EASTERN X - TORRES ON X-MEN: RONIN

[MattBrady]

by Alex Segura Jr.

J. Torres’ plan for world domination continues via the comics industry this spring. Along with his ode to the sixties girl groups in Oni’s Days Like These, and a fill-in Black Panther arc, Torres is off to the Marvel Mangaverse with the five-issue X-Men: Ronin.

The miniseries reunites Torres with C.B. Cebulski, who edited some of Torres' work at Fanboy Entertainment. "C.B. Cebulski, editor of the miniseries, was also the publisher/editor of Sidekicks at Fanboy Entertainment before he moved over to Marvel," Torres said. "And that series went over to Oni Press. Not long after Marvel recruited C.B. he recruited me. And I believe he's to inherit my anime DVDs upon my death or take my first born son, which ever comes first, as repayment for giving me this assignment."

Aside from his previous working relationship with Cebulski, it also helped that Torres is a major manga aficionado and evangelist - both Cebulski and Torres share a desire to spread the manga gospel to as many fans as possible. "Sure, but isn't it obvious that C.B.'s affection for me played a bigger part?" Torres said. "But seriously, we're both manga and anime fans and that plays a part in our relationship as writer and editor, as well as two geeks with the same interests. We've also been trying to convert other comic geeks into manga otaku for as long as we've known each other, and here we are in a position to reach a potentially bigger audience than we've had in the past. It's funny because at one point, we would do all these anime conventions to try and sell fans of Japanese comics on 'Americanized' manga type material – i.e. Sidekicks – and now we're hoping to get Western comic fans to pick up a Japanese "retooling" of an American concept."

Working with the Mangaverse versions of popular Marvel characters gives creators a chance to work with a little less continuity restriction, Torres says. "It’s a cleaner slate for the Mangaverse stuff," Torres said. "Although I inherited a cast, had characterizations to keep intact and a little bit of continuity to adhere to, I also had more freedom to play with the setting, characters, plot. With Black Panther, editor Mike Marts wanted something in keeping with what Christopher Priest did so well in the series: the plot had to involve some kind of political intrigue, he wanted me to use a certain story format and I was asked not to involve any other Marvel heroes in the story. Both assignments had their parameters, that's for sure, their own sets of challenges for me as a writer, as well as rewards of course. But the tone of the stories, the look of the art, even the process I went through with each editor was almost like night and day interestingly enough."

Writing in the Mangaverse is more than having continuity-free characters though, Torres said. There's a definite manga writing style, which he's tried to inject into the story. "A faster paced, more visually cinematic story, if you will - kind of ‘lean, mean and efficient’ storytelling," Torres said. "I'm not sure I accomplished this, but I tried working within certain constraints from Marvel in terms content and continuity. A lot of thought also went into who I was working with, meaning artist Makoto Nakatsuka, his background, what to exploit from his experience drawing for the Japanese market, being Japanese and what he could bring to the series in terms of manga 'touches' as well as other cultural elements.

"For example, with other artists I might have had to explain what a go-yo lantern was or provide reference for various things, but with Makoto I was able to just write, 'make it look like Electric Town' and he knew that I meant the Akihabara district in Tokyo. We actually had fun with stuff like that, and I hope readers pick up on it and have fun with it, too."

But it is the continuity-free elements that make writing the title somewhat appealing, Torres says. The chance to work on characters he grew up reading without having to read stacks of back issues made accepting the assignment much easier. "There's definitely that element to it," Torres said. "I mean, I get to write these characters I grew up reading, but not have to worry about too much continuity and what other creators have planned for them and how what I'm doing affects all that, an experience I've had writing other X-Men related material. It's a lot more fun and free, plus the added 'smooshing' of manga elements adds to my personal amusement because it's like being able to pick and choose from two worlds."

Although Ronin was a direct continuation of the mutant manga adventures first chronicled on the Marvel Mangaverse mini and X-Men: Equinox, Torres tried to insert more Japanese and cultural elements to give the series a distinct feel. "I tried to take things in a different direction with more of a fantasy treatment but Marvel wanted us to explore the established characters and settings,” Torres said. “So, I stuck with certain relationships, plot threads and ideas from the previous works, but tried to put in some new things, especially in terms of more Japanese elements in the setting, the 'culture' of this world, the 'props' characters use, etc. I also tried to give the story the kind of soapy, melodramatic fun the x-books are known for, but of course it's got a lot of action in it and some humorous moments as well. Again, the stuff fans expect from an x-book."

Readers can expect to see a number of familiar X-faces on the series, Torres says. But not all of them might be on the side readers' expect. "Let's see, Wolverine forms a loose clan with Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey," Torres said. "They’re opposed by two forces, a kind of police/military faction that employs mutants, and a new Hellfire Club comprised of mutant telepaths and psychics. In these two opposing teams readers can expect to see Iceman, Avalanche, Pyro, Sage and Emma Frost among others. They can also expect to see people switching teams, good guys playing bad guys and vice versa, and numerous cameos and guest appearances."

Working with artist Makoto Nakatsuka gives the book a much greater manga feel, Torres says, because of Nakatsuka's experience in the genre. "His design work is amazing," Torres said. "His layouts are dynamic. And his storytelling is solid. I think what fans don't realize is that he's no greenhorn. He's quite established and very popular in Japan. We're lucky to be working with someone of his caliber and stature, really."

Aside from a lot of body bags, Torres says, readers can expect plenty of battles and a touch of humor. "Wolverine will kill someone," Torres said. "Jean Grey will kill even more people. But Storm will fall in love. One member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants gets a sex change. Another does his best Yoda impression. A member of Alpha Flight takes an odd job. And Makoto shows us his twisted Japanese rendition of the Sentinels. So, expect action, romance, comedy, some fun twists, some cool cameos and more action."

X-Men: Ronin ships two issues in March, two in April, and concludes in May with #5.

[saiyanspider]

HEY C.B, What about toriyama? You said you were trying to get him, what's going on with that!

[Cloak & Dagger]

Looking forward to this one. The art looks great. I'm not really bothered by the idea of Marvel doing "manga" books. In fact, I welcome the format of storytelling and look for whatever seems good.

Good luck to J. Torres, Mokoto Nakatsuka, C. B. Cebulski and co.

[jasinmartin]

Wow, really looking forward to this...

It doesn't hurt having 2/3rds of the Sidekicks (good book plug, check it out!) team driving it either, and Nakatsuka's stuff looks just great.

And I love that we'll get 5 issues in 3 months. Hopefully this one's in the can just waiting for the Spider-Clan to wrap up and we won't see any delays in that schedule. I think the pace of the story could benefit from it.

Any rate, looks great, can't wait!!

[The Infamous Boss Reo]

Hey, with any luck this could lead to an increase in X-Men yaoi doujinshi...

[beta-ray]

You, boss reo, are a VERY scary person.

hehehe... Just kidding. Looks good. Also look forward to seeing what other Japanese talent might be interested in working on USA comics... I can just imagine (of course I am sure they have better things to do)... Hiroaki Samura or Kazuo Koike on Wolverine or maybe Moon Knight... Masamune Shiro on Iron Man... Otomo doing ANYTHING...

[danzo]

ok, i don't get it. this looks like a fun read to me, but just what makes it manga? looks like a regular comic to me....just with a japanese slant to the cartooning. anyone care to fill me in? i'm just lost with all the talk about manga the last few years and all i see are standard comics- maybe with page counts as they should be instead of the typical puny comics, but they're comics! why are people calling it manga? even what the Japanese publishers release here tends to be the western market version, not like the few "native" manga i've seen which sport a completely different format....
someone please! a primer! just what the heck is this manga thing? what are these other terms you folks are tossing around? and why the heck is all this stuff that is basically a typical comic but drawn in the "japaname" style being called manga? this isn't just the latest attempt to create some hype, is it?

[The Infamous Boss Reo]

quote:

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Originally posted by danzo:
ok, i don't get it. this looks like a fun read to me, but just what makes it manga? looks like a regular comic to me....just with a japanese slant to the cartooning. anyone care to fill me in? i'm just lost with all the talk about manga the last few years and all i see are standard comics- maybe with page counts as they should be instead of the typical puny comics, but they're comics! why are people calling it manga? even what the Japanese publishers release here tends to be the western market version, not like the few "native" manga i've seen which sport a completely different format....
someone please! a primer! just what the heck is this manga thing? what are these other terms you folks are tossing around? and why the heck is all this stuff that is basically a typical comic but drawn in the "japaname" style being called manga? this isn't just the latest attempt to create some hype, is it?

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okay, lessee how i can explain this quite simply.

"manga" is the japanese pronounciation for "comic book" in Japan. however, it is also seen as the style of art that originates from said country.

Japanese comic book artists are called manga artists, thus every gaijin dog in America who can draw speedlines and huge eyes have been labeled as "manga artists", even though "manga" is strictly a Japanese term, which bugs the hell out of me. (Fred Perry and Ben Dunn can kiss my ass.)

due to the massive growing popularity of "manga" style, as it were, Marvel has seen the opportunity to cash in on this, and in result has killed the credibility for manga by flooding the market with horrible anime stereotypes and un-manga artists who, as said before, can draw speedlines and huge eyes, and spikey hair.

The Great Joe Madureira was the first to incorporate the manga element into his extraordinary artwork as his techniques perfected through the years, due to his love for anime which was his style's main inspiration. Joe Madureira, however, is NOT, and i repeat, NOT a manga artist nor does he consider himself one, so everyone who brings him up when slamming american manga art please shut up.

...where was I? Oh yes.

well, Marvel has decided to call most of their new material "manga" in an effort to boost sales. Recently, they have even gone as far as to hiring actual legendary manga artists to reinforce the authentication of their work.

lamens term:

X-Men: Ronin is called a manga to both sell it, and because the artist, Makoto Nakatsuka, is an actual manga artist.

I hope this helped.

[morbidmarwik]

i don't know about all this mangaverse stuff. there are a lot of very decent manga comics around that marvel should distribute and leave their american based superheroes drawn as they are. i'm not some wacko racist or anything but other than to sell more books by trying to please 2 audiences, what's the point? it's like getting wwf wrestlers to do voices for hentai animations or something. it's just plain dumb.

[Dirty Vader]

quote:

---

Originally posted by morbidmarwik:
i don't know about all this mangaverse stuff. there are a lot of very decent manga comics around that marvel should distribute and leave their american based superheroes drawn as they are. i'm not some wacko racist or anything but other than to sell more books by trying to please 2 audiences, what's the point? it's like getting wwf wrestlers to do voices for hentai animations or something. it's just plain dumb.

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On the other hand, it's good to experiment new styles on well established characters.
Remember the Möebius's Silver Surfer ? It was one of the best Surfer's comics ever ! He was portraied as a elegant and graceful being, which fits properly to his pacifist soul.
Have you ever seen the Marvel heroes in Capcom's games ? The japanese inspired drawings are elegant and strong at the same time.
Anyway, I agree with Reo about the bad use of the word Manga. Marvel should another term to describe those comics.
Best regards,

Dirty Vader

[The Infamous Boss Reo]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dirty Vader:
Have you ever seen the Marvel heroes in Capcom's games ?

Yes, and I must say that Capcom certainly does a very sexy Blackheart

The japanese inspired drawings are elegant and strong at the same time.

verily.

Anyway, I agree with Reo about the bad use of the word Manga. Marvel should another term to describe those comics.
Best regards,

Dirty Vader

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Perhaps the best term they could use would be "comics"?