Where All Can You Find Ultraman Today? (Lots of Places)
Check out these recent options for Ultraman stories on TV, in books, and in comic books.
Here’s your chance to catch up on Japan’s giant superhero—including the new FREE streaming channel, recent Marvel Comics crossovers, and science fiction retellings of classic stories.
Within the past few years, Japanese superhero Ultraman is becoming more accessible than ever. This includes the brand-new streaming channel on Amazon Prime (loaded with decades worth of content), two recent comic book series (where Ultraman meets The Avengers and also Spider-Man), plus a set of novelizations from award-winning cyberpunk science fiction author Pat Cadigan.
In this article:
Ultraman and The Avengers (Marvel-style)
The Ultraman brand—a sci-fi concept developed in Japan in the 1960s—revolves around an extraterrestrial clan of giant-sized superheroes who come to Earth to primarily fight giant-sized monsters.
(And, of course, when we say “giant-sized, ” we mean the monsters are big like a building. Like Godzilla or Kong.)
As the Ultraman 1966 series embraced the idea of “giant superhero fights giant monsters,” that inspired an explosion of media follow-ups, experiments, sequels, and adaptations. The Ultraman brand has grown to include a whole lot of TV shows, movies, video games, and more.
Over the decades since the introduction, one of the more unique traits of the Ultra brand is that so many different members of the Ultra clan have shown up to have their own movie or TV show. And with like 80 movies and TV shows, that means Earth has welcomed lots of members of the alien family.
Over the past 60 or so years, that has included… take a deep breath…
Ultraseven (1967), Ultraman Ace (1972), Ultraman Taro (1973), Ultraman Leo (1974), Ultraman 80 (1980)... let’s see, a bunch more (that we’ll skip)... and then we return to the list with Ultraman Mebius (2006), Ultraseven X (2007)... and several more... then we return to the list for Ultraman Z (2020), Ultraman Trigger (2021), Ultraman Decker (2022), Ultraman Blazar (2023), Ultraman Arc (2024)…
And—coming up—Ultraman Omega (2025).
(And I haven’t even mentioned the titles of all those movies!)
Now, let’s watch and see how much of all that content (including all the ones I didn’t even mention) show up on the Ultraman Channel…
This post contains some affiliate links. If you click the link, I earn a small commission. (At no extra cost to you, so relax.)
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The free Ultraman channel offers hours of monster-fighting
Customers can easily access the exciting Ultra universe through Prime Video. This new free ad-supported Ultraman Channel is drawing from decades worth of Ultraman stories—that’s hundreds of hours of content, pulled from more than 80 movies and TV shows.
Said Jeff Hayne, SVP of Acquisitions at Mill Creek Entertainment:
“With the Ultraman Channel, we’re not just entertaining; we’re also celebrating a cultural phenomenon that has connected fans through generations. We are excited to provide a platform where longtime fans can relive their favorite moments while also welcoming newcomers to the awe-inspiring world of Ultraman.”
The channel will offer the Ultraman library, that prequel series Ultra Q, the original classic Ultraman, fan-favorite Ultraman Mebius, and the epic feature film Ultraman Zero: the Revenge of Belial, along with upcoming new releases of TV series and movies. Many will be available with English dubs for the first time.
Said David Kornblum, President & CEO of Tsuburaya Fields Media & Picture Entertainment:
“Since Ultraman’s creation by Eiji Tsuburaya more than a half-century ago, Ultraman has stood the test of time across multiple generations of fans, young and old. With the advent of the Ultraman Channel, we look forward to expanding the audience further for this seminal character while providing core fans with the deepest access to the catalog.”
For more information and to start watching, visit the Ultraman Channel on Amazon Prime Video within the Live TV tab.
By the way—at the time of this writing—there’s also some Ultraman-related stuff on the Roku Channel and Pluto TV.
You can watch on your Roku device, your computer or, well, your phone. (We live in an amazing age.)
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Ultraman and The Avengers (Marvel Comics-style)
Hitting shelves in June is the trade paperback Ultraman X The Avengers, which collects the recent comic book mini-series where Ultraman meets up with The Avengers.
For a few years now, Marvel Comics has been publishing a new series of Ultraman comic books. A collaboration between Tsuburaya Productions and Marvel Comics, these are all-new stories based on the classic Ultraman series.
Of course, since the partneship began, fans have been wondering when the two brands would connect. And now there’s a trade paperback on the way—collecting the recent crossover mini-series Ultraman X Avengers.
The four-issue limited series features a wide array of appearances including mainstay Avengers, Spider-Man, and more.
Spider-Man has disappeared from New York, an intergalactic invader has arrived on Ultraman’s doorstep, and the Kaiju of Earth are acting even more mysteriously than usual. This can only mean one thing: It’s time for Ultraman to meet the Avengers! But what cosmic threat is great enough to require a team-up of Marvel’s mightiest champions and Japan’s greatest hero? Find out as Shin meets Sam, Spacium Ray meets Repulsor Ray, and “THWIP!” meets “SHUWATCH!” in the epic crossover event.
Since 2020, Marvel Comics has been publishing licensed Ultraman comic books written by Kyle Higgins & Matt Groom. And the co-writers came back for the Avengers crossover. They said in a joint press release:
“Of course we’re excited to be back with more ULTRAMAN, as ever, but especially for such a meaningful event. This is the first time Ultraman will meet the Avengers, despite them having so much in common—both being created in the 1960s, both being arguably the most popular and successful super heroes from their respective countries of origin. Being able to tell the story of this historic meeting: discovering how they interact, the ways in which they’re different, what they have to learn from each other—it’s a tremendous privilege.”
But this was not the only Ultraman x Marvel crossover comic book that was happening…
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Ultraman: Along Came a Spider-Man (Manga)
Of course, Japanese comics and America comics are generally told from different storytelling styles. So, while Marvel debuted its “American” crossover, on the same day there also debuted a second crossover in the manga style…
Available in a collected edition this July, Viz Media created the crossover manga Ultraman: Along Came a Spider-Man. When Doctor Doom launches a deadly attack on New York City, Spider-Man is pulled into another universe—the home to the hero Ultraman. The manga has been available on Viz’s website, with new chapters being uploaded on a weekly basis.
Kei Minamitani of Tsuburaya Productions, said:
“The contrast in how our two sets of heroes approach their roles is fascinating to see play out, but they have a lot of similarities as well. In both the Shogakukan and Marvel titles, we watch how our heroes grapple with these differences before ultimately reconciling to find greater solutions. It has been incredibly special to explore the concept of heroism through the perspectives of these two very different sets of heroes and we are excited for fans to join them on these two adventures.”
Added C.B. Cebulski, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief:
“We’re thrilled to bring together Marvel comics and manga in such an exciting way, uniting our biggest heroes directly with Ultraman against ultimate villains like never before. This manga will be an epic showdown at a cosmic level, but it’ll have plenty insightful themes and touching moments as well. We’re excited for fans to experience this story around the globe.”
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And also these new Ultraman novelizations
Sort of bringing the whole Ultraman brand full-circle, Hugo Award-winning author Pat Cadigan and Titan Books are also offering Ultraman adventures as science fiction books. These include Ultraman (available now) and Ultraseven (available in July), where the author is novelizing the classic episodes and rethinking them as science fiction stories.
(I’m currently reading the first book—and I can tell you that her process is quite engaging.)
Adapting the episodes of these classic, genre-defining series, Cadigan brings a fresh take to the iconic adventures of Earth’s giant-monster-fighting heroes. The author spoke with Ultraman Connection about her approach to retelling these classic stories:
“I decided not to fight the episodic nature of the story. The studio told me which stories they wanted me to use and I think they chose well, to showcase Ultraman’s relationships with his fellow members of the Science Patrol as well as his adjustment to life as a human.
“He comes to Earth in pursuit of a monster—he ends up staying out of a sense of moral and ethical obligation to the human he kills accidentally, and he falls in love with Earth and with humans. I felt as long as I could maintain that continuity, the story as a whole would flow.
“And to be honest, I like episodic stories. Our lives are episodic—ask anyone, they’ll tell you it’s one damned thing after another, right?”
Ultraman: The Official Novelization
Producer Pat Cadigan
Bookshop.org (affiliate)
Barnes & Noble
Books-a-Million
Ultraman - Ultraseven
Producer Pat Cadigan
Bookshop.org (affiliate)
Barnes & Noble
Books-a-Million
One of the original cyberpunk writers––the Guardian referred to her as “The Queen of Cyberpunk”—Pat Cadigan’s work also includes horror, fantasy, YA, and nonfiction. In fact, her fiction has won a number of awards: This includes the Locus Award, (three times), the Arthur C. Clarke Award (twice), the Scribe Award for Best Novelisation, the Hugo Award, and Japan’s Seiun Award.
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How Ultraman got started
The Ultraman series was co-created by Eiji Tsuburaya (1901-1970) and his company Tsuburaya Productions. Tsuburaya was responsible for many of the special effects in the classic Godzilla movies through the 1950s and 1960s, which made him a hugely influential special effects director, filmmaker, and cinematographer.
The studio kicked off the Ultra brand with Ultra Q (1966). Long before the X-Files, the Ultra Q show had regular characters running into all these weird stories. Although inspired by American TV shows like The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone—which were anthologies that followed different people each episode—Ultra Q followed the same characters. Each episode, two pilots and a reporter investigated a variety of aliens, ghosts, monsters, and more.
Although no “Ultraman” character shows up in Ultra Q, the show was quickly followed by the more popular Ultraman (1966). Which actually launched what we think of when we see the word “Ultraman.”
That first Ultraman show led to several follow-ups—showing more monster-fighting aliens showing up from the same planet to save Earth from more giant monsters. The brand has also made some theatrical movies.
(One of those movies is the amazing collect-all film Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy The Movie, which has appearances from decades-worth of Ultraman regulars teaming up. Just sayin’.)
Ultraman and its titular hero—and his extended alien family—became a major pop culture phenomenon in Japan, generating dozens of sequels, spin-offs, imitations, parodies and tributes. Around the world, the brand has been popular enough to make billions of dollars.
Related links:
ULTRAMAN Channel launches with 210 hours of iconic content (Comics Beat)
Free Ad-supported Streaming ULTRAMAN Channel Now On Prime Video (Tsuburaya)
Ultraman X Avengers Brings Together the Greatest Hero of Japan & Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (Marvel)
Viz Media To Publish Ultraman: Along Came a Spider-Man Manga (Bleeding Cool)
Interview with Writer Pat Cadigan: The Ultraman Novelization! (Ultraman Connection)
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Japanese superhero Ultraman is more accessible than ever. There’s the brand-new streaming channel, two crossover comic books, plus novelizations from an award-winning author.