Retro Review: Shogun Warriors #1

STORY

For this month’s retro review I’m sticking with the 70s and another childhood favorite of mine with Shogun Warriors. I’m a bigtime kaiju and mecha fan from way back so it’s no surprise that I would gravitate toward this book like a mosquito after blood. The book was published back in 1978 and was likely a tie in with the mega sized toys that I enjoyed back then.

Issue 1 starts off with a bang getting us right into the action as the giant mecha Raydeen battles the cyborg monster Rok-Korr. Its a nice way to start off a new series, diving right into some action mixed with some exposition to let us know that there are three main characters piloting the robot even if we don’t get to physically see them yet. It generates instant interest before the story moves into the actual origin of these events in the pages following this introduction. It also sets up the idea that will be prevalent in this series of giant monsters vs giant robots and that our heroes are completelu inexperience and barely prepared for the battle they are fighting, so already this issue has some real stakes as the heroes defend a city from the rampaging beast.

It turns out that our pilots of the mighty Raydeen are Genj, a femal Japanese pilot, Ilongo, a male Africa marine scientist and Richard, a make American stunt driver. Again note that this comic was published in the 70s and yet sports a diverse cast of heroes as were the second generation of the X-Men and other heroes as well. I mention this to show that Marvel has a long history of pushing these social boundaries in an organic way. This sort of trend would later be seen in the following decade with properties like Captain Planet.

The comic is a bit oversimplified in some ways to get the first issue moving with some real speed and the heroes accept the role they are thrust into rather quickly with almost no reservation. This does however work within the source material that Shogun Warriors is derived from such as Super Sentai. The issue does a good job of laying the groundwork even if in a very easy to digest manner. We do start to get a feeling for the heroes personalities. The issue actually ends with a pretty neat twist wherein Raydeen and the crew save the city by leading Rok-Korr away from the city but at the cost of ultimate victory due to inexperience, leaving us with a cliffhanger to curry anticipation for the next issue even if the story is a bit thin.

ART

Trimpe’s artwork definitely owes a lot to Jack Kirby. Its energetic and exciting without conforming to accurate principles of anatomy. Like Kirby he goes for bold extremes of foreshortening cinematic camera angles and action packed page flow. Trimpe was no Jim Lee but he was very much a classic Marvel artist for a reason who truly found his niche within the company on titles like this Godzilla and a host of licensed titles often time based on giant robots or monsters.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This comic was solid Japanese fun successfully translated into something for an American audience and for me, though dated, still holds up as an enjoyable experience.

SCORE: 4 out of 5

SHOGUN WARRIORS #1
Writer:Â Doug Moench
Art:Â Herb Trimpe
Inks:Â Dan Green