Men Manga. Kind of the worst of both worlds...

Which is pretty much why this will die before its born.

There are very few people like me who like both, and I'd only try the Kitty one because, well, I like her character. But if the story or art is bad, I won't buy it. And it's likely one or the other will be bad because they are trying to write to two different audiences.

[Elliot Kane]

Marvel seem to be trapped in this hideous twilight zone where they desperately want to appeal to Manga readers (This is, what, their third attempt? More?) but they can't get past the 'safe zone' of rehashing old characters and concepts rather than trying something completely new.

I'm not sure it's yet occurred to them that 'Manga' is not a genre any more than 'comics' is - it's just a medium for telling stories. And they keep trying to tell the wrong stories.

They probably want their Manga to serve as a bridge between Manga proper and US Superhero comics. They don't seem to realise that the audiences are almost completely different so that no bridge between the two will work. It's like trying to get a load of health food enthusiasts into the local burger bar - they're just not gonna go.

Why they don't just open a Manga arm to create completely new stories aimed at a full-on Manga audience I do not know.

[The Sonar Chicken]

Well, it's their franchise and their money: they can do whatever they see fit to. Though that'd really piss off all the fans, huh?

Yeah... if they REALLY want to appeal to manga fans, they'd have to consider so many factors like costumes, etc. And no offense, I haven't seen many Western comics successfully emulate manga: even Deadboy Detectives was a helluva disappointment since it tried to LOOK like manga but all the stereotypes bogged down the story. (I'm not talking about manga drawn by Westerners, btw.)

Oh and only in Japan is there quite a Marvel following. I'm not sure about the manga fans in other countries but I do know quite a few manga creators grew up reading stuff like Spiderman, X-men, etc.

To be frank, I haven't seen any signs of female Western superheroes evolving in terms of appearance: who actually runs around in underwear these days? And save for a female who's an exhibitionist or has some kinky traits, who goes around running in "body-hugging" clothing which also somehow boosts your bra size?

Plus many of the females I've seen fall under a few of these labels: "Mrs. Steroids", "Mrs. plastic surgery", "Mrs. Conservative", etc.

Oh and I'm not too convinced how a horror manga artist is going to illustrate a romance manga:

manga.about.com/od/imagegalleries/ig/Del-Rey-Fall-Winter-2007-08/The-Reformed-1.htm