Jiro Kuwata is a superhero legend in Japan. He's the artist behind the country's first costumed superhero 8 Man created in the 1960s. 8 Man remained a cultural touchstone in Japan, but after Kawata's tenure on the comic he moved on to another major work: DC Comic's Batman. Known as Bat-Manga, Kuwata's crisp artwork and stories of the caped crusader remained limited to Japan only for decades—it didn't make it stateside until 2008.
Kuwata's Batman is leaving the darkness of Gotham in a new form, as DC Comics exclusively revealed to Anime News Network. A statue based on Kuwata's character design, complete with stylized cape, Kuwata's imagined gadgets, and manga-style shading will go on in January 2019, and pre-orders will open on May 22. Only 5,000 individually numbered 1/10-scale statues will be produced and each costs US$80.
