‘One Piece’ Introduces Its Very Own Batman

One Piece and Batman may not have much in common at the surface, but there is more connecting them than you realize. Not only are the two titles neck-in-neck in sales, but One Piece went so far as to introduce its own Batman this week.

However, if you think the Dark Knight is joining the Straw Hat crew, then you have another thing coming.

Recently, the new chapter of One Piece went live in Weekly Shonen Jump, and the issue introduced an interesting new villain. With Luffy and Zoro back together on Wano, the duo are on a mission to help a young girl named O-Tama, but their plans get derailed when a flying baddie known as Batman appears.

The character is a portly one with a mustache and potbelly, but Batman does have his highlights. The character is a SMILE user, and his artificial fruit gave him the powers of a bat. So, as you may have guessed, Batman has the wings of a bat, and he flies around while shooting arrows at folks a la Green Arrow.

So, is this what the offspring of the two DC Comics icons would be? Hopefully, comic readers never have to find out.

As the new chapter moves forward, fans learn that Batman works for the Wano upperclass and is hunting for thieves. Gifted with superhuman hearing, the baddie overhears O-Tsuru talking ill about a shogun and tries to kill her. However, Zoro steps in to save the older lady before Batman’s arrow can hit true. Still, his stop isn’t totally in vain — he is able to kidnap O-Tama with help from Gazelleman, and the heist prompts Luffy’s gang to infiltrate a heavily guarded area known as the Bakura District to save her.

Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece first began serialization in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. It has been collected into 87 volumes, with a few chapters yet to be included. It’s been a critical and commercial success worldwide, with many of the volumes breaking printing records in Japan. The manga has even set a Guinness World Record for the most copies published for the same comic book by a single author, and is the best-selling manga series worldwide with 430 million copies sold.

So, what do you make of this hilarious version of ‘Batman’? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!