Back in November it was announced that Marvel Entertainment and Tsuburaya Productions are teaming up to bring brand new Ultraman adventures to comic books and graphic novels, and now we’ve got a look at the cover art and story details for the first series, titled The Rise of Ultraman, from the creative team of writers Kyle Higgins (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) and Mat Groom (Self/Made) and artist Francesco Manna (Fantastic Four).
“A few years ago, thanks to my time on Power Rangers, I was able to discover and learn more about Tokusatsu. With its wildly different conventions and inspirations, Tokusatsu — and Ultraman in particular — has been a huge source of joy for me,” said Higgins. “It’s a genre so ripe with possibilities, even down to what we conceive of in the structure of super hero storytelling. It’s both an honor and a privilege to bring Ultraman to Marvel.”
“Monsters in fiction have been embodying all that is dark and scary in our world for as long as we’ve been telling stories. But I don’t think anybody understood the immense scale of our most pressing problems quite like Eiji Tsuburaya,” shared Groom. “He imagined the darkness looming overhead as tall as skyscrapers— alien and unknowable and ANGRY. But he also imagined us being able to stand up to those monsters, by rising above our worst impulses and embracing a nobler way of being. He imagined Ultraman. What does that mean in this complex, contradictory world of lies? We’re going to find out…”
The Rise of Ultraman is set to launch later this year.
