GalaXic Baseball League
Writer/artist: Acky Bright
Editor: Sasaki Hisashi
Publisher: Viz MediaJune 2026
Baseball and comics, and their fans, have more in common than either party realize or would be willing to admit. From the rabid collectors of merchandise to the friendly rivalries between teams, they foster similar levels of passion. Another one of those similarities is that for years now, both industries have been asking the same question: “How do we get more young people into this hobby?” And both have turned to Japanese manga for the answer. For comics, it’s been chasing the digest-size format and searching for artists who can tap into the visuals that have drawn in readers from across the globe. Major League Baseball decided to go right to the source, teaming up with Viz Media and manga artist Acky Bright to develop an original series featuring the likenesses of some of the biggest players in baseball. The first volume is available to read on Viz’s website and app now, with a print edition to follow in October 2026.
GalaXic Baseball Leagueis set a thousand or so years in the future when baseball has gone intergalactic. The league’s birth planet, called Gaia in the far future, has long become a joke in the league, and is at risk of being cut out entirely if they keep on losing. The meager human athletes are no match for the superpowered aliens and giant robots that make up the GXBL. But Gaia’s hopes and prayers for a competitive team might soon be answered. A desperate young woman named Luna, recently ousted as CEO of her megacorporation, has been given an ultimatum: make Gaia’s GXBL team a winner and prove her management skills and she can take her job back. With the help of Gaian superfan Sol, the team’s new mascot, she travels back in time to collect some of the greatest baseball players players of the 21st century.
On its face, plugging in real MLB players into a co-branded scifi manga is patently absurd. But it actually makes a fair bit of sense. MLB has, for the last few years, been chasing ways to expand its brand across the globe, with annual exhibition games in different countries, including a season-opening Tokyo series. And the current face of baseball is Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani, who helped lead the LA Dodgers to two World Series championships. Ohtani is a sensation—as much as I hate to compliment anyone associated with the Dodgers organization—and probably the greatest player in the game since Babe Ruth. Ohtani himself is also a noted manga fan. His teammates have commented that he never goes on a roadtrip without a comic in hand. (What are his favorite manga? Popversehas the scoop). He’s a natural ambassador for both baseball and manga and, no surprise, he is one of the featured players in the series. Manga has a long history of sports and tournament themed series, and this goofy, action packed intergalactic baseball series fits right into that tradition.
It’s a weird comic, to be sure, but it’s also an unmitigated delight. Bright’s work is dynamic and full of energy, with expressive characters and outlandish designs. The baseball scenes are a blast, particularly the superpowered opening match-up. The book begins with an over-the-top explosive game between fish-like aliens who can create giant disembodied hands to field the ball and charge up their pitches, and a team of massive robots who can swing three bats at once. It’s classic shonen-style, explosive action the likes of which you’d see in Dragon Ball or One Piece.
I can also safely say that the book’s effort to “appeal to the young crowd” is paying off for both the medium and the sport. My son, who just turned 5, is a huge baseball fan who lives and breathes the Philadelphia Phillies. We simply cannot find enough outlets for his fandom. The inclusion of 4x All-Star and 2x National League homerun leader Kyle Schwarber in this series was enough to sell him on it. One of my favorite rituals right now is reading comics with him at bedtime, particularly as his interests expand. Recently he’s gotten big into SHAZAM! and the Green Lantern Legacybooks by Minh Le and Andy Tong. We spent last year devouring each volume of IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog.But western comics are still quite inflexible in what types of genres they publish and sports comics, even big, high-concept, action-adventure ones like this, have no place in the direct market. And comics that the whole family can read? Forget about it. They’re few and far between. So while the boy enjoys the occasional superhero comic, his true love remains baseball, and this is a perfect pairing for him.
It’s a testament to Acky Bright’s storytelling and drawing that his intentions and visuals are so clearly readable on the page. Even to a youngster reading the book, Bright’s dynamic motion lines and the impact of the bat all read as the characters moving super fast and with incredible power. The characterization is also super clear. When Luna’s wacky plan to kidnap a bunch of baseball players is revealed, Bright gives almost a full page to a closeup of her giant mischievous grin. “That girl is creepy,” was the immediate reaction. Spot on! Bright also has an impeccable sense of scale, balancing intimate close-up portraits and long, faraway shots to showcase the scope and size of the action. A two-page splash of Luna’s ship appearing over a baseball field is appropriately imposing, with a stunning level of detail.
What grants the series extra charm is the way it incorporates the real players. Granted, they are mostly cameos, at least in this first volume, but these serious athletes have allowed themselves to be depicted in a playful way that humanizes these larger than life icons. They are goofy and unassuming, each with distinct personalities in how they react to the strangeness around them and how they carry themselves. They’re only in a handful of pages toward the end, but my son and I reread those and he had fun pointing out who each of the players were.
To embrace the language of the game: GalaXic Baseball Leagueis a home run. It may not have a whole lot of emotional or thematic depth, but this is pure fun escapism and a great time. Whether you’re a baseball superfan like my kid or just someone looking for an entertaining action adventure comic, there’s plenty to enjoy here
