Deadpool: Samurai and other Marvel manga are being removed from storefronts

3 hours ago 3

Published Jul 1, 2026, 11:07 AM EDT

Deadpool's adventures in Tokyo and Dock Ock's life as a Japanese schoolgirl are on the way out

A detail of the cover for volume 3 of Spider-Man Octo-Girl manga

It seems that one of Japan’s biggest media companies and The Mouse have had a bit of a falling out: Shueisha and Walt Disney Japan have terminated a contract that allowed the former to publish manga featuring Marvel characters. The agreement expires on Sept. 30, and Shueisha will gradually remove its Marvel-themed material from digital storefronts from Sept. 28 to 30, while also ending physical print sales. The publishing agreement was nixed several months ago, but this is the first news about how the breakup will play out.

As for the affected manga, Deadpool: Samurai (four volumes), Spider-Man: Kizuna (four volumes), Spider-Man: Octo Girl (four volumes), Secret Reverse, and Marvel x Shonen Jump Plus Super Collaboration will no longer be available. They will remain in stores while supplies last and can be downloaded from digital storefronts by those who have already purchased them, but will otherwise become impossible to read (legally, that is).

All the affected manga have completed their runs, with Deadpool: Samurai finishing most recently. Deadpool’s manga follows the merc with a mouth as he takes a job for Tony Stark that sends him to Tokyo. There, he fights alongside Sakura Spider, a girl bitten by a radioactive arachnid, and Neiro Aratabi, an idol housing a symbiote. As you could expect from this exceedingly meta anti-hero, there’s an endless blast of references to Shueisha properties, including Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Dragon Ball, Fire Punch, Goodbye, Eri, and more. The character has even referenced Shonen Jump series outside of this specific run: Cody Ziglar’s Deadpool asked a guy if he'd watched Chainsaw Man before doing Aki’s signature move. He’s also in Arc System Works’ anime-inspired Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, where he does the infamous Jack-O pose.

The shape of Deadpool’s face is built from a pile of hundreds of guns on the cover of Deadpool Samurai Vol 1 (2022).

As for the rest, Spider-Man: Kizuna is basically a spin on henshin heroes like Kamen Rider, as it follows Yu, a boy from Ohakama City, who ends up fused with Spider-Man. Spider-Man: Octo-Girl has the most ridiculous setup of the bunch: after a battle with Spider-Man leaves Doctor Octopus in a coma, he suffers the fate of many isekai heroes and wakes up to find himself into the body of a middle school girl from Tokyo. Secret Reverse is a little more standard, following Spider-Man and Iron Man at a game convention in Japan. Lastly, Marvel x Shonen Jump Plus Super Collaboration is a collection of short stories written by Shonen Jump Plus authors.

Viz Media handled distribution in the U.S., and most of the series (except Marvel x Shonen Jump Plus Super Collaboration and Spider-Man Kizuna) are available through Viz’s digital subscription service.

This wasn’t the first crossover between Marvel and the manga sphere. Legendary artist Tsutomu Nihei (Blame!, Tower Dungeon) did a five-issue series called Wolverine: Snikt! back in 2003. As for why it wasn’t removed with the rest, it’s probably because Wolverine is so short he escaped detection. (Just kidding; it’s because this was published by Marvel Comics directly instead of Shueisha.) Other overlap includes how Kamome Shirahama, the artist behind the excellent manga Witch Hat Atelier, has done a great deal of illustration and concept work for Marvel Comics over the years.

Shueisha didn’t provide specifics as to why its contract with Marvel was terminated, but if you want to read about Deadpool’s adventures abroad, there isn’t a lot of time left to do so.

Read Entire Article