The late great Stan Lee is most known for his creating and shaping the Marvel Universe, as well as his cameos in various superhero films. However, his work also extended to manga. Titled Ultimo and drawn by Shaman King creator Hiroyuki Takei, the manga series combined the over-the-top action of a typical shonen manga with elements that Lee used in his many Marvel books.
Here's a look at the rather bizarre series, and how it brought several Marvel Comics concepts to the world of Shonen Jump.
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The Ultimate Robot
Karakuri Doji Ultimo (Mechanical Boy Ultimo), simply called Ultimo in the West, tells the story of the titular robotic child, who was created in feudal Japan. While he was created to embody a perfectly righteous soul, his counterpart, Vice, represented pure evil. Vice was left by their creator, the evil Dunstan, as a final revenge against humanity. The automatons are lost to the ages until Ultimo suddenly reawakens in the present day, having been discovered by high school student Yamato. Ultimo quickly discovers that Vice has returned, along with several other doji robots who Ultimo must face. Soon learning that he has ties to Ultimo in the past, Yamato pledges to help the robotic boy on his journey.
Ultimo and Yamato face other people with partner doji of their own, making the series somewhat comparable to franchises such as Pokemon or Zatch Bell. The series delves further into themes of time travel and reincarnation, with Dunstan being revealed as having originally come from the 31st century and several of the main characters randomly revealed to have past lives with each other. The high octane battles also morph the manga into a sort of mecha series, with Ultimo and other doji achieving immensely powerful new forms that heavily resemble mechs such as Gundam and GaoGaiGar. The benevolent and malicious doji eventually initiate a mutual convergence against Dunstan, with their quest for either balance or domination over each other bringing to question what truly constitutes as good and evil. The series lasted for 12 volumes, which were published in Shonen Square in Japan, and Shonen Jump/Shonen Jump Advanced in North America.
Out-Stan-Ding
Despite fitting in well with other contemporary shonen manga, the series also draws upon its Western comic book heritage. The presence of Stan Lee is felt throughout the series from the beginning, in a very literal sense. The villainous Dunstan is just a long-haired, far more robust version of Lee, even having a similar name. Yamato's status as a down-on-his-luck teenager make him very similar to classically tragic, down to Earth Marvel characters, namely Peter Parker. The idea of Ultimo and Vice representing pure good and evil also resembles many of the philosophically cosmic concepts created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, such as Galactus and the Silver Surfer.
The name Ultimo is even shared with a Marvel villain that Stan Lee created to face off against Iron Man, who is also a robot with a nefarious creator. This was likely intentional, as the part of the series' concept that most intrigued Lee was the chance to write a series about two robots of the same power level.
Though the series didn't make an immense splash when it was first released, those looking to combine their interest in Western and Japanese comics should definitely check it out.
