Marvel's Secret Reverse

by Kazuki Takahashi

Spider-Man and Iron Man travel to Japan to battle an evil gaming magnate and his deadly new technology in this addition to the Marvel Universe from Yu-Gi-Oh! creator Kazuki Takahashi!

In Yu-Gi-Oh! creator Kazuki Takahashi’s epic team-up between Iron Man and Spider-Man, Tony Stark travels to Japan to attend a gaming convention. Awaiting his arrival is Reijiro Kaioh, the CEO of a world-famous card game company. Kaioh plans to unveil an amazing new gaming machine, but the inventor and his device are not at all what they appear to be…

In Yu-Gi-Oh! creator Kazuki Takahashi’s epic team-up between Iron Man and Spider-Man, Tony Stark travels to Japan to attend a gaming convention. Awaiting his arrival is Reijiro Kaioh, the CEO of a world-famous card game company. Kaioh plans to unveil an amazing new gaming machine, but the inventor and his device are not at all what they appear to be…

Genres: Manga, Marvel, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Superheroes

112 pages, Paperback

Published June 14, 2022

About the author

Takahashi (高橋和希) started as a mangaka in 1982. His first work was Tokiō no Tsuma (闘輝王の鷹), published in 1990. One of his earliest works was Tennenshokudanji Buray (天然色男児BURAY), which lasted for two volumes and was published from 1991 to 1992. Takahashi did not find success until 1996 when he created Yu-Gi-Oh!

Reviews

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good fast paced all action quick read of a comic. This is (in his words) a dream project for Kazuki Takahashi. For me he has accomplished what he set out to do. Bring out an American style Jump comic. It reads from left to right and does both Ironman and Spider-man justice.

Tony Stark arrives in Japan to meet the CEO of Kaioh corporation, Reijior Kaioh. Who is unveiling his latest game technology. He and Spider-man learn there is more at stake then any simple game.

Great artwork, lots of action. An all round enjoyable book for me. I am glad that both Spider-man and Ironman have their chances to shine in this book. This book is just fun.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another crummy stab at a Western Marvel comic from Viz. The art is terrible. So is the barebones story. An all-around failure.

[PastelQueen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listen. Yu-Gi-Oh! is the first fandom I ever been in and it was my gateway to writing, reading, drawing, the internet and geekdom all around. Marvel had that same impact when the movies came out and I have been a die hard fan since Avengers Assemble. So when I randomly found out that the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kazuki Takahaski, had made a marvel comic with Spider-Man and IRON MAN (my favorite MCU character)...I had to buy it and read it.

This is what I exactly thought it was going to be. Takahashi's love of card games and his willingness to incorporate that aspect in his works is expected. So seeing Tony and Peter in this AU world was so fucking entertaining. Seriously, it's so ridiculous how a rival of Tony Stark's is a weirdo game creator with stupid hair. And how Peter Parker is just randomly in Japan at the same time as if he has that kind of time and money. The villain even looks like a Yu-Gi-Oh! throwaway villain and I loved it. The plot is honestly not the best and there's a lot of explanation and not as much action or doing. It's obviously a love letter/fan work from Takahashi to Marvel. He even states this was his dream project!

So to someone who is not familiar with his work or him as a creator...it just seems like a weird mess. Which is valid as hell. But to me...I KNEW this was going to be entertaining as fuck because of how this is a weird mash up world of two of my favorite fandoms.

3/5 stars with MUCH LOVE! RIP Kazuki Takahashi. Thank you for doing what you loved the most as it still inspires me creatively in so many ways and I will never forget that.

[Luthfi Ferizqi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kazuki Takahashi's love for trading card games will always endure. His work brilliantly combines elements from Yu-Gi-Oh with influences from the Marvel Universe, including Iron Man and Spider-Man, creating a unique and captivating narrative.

RIP Kazuki Takahashi. Thank you for enriching my childhood with the magic of your trading card game.

[Hew La France · Rating 4 out of 5]

I REALLY enjoyed this book. However... I cant help but feel Takahashi included a card game as a main feature because he's "The Yu-Gi-Oh Guy". Would have loved to see what he'd do if he wasnt bowing to expectations. Alas, we shall never know. R.I.P.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I'm being honest, I never would have read this Marvel comic if not for Kazuki Takahashi's writing and art credits.

This book came off as the kind of thing you'd find in the Marvel/Yu-Gi-Oh! crossover section of a fanfiction website, and I mean that as a compliment. It features Iron Man, Spider-Man, and small cast of Japanese card gamers, including a supervillain CEO game designer. It's exactly the touch of Takahashi magic that hearkens back to old-school billionaire Yu-Gi-Oh! villains, and in that regard it's really nothing new.

In the author's own words it's considered a fan comic, and it definitely feels that way. The Marvel heroes are a bit superficial and flat, and I think they buy into the crossover "card games and magic" setting a little bit too conveniently. But as a non-Marvel reader I don't suppose I've got a strong basis of comparison.

Kazuki Takahashi has a dorky, quirky, weird energy that has always inspired me, and it comes through in this work just as unapologetically as ever. For me that's a perk.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and VIZ Media for a free review copy of this.

Honestly, if I payed money for this I would have returned it. I've never read a worse manga in my life. Not only was the story not the best, I could not stand the artwork either. It was literally Yu-Gi-Oh with Spiderman and Iron Man shoehorned into the story. I just can't give this a good rating it was so bad.

[James Bowman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is exactly the sort of story you'd expect the Yu-Gi-Oh creator to write in the Marvel Universe - a villain using a teched-up card game in a plot for world conquest. Not bad, exactly, but pretty unremarkable. (B-)

[London Heady · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Kazuki Takahashi wrote all Marvel stories perhaps the world would be a better place.

Unbelievably dumb in the best way possible.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confesso que eu não havia sabido da existência deste quadrinho/mangá até encontrar por acaso ele no checklist da Panini de dezembro de 2022. É um quadrinho mangá feito pelo criador do famoso anime temático de cartas, Yu-Gi-Oh!, que nunca assisti um epísódio ou li algo sobre. Talvez por isso este quarinho mangá não tenha funcionado para mim, porque parece seguir a temática do jogo de cartas de Yu-Gi-Oh! Os personagens principais são o Homem-Aranha e o Homeme de Ferro, que parecem ter sido calcados dos filmes e não dos quadrinhos. Mas são tão genéricos que poderiam ter sido quaisquer personagens. Uma coisa que chama atenção é que este é um mangá colorido, mas parece ter sido feito mais para crianças do que para os leitores contumazes da Marvel. Acho também que faltou uma maior divulgação desse trabalho tanto pela Marvel Comics quanto pela Panini Comics Brasil, já que mangás rendem bastante tanto nos Estados Unidos como no Brasil. Mas não é de hoje que eu digo que marketing e comunicação na Panini Comics Brasil não funciona...

[Kristhian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvel's Secret Reverse was pretty good, eventually. The first half of this book was rough. The art was less than stellar, the story less than engaging, and that goes even more for the characters. However, once everything fell into place, I had a great time. Well, the characters never really got any better, but the art and the action in the second half more than made up for it. It was a lot of fun. I don't know that I would recommend it, but I am happy I read it.

Rest in Peace, Kazuki Takahashi.

[Ady Weasley · Rating 3 out of 5]

No me gusto mucho la historia, entiendo que al ser el autor de Yu Gi Oh! La trama involucraba un juego de cartas, pero creo que desaprovechó la trama, como que se me hizo un tanto simple y con un final apresurado

[Shane Stanis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spidey and Iron Man meet Yu-Gi-Oh!

[GhxstComics · Rating 3 out of 5]

Id give it a 3.5 if I could. Not sure why all the hate on the other reviews. Sure it wasn't a mind blowing story but it was good enough and I personally loved the art.

[Alex Richey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very biased review. The story is definitely not good, but I loved it so much nonetheless for being basically yugioh in a marvel comic. Art is freaking incredible.

[Jacob Rayburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secret Reverse (2022) is a Marvel comic book that performs a thought experiment of trying to blend both an eastern and western style of comic books together. It is written and the art is by Yu-Gi-Oh! creator Kazuki Takahashi, and any fan of the original manga series can almost instantly tell. This story gives us a look into what if the wackiness and super fun style of story that Yu-Gi-Oh! tells very often is told with two of Marvel's headliner heroes, Spider-Man and Iron Man.

Because of this shift in style the story looks and reads like a manga would with more full page splashes and much more dramatic styles of drawing characters. Takahashi mentions in one of the letters printed in the back that he treated this as a fan comic, or as fan fiction if you will. This becomes very clear once the story's villain is revealed as it looks like a literal villain from one of the later volumes of Yu-Gi-Oh! lifted off the pages and slapped into a Marvel book, and I welcomed this. Of course he is going to put his own style on this project and I loved every page of it, to the point where when the story ended I wanted more. As a fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series (up until 5D’s where I kind of fell off the anime afterwards), I loved that Takahashi tried to mirror the vibe of Yu-Gi-Oh! and it’s storytelling mechanics into a marvel book, it was a very welcome attempt. A very minor complaint that I have is that Marvel did not fully commit to the style and allow this story to be read as a manga, as in from right to left of the page. This complaint however does not deter from the enjoyment of the story.

I would recommend this story to manga fans that are interested in a marvel story or marvel fans interested in a manga story. The new characters again felt like characters lifted from Yu-Gi-Oh! and the Marvel heroes featured were well written while they were on panel, the standout star of this story being the way that Takahashi writes Spider-Man and to the point where this interpretation has been better than some other examples found from Marvel in-house writers.

Sadly, with Takahashi’s passing earlier this year we will probably never see anymore stories of this nature but the wild 107 page ride that this story takes you on is worth a spin at least once for both manga and Marvel fans alike. Overall, this was a fun quick read that saw two of my favorite characters in a different art style and story telling method than I am used to seeing them in. This was an experiment that Marvel has tried several times in the past to varying levels of success and I must say that this is one of the best examples of two forms of comics intermingling in an almost perfect fashion. This is a welcome addition to my collection, and would be the same to anybody else's collection all the same.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

https://rayburnreading.blogspot.com/2...

[Eli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bought this to read the final published work by Kazuki Takahashi, whose YU-GI-OH! manga was a big deal for me in middle school. Sadly it’s a bit of a dud. The story, which sees Tony Stark and Peter Parker rendezvous in Tokyo to battle a villain best described as the off-brand lovechild of Seto Kaiba and Doctor Octopus, is about as rudimentary as you can possibly get, without any clever Marvel-brand one-liners to spice things up and lots of awkward “Japanglish” terminology left untouched in translation. It quickly becomes apparent that this mainly exists for Takahashi to draw big action panels with his favorite Marvel characters, mano-e-mano action scenes being something he rarely got the chance to do in the past.

The results are mixed: character designs and coloring seem to be limply masquerading between Takahashi’s familiar style and modern American superhero comic pastiche, so I doubt they’ll thrill fans of either. Things step closer to Takahashi’s comfort zone when he introduces a sort of hydra-like alien cyborg creature, the kind of supple metallic monstrosity he always loved to draw, and lets the superheroes fly and dance around it in more traditionally manga-style action layouts. Spatial coherence and motion were never his strong points, though (compare other action-oriented Shonen Jump artists like Masashi Kishimoto) and the big fight scene that takes up more than half the book degenerates into a repetitive stream of swings and staredowns well before the end.

Overall not a major project for Takahashi so much as a middling experiment - one over which he may not have enjoyed all that much creative freedom, given the combined editorial hands of Jump editors and Marvel branding suits involved. It’s a disappointing closing note on which to cut his career short. If you want a better sendoff to Takahashi, I recommend either the DUEL ARTS artbook (regrettably out of print at the moment) or the film YU-GI-OH! THE DARK SIDE OF DIMENSIONS, a surprisingly thoughtful epilogue to the original manga for which Takahashi wrote the screenplay and designed new characters. Both are more fitting tributes to Takahashi at his unconstrained, endearingly bonkers best, piloting his most beloved creation into the sunset.

[Michael Lee My ComicBook World · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a spoiler free review.

Marvel’s Secret Reverse was an interesting comic book / anime / Yu-Gi-Oh amalgamation. Thank you Viz Media, Marvel Comics, and NetGalley for a digital ARC copy to review.

I love Spider-man comics and Yu-Gi-Oh cartoons but I had a hard time with this book. The story was awesome and I was engaged to see what would happen next. Also, the usage of a card game giving people power as the crux of the story was awesome. I really enjoyed the similarities to Yu-Gi-Oh. The character designs and their powers reminded me of anime cartoons and Yu-Gi-Oh.

The artwork was where I had issues. I found it hard to follow what was going on. There was so much going on in every panel that it was hard to follow. I think I would have enjoyed the story more had the illustrations been in full color in the ARC I was reading. The artwork would have been easier to understand in full color rather than in black and white.

After I finished reading Marvel’s Secret Reverse Kazuki Takashi passed away. That sad news was an awful way to finish reading his last book. I was hoping Kazuki Takashi would try this again with more Marvel characters and see if a second try at this mash up would be better.

RIP Kazuki Takashi. I’m glad I got to read your Spider-man / Yu-Gi-Oh comic book.

If you like Yu-Gi-Oh anime cartoons then you should give Marvel’s Secret Reverse a try. You’ll enjoy the story and maybe like the artwork more than I did.

Stay awesome and keep reading.


Marvel’s Secret Reverse

Creative team:

Written and Illustrated Kazuki Takashi

[Lillian Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is what you’d expect, Ironman and Spider-man in Japan at a games expo, where a new card based game is being revealed. The villain looks like a reject from Yu Gi Oh. And the world is saved in the most wholesome and obvious way possible.
I’ve not read any Yu Gi Oh but apparently the art is what would be expected from the artist, unfortunately for me it was all too busy. And the story is a little too basic. Maybe I’m not the target audience. (Plus I tried to read it the wrong way, it doesn’t read manga style.)

[J. Bittleton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and inconsequential until you layer in the real world context of how cool a collaboration between Viz and Marvel of this scale is. It’s also fun to see the obtuse characterizations of Iron Man and Spider-Man that are the byproduct of the America to Japan and back to America filtering the story is created through. Tony is much too noble, and Peter is much too cool, neither presenting flaws that normally make their characters compelling in their American mediums. But in many ways, these simple, exaggerated versions are exactly what this wacky story needs.

RIP TAKAHASHI.

[James Rodrigues · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kazuki Takahashi does the story and art for his own Marvel story, and the result feels very much like what if the Yu-Gi-Oh! creator did his own Western-style comic. Iron Man and Spider-Man arrive in Japan where they contend with the creator of the worlds biggest card game who attacks by summoning creatures from cards. It's a breezy comic with a very interesting art style. It won't stick in the memory, but it was enjoyable while it lasted.

[Jaime Guzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's cool!
Kazuki Takahashi the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh! draws Marvel's top characters, Spider-Man and Ironman!
What's bad!
A father being controlled by interdimensional machines whose power is derived by combining battle cards and a daughter's pleas for help have Spider-Man and Ironman jumping in to save the day.
To see Marvel characters drawn in a manga style is pretty awesome but the story is below average and kind of corny.

[Waylon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This comic knew exactly what it was and wasn’t afraid to show it. If you are a fan of both Marvel and Yu-Gi-Oh! then this is a fun read that you should check out!

I think the author put it best in his notes/letters “So just think of Secret Reverse as a fan comic, packed with all my love for Marvel!” “…combines the energy of the Marvel Universe with the vibes of Yu-Gi-Oh!”

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is probably the worst of the Marvel manga I've read. The plot is halfbaked and honestly kind of dumb, the dialog is truly awful, and the art is messy and ugly. At least Spider-Man feels mostly in character, because Iron Man is definitely off. It's possible to do a good manga featuring western superhero characters, but this is definitely not it.

[Frankie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yu-Gi-Oh! creator Kazuki Takahashi killed it with his new release “Secret Reverse” 😮‍💨

Throwing two of our favorite Marvel heroes into a story all about a new epic card game with a badass villain at the forefront make this a must pick-up for manga and western comic lovers alike 🤝

[Ares Mersereau · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasn’t my favourite. Perhaps I’m a little biased towards the Irondad Spiderson dynamic but with that put aside it felt like a bad fanfiction with a bad pace and a disappointing ending. Overall not the worst thing I’ve read but the bar is not very high for that one.

[Alri Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una extraña mezcla entre los héroes de marvel y Yu Gi Oh, apesar de tener una historia demasiado básica, el increíble arte y la acción que maneja hace que sea una lectura bastante rápida y amena. Un buen comic/manga para pasar el rato y salir de la rutina.

[Ash V · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice mash-up of Marvel×YGO. Glad the creator got to write this before he passed since it was something he wanted to do. The notes at the end were very heartwarming. The story encapsulated the essence of YGO while having Iron Man and Spider-Man to push the story forward. A fan through and through.

[Alex Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t waste your time. It looked cool in the store so I took a chance. Wish I had my receipt. Story is less than half baked. Has no heart whatsoever. It’s a cheap Yu-Gi-Oh ripoff featuring marvel characters which is weird because it’s by the guy who wrote Yu-Gi-Oh? Major let down.

[Lovro Herbai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sasvim okej mala manga. Kratka, nadasve slatka. Takahashi je ostvario svoj san da nacrta nešto za Marvel, i smiješno mi je, koliko mi je i slatko, da je čak i ovdje uspio ubaciti neku vrstu kartaške igre kao pokretač radnje. Čovjek ima svoj fetiš, to treba poštovati.