One of Spider-Man’s most unique and fun spin-off series has finally ended. Spider-Man: Octo-Girl was a manga starring Doctor Octopus, who gets trapped in the body of a middle school girl. The manga is a homage to the Superior Spider-Man comics when Doc Ock took over the body of Spider-Man and aimed to become a better, superior superhero. Octo-Girl twists that premise to have the notorious villain stuck in a school setting, forcing him to deal with school drama and teen girls. The series was written by Hideyuki Furuhashi and illustrated by Betten Court, the same duo behind My Hero Academia: Vigilantes.
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Fans became fond of Octo-Girl for its silly premise, which offered Spider-Man fans a new perspective on the Spidey mythos. The series also continued the ongoing redemption of Doctor Octopus, who has become more heroic since the Superior Spider-Man comics. Readers discovered the series released its final chapter today. Chapter 32 serves as the manga’s finale, with Doc Ock waking up in his own body again. Fans can read the Japanese version of the manga on the Japanese Shonen Jump+ website, but the English version will become available for people at a later date. Viz Media has distributed the English version of Octo-Girl in volumes, with volume 1 out for people to buy.
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Octo-Girl: The Superior Doctor Octopus
Spider-Man: Octo-Girl finds Otto Octavius suddenly Isekei in the body of Otoha Okutamiya. While the manga began publication in 2023, the story takes plenty of inspiration from a particular era of Spider-Man comics. Specifically, Octo-Girl covers the Worldwide era of Spider-Man comics, which began when Spider-Man became a rich entrepreneur. During the latter half of Worldwide, Doctor Octopus gained a new body that was a mixture of his original body and Peter Parker’s. He then made a new suit and became the Superior Octopus.
Otto, in his Superior Octopus costume, makes several appearances in the Octo-Girl manga. Peter Parker is shown wearing his high-tech Spider-Man suit in several parts of the manga, suggesting the events of the manga take place in that specific period. However, because of Otto being in a coma and the overall dream logic of the premise, the continuity of the manga is somewhat vague. While the manga makes clear references to that particular era of comics, the series doesn’t require prior knowledge of Spidey lore to be enjoyed. It’s meant to be a standalone series for anime and manga fans.
Marvel’s Push in the Manga Market
Comic sales, even in the United States, are often overshadowed by manga. To capitalize on the large manga market, Marvel has collaborated with Japanese creators to invent their own officially licensed manga starring Marvel heroes. Besides Spider-Man: Octo-Girl, Marvel has also licensed Spider-Man: Fake Red, Deadpool: Samurai, and Marvel’s Secret Reverse. Viz Media has been translating and distributing volumes for the Marvel manga. Viz also recently republished the manga adaptation of the 90s X-Men animated series.
Marvel had previously attempted to break into the manga and anime market in the early 2000s to take advantage of the Toonami boom. The company created the Marvel Mangaverse, a stylized version of Marvel characters. The superhero team, the Runaways, was created specifically to invoke manga and anime and captivate its audiences. DC Comics has also created officially licensed manga series based on its characters. DC has licensed One Operation Joker and Superman vs. Meshi.