Skull Man

Skull Man (スカルマン), created by Shotaro Ishinomori first appeared in Shonen Magazine in 1970 and immediately caused a sensation, selling over 1.5 million copies. The hero, orphaned when his parents were murdered, grows up to use his peculiar powers to take his revenge. The original Skull Man was one of manga's first anti-heroes, someone who would sacrifice the lives of innocents in his quest for vengeance. This darkness is what made the Skull Man so magnetic and successful.

While the TV series Kamen Rider (Masked Rider) was still in development, Ishinomori, who created that series with producer Toru Hirayama, made this manga as his own personal version, which the producers at Toei Company Ltd. used as the basis for the show. With some changes of course, as this 100-page one-shot story was too dark and gruesome (even cerebral) for a children's show.

In the late 90s, before Ishinomori's death, the ill cartoonist contacted young mangaka Kazuhiko Shimamoto to do a remake (ambiguously a continuation) of his original one-shot manga. This remake boasted an extensive, continuing storyline and more complex artwork (along with a tribute to Ishinomori in the final issue, with all of his famous characters gathered together). This was the manga that was presented in the US by TOKYOPOP. The original 1970 version has yet to be featured here.

Story

1970 Version

There are mass murders and catastrophes all over Japan, committed by a masked/caped psychic madman called the Skull Man, and his shape-shifting aide Garo (named after the manga ninja Garo created by Sanpei Shirato), who can turn into various powerful mutant monsters. The calamities caused by the Skull Man are investigated by the Tachiki Detective Agency, with the help of a young man named Tatsuo Kagura, the son of a yakuza in the Kagura Clan.

Eventually, later in the story, Police Chief Tachiki, who heads the Tachiki Detective Agency, is shocked and stunned to suspect Tatsuo to be the Skull Man, who, in turn, suspects the detective to be part of a public conspiracy that has been after him for 15 years. It turns out that he was adopted by the Kagura Clan, and his real parents were murdered! And for those 15 years, Tatsuo was hunting for the mastermind, who manipulates all industry, finance, and even politics. Tatsuo, the Skull Man, threateningly demands Tachiki to tell him the name of the mastermind, but just as he mutters the culprit's first name ("Chisato"), he suddenly expires. Skull Man realizes who it is, and he and Garo race off to finally meet him . . .

The destructive duo race to the estate of a reclusive old man named Chisato Kogetsu, who lives with a girl named Maya, who is mute and blind (she has perpetually closed eyes). With psychotic rage, Skull Man threatens to kill Chisato, who not only kindly welcomes him, but has been looking forward to his arrival. But Maya telepathically persuades him not to kill Chisato, and she reveals a shocking secret: Chisato is Skull Man's grandfather, and Maya his younger sister!

Chisato tells his shocked grandson the whole story: His own son, Tatsuo's father, was a scientific genuis beyond geniuses; In fact, he was so superintelligent and unearthly that he was a mutant, a being of Newmanity (Shinjinrui - Similar to that in Ishinomori's later creation, Inazuman). His wife, whom he married and had Tatsuo with, was a mutant also. The couple conducted bizarre experiments that could be capable of destroying humanity as we know it. Chisato feared this greatly, so when Maya was born, he killed his own son and daughter-in-law, and also sought to kill his grandson Tatsuo, who was rescued and raised by Garo. He couldn't bring himself to kill Maya, however, and raised her to be his faithful servant. Maya then told Skull Man that Chisato wanted to bring him back before he could do anything.

Chisato then traps himself with Skull-Man, Garo and Maya in glass walls, proceeding to set himself and all the others ablaze, sadly stating that "We were born in the wrong era!" Along with his entire "family", Tatsuo, the Skull Man, dies a tragic, horrible death in the inferno, thus ending the original story.

1990s Version

Skull Man revolves around Tatsuo Kagura, who early in his life was subjected to several mutating science experiments that ended up giving him amazing powers and skills. Longing revenge for the murder of his parents he becomes Skull Man, a shadowy crusader who battles The Syndicate and its evil leader Rasputin.

The story begins abruptly with a woman who possesses immense psychic powers killing a man, only to then be attacked herself by a man who can become a bat, a wolf, or an alligator named Goro. Goro is revealed to be Skull Man’s childhood protector and present ally in the coming war against Rasputin and his hordes of evil mutants.

Skull Man makes allies, loses comrades, and dies in combat with a lethal mutant just in the first book. What follows is a trip into the world of shadows and the evil within all of us. Throughout his journey Skull Man will face spiders, wasps, scorpions, plants, cobras, vultures, grasshoppers (all based on monsters also featured in the first Kamen Rider series), and finally Rasputin himself.

Skull Man is an extremely well written and drawn manga. The art is crisp and well made, by the end it feels as though the reader is watching a movie. Any KR fan will appreciate the subtle hints thrown into the book that make it look like a Kamen Rider series.ja:スカルマン