It’s coming: Marvel and Kadokawa. Marvel announced their second partnership of San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday at the Marvel Fanfare panel. The publisher announced that Marvel will collaborate with manga publisher Kadokawa to release original material involving Marvel characters.
The project was announced with editorial from both companies in attendance. New Editor-in-Chief Steve Wacker and editor of Asia Originals, C.B. Cebulski, represented the American publisher. Department Editor-in-Chief Kenta Matsui and editor Naofumi Manno spoke for Kadokawa. It was revealed five series were in development with Spider-Men being the first. At the panel, character designs were shown for a future Spider-Man manga series
This partnership now provides some context for two prior announcements. The first is the termination of Marvel’s previous partnership with Shueshia, publishers of Shonen Jump, at the beginning of July. Prior to termination, Shueisha’s US publisher VIZ Media published multiple series, including Deadpool Samurai and Spider-Man: Fake Red. The end of that deal makes more sense in hindsight if Marvel x Kadokawa was waiting in the wings.
The second regards the new position announced for Cebulski, whose tenure as Editor-in-Chief of Marvel recently ended. Cebulski’s time as EIC was marred by the fact that he spent a period of his early career at Marvel writing Asian-centric material under the Asian pseudonym Akira Yoshida prior to his promotion.
Given this history, it was a bit of a shock to learn that Cebulski is shifting into a new position as editor of Asia Originals for Marvel, which includes a move to Tokyo. Infamy aside, the Marvel x Kadokawa collaboration will be the first project Cebulski takes on in this new role. He will now work closely with Kadokawa to oversee these new projects.
Not much was said at the SDCC panel about the other Marvel x Kadokawa series, though the editors did say the next one will star Spider-Gwen. It’s hard to imagine, with some of the character designs shown—including a Yakuza-style Punisher and a Shinjuku-based Daredevil—that spinoffs aren’t a possibility. With the popularity of both the Avengers and X-Men, series based on those characters must be around the corner.
The Beat will continue to keep readers updated on future projects from Marvel x Kadokawa.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more news from SDCC ’26.
