BHOC: SHOGUN WARRIORS #4

The 1970s were a tough time for comic books. The mainstream Newsstand circulation business was shrinking and changing as a result of rising competition and population migration, and comic books with their low cover prices didn’t bring in enough revenue to compete for the space–especially as most kids began spending more of their time and money on alternate forms of entertainment such as television. Accordingly, for most of the decade, publishers scrambled around trying all sorts of things hoping to find a new approach that would bring readers back to comics. One approach was to do comic books based on toy properties–I suspect the overwhelming success of STAR WARS made this seem like a rich vein (despite that being primarily a film) and so Marvel in particular was aggressive during this period in snapping up and trying out assorted toy properties. Some of these worked out extremely well, others faded quickly.

SHOGUN WARRIORS was one of these attempts. It was based on a toy line of imports, taking existing toy designs and tooling from Japan for a number of different “super robot” shows and rebranding them all under the umbrella name of SHOGUN WARRIORS or sale in the United States. The toys are well-remembered by those who bought them at the time, but they were only ever a middling seller and didn’t last long. The same can be said about the Marvel adaptation of the property, which notched a 20-issue run before coming to an end. Writer Doug Moench was given the task of providing a context and a background to the assorted giant robots, and Bullpen mainstay Herb Trimpe, who had worked with Doug to originate the similar giant robot Red Ronin in GODZILLA, handled the artwork.

The thing about most of the licensed comics that Marvel did at this time was that they were treated no differently than the rest of the line. In fact, they were often integrated into the shared continuity of the Marvel Universe, allowing other Marvel heroes to show up as guest-stars or villains. Accordingly, at least in my small friend group of comic book readers, we didn’t differentiate between this book and anything else Marvel was publishing. We may have subconsciously known that it was a toy license, but that didn’t make it feel any less like a legitimate Marvel comic to us. And it was one of those books that pretty much everybody bought, at least for a while. Perhaps that’s down to just the fundamental appeal of piloting a giant robot for a kid.

I don’t think that anybody can make the argument that SHOGUN WARRIORS was a deep comic book, but it was a lot of fun and it took its somewhat-absurd premise seriously, delivering reliable Marvel-style thrills and adventure. This fourth issue opens with the three Shogun pilots training, going over video of their previous battles and learning the additional capabilities of their various robots and how they might have dealt with each threat more easily. It’s worth mentioning, I think, that Doug and Herb really seemed to have a preference for Combatra (Combattler V in Japan) and tended to feature the five-in-one robot more than the other two.

Meanwhile, the series’ big villain Maur-Kon, the head of a sorcerous cabal, has been continuing to experiment with technology, much to the dismay of some of his more faithful followers. After his scientists unveil their newest creation, one of those true believers, Magar, considering it a blasphemy, tries to destroy the thing by sinking it into an enchanted lava pool. This being comics, it of course transforms the Mech-Monster into a living monstrous entity, but one still possessing all of its former firepower. With its creators now unable to stop it, the Mech-Monster smashes out of the villain’s hidden base and embarks on a destructive frenzy.

Meanwhile, Combatra’s pilot Genji Odashu (who also seemed to be Moench and Trimpe’s favorite) has taken her robot out for a night test flight to try out some of the robot’s combat capabilities that she’s only just learned about. But before she can run through her test paces, Genji sees flames and destruction in the distance and heads over to discover the rampaging Mech-Monster. She calls back into Sanctuary Base for back-up, but it’s clear that she’s going to have to engage this creature with Combatra on her own.

As her two fellow pilots scramble to launch Dangard Ace and Raydeen to assist, Genji and Combatra engage the Mech-Monster. And the issue climaxes as Genji for the first time engage’s Combatra’s capability to split itself into five separate drone-controlled attack vehicles. And as the five units attempt to contain the Mech-Monster, that’s where the story is To Be Continued. It’s a perfectly solid and decently-crafted ten minutes’ of entertainment, but nothing that was really going to stick with any reader for any length of time. Still, I liked the book, and I wound up reading it all teh way to the end.