Tag Archives: Manga

Weather Wizard, Meet…Go-Go the Magician!

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Flash (and Rogues’ Gallery) fan liabrown found something Flashy in Bat-Manga!: a villain who bears a very strong resemblance to Central City’s own Weather Wizard.

Go-Go the Magician

As she puts it:

The Japanese artist said he was given some Batman comics and told to replicate the feel of them in manga style, but he pretty much copied Detective Comics #353 for the Go-Go story…with one major difference (mentioned below). He also used Clayface in a story, and some villains who appear to be fairly original (although one is somewhat reminiscent of Gorilla Grodd), including the awesome Lord Death Man.

Go-Go the Magician in a tornadoweatherwizard

Detective Comics #353It’s not clear why the artist replaced the Weather Wizard with a new villain, though the comment thread speculates that rights may have had something to do with it — or what “Go-Go” has to do with weather control. (Of course, this was the era of go-go checks on DC’s covers.)

Speaking of Detective Comics #353, it’s got a great classic cover showing the Weather Wizard physically stepping out of a Flash comic book and into an issue of Detective Comics.

More scans — of both the original and the manga versions — are available at the flash_rogues post.

Running Through Time

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Looking at this weeks new releases, I noticed the CMX manga title, The Girl Who Runs Through Time by Gaku Tsugano. From the description, it sounds like the character’s origin may have been inspired by the Flash:

Kazuko is a high school senior who has no idea what she wants to do in the future. Alone one day after school, she discovers a broken beaker in the science lab. She smells something sweet in the air, passes out, and finds herself transported back to her own past! Will Kazuko use her ability to travel through time wisely or selfishly?

Fumes from a broken beaker in a school science lab? Sounds like Jay Garrick’s origin to me! Time travel by running? Positively Flashy! (Though it looks like the “running” is actually metaphorical.)

The manga appears to be based on a 1976 1965 Japanese novel, The Girl Who Could Run Through Time by Yasutaka Tsutsui. According to Wikipedia, it’s been adapted to many media including at least two live-action films, an anime, and two TV series. To make matters more confusing, there’s a manga adaptation of the anime (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) in addition to this manga adaptation of the book.

The Girl Who Runs Through Time is a 2-parter, with Volume 1 out this week and Volume 2 coming in November.