Batman and the rest of the Justice League have appeared in comic books, recently in live action with feature films, as well as in a multitude of straight to video animated features. One medium that folks may not be as familiar with is the “Batman And The Justice League” manga series. Running since 2017 with the material collected from the magazine Champion Red, the series’ fourth compilation volume will be released in July of this year and will, unfortunately, be its last as stated by the creator.
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The manga inspired style of these stories take the familiar DC Comics characters and presents them not only with an artistic flair mimicking their Western counterparts, but similarly presented storytelling. Batman and The Justice League specifically focused on a young boy from Japan attempting to discover the secret behind his parents’ death in Gotham City. Unraveling the mystery leads him to encountering Lex Luthor and the Joker, who are partnered together to attempt to tap into a mystical energy source.
Obviously, with the “Clown Prince of Crime” and Luthor in cahoots, this leads to Batman and the Justice League themselves getting involved. Aside from simply portraying all of these DC figures in a manga style, the story also had depicted past major DC events, such as Batman remembering the “Death of Jason Todd”.
The manga itself was created by popular artist Shiori Teshirogi, responsible for the Saint Seiya: Lost Canvas series. Seiya was adapted into an anime of twenty six episodes that can currently be found on Crunchyroll. Shiori had also created a single chapter manga story about Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, in the one chapter released “Justice League Origin: Wonder Woman“.
This series certainly isn’t the first time that we’ve seen these characters interpreted through a Western lens. Batman Ninja, an animated feature released last year, focused on Batman travelling to feudal Japan along with his allies and enemies. Aside from simply placing these characters into that scenario, the movie also displayed a beautiful segment where the characters were portrayed with a water color artist bend. A series of animated shorts were also created titled “Batman of Shanghai” that saw a completely new take on the Dark Knight as well.
While Batman and the Justice League manga may be ending, you can still pick up the previous volumes for the full story and check out the aforementioned Batman animated movies and shorts if you’re looking for that specific Western style.
The description for Batman And The Justice League reads as follows:
A young boy from Japan travels to Gotham City on a mission. A year before, his two parents–both scientists–were presumably killed in an explosion that destroyed an experimental power plant. But the boy believes they may still be alive. At the very least, he’s determined to find out what actually happened. But his quest soon leads to a run-in with some powerful forces–forces that require help from both Batman and the Justice League!
Mangaka Shiori Teshirogi (Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas) creates an exciting new story, combining an authentic Japanese comics approach with the World’s Greatest Superheroes. Translated into English and collected for the Western audience for the first time, collected in standard manga size trim, Batman & The Justice League Vol. 1 is phenomenal entry point for fans of the Justice League and manga alike!”
