Comic Book / Shogun Warriors

Shogun Warriors is a 1978 comic book series from Marvel Comics, written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Herb Trimpe.

Although it's set in the shared Marvel Universe, the three Shogun Warriors were licensed from the eponymous Mattel toyline (and the three toys were, in turn, based on three unrelated anime series by Toei Animation, Leiji Matsumoto and Tohokushinsha). The Marvel series only uses the names and likenesses of the toys themselves, with no reference to any pre-existing plots or settings.

The Shogun Warriors - Raydeen, Combatra and Dangard Ace - are giant mecha, created centuries ago by the alien Followers of Light. The Followers have kept watch over Earth for millennia, guarding against the eventual return of Maur-Kon, a servant of darkness who fought against them in the ancient Chaos Wars.

In modern times, the eruption of a long-dormant volcano finally frees Maur-Kon, who immediately begins to create new monsters and plot world domination.

To oppose his evil, the Followers of Light have already selected three normal humans who - based on their observations - should become the best possible pilots for the Shogun Warriors.

Dangard Ace's pilot, Ilongo Savage, is an oceanographer working in Madagascar. Combatra's pilot Genji Odashu is a Japanese test pilot. Raydeen's pilot Richard Carson is an American stuntman. Between them, they must defeat Maur-Kon's creations and save the world.

However, as pilots haven't been needed for centuries, those assessments were via entirely secret observations. Until they were unexpectedly teleported to the Followers' mountain sanctuary, Odashu, Carson and Savage knew nothing about Maur-Kon, the Followers of Light or the Shogun Warriors.

Now they have twenty minutes to learn some basic piloting skills before facing their first Kaiju. Perhaps it will get easier from there.

The first issue was released November 28 1978. The series ended with issue #20, released June 3, 1980.

After the series ended, so did Marvel's licensing deal for the Shogun Warriors themselves. However, Moench wrote an epilogue in Fantastic Four a few months later, revisiting the three pilots and explaining the final fate of the robots.

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Shogun Warriors includes the following tropes:

• Adapted Out: Only three robots from the toy line were ever included in the series. All others (e.g. Poseidon, Daimos, Voltus V, Dragun and Great Mazinga) were completely written out of continuity.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: The Followers were bound by a non-intervention vow until and unless Maur-Kon rose to threaten the world again.
• All in the Manual: Captain Cymell's race are the Nanda; her assistant Sh'Bleen's a Lem. The Followers of Light are Lumina and Maur-Kon's people are the Myndai. But none of this is ever explained in the Shogun Warriors book - the species are only named later in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
• Almost Dead Guy: Towards the end of the series, Dr. Tambura, unlike the other three Followers, lives just long enough to tell the Shogun pilots what's happened to Sanctuary.
• Animated Armor: A variation. The immense alien robot Gigantauron is piloted by the Primal One's spirit (or perhaps an energy form, it's never entirely clear what he is), not by any physical crew. From what Cymell says before it launches to attack New York, it would normally require an actual physical pilot.
• Arm Cannon: Raydeen has a Great Bow integrated into one arm, although it can only be deployed when the arm's locked into position. The arrows also have a guided Pinball Projectile element, ricocheting to another four targets after the arrow explodes on contact with the first one.
• Armed Legs: Rok-Korr, in his armored form, has huge spiked wheels instead of feet. As well as crushing cities with them, he can kick them off, launching them at foes as a one-shot projectile.
• Behemoth Battle: Shogun Warriors is built on this trope. Almost every confrontation involves the robots fighting an equally huge menace. There are a handful of scenes where the pilots face danger while outside their robots, but they're very much the exception.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Maur-Kon's Mech-Monster has some sort of Ray Gun built into the tip of its tail.
• Big Bad: Maur-Kon. He's directly behind the first few plots and then, much later, he's revealed to be The Man Behind the Man for Dr. Demonicus and the Primal One.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Raydeen's Breaker-Blade is a huge knife protruding from under the buckler shield on its forearm.
• Breath Weapon:
  • Rok-Korr's second form lets him do some Dishing Out Dirt via a breath weapon that spews rocks at his foes. His final elemental forms include an earth monster which has the same ability.
  • The Mech-Monster acquires a breath weapon once it's reshaped and brought to life by Magitek.
• Chest Blaster: All three Shogun Warriors have a version of this, as do some of their enemies.
  • Combatra has a chest-ray, sometimes described as a heat ray.
  • Dangard Ace fires twin photon-spheres from its chest.
  • Raydeen launches its anti-missiles, the Screamer-Hawks, from its chest.
  • The chest spikes in Rok-Korr's armor are also missiles.
• Combat Tentacles: Rok-Korr's armored form has two. Apart from their other uses, one ends in a pincer and the other ends in a Ray Gun.
• Combining Mecha:
  • Combatra can split into five separate vehicles, with Centron robots piloting any that don't have human pilots.
    • Delta-V One is the robot's head.
    • Skyskater Two is the chest.
    • Earthmover Three is the lower torso.
    • Turbostreaker Four is the pelvis and legs.
    • Groundrover Five is the combined feet.
  • Cerberus is a Humongous Mecha with five flying vehicles that combine to form its head. They can fit together in several different combinations, each variant offering different weapons.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The alien antagonists of the final arc announce their aim to remove advanced technology from Earth. As well as the Shogun Warriors they plan to act against Doctor Doom, Tony Stark, the Fantastic Four and S.H.I.E.L.D.,
  • Reed Richards recognises Combatra as one of the Shogun Warriors and immediately compares it to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own Humongous Mecha, Red Ronin.
• Creating Life Is Unforeseen: Maur-Kon's Evil Luddite minion Lieutenant Magar is furious to see his lord relying on science rather than pure magic, so decides to steal the Mech-Monster and destroy it by Ritual Magic, offering it back to the Earth via a magical Lava Pit. Or at least that's the plan until he's interrupted, leading to an Imperfect Ritual and the Mech-Monster becoming a living Magitek creation.
• Crossover Finale: Downplayed, but the Fantastic Four are guest stars for the last two issues, playing a major role (whereas Dangard Ace and Raydeen are absent).
• Cut the Juice: A variant. Genji gets inside Gigantauron on foot and finds a large plug connecting its gyro. She simply unplugs it - and the next attack then topples the robot into the harbor.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Rok-Korr's second form has a Breath Weapon that sends a barrage of rocks against his target. One of his third forms is an Elemental Embodiment earth giant with a wider range of earth powers (including a rock-filled Hand Blast, triggering avalanches and absorbing rock and earth to grow even larger).
• Early Instalment Weirdness: In the second issue the pilots have to ride Jet-Cycles from the Shogun Sanctuary to the launch silos. The cycles are never seen again.
• Elemental Embodiment: Rok-Korr's third and final One-Winged Angel form sees him split into three different elementals, embodying earth, fire and water.
• Evil Gloating: Zig-zagged. In the final issue, Maur-Kon does his gloating alone in a room where neither the heroes nor his Unwitting Dupe can hear him, as they're preoccupied with his puppet the Primal One. And then the Invisible Girl walks in and hears him, at which point his schemes come to a very abrupt end.
• Evil Luddite: Lieutenant Magar is a traditionalist who's angry and upset when Maur-Kon starts relying on science and Magitek. In Magar's view, they should be relying on evil magic to conquer the world, not meddling with science.
• Eye Beams: Dangard Ace has eye beam lasers.
• Falling into the Cockpit: Downplayed. All three of the chosen pilots have some relevant skills, but they've never controlled a giant robot before. And a twenty-minute crash course before their first battle with a city-crushing Kaiju is not much.
• Feed It a Bomb: Dangard Ace distracts the Mech-Monster while Raydeen lines up a shot with its Great Bow, firing an explosive arrow straight down its throat. The monster doesn't survive.
  Richard Carson: Like I said: if he's too tough on the outside...
• Finger Firearms:
  • Combatra fires bullet-missiles from its fingertips. Raydeen uses this less often, but can apparently do the same.
  • As well as its individual fingertip blasters, when the 'alien force' mecha Megatron puts both hands together, palm to palm, the forefingers merge into a powerful gun which seems to have a longer range.
• Great Bow: Raydeen has a massive bow integrated as an Arm Cannon, although it doesn't look that big compared to Raydeen itself. It's normally folded away and can only be deployed when the arm is locked into position.
• Great Offscreen War: The Great Chaos Wars, in which the Followers of Light opposed Maur-Kon's ancestors. They lasted eons, we see one panel of spaceships in battle, and at the end of it Maur-Kon and his followers were entombed on earth. And that's all the detail we ever get.
• Hand Blast: Rok-Korr's Elemental Embodiment fire form can blast flames from its hands. The equivalent earth form can blast rocks and stones this way.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Almost every threat in the series can be traced back to Big Bad Maur-Kon. The first few issues have him acting against Earth directly.
  • Eventually, well after the relevant arc ends, Maur-Kon's revealed to be the patron of Doctor Demonicus.
  • In the final arc, the alien Primal One is a fake Maur-Kon controls as well, with its allied alien forces mind-controlled or manipulated by lies.
• Human Alien: The Followers of Light look, speak and act as if they were humans.
• Humongous Mecha: The titular Shogun Warriors. Some opponents, such as Cerberus, may also count, although it's rarely clear which ones are robots and which are piloted.
  • The Nightwind's alien mecha Gigantauron is much, much bigger than the Shogun Warriors. No building in Manhattan is tall enough to reach its knees.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: The Primal Ones are apparently a real race, which is why the other aliens came to the Primal One's aid. But the only one we ever meet is Maur-Kon's impersonator.
• In Name Only: Marvel only licensed the three Shogun Warriors toy names and likenesses, so there was no connection to the original anime productions the mecha are taken from.
  • Combatra has nothing else in common with Combattler V.
  • Raydeen has nothing else in common with Raideen.
  • Dangard Ace has nothing else in common with Planet Robo Danguard Ace.
• Island Base: Maur-Kon's original underground base is a Volcano Lair on a remote island, complete with a Lava Pit used for Ritual Magic. The whole island's destroyed when Magar's Summoning Ritual gets out of control
• Jumping on a Grenade: Done on a much larger scale. When a train full of explosives is about to detonate during a fight against Rok-Korr, Genji shields the blast with Combatra, knocking herself unconscious.
• Kneel, Push, Trip: Megatron can't fly, so when they fight it atop a huge hovering spaceship, Raydeen and Dangard Ace use this trick to send it plunging off the side and into the ocean below.
• Latex Perfection: A Yakuza agent manages to impersonate Savage by wearing a very convincing latex mask.
• Leader Forms the Head: When Combatra splits into separate vehicles, Genji pilots Delta-V One, the head. The others are normally piloted by robots.
• Magitek: Maur-Kon is very enthusiastic about this approach, using it for Rok-Korr. His Evil Luddite subordinate Lt. Maran thinks it's heretical and they should just stick to purely magical horrors, but accidentally creates a magitek Mech-Monster when his sabotage of a purely robotic monster goes very wrong.
• Maker of Monsters: Doctor Demonicus has created some living Kaiju alongside his Humongous Mecha. Largely averted with Maur-Kon himself, as his creatures seem to be mystical horrors that are summoned or shaped, not created from scratch (although they're sometimes fused with mechanical elements via Magitek).
• Making a Splash: One of Rok-Korr's Elemental Embodiment forms is made of water. It's able to shift between an animated flood, a storm cloud (which also enables Shock and Awe lightning strikes) and a humanoid water giant. When initially boiled to steam, it just reforms.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Dr. Tambura and the other Followers are killed by aliens just before the start of the final arc.
• Merchandise-Driven: Downplayed. Based on a line of toys, which were in turn based on the anime robots Raydeen, Combatra, and Dangard Ace,. But there's no attempt to promote the rest of the toy line and the plots are unrelated to any of the source material.
• Mile-Long Ship: Implied. Starcruiser Nightwind is clearly very, very big. We see it dwarf the Primal One's space station and Combatra. And the planet-destroying Transforming Mecha Gigantauron, which looms over New York's tallest buildings, is stored within Nightwind and notably smaller than the ship itself.
• Mind Control: The Primal One's army of alien drones were actually benevolent aliens who arrived to assist a fellow Charter member, only to fall prey to Maur-Kon's mind control. They're freed in the final issue.
• Mugging the Monster: A Soviet whaling ship, illegally hunting off the coast of Africa, gets a radar reading and prepares to harpoon another whale. It's actually a submerged Dangard Ace, and Ilongo (who's no fan of whalers) happily punches a hole in their hull.
• Mutual Kill: A variant. Rok-Korr's final form sees him split into three Elemental Embodiment giants. The Shogun Warriors bring his water and fire forms together and they lethally cancel each other.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Lieutenant Magar is an Evil Luddite who tries to prove that his leader, Maur-Kon, should have focused solely on magic rather than science or Magitek. His summoning ritual backfires when the sacrifice (Genji) escapes at the last minute, destroying Maur-Kon's Volcano Lair and the entire island it's hidden beneath.
• No Endor Holocaust: Downplayed. Gigantauron is huge. Really huge. If it had proper ankles, the tallest buildings in Manhattan would just about reach them. It's big enough that when it topples into the harbor, it's still almost entirely above the waterline while lying prone. And yet the only impact of that collapse is a big wave lifting boats at the docks. When it's later lifted out by tractor beam, there seems to be no impact at all.
• No Seat Belts: The pilots aren't strapped into their command chairs and occasionally go flying across the room when their robot takes a hit. Genji seems to get the worst of this - she's left unconscious on the floor after Combatra ends up Jumping on a Grenade, then gets catapulted through the windscreen when Delta-V One crashes.
• Off with His Head!: Raydeen ends the first battle with Rok-Korr by decapitating him with the Breaker Blade, revealing that his neck is mechanical, not flesh. Unfortunately, he then sheds his armor and robotic elements, reforming and rising up again in an even larger One-Winged Angel form.
• One-Winged Angel: Once Rok-Korr's tentacled cyborg form is defeated, his body melts and then reforms into a much larger humanoid form without the mechanical elements. For his third and final form, he divides into three different Elemental Embodiments - earth, fire and water.
• Only the Chosen May Pilot: Averted, which is only notable because Savage, Odashu and Carson are the chosen ones, which is why the Followers teleported them in as a Falling into the Cockpit move, mere minutes before their first mission. Later stories show that anyone can potentially pilot a Shogun Warrior - including Big Bad Maur-Kon, a Yakuza infiltrator and members of the Fantastic Four.
• Out of Focus:
  • Dr. Tambura is the main spokesperson for the four Followers, so we see very little of Charn, and even less of Basque and Sherna. Following the same logic, he ends up in the role of Almost Dead Guy, whereas the other three are Killed Offscreen.
  • Combatra is the only one of the three Shogun Warriors to take part in the final storyline, as all of the pilots travel to Manhattan in a single robot.
• Pinball Projectile: Raydeen's exploding arrows become these after they detonate, with a guided warhead potentially striking another four targets.
• Playing with Fire: Rok-Korr's Elemental Embodiment forms include a fiery giant, complete with a flaming Hand Blast, the ability to become a fireball projectile, and the ability to disperse and reform its flames.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: It's not used much, but Raydeen's shield converts into a boomerang when thrown at an enemy.
• Remote Body:
  • The Followers of Light can remote control the Shogun Warriors, and have historically used this for testing, but the limited range and other restrictions mean this isn't suitable for combat in the field.
  • Maur-Kon's Mech-Monster can initially be guided by a handheld remote control. But that's before the dark magic gets mixed with the technology...
• Resign in Protest: In the final issue the alien Captain Cymell does this after her To Be Lawful or Good dilemma, when she can no longer tolerate the Primal One's plans for Earth. Based on her final comments, the resignation still stands after the Primal One is uncovered as Maur-Kon's puppet and Maur-Kon is arrested.
• Rocket Punch: Dangard Ace's hand detaches for a rocket punch, as does Combatra's.
• Rollerblade Good: Rok-Korr, in his armored form, has huge spiked wheels instead of feet. He can also kick them off, launching them at foes as a one-shot projectile.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Maur-Kon and his followers were in suspended animation, sealed within their underground base for many centuries, until a volcanic eruption frees them shortly before the first issue.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: Guest star Reed Richards finds a self-destruct lever on the huge alien starship Nightwind, then threatens to use it unless the crew stand down and let Combatra and the Fantastic Four confront the Primal One.
• Shock and Awe: An unusual side efffect of Rok-Korr's Elemental Embodiment water form is that he can form storm clouds and then call down lightning.
• Shoulder Cannon: Maur-Kon's Mech-Monster is a variant. It's not in a bipedal humanoid form, but still has front-firing cannons on its shoulders.
• Shout-Out: Unsurprisingly, oceanographer Ilongo Savage names Cousteau as his idol.
• Siege Engines: Combatra's Groundrover Five includes what's essentially a siege catapult, able to hurl huge spheres of earth and rock.
• The Starscream: Lieutenant Magar is a principled version. He's a loyal believer in the cause, but he's also an Evil Luddite and Maur-Kon's belief in science and Magitek offends him. Magar sincerely believes that evil magic should be their only weapon.
  • That said, his first treacherous attempt at Ritual Magic accidentally creates a Magitek monster from the mech he's trying to melt down and sacrifice.
  • His second attempt, which involves sacrificing Genji in a Summoning Ritual, calls up an animated lake of magma. When Genji escapes it seeks the nearest living sacrifice and turns on Magar instead - and when he flees it cascades through Maur-Kon's lair, destroying the entire island.
• Summoning Ritual: Magar tries to summon up some sort of evil spirit via the Lava Pit in Maur-Kon's Volcano Lair, offering Genji as a sacrifice. When she escapes the ritual goes wrong and it tries to consume Magar himself.
• Super Drowning Skills: Not actually drowning, but alien robot Megatron doesn't fly and is far too heavy to swim or float. Dangard Ace and Raydeen can't directly beat it, but when it's standing atop a huge spaceship hovering over the ocean, they end the brawl with a Kneel, Push, Trip and send it over the side. It sinks like a stone and the next issue confirms it's destroyed.
• Super Robot Genre: Brightly colored giant robots built in secret with alien technology. Piloted by the chosen ones and defending earth from magical evil. And with only a handful of action scenes that involve the heroes outside their mecha.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Ilongo and Genji are both subtly poisoned by the Yakuza agent who's impersonating Richard Carson. The nerve agent in their meal isn’t enough to sicken them, as that might give him away, but it’s intended to slow them down if they're trying to pilot their Warriors and fight him.
• Third-Person Person: Megatron always talks about itself this way.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: It's not used this way much, but Raydeen's shield converts into a boomerang when thrown at foes.
• To Be Lawful or Good: The alien Captain Cymell faces this dilemma. The Charter decrees that she must aid the Primal One, but she's extremely uncomfortable with his violent approach to Earth. She eventually chooses to stand by her principles, stop aiding him and Resign in Protest.
• Track Trouble: Rok-Korr destroys a railway bridge just as a train loaded with explosives is approaching. Raydeen manages to stop the train just in time.
• Transforming Mecha: Raydeen transforms into the Firebird jet, the fastest flyer of any of the Warriors. Dangard Ace transforms into the Dreadnought Titan. Combatra is the one exception - it's a Combining Mecha instead.
• Truly Single Parent: At one point Genji notes that there are only four remaining Followers of Light, three of them male, and asks about their future generations. Dr. Tambura reassures her that they rely on parthenogenesis and science, so this won't be a problem.
• Uncertain Doom: Lieutenant Magar is last seen after his Summoning Ritual goes awry and animated magma destroys Maur-Kon's base and the whole island it's beneath. Even Maur-Kon is uncertain whether Magar survived the disaster.
• Volcano Lair: Maur-Kon's original underground base is an Island Base with a volcano, complete with a Lava Pit used for Ritual Magic. It's destroyed when Magar's Summoning Ritual gets out of control.
• Writing Around Trademarks: Although Marvel also had a licence to adapt Godzilla at the same time, and both are set in the Marvel Universe, they couldn't (or possibly just didn't want to) name him in Shogun Warriors, although they do list some of the Kaiju he killed.
• You Are Not Ready: The line used by the aliens who kill the Followers and destroy the Sanctuary. They're willing to let the pilots live if they leave the Shogun Warriors behind. They also mention that they plan to kill Doctor Doom, Tony Stark, the Fantastic Four and S.H.I.E.L.D., for the same reasons.
• You Just Ruined the Shot: A variant, as the cameras weren't actually rolling yet. When initially teleported to the Sanctuary, Carson tells the Followers that they may think they just saved him from a car crash, but they'd actually just ruined a stunt rehearsal he'd been working on.

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