Welcome to the DC Mangaverse That Wasn’t
Alert and full-bearded TR reader Justin passed me this link to Cliff Chiang’s website, where the DC artist has revealed some sketches of manga-inspired DC superheroes from 1998 or so. Basically, his take was that Japan decided to make its own Justice League-inspired superteam, which included a Gatchaman-esque Batman and Robin, a Speed Racer-car-driving Flash, a giant Superman robot remote controlled by a small Japanese boy (as is standard), a Leiji Matsumoto-ized Wonder Woman, a Kamen Rider-style Aquaman, and last but not least, a Green Lantern who may or not be inspired by Space Adventure Cobra. All very old school anime, and all pretty cool?see more drawings here. Of course, it wouldn’t have sold for shit in 1998, just like Marvel’s Mangaverse sold for shit in 1999. But still cool.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.