(Japanese:ミュウツーの逆襲Mewtwo's Counterattack) is themanga adaptation of themovie of the same name. The manga was written byToshihiro Ono.

Publications

The manga adaptation ofMewtwo Strikes Back! has only ever been published in the July 1998 issue of Gekkan CoroCoro Comic and collected in the CoroCoro movie guidebook.

Plot

Mewtwo defeats theCharizard,Blastoise, andVenusaur of a trio ofTeam Rocket Grunts, calling them weak before demanding they leave their Pokémon with him and get out of his sight. Alone in a room full of screens that show footage around the world, Mewtwo ponders if there is any trainer who can amuse him in battle.

In a city,Ash is battlingRaymond where hisBulbasaur narrowly misses an attack from Raymond'sDonphan before defeating it with a singleSolar Beam. Frustrated at this loss, Raymond sends out hisMachamp,Golem,Venomoth, andPinsir at Ash all at once.Pikachu unleashes a powerfulThunderbolt, which defeats Raymond's Pokémon and sends him running from his loss. Ash teases him for the one-sided loss, but his victory is cut short when Misty yells at him to get moving or else they will be late for the Pokémon League CoroCoro Cup, which she struggled to get tickets for. Unfortunately, the three were too late when they arrived as the champion of the CoroCoro Cup has just been declared, earning Ash the ire and a punch from Misty.

From the skies, a cloaked Mewtwo arrives and challenges the champion, sending out his cloned Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur, who easily defeats the champion'sRapidash,Cloyster, andSandslash. Mewtwo declares the champion as weak before stealing his three Pokémon, believing that a weak trainer has no use for his Pokémon while declaring himself the strongest Pokémon Trainer in the world, hisDragonite distributing invitations toNew Island Pokémon Castle before flying off with Mewtwo on its back. The tournament announcer panics from the mysterious Trainer defeating the champion. Ash gets fired up from the existence of such a strong trainer and wants to go to New Island and battle this trainer.

TheTeam Rocket trio spots Mewtwo on Dragonite's back, flying to New Island.James knows that Team Rocket used to have a secret laboratory on the island, andJessie knows that, until six months ago, she had no idea what experiments happened on the island.Meowth claims to know what happened, mocking that the information was above their pay-grade. After being persuaded (by a comic head stretch) by Jessie and James, Meowth explains that the researchers were studyingMew until six months ago where the laboratory exploded into flames. The island was abandoned until now where a giant castle was built and its inhabitants is a mystery. Inside New Island, Mewtwo rests where his assistant checks his vitals. Mewtwo questions what he is and if he is a Pokémon, his assistant affirming that he is one biologically before Mewtwo rests.

Three years ago in the Amazon Rainforest within South America,Dr. Fuji has finally sighted Mew where he prepares to capture it. Even with aMaster Ball, Fuji was unable to capture the elusive Mew who escapes. After calling out to it, Mew turns back and returns to Fuji. The Team Rocket Grunts accompanying Fuji attempt to use the Master Ball at Mew butGiovanni orders them to stand down and observe, believing that Mew'sPsychic-type properties allows it to read Fuji's heart and see whether it can trust humans. Giovanni's guess turns out to be correct where Mew stays with Dr. Fuji and returns with him to their camp, allowing him to take an eyelash of it for further research.

Giovanni tasks Fuji to use Mew's DNA to create a new Pokémon that is the most powerful, offering full funding of the project at the cost of using Mew as the test subject. Giovanni brings up how Fuji was shunned by the scientific community on a Pokémon Bioengineering Project to manipulate him into going through with the project. Giovanni's words and memories of the scientists who looked down on him and disapproved of his research began to blacken Fuji's heart where he takes up Team Rocket's resources to create a new Pokémon. Sensing this darkness caused Mew to tearfully leave, Fuji pleading it to return. Mew leaving was the last straw which fully engrossed Fuji into his darkness and research where he finally created Mewtwo, the strongest Pokémon designed to surpass Mew.

Mewtwo's power allows it to effortlessly defeat aNidoking, surpassing Giovanni's expectations where it is given a special armor to control its powers better as it is sent to battle more Pokémon. These results please Giovanni who offers Mewtwo a reward of anything except the removal of its armor which he claims is a symbol of friendship between it and humanity. Mewtwo sees through these lies as it knows the armor was to restrict its power. Mewtwo questions whether what it is doing is right. Giovanni answers that there is no right or wrong as long as they win as history is written by the victors. Giovanni orders Fuji to create an armor that allows it to control its thoughts as Mewtwo's intellect is growing, something Fuji is not comfortable with. What completely shocks Fuji is Giovanni revealing Phase Two of the project which is mass-produced Mewtwos.

Knowing that there is no turning back, Fuji removes the armour and begs Mewtwo to destroy everything in the laboratory, including Fuji himself. Fuji explains that he has lived a life full of hatred until Mewtwo was born, telling Mewtwo that it is a prototype where it will have mass-produced siblings designed for mass destruction with no heart or will. Mewtwo retorts that Fuji taught it that it should work hard for Team Rocket just as Team Rocket Grunts show up and try to arrest Fuji for insubordination. Fuji's last words was thanking Mewtwo for considering him its father as Mewtwo destroys the laboratory. After the big explosion, Mewtwo was alone in the rain as it cried out to the sky, questioning what it should do as a creature born from hatred designed only to fight.

Back in the present day at thePokémon Center near the pier,Miranda orders all trainers with invitations to turn back from the pier as no boats are going to New Island and that there is no tournament there either. Ash defies the orders and believes he can get through the storm if it means battling the strongest trainer, jumping into the ocean riding hisSquirtle. Misty and a bunch of other trainers follow suit as they ride their ownWater Pokémon into the ocean. The manga ends with the trainers braving the storm and Ash telling the reader that to see what happens on New Island, they will need to watch the movie.

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Giovanni
• Nurse Joy
• Dr. Fuji
• Miranda
• Raymond
• Team Rocket Grunts
• Announcer
• Trainers
• Scientists

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Togepi (Misty's)
• Bulbasaur (Ash's)
• Squirtle (Ash's)
• Staryu (Misty's)
• Donphan (Raymond's)
• Machamp (Raymond's)
• Golem (Raymond's)
• Venomoth (Raymond's)
• Pinsir (Raymond's)
• Venusaur (Team Rocket Grunt's)
• Charizard (Team Rocket Grunt's)
• Blastoise (Team Rocket Grunt's)
• Rapidash (CoroCoro Champion's)
• Cloyster (CoroCoro Champion's)
• Sandslash (CoroCoro Champion's)
• Nidoking (Trainer's)
• Magnemite (Trainer's)
• Oddish (Trainer's)
• Psyduck (Trainer's)
• Poliwhirl (Trainer's)
• Dewgong (Trainer's)
• Tentacool (Trainer's)
• Goldeen (Trainer's)
• Lapras (Trainer's)
• Gyarados (Trainer's)
• Mewtwo (M01)
• Dragonite (Mewtwo's)
• Mew (M01)
• Venusaur (cloned)
• Charizard (cloned)
• Blastoise (cloned)
• Ditto
• Drowzee
• Tentacool
• Jigglypuff
• Tentacruel
• Electabuzz
• Kangaskhan
• Tauros
• Scyther
• Articuno
• Lickitung
• Tangela
• Cubone
• Arcanine

Errors

• Ash's Pikachu defeatsGolem withThunderbolt, despite Golem being immune to Electric-type attacks.

Differences between the movie and the manga

• Inan interview with Animerica magazine, Toshihiro Ono revealed he was instructed to include Mewtwo's origin story in the manga adaptation. Since Ono only had the movie's script to work with (the original theatrical version of the movie was released approximately two months after he had begun work on the manga, with the prologue not being written before the main series hiatus and subsequent episode delays caused by theEP038 incident) and the radio dramaThe Birth of Mewtwo had not been created yet, Ono created his own original explanation of Mewtwo's origin.
• Charizardtwo, Blastoisetwo and Venusaurtwo were cloned directly from a Charizard, Blastoise and Venusaur owned byTeam Rocket Grunts. The origin of their animated series counterparts are unknown.
• Ash battlesRaymond in a city rather than in a grassy field. Raymond has a different design where he wears a baseball cap, shirt and jacket rather than a vest, bandana and holding a cutlass.
• During Ash's battle withRaymond, the match betweenAsh's Squirtle and Raymond'sMachamp doesn't occur in the manga. Instead,Pikachu defeats Machamp alongside theVenomoth,Golem andPinsir like in the movie.
• Instead of sending out invitations to Trainers it selected, Mewtwo hosts a tournament called the "CoroCoro Cup" at the Pokémon Dome and challenges its winner to a battle. After defeating him, it challenges the Trainers in attendance to visit it onNew Island in a week's time. Unlike the movie, Mewtwo steals the Pokémon of the champion rather than doing so atNew Island.
• Team Rocket explains the history ofNew Island where there used to be a Team Rocket laboratory studyingMew before an explosion occurred and that there is now a castle on New Island. Meowth is also treated as the boss of the trio where in the movie and series, the three are equals.
• Mewtwo andDr. Fuji have a closer relationship than they do in the film, with Mewtwo considering Fuji like a father.
• Mewtwo physically talks, using its mouth, instead of through telepathy.
• Dr. Fuji's motivations are different than in the movie. In the manga, he is motivated to cloneMew out of a desire for revenge against an institute he was expelled from.
• Dr. Fuji meetsMew face-to-face and befriends it, leading to his acquiring one of its eyelashes. It later leaves him when he becomes consumed by his work.
• Dr. Fuji attempts tocatch Mew using aMaster Ball in the manga. No Master Ball is featured at any point in the movie.
• Giovanni's ultimate plan is to have Dr. Fuji mass produce Mewtwo and create an army of mindless living weapons. Fuji begs Mewtwo to destroy the laboratory to prevent this and it does so, causing Fuji's death.
• Officer Jenny isn't featured in the manga, while in the movie, she is seen trying to uphold the peace atOld Shore Wharf alongsideMiranda.
• Ash andhis friends leave Old Shore Wharf on their Pokémon, whereas in the movie,Team Rocket initially offers them a lift to their destination before they capsize and are forced to swim using their Pokémon.
• Several different Trainers are featured among the many trying to reach New Island, including a girl riding herTentacool, another girl on aGoldeen, a male Trainer on aLapras, another male on aDewgong, and another Trainer with aPoliwhirl.

External links

• Summary of theMewtwo Strikes Back! manga adaptation

Related articles

This article is part ofProject Manga, aBulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each series ofPokémon manga.

• Manga
• Movie manga adaptations