Astro in official crossovers?
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CommanderEVE
- Beyond the Stars
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Alittleacorn
- On a Flight into Space
- Posts: 1808
- Joined: 14 years ago
- Location: England
The thing that made me interested in this picture is that Astro is my favorite Japanese comic hero and Superman is my favorite Western comic hero. They both have similar parrallels.
Superman is seen as the grandaddy of comic book superheroes who set the standards that others would follow despite not being the first comic book hero, Astro is seen as the one who set the standards for other manga titles to follow despite not being Japan's first superhero. When Sups had the Fleischer shorts that set the standards for animated superhero as well as serious animated productions, Astro's 60's anime was the first anime to have a more continuous formula (with 2 parters and such). Therefore in terms of importance in their own countries, they share a similar influence.
Like Superman, Astro tries to avoid killing his enemies, he usually stops robots from killing humans or destorying eachother. He is optimistic and kind hearted. Like Sups, Astro can be seen as more universal comic character due to Tezuka's anti-war sentiments.
The differences are Astro isn't an alien, but an A.I and he has no secret identity. Unfortunatly like Superman, Astro has been a target of criticism by cynical fans who saw him as too moral, boring and bland therefore prefering more darker, loudmouth or cynical manga heroes, which was trully evidented in the 70's when more cynical, deliquent like manga heroes were big sellers and Tezuka was forced by his publishers to make Astroboy less moral which ironically caused sales to drop, therefore gave Tezuka the chance to make Astro the way he was again (many chapters of that era of Astro was mostly ommited from the manga's US release).
A nice little trivia for you all, in the short manga series "Ambassador Atom" where Astro made his debut, Astro would sport a more traditional superhero look at the end of the seires wearing a cape, also the way Astro attacked the Earth troops due to according to Astro their reasons to exterminate the space people had no "logic", seemed a bit more destructive than he had in his own series, which sort of makes the early version of Astro comparable to Golden Age Superman, who's methods were more brutal in his fight against crime (he willing killed people in the Golden Age). Of course none of that made it, when he got his own manga title although he still wore red boots.
Superman is seen as the grandaddy of comic book superheroes who set the standards that others would follow despite not being the first comic book hero, Astro is seen as the one who set the standards for other manga titles to follow despite not being Japan's first superhero. When Sups had the Fleischer shorts that set the standards for animated superhero as well as serious animated productions, Astro's 60's anime was the first anime to have a more continuous formula (with 2 parters and such). Therefore in terms of importance in their own countries, they share a similar influence.
Like Superman, Astro tries to avoid killing his enemies, he usually stops robots from killing humans or destorying eachother. He is optimistic and kind hearted. Like Sups, Astro can be seen as more universal comic character due to Tezuka's anti-war sentiments.
The differences are Astro isn't an alien, but an A.I and he has no secret identity. Unfortunatly like Superman, Astro has been a target of criticism by cynical fans who saw him as too moral, boring and bland therefore prefering more darker, loudmouth or cynical manga heroes, which was trully evidented in the 70's when more cynical, deliquent like manga heroes were big sellers and Tezuka was forced by his publishers to make Astroboy less moral which ironically caused sales to drop, therefore gave Tezuka the chance to make Astro the way he was again (many chapters of that era of Astro was mostly ommited from the manga's US release).
A nice little trivia for you all, in the short manga series "Ambassador Atom" where Astro made his debut, Astro would sport a more traditional superhero look at the end of the seires wearing a cape, also the way Astro attacked the Earth troops due to according to Astro their reasons to exterminate the space people had no "logic", seemed a bit more destructive than he had in his own series, which sort of makes the early version of Astro comparable to Golden Age Superman, who's methods were more brutal in his fight against crime (he willing killed people in the Golden Age). Of course none of that made it, when he got his own manga title although he still wore red boots.
Badre El Amir Bally
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