At this point, were used to thinking of Marvel as a global phenomenon.
But the world used to be a smaller place, and culture was more diffuse.
Never heard of it?
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Back in the 70s, Marvel struck a licensing deal with Japanese company Toei to bring Spider-Man to Japan.
This is why youve probably never heard of it.
The secrecy ofJapanese Spider-Man, keeping it contained only in Japan, was by design, Gelb tells EW.
So it can’t just be the one figure of Spider-Man.
They’re not mutually exclusive.
Because of that, I think it’s a perfect time to revealJapanese Spider-Manto the world.
So they were quite interested that we were doing this, Gelb says.
We managed to get a whole bunch of people who had worked on it.
It’s so fun to watch.
Gelb continues, I think that everybody had a great experience working on it.
So our episode is also about filmmaking.
It’s about a team working together and trying to make something great and new.
It was really a labor of love for everybody that worked on it.
Some of my favorite moments involves the family stuff, which actually is really funny, Gelb says.
Were used to Peter Parker living alone with his Aunt May.
In this case, he lives with his younger brother and older sister.
So he has a whole home family life that is really cute and funny.
But some of the stuff that you just can’t miss are the big differences.
In certain cases, Spider-Man will just pick up a machine gun.
Or Spider-Man is fighting a Fox God.
Its just so interesting and dissonant to see this stuff in a different way.
Maybe one day we Americans will be able to viewJapanese Spider-Manin full.
