East meets West

I know it's not Barefoot Gen, but there was a particular manga I wanted to bring to the attention of whoever read this blog. It's a manga that was only introduced this year, Karakuri doji Ultimo, or Robot child: Ultimo. The plot is essentially not that different from Astro Boy, but they give him an evil twin to make it interesting. The red-headed boy (yes it's a boy) is the main character, Ultimo, while the character on the right is the antagonist, Vice. A note on why Ultimo's appearance is so effeminate; just as during the time Shakespeare's plays first came out and it was forbidden for women to be in theater and thus men played women's parts, this was also the case with older Japanese theater. Such manga or anime characters are said to be bishonen.So what makes this manga worth mentioning? It's actually a collaboration between manga artist Hiroyuki Takei, and comic book legend Stan Lee; in fact, Ultimo and Vice are the names of two characters found within Iron Man's continuity.