ComiXology has a pretty good new creator spotlight up that doesn’t get anywhere near the attention that they should with Shotari Ishinomori. The popular creator has had a lot of works adapted into anime form in Japan but they, and his manga, tend to be a bit more of a cult following overseas and in North America in particular. ComiXology is offering up thirteen volumes of five of his works at a great price where they’re just $4.99 each, making it easy to try out without much of an outlay.
Check out the full spotlight here.
Cyborg 009: Spreading the seeds of war and reaping huge profits by selling weapons to warring nations, the organization of death merchants known as BLACK GHOST plots to dominate the world! With an eye toward super-stratospheric war, they draft a secret plan to develop an invincible warrior, the Cyborg Soldier. Gathering nine young people from various countries around the world, they create a prototype cyborg, the 00- series, for the purpose of mass producing an army of unstoppable killing machines. Appalled by the twisting of science to such evil purposes, Dr. ISAAC GILMORE escapes from the organization, taking the nine cyborgs with him. These nine youngsters must struggle to overcome the trauma of their transformation into cyborgs and fight back against Black Ghost with all the powers at their disposal. The peace of the world depends on them!
Skullman: TATSUO KAGURA was born the son of two geniuses. Inheriting their great talent, he has grown to be a super genius boy, something like a mutant. Tatsuo’s parents were treated like monsters due to their outstanding abilities, and murdered by someone who hated them for it. Tastuo, left alone, comes to learn of his parents’ cruel fate, and spends the rest of his life seeking vengeance.
Tatsuya turns 17. The time has come, and he is ready to take his revenge. He wears a skull mask marking him as messenger from the land of the dead, and identifies himself as Skull Man. Together with GALO, an artificial creature and a product of his father’s research, Skull Man tracks down and destroys all those connected with the killing of his parents, and lays a trap for the real culprit hiding in the shadows.
Kikaider: DR. KOMYOGI is an expert in robotics and has a wealthy sponsor, HERBERT GILL. Gill however, is a horrible man who forces Dr. Komyogi to develop numerous robots which he plans to use to take over the world. Dr. Komyogi realizes Gill’s dark ambition and secretly develops a high-performance humanoid-robot called Jiro, who looks exactly like a human but transforms into a battle robot Kikaider who has his great superpower. Komyoji leaves Kikaider with his daughter MITSUKO and then disappears.
Finally, Gill makes his move. He unleashes a robot army named DARK to dominate and control human society. Mitsuko, reading a message left for her by her father Dr. Komyogi, persuades Jiro/Kikaider to fight off Gill’s terrible robots. On that day, Jiro/Kikaider’s fierce battles with DARK begin!
Kamen Rider: TAKESHI HONGO is an expert motorcycle racer and a young genius with an IQ of 400. He is abducted by the secretive company SHOCKER and turned into a cyborg as part of a fiendish plot to take over the world. Just before his brain is irrevocably transformed, Hongo manages to escape his hidden prison with the assistance of his respected teacher Dr. MIDORIKAWA, a scientific genius who has been forced to work for Shocker. Hongo, with his indomitable spirit and sense of justice, names himself the MASKED RIDER and uses his motorcycle, Cyclone, and the superhuman powers imbued in him
Inazuman: SABURO KAZEDA is an average school boy, but after he is attacked by the advance guards of the Neo-Human Empire on the way home from school, he starts to develop supernatural powers! The Neo-Human Empire is an organization of mutants with superpowers who plot to turn the world into a place dominated by their own kind, eliminating any homo sapiens that are not mutated.
For the mutants of the Empire, homo sapiens are merely “ancient humans who have not evolved.”
The Empire’s attacks on humankind awaken the mutant powers hidden inside Saburo. Discovering Saburo’s astonishing supernatural powers, the Empire pressures him to join their ranks, but he refuses. The righteous Saburo determines to fight the Empire for the sake of all humankind, using his powers for justice. As he changes into a butterfly-like figure–the MUTANT INAZUMAN–he finds that he can control lighting and electricity! Inazuman must develop his mighty supernatural powers and take a stand against the Neo-Human Empire. As the evil powers and righteous powers clash together and spark, a furious battle for the survival of mankind begins!