Harvey/Ultracomics/Nemisis' Ultraman comic
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 3:29 pmI just read the four issues of the '90s Ultraman Great comic that I have (the initial 3 issue miniseries, as well as the 1st issue of the ongoing series which only ended up lasting 4 issues) and they are an inconsistent, but still fun look at Tsuburaya trying to broaden the appeal of their franchise in the West.
The most notable thing about the series, other than the fact that it exists, is the presence of Dwayne McDuffie as the writer in the initial miniseries, before he went on to bigger and better things. The art by Ernie Colon can be rather rough. He has extreme difficulty with getting across the size and weight of the kaiju and Ultraman. Even when they appear drawn to the proper scale they lack weight and a feeling of power, and more often than not they're completely out of scale; sometimes appearing not much bigger than average human beings! I do feel that Ernie is a bit underserved by the coloring and printing, as a few black and white examples of his are presented in the back matter and look much stronger. This was the early days of computer coloring, and it does look a bit muddy.
The initial miniseries feels very much like an episode 14 of Ultraman Great, while issue 1 of the ongoing reboots the story into its own thing. It unceremoniously kills Jack Shindo, and introduces a new human host for Ultraman in an older Japanese martial artist. Although handled badly, I can understand their approach here: this new issue 1 reframes Ultraman as a Japanese superhero with mostly Japanese characters and setting, which would reflect the public perception of Ultraman to most Americans instead of tying itself to the Australian produced series which only ran for a few months.
Each issue contains advertisements and.order forms Ultraman products, such as t-shirts are VHS tapes of Ultraman Great. The first issue of the miniseries contains a two-page, often wildly inaccurate description of the history of the franchise. It also mentions the upcoming American produced Ultraman TV series, but when images of Ultraman Powered and Powered Red King are presented in the ongoing series issue 1 they are presented without any description as to what they are. I wonder what fans at the time made of it?
The most notable thing about the series, other than the fact that it exists, is the presence of Dwayne McDuffie as the writer in the initial miniseries, before he went on to bigger and better things. The art by Ernie Colon can be rather rough. He has extreme difficulty with getting across the size and weight of the kaiju and Ultraman. Even when they appear drawn to the proper scale they lack weight and a feeling of power, and more often than not they're completely out of scale; sometimes appearing not much bigger than average human beings! I do feel that Ernie is a bit underserved by the coloring and printing, as a few black and white examples of his are presented in the back matter and look much stronger. This was the early days of computer coloring, and it does look a bit muddy.
The initial miniseries feels very much like an episode 14 of Ultraman Great, while issue 1 of the ongoing reboots the story into its own thing. It unceremoniously kills Jack Shindo, and introduces a new human host for Ultraman in an older Japanese martial artist. Although handled badly, I can understand their approach here: this new issue 1 reframes Ultraman as a Japanese superhero with mostly Japanese characters and setting, which would reflect the public perception of Ultraman to most Americans instead of tying itself to the Australian produced series which only ran for a few months.
Each issue contains advertisements and.order forms Ultraman products, such as t-shirts are VHS tapes of Ultraman Great. The first issue of the miniseries contains a two-page, often wildly inaccurate description of the history of the franchise. It also mentions the upcoming American produced Ultraman TV series, but when images of Ultraman Powered and Powered Red King are presented in the ongoing series issue 1 they are presented without any description as to what they are. I wonder what fans at the time made of it?
