DC Comics Reveals Special Shazam! Collaboration With Lupin the Third Creator

Warner Bros. Japan is currently celebrating the digital release of Aquaman in the territory, and will be kicking off a larger collaboration with DC Comics beginning in June. The bittersweet part of this collaboration, however, is that fans will be seeing new illustrations of DC Comics favorites such as Batman, Supergirl, and Aquaman produced by late Lupin the Third creator Monkey Punch.

Warner Bros. Japan announced a new DC Hero collaboration campaign with the late creator, but not much has been revealed as to what this new collaboration will entail. But more information will be coming alongside new illustrations beginning next month.

According to Warner Bros. Japan, Monkey Punch was heavily influenced by DC Comics, and fans are well aware of his love for Western comics and cartoons, so he jumped at the opportunity to produce illustrations. This collaboration comes at an unfortunate time for fans of Lupin the Third, however, as original creator of the series Monkey Punch has passed away recently. Which means that Monkey Punch will unfortunately not be around to see the collaboration launch in full.

For those unfamiliar with Lupin the Third, the series was originally created by Monkey Punch. The story follows the adventures of Arsene Lupin, a master thief from Maurice Leblanc’s series of novels. First appearing in Weekly Manga Action in 1967, the series has since spawned multiple manga series, six anime series, six OVAs, two live-action film, 25 TV specials, two musicals, music and drama CDs. The copyright for the series was previously wrapped in a suit with Maurice Leblanc, but has since expired meaning the series no longer has to go by other names in territories outside of Japan and the United States.

Shazam! released in theaters on April 5, and in Japan on April 19. It is described as such, “We all have a superhero inside of us — it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In 14-year-old Billy Batson’s case, all he needs to do is shout out one word to transform into the adult superhero Shazam. Still a kid at heart, Shazam revels in the new version of himself by doing what any other teen would do — have fun while testing out his newfound powers. But he’ll need to master them quickly before the evil Dr. Thaddeus Sivana can get his hands on Shazam’s magical abilities.”

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