A comiXologist Recommends:
Eric Arroyo recommends Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga #1

In 1966, while the Adam West Batman series was becoming a phenomenon, Jiro Kuwata took Batman to Japan in the pages of Shonen King Magazine, depicting a familiar-looking hero through a black-and-white, horror-scifi filter. After highlighting the series in the collection Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan, DC is now releasing weekly chapters from the original Batman manga, and the first two story arcs have recently wrapped up on ComiXology.

Instead of radically changing the Batman mythos for a Japanese audience, Kuwata brings grim but over-the-top villains and a ‘60s science action aesthetic to Gotham City. The magic of Kuwata’s Batman stories comes from his marriage of disparate elements. Lord Death Man, the rogue in the opening arc, exemplifies this: he comes out of the shadows with a grizzly visage and power over death itself, but he’s as theatrical as he is creepy. Here, grim and ruthless villains add a texture of horror to ludicrous and delightful action stories. 

These stories tumble through tragic origin stories and chilling nightmares, while hitting absurd set pieces along the way, like a climactic battle atop a giant monument to Batman. With their unique perspective, Kuwata’s Batman stories can use these playful situations to subvert our expectations; while Batman vs Doctor Faceless appears like a traditional villain origin, it goes in farcical directions to pull the reader into a fresh and serious twist.

Kuwata’s Batman is also a testament to the strengths of mid-‘60s manga storytelling. Using efficient line work and paneling, Kuwata clearly depicts impactful action that flows through the page. Occasional spot-color adds an extra expressive element to stories full of rich hatching and pen-line texture.

If you love diving into vintage action manga like Cyborg 009, or you’re taking advantage of Batman’s 75^th anniversary to explore other interpretations of the character, like in Batman ’66, pick up Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga. Come for Lord Death Man, stay for the wrecking-ball surfing.

[Read Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga!]

_{Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and a Digital Editor at comiXology. He’s probably drawing giant robots and listening to ABBA.}