Manga X-Men mangaized!

[Doublehex]

As reported by [URL="http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=139064"]Newsarama[/URL]:

[QUOTE]Today at the New York Anime Festival, Marvel and Del Rey announced a joint project which will see their most popular properties produced as Original English Language manga: X-Men and Wolverine - the manga.

The deal, which will see two volumes of each produced in a traditional manga digest size, began when Marvel and Del Rey were in negotiations to publish the Iron Man movie adaptation, and grew to the final product. The black and white digests will be printed left-to-right, in a Western style format, and publication will begin in spring of 2009.

Creators named for the titles are:

X-Men - Written by Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman with art by the Indonesian artist, Anzu.
Wolverine - Antony Johnston was named as writer, with the artist to be named later.

Del Rey?s Dallas Middaugh stressed that the titles will be looking to reach out to manga readers ? clearly a different readership than the traditional X-Men fan, as such, the styles of the two series will be shojo (aimed at girls) and shonen (aimed at boys), respectively. That is:

X-Men will be a shojo style manga, where the Xavier School is still a mutant academy, but it's a all-boys school ? with Kitty Pryde, the heroine of the story is the only girl in the school. Kitty is torn between the popular Hellfire Club, led by Pyro, and the school misfits who she eventually bands together as the X-Men.[/QUOTE]

The original announcement, showing Wolverine, Magneto, and Jean Grey: [url]http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=139197[/url]

Some more designs, showing another interpretation of Wolverine, as well as Beast, Kitty, Iceman, and Nightcrawler:
[url]http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/04/22/another-look-at-the-manga-style-wolverine-x-men/#more-7927[/url]

Now, I am not too sure I am liking what I am seeing. Some of the design is nice - especially Kitty. But, then we have Wolverine. I am aware he is being adapted into a manga format, but he looks too bishie to me. Wolverine needs muscles twice that size, and he needs to be [I]hairy[/I]. Notice how I emphasized the word.

But for all I know, this might actually turn out to be good. Or, it could blow up in Marvel's face.

[Magus]

[COLOR="DarkRed"][SIZE="1"]Hm. I don't really know what to say. Magneto's look, if that's what he's going to look like, blew me away. Looks like Dante. (Devil May Cry)

Now my real concern is the look of Wolverine. They have so many looks for him, and all of them are iffy. One of the pictures they have with a bulky lookin guy has more of a Sabretooth look. Personally, I'd prefer that one over the rest, and even then, I don't really care for that look either.

Beast, although, he's not a favorite of mine is just something I'd hate to see.

So far, it's definately an interesting take on the characters, but I'm really iffy on a couple of them.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Doublehex]

[quote name='Memphis'][COLOR="DarkRed"][SIZE="1"]Hm. I don't really know what to say. Magneto's look, if that's what he's going to look like, blew me away. Looks like Dante. (Devil May Cry)[/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

I hope you don't mean that in a good way. That looks nothing like how Magneto should look. He's supposed to be an old man - that Magneto looks like a teen! And he is far too pretty. I can only pray they update him for the final copy. And Beast is just terrible.

[Magus]

[quote name='Matt']I hope you don't mean that in a good way. That looks nothing like how Magneto should look. He's supposed to be an old man - that Magneto looks like a teen! And he is far too pretty. I can only pray they update him for the final copy.[/QUOTE]
[COLOR="DarkRed"][SIZE="1"]Actually, I did mean that in a good way. While he is suppose to be old, (and me growing up on the old cartoon... which he looked really young to be old lol. Him and Prof. X) we have no idea of what type of direction they're going with the story. (I did not read any of what was talked about... So if it's already talked about, please clarify so I'll go read it.)[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Doublehex]

All we know is that the two titles are going to be geared for the two main manga groups - shonen and shoujo (did I spell that right?). Everything else is up for speculation.

[Gavin]

[quote name='Matt']And Beast is just terrible.[/QUOTE]

[SIZE="1"]Couldn't agree more, I'm rather disappointed in the look they chose for him. He was probably one of my favourite characters growing up and this look is practically sacrilege.

Oddly, I kinda like the idea of a younger Magneto, sure it completely destroys the background for his whole crusade for mutant superiority, but at the same time, I'd like to see what kind of a background they'd give him to create that dream/desire in the first place.

And yeah, Logan needs to bulk up a bit and get hairier before he can even consider the name Wolverine.[/SIZE]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]wut?

[img]http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5589/beasttotoroio3.jpg[/img]

Beast is like a badger version of Totoro.[/color]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Desbreko'][color=#4B0082]wut?

[img]http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5589/beasttotoroio3.jpg[/img]

Beast is like a badger version of Totoro.[/color][/QUOTE]

My thoughts exactly. This is terrible...

As for the actual stories, Not sure how you can make X-Men Shoujo. Sure, there's drama and stuff, but can anyone imagine an X-Men story without Wolverine ripping someone's face off? How's that gonna work anyway?

Wolverine I'm all for, so long as I don't see Totoro Beast anywhere.

[Dagger]

Glad I'm not the only one who immediately thought of Totoro...

There are plenty of shoujo that feature face-mauling. Dunno if this particular series is going to take them as a role model, though.

~Dagger~

[Magus]

[COLOR="DarkRed"][SIZE="1"]What's Shoujo? I've seen the term somewhere else, but never knew what it was.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Dagger]

Manga/anime that are aimed at girls.

It's different from how US movies break down into guy films and chick flicks, though. If a manga is called shoujo, it just means that, for whatever reason, it ran in a magazine whose primary audience is female. So there's shoujo romance and shounen romance--and of course shoujo action and shounen action. While shoujo, as you can imagine, is generally more girly, there are endless exceptions.

~Dagger~

[The Spectacular Professor]

Another small problem I have with this concept art:

[IMG]http://blog.newsarama.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_xmen-kitty_pride.jpg[/IMG]

I don't care what her name is. Drop the Neko thing now. It's stupid and it's going to bother people. She goes intangible. The only person who should sprout furry ears and a tail is Beast, and you're obviously going for the wide-eyed flying child abductor look for him.

[Zen]

[color=royalblue][size=1]
[b][u][center]Reasons I Expect This To Suck[/b][/u][/center]

1. X-Men is already story-formatted like a manga. Why do they feel a need to do this? To broaden the horizen? Manga purists need to understand that American animation and comic story telling isn't all Superman saving the day and The Simpsons. Just read the regular X-Men, its amazing. All of them. Especially Ultimates, which is pretty much what this will end up being like.

2. Wolverine is not meant to be, and never should be, a pretty boy.

3. Magneto is around 55 years old, why does he look like a teenager?

4. Beast...

5. This isn't a real X-Men title, and shouldn't be. It's just an extended "What If?" story. And why do they feel the need to change the format just to reach different viewers? Are you saying that you can't have a female oriented story in a co-ed school? Why do you have to screw with something that is pretty much perfect? This is why I'm starting to hate the state of manga and anime.[/color][/size]

[KimiNagano]

It sucks to be them... I mean what do they think they can acomplish by making a xmen manga... oh i know! ruin the xmen! Wolverine design sucks!

The only character i found WAY TOO COOL is nightcrawler! he was always my fav,
but the way they made him is so cool.

[IMG]http://blog.newsarama.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_xmen-iceman_and_nightcrawler.jpg[/IMG]

Oh well at least the right side of the image...

And what the hell did they do to beast?

[IMG]http://blog.newsarama.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/normal_xmen-beast.jpg[/IMG]

Wtf? how is he suppose to do anything with that kind of look? are they kidding? manga doesnt equal cute kittys and lovely monsters... this sucks...