If you've been reading Dan Slott's "Spider-Verse" saga over at Marvel Comics, you know the "Crisis on Infinite Spider-Men" arc has combined essentially every conceivable iteration of ol' Web-head and joined them into one epic adventure. But one specific introduction has, literally, just blown my fanboy mind.
In "The Amazing Spider-Man" #12, a group of Spider-heroes have collected a variety of their counterparts from a variety of Japans, including the Marvel Mangaverse Spidey as well as Yu Komori, the protagonist of the 1970s' Spider-Man manga. But there is a third...Takuya Yamashiro, star of the Japanese live-action "Spider-Man" TV show from the '70s, better known as "Supaidman." And, of course, Supaidman has brought along his rather large friend.
Yup, Supaidaman's giant robot Leopardon just set foot in the official, 616 universe to join forces against Solus, a villain dead set on taking out every Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in every reality. I won't spoil anything by giving away the ending, but I will say this...writer Dan Slott and artist Olivier Coipel are doing some damn fine work on that book. Thanks to the Japanator for the heads up.
The last appearance of Leopardon in recent pop culture that I can recall (and it was almost as cool) was in Ernest Cline's excellent book, "Ready Player One." The main character, Parzival, collects and uses the Leopardon mech in the virtual video game world know as the Oasis.
Check out Leopardon's awesome introduction from "The Amazing Spider-Man" #12:
