Before Power Rangers there was Voltron, before Voltron there were... Shogun Warriors

[icon_uk]

Well, alright, before Voltron there were a lot of things; Superman, trees, disco, the Holy Roman Empire, but as far as we're concerned, Shogun Warriors is the thing to focus on (We have our priorities right on scans_daily!)



Approximately six pages each, from two eighteen-page stories from 1979/80


Back in the late 1970's Marvel formed a deal with Japan's Toei entertainment. The most well known benefit that Toei got was the (in)famous Spider-Man live action show... insert obligatory video link....

Watch on YouTube

Also (apparently), the sentai show, "Battle Fever J" was originally intended to be a Captain America themed series

Watch on YouTube

Oh what might have been....

But what, you ask, did Marvel get in return?

Well, strangely it got the rights to the characters from; "Wakusei Robo Danguard Ace", "Chōdenji Robo Combattler V" and "Yūsha Raidīn" and promptly put them in a comic, set in the mainstream Marvel Universe, which didn't use any of the concepts except "HONKING BIG ROBOTS!!!"... and who can blame them

Simply put three people are recruited by a mysterious group known as "The Followers of the Light" to serve as pilots for three honking big robots to defend Earth against an ancient enemy...

From Madagascar, marine biologist Ilongo Savage, pilot of Dangard Ace
From America, stuntman Richard Carson, pilot of Raydeen
From Japan, test pilot Genji Odashu, pilot of Combatra

So we have two guys, one gal, and of the three we have one African, one Caucasian and one Japanese... and they say Captain Planet was an ethnic balance! Actually, that's rather admirable, especially considering we're dealing with 1978 here... and is, already, more ethnically mixed than pretty much 35 years of super-sentai and giant robot shows.

There are a number of issues I could post from, but I'm focussing on only one story because it features my favourite of the three robots, and one of my all time favourite monster designs... It's simple, it's striking, it's insane and it's frelling AWESOME!

Meet... THE HAND OF FIVE!



Look at it.... it's a hand... a giant flying hand... a giant flying hand with DRAGON HEADS FOR FINGERS! I can't express how much I loved this as a kid, and I still love it now! (I hope Jack Kirby saw this because it's the kind of thing he'd have adored!)

For the past few issues the male Shogun Warrior pilots have been facing down against strange assailants that seem to have come out of nowhere and end up vanishing again. Raydeen fought Cerberus, and Dangard Ace fought the Starchild, and now it's Combatra's turn (Note that the names are only assigned by the pilots, none of the monsters could talk)

This "thing" has just shown up in Japan, apparently looking for Genji. She summons Combatra from it's secret location in the base of the Followers of the Light but before she can get reach the anti-gravity "shimmer tube" which runs from the cockpit in the head to the ground. (No Power Ranger style leaping into the Zords for the Shogun Warriors) the Hand launches it's first, and most obvious attack, well it IS a giant fist!



I like her, she thinks fast, she adapts, and she doesn't panic. Nice!

We now discover the major gimmick of Combatra... and why it was called Combattler V in Japan... It's a portmanteau term and a pun, combining Combine, Combat, Battle and the notion of 5 ("V" in Roman numerals)




Yup, years before the terms "Voltron", "Transformer Gestalt" and "Megazord" meant anything to the West, Combatra was leading the trend in robots that could split into multiple vehicles! (For completists, the head module which Genji pilots is "Delta V One")

The Hand digs itself a crater with the impact, but not for long...



But not to worry, they're making their own way out via five tunnels they've drilled... It's not just the robots that can split you know...



And now imagine this next page as envisaged by Roland Emmerich with a Hollywood budget!



It'd be cool, wouldn't it? :)

In the next page we meet, briefly, Kosei Ono, Genji's lawyer and one of her best friends. (Not boyfriend though)



Note - Genji appears to have taken the time to change into her flight suit as opposed to civvies, a snesible move, but exactly when she had time to do it is a question for the ages...



Give him his due, he adapts to his own peril rather well, not even thinking twice about grabbing the tow ring with saves his life, and then letting go at a point where he won't become street sushi.



And so, more or less, ends Part 1... with downtown Tokyo menaced by a giant monster and a humungous robot/battle vehicles about to threw down for Part 2.



Yeah, BODYSLAM the giant hand!!



Yay, it's the Japanese military, who always help so much in such situation, especially when they don't actually know which is the goodie and which is the baddie. If in doubt, shoot them both, that'll help the situation... not.



Alas, the Hand takes advantage of the situation to put Combatra into a one-handed (obviously) headlock... But Combatra can fire compressed air jets from it's navel... sort of, and that dislodges the Hand...




Bet Godzilla duty is starting to look pretty good about now, right guys? (Actually, neither Godzilla (Which Marvel also had the rights for), nor their homegrown giant robot warrior Red Ronin, show up in Shogun Warriors, which seems a little contrary.

So it's battle time again as Combatra splits again...



And Genji has an idea, and that means she has a plan too....






And alas, that's all I can post from the issue. This isn't the last we saw of Hand of Five, as it' along with it's fellow monsters show up when the villain behind them, the magnificently named Doctor Demonicus, shows his hand, but it didn't have such an impressive showing then. Alas.

Interested in seeing some more Shogun Warriors, or was this enough for you?

Comments

[speedingtortoise]

I want a giant flying robotic snake finger hand thing!

[icon_uk]

Don't we all?

[greenmask]

I certainly wouldn't say no.

[icon_uk]

Just be sure to get the extended warranty, and download the regular security patches.

[greenmask]

Oh, I'll mostly be just sitting on it in the garden. But thanks for the tips!

[icon_uk]

Funny you should say that, it reminds me of the old sci-fi strip in "The Dandy", "Jack Silver", about an alien schoolkid and his human best friend, who were sometimes accompanied on their adventures by an eight-foot tall robotic hand (with two thumbs) mounted on a gyroscopic bearing, called the FizzFist.

[greenmask]

I love British comics.

[majingojira]

They must be switching enemies up, because that 5 headed monster, Gante, is a Raideen foe.

It is quite sad that the Shogun Warriors never fought Godzilla or nothin' like that. That would have been awesome.

[icon_uk]

Do you have an image? I had no idea the Hand of Five had a precedent.

[majingojira]

I just went and took these screenshots for this. Raideen pics are hard to come by.

[icon_uk]

VERY nifty! Many thanks!

I think I prefer the Kirby-tech-ness of the Hand of Five, but Gante is pretty cool too.

[majingojira]

It's got a lot of whacky powers and apparently gets re-made into a "Mecha-Gante".

Gante's actually a psuedo-living thing. A "Fossil Beast" of demonic energy and animated stone.

[ninjapeps]

I knew I'd seen that hand thing in Super Robot Wars but I didn't have a clue which series it was actually a part of.

[dorksidefiker]

Yes, but is Shogun Warriors getting a new series starting in June?


I'd like to see more of this series, though. Looks interesting.

[icon_uk]

Yes, but is Shogun Warriors getting a new series starting in June?

I have no idea, has there been an actual indication of such?

[dorksidefiker]

http://nicktoons.nick.com/shows/voltron-force

[icon_uk]

Awwww... I knew about Voltron Force, I thought you meant Marvel had announced a new comic series of the Shogun Warriors...

[dorksidefiker]

I was refering to the bit at the top, with the whole "Before" yadda yadda yadda.

[icon_uk]

Honestly, you slave away at an entry for a full hour, and all they remember is "yadda yadda yadda"...

Sigh... rassafrassin kids these days.

;)

[cypherfdp]

Nickelodeon gets cooler every day, first Power Rangers now Voltron.

[icon_uk]

Ummm... have you SEEN Power Rangers Samurai? Not sure I'd call it "cool", the acting is diabolical, and the Zords have to be my least favourite in years.

[cypherfdp]

Ummm... have you SEEN Power Rangers Samurai?

Well, uh... No I haven't actually, mostly out of spite for the Ninja Storm casting flashbacks of NON-JAPANESE GUY IN JAPANESE THEMED ROLE.

[icon_uk]

At least Ninja Storm HAD Japanese guys as Rangers in the form of Cam and Blake.

[cypherfdp]

It's not really the Sixth Ranger roles I'm thinking, we've had three black Red Rangers, a Polynesian, and more Caucasian Red Rangers than you can count on two hands, and possibly a Hispanic Red Ranger if you count the A-Team in SPD, but the one time there's a Samurai themed sentai with the chance to make up for Ninja Storm, BOOM! White Red Ranger!

[icon_uk]

Blake was Fourth Ranger :)

True, true, and Samurai is actually worse than that as apparently the current Rangers are indeed direct descendants of the original Samurai Rangers from the past. Boy, those guys clearly got around!

[thanekos]

At least Ricardo Medina's rendition ofcrazy sword guy provides much unintentional hilarity.

[thanekos]

Well, the Hand does it better than Gigatron ever did.

(Though combining with your own base is pretty cool..)

[calvision]

wheeere has this been all my life

This is the kind of thing I would be reading under the table as a kid, whenever my mom would be looking for me to start homework.

[bjornwilde]

This comic and the Godzilla one is what got me into comics in the place. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[icon_uk]

It's what we're here for! :)

[joasakura]

apropos of nothing, I actually choked on my drink when I read your intro to this and I got to "trees, disco, the Holy Roman Empire."

XD Well played, sir.

[darkblade]

Well actually before Shogun Warriors there was...Spida-Man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcxioU7AMM4

Incidently his mecha in that opening would later be part of the Shogun Warriors toyline. No idea if it ever made it to the comic.

[darkblade]

Well that will teach me to only read the pre-cut text and then skip right to the scans...

[avantre]

It'd be tough being in a school reunion with someone like this:

Person A: ...and over the past few years my surgery has saved over a hundred lives. I'm still paying off those medical degree loans though. How about you?

Person B: I don't want to boast but after completing my law degree I've been responsible for more than one murder prosecution since we left school. And how about you, Genji?

Genji: Oh, the usual sort of thing. Piloted a 50 foot tall giant mecha that can split into 5 varied and amazing combat vehicles, of which 4 are piloted by my loyal robot crew. Saved the city and its millions of inhabitants a few times, and just finished a robot in the shape of a giant hand with serpent heads instead of fingers.

Person A: Damn it Genji, why do you always have to try and one up us!?

[nezchan]

Oh gods, I had those issues! They were among the prizes of my collection as a kid, and read over and over again. Thanks for posting them!

[remial]

I had every issue except for #18 when I was a kid. I've read them all so many times they have fallen apart, and I still have fond memories of the series, and wish they would come back.

and while Godzilla and Red Ronin never showed up in the comic, Red Ronin is mentioned in issue 14.

[tpsreports]

Wasn't there a Shogun Warriors/Avengers crossover that involved the serpent crown?