Marcus To
Exclusive Preview | Archaia’s Cyborg 009
Archaia and Ishimori Production Inc. are teaming up to re-interpret Shotaro Ishinomori’s classic manga series Cyborg 009 for Western readers. The new edition is written by F.J. DeSanto (The Spirit, Immortals: Gods and Heroes) and Bradley Cramp (Gattaca), and illustrated by Marcus To (Red Robin, The Huntress). Archaia has provided ROBOT 6 with an exclusive preview of the graphic novel, set for release early this year.
The story is about nine people who are kidnapped from around the world to become test subjects by The Black Ghost Organization, a secret society that provides weapons of mass destruction to the highest bidder. The victims are put through a series of experiments that transform them into super-powered weapons, but with the help of a compassionate project scientist, the living weapons rebel, escape, and set off on a mission to stop Black Ghost from plunging the world into a perpetual state of war.
The publisher states: “Created in 1964, Cyborg 009 was Japan’s first and most-popular super-team, quickly becoming one of the most influential manga series of all time. The original manga has been published in over 250,000,000 copies of weekly comics and comic books worldwide.” There’s also a new, 3D CGI animated feature film in the works in Japan, and DeSanto is working to produce a live-action version.
SDCC ’12 | Archaia to ‘re-imagine’ classic manga Cyborg 009
Cyborg 009 art by Marcus To
Archaia Entertainment has confirmed it’s partnering with Japan’s Ishimori Productions to publish a Western re-imagining of Shotaro Ishinomori’s classic sci-fi manga Cyborg 009.
Set to debut in 2013 digitally and in print, the hardcover graphic novel written by F.J. DeSanto (The Spirit, Immortals: Gods and Heroes) and Bradley Cramp (Gattaca) and illustrated by Marcus To (Red Robin, The Huntress) will feature the classic characters and origin, “re-imagined for a new worldwide audience.”
Debuting in 1964 in Weekly Shonen King, Ishinomori’s Cyborg 009 follows nine humans kidnapped to undergo experiments by the evil Black Ghost organization that transform the test subjects into living weapons. The nine cyborgs band together to rebel against their captors and stop Black Ghost from plunging the world into a perpetual state of war.
“On the surface, Cyborg 009 appears to be a science fiction action/adventure story,” DeSanto said in a statement. “However, Ishinomori’s creation has endured because it’s a story about the human spirit triumphing over incredible adversity. The sort of emotional trauma these nine people experience could happen to anyone, anywhere, and at any time. Instead of becoming dark and oppressive, the story evolves into a message of hope and cooperation between people of different countries and races who share the singular goal of bringing peace to the planet. Humanity is the heart and soul of Cyborg 009.”
Women of Action | Huntress
Huntress #1
I actually tried and then gave up on Paul Levitz and Marcus To’s Huntress before starting this tour of superhero comics featuring women, but one of the things I wanted to do with the experiment is to get a large, healthy sample of each series before passing judgment. I’d only read a couple of issues of Huntress before giving up on it, so I felt like I needed to go back for at least a couple of more. I ended up reading the entire six-issue mini-series, but that was just because it finished before I got around to catching up and I figured, “Why not?”
My problem with the series mostly has to do with lack of dramatic excitement. Marcus To draws an attractive Huntress and does a nice job of depicting the luxurious lifestyle of rich people living around the Mediterranean, but the plot is extremely basic: dictators who are also human traffickers are evil; Huntress wants to stop them because she’s a good guy. Though the story takes place mostly in Italy, there’s a Gotham connection to explain Huntress’ being on the case, but if this is your first exposure to her (which it is, because this is an all-new Huntress created especially for the New 52), just having the crimes relate to Gotham isn’t enough to know why that’s important. Does this Huntress have a Batman-like need to protect that city? Is she idly curious and chasing a rabbit down its hole (before uncovering something darker)? This comic isn’t telling.
When I wrote about Birds of Prey, I caught a little flack in the comments for complaining that there are no personal stakes for the heroes of that series. Most of the commenters understood though that I wasn’t suggesting that every villain has to have a personal connection with the hero. That gets unbelievable really fast and I’m not suggesting it for Huntress. But I do want to feel like there’s a reason for a story to be told other than just, “So there’s this bad guy and he needs to be stopped.” Why does this particular hero need to be the one to do it?
What Are You Reading? with Rik Offenberger
Green Lantern #3
Hey kids, it’s time once again for What Are You Reading?, a weekly look into the reading habits of your Robot 6 bloggers. This week our special guest is Rik Offenberger, comics journalist and public relations coordinator for Archie Comics.
To see what Rik and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
What Are You Reading? with Jim Gibbons
B.P.R.D Hell On Earth: Russia #1
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? This week our special guest is Dark Horse assistant editor Jim Gibbons, who I spoke to about his new job on Friday.
To see what Jim and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …
Talking Comics with Tim: Christopher Yost
Red Robin 4
By now most folks will have read Red Robin 4 (which was released on September 9), but if it’s still in your reading pile from this past week please make sure to read it before reading this interview with series writer Christopher Yost. (Consider that your official spoiler warning.) In addition to discussing the events of the issue, we delve into the plans ahead for the book and the life of Tim Wayne (formerly Drake), as well as the premiere of the new series artist Marcus To as of issue 6.
Tim O’Shea: Issue 4 is now out and had a fairly big reveal in the hunt for Bruce Wayne. This has been building up for four issues, did DC tell you exactly how they wanted the reveal to occur–or did they give you some creative levity to structure the reveal in your own way?
Christopher Yost: [Editor] Mike Marts and I had been talking about this from day one, and it was something that I wanted to do from the start. Tim’s incredibly smart, incredibly driven… if there’s evidence and clues out there, he’s going to find it. And as you saw, he did. We still haven’t revealed what put him on that road, of course… but I knew I wanted to tie Red Robin into the end of Grant’s Final Crisis super-early on.
But to answer the question, DC has given me nothing but freedom and creative levity. It’s pretty great.