This August, Japan’s greatest superhero, Ultraman, and iconic Marvel Super Hero Spider-Man unite for the first time in ULTRAMAN: ALONG CAME A SPIDER-MAN, an epic serialized Japanese manga from Shogakukan. Part of a major cross-cultural event set to take the global comics scene by storm, this news follows the recent announcement of Marvel Comics’ ULTRAMAN x AVENGERS series, debuting on the same day this August 14, and comes when excitement for the Ultraman franchise is at an all-time high following the release of new animated film Ultraman: Rising on Netflix in June.
Japanese publisher Shogakukan, in collaboration with Tsuburaya Productions and Marvel Comics, is releasing ULTRAMAN: ALONG CAME A SPIDER-MAN, marking the first time that Ultraman and Marvel’s most renowned character Spider-Man join forces in a Japanese manga. Written by Shigenobu Matsumoto and drawn by Tomo Hirokawa, the manga features one of Marvel’s greatest supervillains of all time, Doctor Doom, who joins forces with Ultraman arch-nemesis Alien Mefilas and his cadre of destructive Kaiju, with cameo appearances by The Avengers. Marvel Comics Executive Editor Tom Brevoort and Tsuburaya Fields Media & Pictures Entertainment’s Transmedia Producer Jeff Gomez served as creative consultants for the series.
ULTRAMAN: ALONG CAME A SPIDER-MAN will be distributed in the United States by VIZ Media, kicking off with chapters 1 and 2 on August 13 in the US (August 14 Japan time), making for a truly global event. VIZ is launching the manga series digitally on the VIZ Manga app, with new chapters released every Tuesday. The latest chapter each week will be available for free, and readers can subscribe to VIZ Manga to read the full series. VIZ will also publish a print edition of the complete manga in the United States, set to hit retail in Summer 2025.
This announcement follows the recent news that Marvel Comics will release ULTRAMAN x AVENGERS, an epic four-issue crossover event bringing together the greatest hero of Japan and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for an epic battle against the most powerful supervillain of them all—Galactus. The miniseries is penned by Kyle Higgins (THE RISE OF ULTRAMAN) and Mat Groom (THE TRIALS OF ULTRAMAN, MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS) and drawn by Francesco Manna (THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN). This series marks the fourth Ultraman installment with Marvel penned by Higgins and Groom and continues a landmark collaboration between Marvel Comics and Tsuburaya Productions.
Kei Minamitani, Tsuburaya Productions, said, “The contrast in how our two sets of heroes approach their roles is fascinating to see play out, but they have a lot of similarities as well. In both the Shogakukan and Marvel titles, we watch how our heroes grapple with these differences before ultimately reconciling to find greater solutions. It has been incredibly special to explore the concept of heroism through the perspectives of these two very different sets of heroes and we are excited for fans to join them on these two adventures.”
“We’re thrilled to bring together Marvel comics and manga in such an exciting way, uniting our biggest heroes directly with Ultraman against ultimate villains like never before,” added C.B. Cebulski, Editor-in-Chief, Marvel Comics. “This manga will be an epic showdown at a cosmic level, but it’ll have plenty insightful themes and touching moments as well. We’re excited for fans to experience this story around the globe.”
On Marvel Earth, Spider-Man joins forces with the Avengers to battle Doctor Doom in New York City, but when several civilians are killed in a building collapse as a result, Spider-Man becomes demoralized and finds himself whisked away in a strange spacecraft called the Interdimensional Train. Doctor Doom stows aboard and both find themselves in the Tokyo of the Ultraman universe! Witnessing Ultraman battle a giant Kaiju, Doom craves the Giant of Light’s power and joins forces with Alien Mefilas and his army of Kaiju from the Monster Graveyard to steal it.
Both ULTRAMAN X AVENGERS #1 and ULTRAMAN: ALONG CAME A SPIDER-MAN will be available in comic shops and digitally on August 14, 2024.
