In the years to come, anime would become an important part of my life. Through anime fandom, I would meet some of my closest lifelong friends, and also develop the skills that allowed me to succeed during my internship at Marvel Comics. But in 1979, all of that lay ahead of me. I had no particular awareness of anime at the time (though I had obsessively watched GIGANTOR and SPEED RACER when I was a very young child.) So SHOGUN WARRIORS #3 was kind of my introduction to a bunch of concepts, bastardized as they were from their original Japanese sources. I found this comic book at a supermarket that my family didn’t typically frequent, and bought it seemingly on a whim. But I liked it, and continued to collect the entirety of the series.
SHOGUN WARRIORS was a line of toys released in late 1978 by Mattel. They included an assortment of robots and vehicles all licensed from Japan–the toys themselves were effectively the same versions as what had been made available overseas. What didn’t come over was the backstory–and that’s no wonder, as the SHOGUN line mixed and matched robots and concepts from a dozen different disparate shows, not all of which were owned by the same people in Japan. Consequently, Mattel had to come up with their own backstory for these giant robots, and they turned to Marvel Comics to help do just that. James Clavel’s novel SHOGUN was a huge hit during this period and brought that word into the common lexicon–so Mattel appropriated it for their line of toys. They also changed the names of a couple of them–Combattler V became Combatra, Danguard Ace became Dangard Ace and Raideen became Raydeen.
The series was assigned to two Marvel mainstays and proved to bea good fit for both of them. I don’t know that writer Doug Moench had any particular love for giant robots as a genre, but he treated his scripts for SHOGUN WARRIORS with the same seriousness that he would any other Marvel assignment. As a result, they felt as though they fit into the larger Marvel Universe, despite the fact that it would only be at the very end of the run that Marvel heroes would begin to intersect with the Shoguns. Artist Herb Trimpe’s Jack Kirby-inspired style was always somewhat blocky, but that meant that he was seemingly at ease with drawing the complex heroic robots that the book required. I wasn’t always a fan of Trimpe’s work, but on SHOGUN WARRIORS, what he did fit well.
All that said, SHOGUN WARRIORS wasn’t a very complex series at all. It was a toy tie-in, with a simple conflict built into it. A trio of young people–oceanographer Ilongo Savage, stuntman Richard Carson and pilot Genji Odashu are recruited by the Followers of the Light to be the pilots of a trio of giant robots designed to defend the planet against their rivals, the Myandi, or Followers of Dark. The Followers had defeated the Myrandi centuries ago, sealing them off inside a volcano, but they’ve now broken free, and led by Maur-Kon, they intend to complete their dreams of global domination aided by massive Kaiju-style monsters they’ve developed. The good guys were good, the bad guys were bad, the conflict between them was direct and not overly complicated.
What SHOGUN WARRIORS really was at its core was a fight comic, and so most issues were dedicated to lengthy battles between the three Shoguns and Maur-Kon’s assorted forces. For whatever reason, Moench seemed to prefer writing about Genji, and so as the title went along, she and Combatra tended to dominate both the narrative and the action. Which is fine by me, as Combattler V is a thoroughly awesome “combiner robot.” I mean, just look at this monster:
This third issue completes the Shogun’s baptism of fire, as they are forced to combat a trio of elemental creatures unleashed by Maur-Kon despite not having been properly trained in the use of their robots. In doing so, they’ve given Maur-Kon the idea that, in this new era, science may by a more potent force that the sorcery that he and his allies use. Consequently, he turns his attentions towards constructing a scientific monster to destroy his three new enemies, despite the misgivings of his underling Magar, who sees this as a blasphemy.
And so the issue closes out with Maur-Kon getting to see the new creation of his Techno-Mages: The Mech Monster, a giant insect-based robotic monster that will clash with the Shoguns next issue. But Magar isn’t happy with this development at all, and so he schemes to trip up his ruler and to perhaps take his place at the top of the evil org-chart. Hey, what can you expect when your organization is overtly dedicated to the cause of evil, hey? As I said at the top, I enjoyed this issue quite a bit, and so SHOGUN WARRIORS got added to my ongoing buy-pile for teh next two years or so.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Who would have thought back then, decades later we would get to see a live action distant cousin version of this in 2013’s Pacific Rim. I enjoyed this series too. Human controlled giant robots fighting giant monsters, what’s not to like.
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What I noticed in the Combattler V anime is it had 5 human operators ( Like in the 2017 Power Rangers film — which I watched when it came on TV. Never watched the TV series ) vs. Marvel’s Shogun Warriors which had 1 human operator per robot or Red Ronin.
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Timely Comics had similar giant robots created by a Nazi scientist called Metal Men ( 7 of them ) used to attack Atlantis ( but their mission was to kill Namor ) [ Marvel Mystery Comics#41 ( March 1943 ) Adolf Hitler, Goebbles, Goehring, Admiral von Roeder, Captain Kessler, Karl & others members of a Nazi robot squad ( Metal Men and their operators all dead ) ].
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I don’t know why I’ve never read Shogun Warriors, when I’m a big fan of the anime series that became Force Five a few years later, and made it to Britain in some dubiously-legal but great fun video tapes a few more years after that. I really must check out the comic some time…
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I sadly only had a couple issues back in the time and was never able to get any of the figures, although I did have Hand Action Godzilla with Flame Flicking Tongue as I called it.
Did finally get all the issues over the years, Same with the Godzilla comic. (We did a pod about the Godzilla comic a couple years ago when Minus One came out)
Tom, have these ever been reprinted? I know Godzilla was at some point.
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I don’t think these have been reprinted yet. The Godzilla series is getting reprinted in one omnibus in October 2024: https://www.amazon.com/GODZILLA-ORIGINAL-MARVEL-YEARS-OMNIBUS/dp/1302958755
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“I don’t know that writer Doug Moench had any particular love for giant robots as a genre, but he treated his scripts for SHOGUN WARRIORS with the same seriousness that he would any other Marvel assignment.”
At the time, I felt like Moench had two settings: The “sophisticated” setting, on MASTER OF KUNG FU and horror stories and the like, and the “fun” setting, where he did straightforward knockabout action. SHOGUN WARRIORS was no MOKF, but it, like GODZILLA, was a solid, fun book that was more aimed at younger readers.
I liked both, but it did feel like he was working a lot harder on MOKF.
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SHOGUN WARRIORS never grabbed me. This may reflect that only a few mecha anime have ever worked for me.
The series was the first to introduce me to the Yakuza crime syndicate though it would be years before I learned how to pronounce it.
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Anime and giant robot shows never appealed to me but I loved Shogun Warriors! Moench took the writing seriously enough to fit tonally with the line in general and Trimpe did some of his best work art-wise.
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Dan Green was a very good inker for Trimpe. It was almost like how his work looked when inked by John Severin..
Your next post features Conan #1.
It always surprises me how much Trimpe and Windsor-Smiths work resembled each other early on (say 1969-71).
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Sometimes I think Dan Green was a good inker for everyone.
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Really liked his inks over JRJr’s mid-80’s Uncanny X-Men. Silvestri’s Late 80’s Uncanny X-Men, then Silvestri’s Wolverine. Over Byrne’s handful of late 70’s Avengers. An issue of J. Buscema’s Wolverine. Ron Garney’s (& your) “JLA”. Not on Klaus Janson’s Wolverine, though; I only like Janson inking his own drawing.
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Dan Green was the JRjr inker who did the best job on character’s hair, right? I remember one inker especially skilled at that because I always believed that horrible haircut JRjr eventually gave Rogue was a challenge to that inker to try to make that look good as everyone else’s hair. (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj81Lzs3BRZak9oSrlYb-jDvKN5q3yRcTegb4TT5sf4evgbHIwWOPDQfiyszoimfRqEMU3r3WrYw8OlIohtTA-zg3xVmvB-2DzALQgDEhNcfwEUTHfBhGkAUsh5bFnwmfhmt6evX-JDDDo/s320/Rogue.png)
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Though his work was always complete and consistent I don’t think he was a particularly good fit on Perez or Colan….. but I think he looked good on Byrne, Trimpe, Romita Jr, Ditko, and Infantino.
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Why did Marvel (Moench?) have Combatra and Dangard Ace instead of the 3 Mattel robots — why not Mazinger and Dragun? Did Nagai Go object and force Marvel to swap it out? I think that later Mattel issued other Shogun Warriors — but the initial three were Raydeen…and Mazinger and Dragun. I don’t think Combatra and Dangard Ace were even in the original smaller die-cast metal robots. ???
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We were pretty fascinated by the toys, but we only had Rayden either because of availability or money. I remember reading an issue of Shogun Warriors, and guess I wasn’t crazy about it, because we didn’t keep buying it. Probably a case of superhero comics being the only comics to me at the time.
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