It’s Superman like you’ve never seen him before…eating Japanese food.

As one of the most enduring characters in comic book history, Superman has gone through an uncountable number of exploits and adventures from the ludicrous to the tragic. There was that time he stepped into the ring with Muhammad Ali, as well as when he learned to shoot rainbows out his fingers.

And yet all this time we’ve never really – I mean really – dug deep into his diet and eating habits. Does he put a napkin on his lap? Is he a picky eater who always wants to alter menu items to his tastes? Does Earth’s yellow sun cause his gut bacteria to produce gas at a superhuman rate, thus producing farts that could fill entire stadiums?

▼ Jeeze, Superman. You’re getting rice everywhere!

Hopefully, an upcoming manga published in the manga magazine Evening and website Comic Days will answer some of these questions. Unlike Supes’ previous titles, this latest series will be a gourmet manga titled Superman vs Food: Superman’s Meals of Solitude (Superman vs Meshi: Superman No Hitori Meshi), written by Satoshi Miyakawa with art by Kai Kitago.

The series will follow the Man of Steel as he flies around Japan and samples its various regional cuisines faster that a regular gourmet manga character would on a speeding bullet train. He may have taken on Darkseid and Doomsday, but can he stomach octopus eggs or or talk a cook out of shaving their head when a hair is found in the food?

We shall see when the first installment hits stands on 22 June in Evening #14. Meanwhile, people online are abuzz with this looming new culinary adventure.

“Something feels off about a big muscly man holding a heap of rice.”
“He’s American, so let him try some of Japan’s delicious American food.”
“It’s Superman, but he’s doing stuff basically anyone can do.”
“Superman eats rice?!”
“Wait, what?”
“Why?”
“Japanese food is good. He’s in for a treat.”

And so are we when Superman vs Food begins…probably.

DC’s previous manga adaptations Batman Justice Buster and One Operation Joker were well-received and both have upcoming tankobon editions this summer. But a Superman gourmet manga is uncharted territory.

▼ The One Operation Joker tankobon will go on sale 23 June

The synopsis says that Superman will visit some chain restaurants, cook seasoned rice in an iron pot to make the dish called kamameshi with his heat rays, and form a Justice League with the ingredients of a tempura rice bowl.

I’m not sure what that last one means, but I still have faith this could work. It’s already well-established that he could punch most people’s heads off before they even notice him, so it would be much more interesting to instead see how well Superman handles random complements about how he uses his chopsticks, or how he feels about getting charged for an appetizer that he never ordered.

Source: PR Times, Hachima Kiko
Images: PR Times
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