The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

Versus

What's It About? 

Centuries ago, humanity's natural enemy, Demons, invaded the world and defeated humanity. The Great Demon Lord and his generals have since dominated the world, while the human race lives on in fear. In desperation, a group of 47 people gathered from around the world undertake a last-ditch effort to save humanity from ultimate annihilation. These heroes swear to defeat the demon army and win back humanity's freedom, but they have no idea the desperate measures that this battle will drive them to embrace...

Versus has a story by ONE and bose with art by Kyōtarō Azuma. English translation by Jacqueline Fung. This volume was lettered by Giuseppe Antonio Fusco (digital edition) and Michael Martin (print edition). Published by Kodansha Comics (October 15, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

I've used this gag so many times before, I can't believe I have to do it in earnest for once. There's a fantasy world based on Dragon Quest, and heroes from all over are trying to fight the demon lord... but they can't quite manage it. Here's the twist: these dudes in power armor show up... but wait! They can't do it either! And neither can the weird religious folks, or the people running from kaiju, or the futuristic people dealing with aliens, or anyone else! Meanwhile, the Dragon Quest monsters now have to fight against parasites, kaiju, evolving AI, neo-humans...

ONE has shown his writing chops before, and by GOD, the madman has done it again with Versus. In countless stories across fiction, humanity finds itself facing threats that could potentially end life as we know it: disease, resource scarcity, divinity, and the environment. The very thing that makes these stories compelling is that there is no easy answer to these problems. And the same minds that make a possible solution for one problem—which, in context, is usually a running off of a wing and a prayer—wouldn't necessarily be able to solve another problem. How could James Bond defeat a Xenomorph? How is Detective Columbo, a homicide detective, supposed to outsmart The Andromeda Strain?

… But what happens if a Xenomorph is locked in a room with The Andromeda Strain and it suddenly starts breaking down by the alien pathogen?

Versus's high concept is Ken Watanabe's quietly urgent utterance writ large: “Let them fight.” Truly, Versus' cast is the most colorful bunch of misfits you could ever see, the mash-up of characters that would—and are!--heroes of their own stories. The antagonists are pastiches of countless antagonists we've enjoyed in media before. Versus almost feels like a celebration of fiction in its grab-bag cast, teasing at match-ups, and encounters we could have only dreamed of as children (though I'm not convinced by those Third Reich-looking guys from Parasitica). Best of all, Kyōtarō Azuma's art perfectly captures the tone and essence of each story/world and its characters/threats—while also ensuring you can see those hints of ONE's particular art style.

Hear me out: the hero from that RPG-influenced fantasy land bumps up against some folks from a Mad Max-inspired wasteland... and I'm desperate for more. Strongly recommended.

The latest manga from One-Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100 author ONE, I was excited to read the fun-sounding Versus. ONE's main motivation for writing this manga seems to be the uninhibited glee arising from jamming all those “who would win?” childhood arguments into a blender and seeing what results. Dinosaurs Versus aliens? Sure. Why not? Kaiju Versus wizards? Sounds great! In ONE's mind, humanity has many “natural enemies” against whom it has no chance of winning. In Versus, multiple alternate universe versions of Earth are suddenly thrown together, and all have one thing in common: mankind is on the verge of extinction due to sustained attacks from various “natural enemies”.

We open with a fantasy world of people besieged by seemingly unkillable magic-wielding demons. Almost every single one of humanity's 100 chosen heroes is effortlessly defeated by these monstrosities. In desperation, the people open a portal to an alternate, more technologically advanced Earth, hoping to gain reinforcements. Unfortunately that SF-tinged Earth is struggling with its war against a rampaging Terminator-like AI army. What if they could get the robots and demons to fight one another…?

Versus is ridiculously fun, with each subsequent chapter unleashing more insanity as it introduces yet more alternate worlds and existential threats. It's essentially the “more is more” school of storytelling, but that never did One-Punch Man or Mob any harm. With excellent artwork depicting some cool demon designs, technological monstrosities, and all sorts of other random genre staples, Versus is never boring to look at. I'll keep reading to see what craziness ONE cooks up next.

From the creator of One-Punch Man and Mob Psycho comes VERSUS, a story that arguably takes a very long time to fully establish exactly what it will be about. I love how ONE can create these seemingly cliché setups and then just go off the rails with them in the most chaotic direction possible. In a lot of ways, ONE's stories are always about the world and how major characters bounce off of each other while our main character is arguably the most unassuming element about it and this story is no different. However, instead of a superhero show or a supernatural sci-fi, we get a fantasy story that seeks to blend numerous different genres, almost as if ONE is creating a big love letter to every type of non-normal story that they have ever read.

I was actually impressed that I was drawn into the story during its more generic opening chapters. Here we have a world of heroes trying to take down the Demon King's armies but very soon the scales escalate to a multiverse level. I was actually a little bit worried that the introduction of enemies from other worlds was going to create some kind of horrifying power vacuum, but the horrific scale is arguably the point. This is not a story about how the heroes band together to take down a common enemy, this is a story about reluctant assholes' stubbornly learning that they need to trick their enemies to take out each other. There are so many different avenues that you can go with this story. Yes, while I feel like the setup does take a while before it finally gets to the point, I feel like it's worth it. The artwork is gorgeous, the reaction faces are typical of what you would expect from the creator, and there is a lot of promise for the future. Definitely a great action series that I think we should all keep our eyes on.