Marvel is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Marvel Mangaverse. In a world where technology no longer works and magic reigns supreme, a looming apocalypse threatens to end the world in a sea of flames – that is, unless Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Weapon X-Tremis (Laura Kinney) and Magik (Illyana Rasputin) have something to say about it! But as each attempt to stave off Armageddon leads each further down the road of forbidden magic, these friends turned enemies must confront the question of if their choices really will save the world – or doom it entirely! Marvel Mangaverse: Web of Blood #1 is a solid start with a lot of action, solid art, and intriguing concepts.

I never read the original Marvel Mangaverse and have little knowledge of it and the history. So, I went into Marvel Mangaverse: Web of Blood #1 with a very open mind and interested in seeing this new take on Marvel characters with a manga twist. Written by Joe Kelly and Jack Kelly, Marvel Mangaverse: Web of Blood #1 is a fun start to this mini-event that has us diving into this world that involves mana and an impending threat that will destroy it. There’s some who have embraced magic and mana and others who have embraced technology to control mana, then there’s some who have teamed up with demonic creatures. It’s a concept that’s very common in manga, and works well.

The Kellys do a great job of twisting the characters we know from the Marvel 616 universe. This isn’t a simple change, characters are changed a decent amount with different designs, powers, and codenames, but at the same time keep some of the basic fundamentals. X-23 is now Weapon X-Treamis a mix of tech and magic who was experimented on. It takes some of what makes the Laura Kinney character and takes it in a familiar but new direction. We see this a lot and each character is interesting enough I want to see more of it.

The art by Kenny Ruiz is really good. With color by Noiry and lettering by Ariana Maher, the comic hos a pop design with character’s names splashed on pages in a graffiti style and looks that take some of the traditional elements for the characters and present them in new ways. Sticking with X-23, her traditional claws now feel more like Venom’s symbiote being able to be formed into different shapes and she’s presented with lots of eyes, giving her a rather ominous and evil vibe. The action too keeps with traditional manga with an explosive style to it. It’s a great look that feels like it’s inspired as much as the animated Spider-Verse movies as it is manga.

As a whole, I want to see more of this world. It’s a solid concept with some great action. Marvel Mangaverse: Web of Blood #1, we get a condensed introduction to the characters and world. It’s more than enough to expand it beyond the few issues being released in this anniversary and more than worth to explore further possibly fusing it with the Marvel Collection format or traditional manga format. It’s well worth checking out and exploring some different ideas for Marvel’s world and characters.

Story: Joe Kelly, Jack Kelly Art: Kenny Ruiz
Color: Noiry Letterer: Ariana Maher
Story: 8.25 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.4 Recommendation: Buy

Marvel provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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