The Shogun Warriors series was published from February 1979 to September 1980. In the comic book series, the Shogun Warriors were created by a mysterious group called the Followers of the Light and human operators were chosen from all around the world to operate the massive robots in order to battle evil. Marvel only licensed three Shogun Warriors characters for the comic book series:
Raydeen, piloted by Richard Carson, an American stuntman.
Combatra, piloted by Genji Odashu, a Japanese test pilot.
Dangard Ace, piloted by Ilongo Savage, an oceanographer from Madagascar.
Between February 1979 and July 1979, Marvel had the comic book rights to both Godzilla and the Shogun Warriors. While the characters never crossed paths in their respective comics, Trimpe drew a variation of Godzilla and Rodan alongside Daimos, Great Mazinger, Raydeen and Gaiking on the top page of a comic book advertisement soliciting the Shogun Warrior toys. Mattel simultaneously had a license to produce Shogun Warriors toys and a license to produce toys based on Godzilla and Rodan. Though never appearing in the comic series, Red Ronin of Marvel's Godzilla, King of the Monsters comic book series was mentioned occasionally and was frequently written about in the letters pages. Shogun Warriors #15 was a fill-in written by Steven Grant with art by Mike Vosburg. The series took a dramatic turn with Shogun Warriors #16, as the Shogun Warriors' mentors were destroyed by the Primal One and his followers. This alien force decided that Earth's technology had outpaced its morality, making it their duty to destroy the Shogun Warriors as well as other powerful humans. Declining sales, as well as Moench's commitment to writing the Moon Knight comic book series that had just been started, led Marvel to cancel the Shogun Warriors comic book series. The three giant robots are destroyed to which the Fantastic Four and the robots' pilots learn about the Samurai Destroyer ; this is because Marvel lost the rights to the characters.
Shogun Reapers
The Shogun Reapers are mechas within the Yakuza. When they built a cannon on the Moon to hold Earth hostage, Nick Fury Jr. broke into the Shogun Reapers' base in order to steal their powering device. The Shogun Reapers' leader Daniel "Danny Fear" Kiku and lieutenant Akihiko are outfitted in shogun mechas for a confrontation. However, Akihiko's suit gets hacked by the agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to fight Danny Fear which decompressed the room and caused all the gangsters to be swallowed into space, apparently killing Akihiko and a third member. However, Danny Fear is revealed to be safely inside his mecha.
Powers and abilities
In other media
A Shogun Warriors-esque exo-suit makes an appearance in Avengers: Ultron Revolution. In the episode "Civil War, Part 2: The Might Avengers", the exo-suit is created by Truman Marsh and used by Baron Strucker to fight the Avengers and the Mighty Avengers and defeated by both groups.
Akihiko appears in the 2019 movie , played by Hiroyuki Sanada. He is similar to Danny Fear albeit as a skilled swordsman. Amongst the survivors after Thanos's, Akihiko is the Yakuza's leader who clashes swords with Ronin to which he's ultimately killed.
