BHOC: SHOGUN WARRIORS #7

I really liked the SHOGUN WARRIOR Marvel comic when I was younger. But today, I find that I can recall little about it. I remember the broad strokes of the series, the premise, the individual characters. But the specifics of any given issue haven’t stuck with me. In the case of this issue, i remembered absolutely nothing about it before cracking it open once again to write up this piece. In this way, I was perhaps like the typical comic book reader of the era, somebody who was entertained by the reading experience of this issue but for whom it was a momentary and passing thing, unlike so many other comic books in my life. And there’s nothing wrong with that, that’s really what comic books were designed in this era to be, a couple of minutes of cheap and portable entertainment for children. So let’s see what this particular issue had to offer us.

The story this month spotlighted the robot Raydeen, which isn’t all that surprising given that Raydeen’s pilot was the only American among the international cast. Richard Carson was a Hollywood stuntman who was chosen to pilot the behemoth by the Lords of Light thanks to his bravery and professional skill. At this point in the narrative, the three Shogun pilots have dispersed, each returning home separately after their adventures in recent issues. But the ongoing threat of Maur-Konn and his minions of darkness remained a going concern. Still, there was only so long that the three pilots were going to be able to put their personal lives on hold.

While the issue opens with Richard Carson being picked up at the airport by his fellow stuntperson and love interest Deena, he’s not the only pilot the story showcases. We similarly see Ilongo Savage return to the research facility he works at as a scientist in Madagascar and Genji Odashu fly back to Japan in a prototype aircraft. All three of them are sporting stylish new necklaces with pendants in the shape of keyholes that will allow them contact with the Shogun Sanctuary thousands of miles away. And elsewhere, off the coast of California, something strange and massive is stirring in the fog-enshrouded waters.

As Richard and Deena settle into their seaside bungalow, a flashback gives us the lowdown on the new pendants. Deena doesn’t quite buy into Richard’s story about giant robots and world-shaking menaces, but the next morning, the pair head out to a movie lot where they’re to perform a dangerous stunt, a motorcycle leap across a chasm of fire–something that Richard has apparently signed up to do despite not having been in the area before the previous evening. But in the meantime, not far from where the crew is shooting, the mysterious object in the sea has made landfall, revealing itself to be a massive high-tech aircraft carrier.

The craft launches a squadron of five unique flying ships, which begin to strafe the beachgoers at the surf for really no good reason whatsoever. Fortunately, Dr. Tambura has been monitoring the carrier’s approach from the Sanctuary, and he contacts Richard on set, informing him of the danger and sending his robot, Raydeen, to him by means of a teleport enabled by his pendant. Really, half of the fun of this series is seeing artist Herb Trimpe having to draw all of these bizarre craft and their weapons systems. He was never my favorite artist, his work by the late 1970s had become a bit stuff and robotic. But those attributes served him well on this series, even if the designs of the main three robots seemed to occasionally vex him.

As Raydeen appears, and Carson executes the stunt in order to get himself to the robot’s access-granting shimmer beam, the carrier pivots upright, taking on the appearance of a quasi-humanoid robotic figure itself. What’s more, its squadron of five buzzing attackers assemble themselves together to form a head for the enemy robot, which wastes no time in trying to destroy Raydeen. So we’re into the action portion of this story now. Richard brings an astonished Deena aboard Raydeen in order to keep her out of the line of fire (and to give himself somebody to talk to throughout the rest of the battle sequence.)

As the issue reaches its climax, Raydeen is able to dislodge the five-ship headpiece from the attacking carrier with his thrown concussion shield. But as Richard and Deena watch, the five ships separate and then reassemble into a different configuration–one that looks somehow even more dangerous than the first. And that’s where this issue is To Be Continued. The carrier is called Cerberus, as we learn from Doug Moench’s narrative captions, though no character ever gets to speak that name. And what it’s after or why it’s here and who is controlling it all remain a mystery to be solved next issue. Consequently, as a story this is relatively thin stuff–most of the effort seems to have been put into attempting to characterize and humanize the three pilots, particularly Richard Carson. But I totally understand why the events of this issue left my brain.