Japanese Comics vs. American Comics

No, seriously though.  Over the past 50 or so years, mainstream comics both in Japan and the US have borrowed liberally from each other.  I don't point this out to accuse either nationality or plagiarism, but to celebrate the common themes that nerds enjoy all over the world.

Astro Boy the manga was first published 1952 (you can read about it here), almost 15 years after Superman's first appearance in Action Comics in 1938.  Both characters exhibit powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal man, whether because they are actually robots in the case of Astro Boy or actually aliens in the case of Superman, and with those powers a sense of isolation and difficulty relating to human beings.  Superman's supporting cast and moral center is made up of his surrogate parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, while Astro Boy has a second father figure in Professor Ochanimizu, where he learns his moral code.  These upbringings give both Superman and Astro Boy a sense of duty to protect the Earth even though they are not normal citizens of it.

Naruto is a more recent manga title, debuting in the magazine Shonen Jump in 1997, who can draw comparison to a more modern (compared to Superman) American character.  Spider-Man was introduced in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962 (almost 30 years after Superman) as a troubled, socially inept teenager who was bitten by a radioactive spider and thus, through no rational scientific explanation whatsoever, was granted the powers and abilities of a spider.  Despite his recent angst-ridden movies, Spider-Man has traditionally been written as goofy, smart-mouthed, eternally optimistic, and slightly incompetent at being a superhero.  Peter Parker, Spider-Man's alter ego, was raised by his aunt and uncle as his parents died when he was very young, and much of the drama in early Spider-Man storylines revolved around his complicated relationship with his aunt.  In more recent years, J. Micheal Stracynski, head writer on Amazing Spider-Man, introduced the concept that Peter Parker may actually have been chosen by mystical forces to be a spider spirit, or 'totem'.  By comparison, the character Naruto is a teenager who has a demon fox spirit living inside him, granting him fox-like powers.  Like Peter Parker, Naruto did not grow up with his real parents, and like Peter he is often characterized as mischievous and fun-loving.  In Naruto vol. 16, Naruto's enemy Gaara remarks to him, after being defeated, that 'true strength is found in fighting for one's friends, not for oneself'.  This ethos is in a similar vein of Spider-Man's motto, learned from his late Uncle Ben, that 'with great power comes great responsibility'.

Somebody could write an entire paper on Frank Miller's contributions to the American comic landscape, but his own style is directly influenced by Japanese comics both visually and thematically.  His 1983 mini-series Ronin, for example, tells the story of an 18th century samurai who has been re-incarnted in a technologically dystopian future New York City.  Miller draws heavily from the well set up by the 1970s manga Lone Wolf and Cub, which was first published in America with covers by Miller.  The manga centered around a former Shogun executor (and his 3-year-old son) who had been betrayed by his clan and his quest for vengeance.  Often, Miller's work even outside of Ronin is characterized by heavy use of cross-hatch and shadow, and is often left in black and white.

Miller's writing style has also influenced some of the more mainstream American comics characters, such as Daredevil and Wolverine.  Miller was both the writer and artist (those two duties are often split in mainstream comics) on Marvel's Daredevil book from 1979-1986.  During his tenure he introduced into the Marvel universe a ninja clan The Hand, and Elektra, a ninja assassin.  Also, in his mini-series Daredevil: Man Without Fear, Miller introduced a new origin story for Daredevil in which he was trained from a young age by a Japanese sensei named Stick (who ended up having ties to The Hand, setting up the story).  Storylines taken from these events and using these characters are still being written in Marvel books today.  Miller worked with Chris Claremont, who had written X-Men comics for 12 years, on a Wolverine mini-series which involved his travel to Japan and marrying into a Samurai clan, fully immersing himself in samurai culture only to be betrayed and have his wife murdered. 

In the 90s, artist David Mack's independent Kabuki series launched him into mainstream success.  The storyline surrounded a shadowy Yakuza association dealing in high-tech assassins, and the art is characterised by changing frequently between manga-influenced and surrealism.  Kabuki, the codename of the protagonist, is betrayed by the society and tortured, and most of the books concern her psychological well-being as opposed to non-stop violence and action (although there's a good bit of those, too).

Also during the 90s, artists Jim Lee (who is of Korean descent) and Marc Silvestri brought a different style into Marvel and DC Comics.  Both artists were wildly successful, and their work was characterised by exaggerated physical attributes, thin noses and lips (on males, lips on females were usually exaggerated among certain other traits), and a move from thicker, brushed ink work to ink from pens.  Lee and Silvestri were instrumental in forming Image Comics, a publisher that allowed artists' work to be entirely creator-owned, and it brought strong enough competition to DC and Marvel that both publishers amended their contractual stances toward creators' rights over their material.

So what have we learned here?  That the themes of revenge, honor, loyalty, and outsider point of view are themes that run deep in both American and Japanese popular culture?  That geeks all over the world like violence and big boobs?  That maybe there are ideas and feelings that we all feel sometimes, regardless of nationality?  I guess you can take from it whatever you like.

See also: Manga, Anime, Naruto