Saw the first Heroman episode (subbed) last night. Yes it’s cliched, and yes it’s like a Saturday Morning Cartoon in its logic (if one of my toys suddenly turned into a REAL robot my first reaction would be “how is this possible?” not “This is so cool!!”) but it’s so fun and honest in its heroism, which is why I guess I like shonen series these days more than American superhero comics… I’m not afraid that the former will shock and disappoint me as much as the latter.
As for variety, well of course there’s a lot of copycat shows out there. The idea is to sell, and you copy what sells, which is another trait of American comics- it’s why there are mostly superhero comics now when there used to be all kinds including (seriously) romance comics. There’s still a few comics that are inspiring in their originality though, like “Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre” which is a comedy about a team of lawyers that represent monsters.
In fact I think overall Manga still has more variety than American comics. Last night I also found about “Squid Girl” (which is about a little girl who is the last survivor of an undersea race that comes to the surface to conquer it… except, you know, she’s just a little girl, and pretty clueless.) It’s hilarious, and yet strangely sad. Too bad it’s more a collection of shorts than an actual series.