RICHARD CARSON
Real Name: Richard Carson
Identity/Class: Normal human
Occupation: Stuntman, pilot of Raydeen
Group Membership: The Followers of the Light, fellow Shogun Warrior pilots
Affiliations: Ilongo Savage, Genji Odashu, (pilots) Deena James (girlfriend), Fantastic Four, Dr. Tambura
Enemies: Maur-Konn and his drones, Cerberus, Dr. Demonicus, the Followers of the Dark, Gigatron, the Hand of Five, Mech-Monster, Megatron, Rok-Korr, Samurai Destroyer, Starchild
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations:
Mobile across the USA, notably the western coast
of California;
First Appearance: Shogun Warriors#1 (February, 1979)
Powers/Abilities: Richard Carson was an excellent test driver and stuntman before being picked to pilot Raydeen. He was capable of split decision making, excellent physical reflexes, as well as being to take a fall. After his training with the Followers of the Light, he could pilot the giant robot as easily as he handled any other vehicle.
History:
(Shogun Warriors#1 (fb)) – Richard was testing out a sports car for a new movie stunt in a remote area of Wyoming when he was teleported, car and all, by the Followers of the Light to their Sanctuary. He was shocked by the experience, but listened to Dr. Tambura’s reasons for the abduction.
(Shogun Warriors#1) –Briefed on the Followers of the Dark, Richard and the other two pilots boarded Raydeen and took to the skies to battle the monster Rokk-Korr. Richard was overwhelmed by the sheer insanity of the situation, but he worked well enough with the others to pilot the massive robot away when the battle swung away from their favor.
(Shogun Warriors#2) – Richard groused about the state of affairs back at the Sanctuary. Dr. Tambura introduced the linking machines, devices to help bond the pilots to the Warriors. During this brief time, all three pilots tested out the weapon systems of each robot. While in the middle of training, word came that Rokk-Korr was attacking again. Meeting the monster en masse, all three pilots were shocked when the monster split into three Elemental monsters.
(Shogun Warriors#3) – Faced down by the Elements of Evil, Richard chose to fight the Fire Elemental due to Raydeen’s unique construction. The fight was brutal, with little headway made by the Warriors. When Illongo ordered them to concentrate their fire on the Water Elementals’ waterspout form, Richard was impressed by the result, until the monster reformed into a giant avalanche. Combining with the others, Richard directed Raydeen’s energies into the Power Triangle Fist, vanquishing Rokk-Korr forever.
(Shogun Warriors#4) – While the Shogun units were being recharged, Richard and the others socialized and learned more about the workings of their robots. Disbelieving Ilongo’s claims of rapport with dolphins, their calm was interrupted by reports of another monster appearing. Genji, in Combatra, flew out to tackle the menace while Richard and Ilongo stayed behind. When she radioed in for backup, Richard jumped at the chance to fight.
(Shogun Warriors#5) – When Genji was facing down the Mech-Monster, Richard and Ilongo rocketed to her assistance. When she broke off to find the monster’s origin, Richard and Ilongo had to come up with a plan.
(Shogun Warriors#6) – Thinking back to a 1950s style teen picture he did some time ago, Richard quickly came up with a plan. Tricking the monster into opening its mouth, Richard launched his arrows into the beast’s mouth. When Combatra later attacked them, Richard was unsure of what to do (unaware that Maur-Konn had taken Genji hostage). When a free Genji attacked the purloined robot, Richard helped to control its descent. Richard and the other two mourned the apparent disability of Combatra when Dr. Tambura arrived with a spare head unit. He congratulated the three pilots for their hard work.
(Shogun Warriors#7) – Heading home via a commercial jet, Richard was met at the Los Angeles International Airport by a very disbelieving Deena, his sometime girlfriend and fellow stunt performer. She took him back to his home where Richard tried to explain his absence, but Deena simply emptied her wine glass over his head. The next day, while on some cliffs, shooting a scene for another movie, the monster Cerberus attacked. Deena found herself believing Richard’s story when he summoned Raydeen and attacked the monster. Saving her from the falling cliffs, he put her inside the robot and asked to act as his copilot. They were both stunned when the monster seemed to withstand Raydeen’s assault.
(Shogun Warriors#8) – Richard had fought to a standstill with the monster. Utilizing everything within the mighty robot’s systems, Richard managed to repel the monster. Torn between continuing to fight it and saving a family stuck in a falling beach house, Richard chose to ignore the fleeing Cerberus. When the search underwater proved futile, Richard reported back to Dr. Tambura. On the way back home, he jokingly asked Deena if she still doubted his story.
(Shogun Warriors#9) – Richard and Deena were having a quiet meal together. They were reflecting on the fight with Cerberus when two mysterious men in black arrived. After a tense meeting, Richard bluffed his way past their questions, but one of the men threatened to return.
(Shogun Warriors#10) – The next evening, as Richard and Deena were sitting down to watch television, they heard a crashing noise from the next room. Turning off the lights, Richard crept toward the room and opened the door. One of the men in black had forced open his file cabinet. When Richard tried to attack, the man simply snatched the files and jumped headfirst through a nearby window. Watching the man fall two stories and shake off the fall, Richard began to suspect things were afoot.
(Shogun Warriors#11) – Richard was musing about the break-in when Dr. Tambura called him over his pendant. Informing him of the other pilots encountering monsters, he warned Richard to be careful. He cautioned against him going to help Genji, saying Raydeen was not fast enough to be of any help. When he signed off, Richard swore to leave and asked Deena to watch his house in the event more men in black arrived.
(Shogun Warriors#12) – Richard ignored Deena’s attempts at conversation as he patched up the window. Admitting being preoccupied with the emergence of more monsters, the couple was interrupted by Genji, who was seeking a place to hide out. Deena’s jealousy boiled over, but before she could storm out, both pilots were contacted by the Followers of the Light. Teleported away to their respective robots, Deena was left fuming in an empty beach house. Inside the safety of Raydeen, Richard flew out to the moon to destroy an asteroid that was on a collision course with Earth. The falling rock turned out to be a trap by Dr. Demonicus, who launched a sneak attack on the robots. Taken unaware, both Raydeen and Combatra were sent hurtling off into the black abyss of space.
(Shogun Warriors#13) – Planning with Genji, Richard fired his retro rockets at a cluster of asteroids in order to bounce back towards Earth. Landing on Dr. Demonicus’s ship, he piloted Raydeen inside the giant space ship. He easily fought his way inside and past the ship’s forces, but getting deeper inside, Richard and the others were confronted by the three previous monsters they had fought - Cerberus, the Hand of Five and Starchild.
(Shogun Warriors#14) – Richard reflected on his previous fight with Cerberus as the battle raged within the spaceship. Using his past knowledge, he was able to subdue the monster. When Dr. Demonicus launched another asteroid, Richard piloted Raydeen outside and helped slice the ship in two, at which point he and Ilongo threw the other half of the ship at the falling rock, destroying it before it entered Earth’s atmosphere. Unknown by Richard, Deena watched the preceding event and thought it was two falling stars. Richard and the others dropped Dr. Demonicus and his men off with S.H.I.E.L.D. before flying away (see comments).
(Shogun Warriors#15 - BTS) – While relaxing in Tokyo, Richard wandering down a back alley and into a Yakuza-laid trap. He was knocked out and replaced with a double who had been surgically altered to look like him.
(Shogun Warriors#15) – Richard was bound and gagged while his double infiltrated the team. His first escape attempt ended in failure and he received a beating from the gangsters. The gangsters decided to step up their timetable, largely by sending their vehicle crashing into the roof on the Sanctuary with Richard in it. Falling back on his stuntman training, Richard freed his feet and managed to steer the wildly out of control vehicle away from the ledge and down a path toward the Sanctuary’s front. The Followers managed to open the bay door in time, and Richard managed to make himself limp to survive the car crashing into a bank of computers.
When the imposter tried to steal Raydeen, Richard flew with Genji in Combatra and sneaked onboard the robot when Delta-V got close enough. From there he subdued his doppelganger and regained the use of Raydeen. Firing at the gangsters, Richard helped round them up. When the fighting was over, Richard managed to crack one more joke before passing out.
(Shogun Warriors#16) – Flying back to his house, Richard and the others landed near his beach house. Deena greeted them with a shotgun. Richard calmed her nerves, but seconds later they were under attack by the men in black. Subdued with gas, Richard and the others were tied up as their keys were removed. Freeing an arm, Richard dazed one of the men with an ashtray, destroying the man’s sunglasses. To his horror, he found that the men in black were not men at all, but rather advanced machines. Slipping free of his bonds, he helped the others. The fight was almost one-sided, but Deena helped turn the tide when she emptied both barrels into one of the men and cut him in half. Reclaiming the keys, Richard slipped through a deadly gauntlet and made it back to Raydeen. Using the robot’s rocket fingers, Richard took out the remaining men in black. Afterward, they contacted the Followers of the Light, but were cut off in mid-transmission. Hurrying back to the Sanctuary, they were all shocked to find it in ruins and the Followers either dead or dying. When a strange alien appeared and took credit for the attack, they fought back and managed to kill it.
(Shogun Warriors#17) – Richard met with Genji in a San Francisco coffee shop to discuss the future of the Shogun Warriors. Since the Sanctuary’s destruction, Richard had taken to hiding Raydeen in the hills near his home. Helping her find an abandoned warehouse to hide Combatra, Richard flew back to LA. He met Deena at the house and the reception was chilly. When a young boy managed to sneak into Combatra’s cockpit, Richard scrambled to help save both the youth and the robot. Richard stood by as the boy, Enrique, was reunited with his family.
(Shogun Warriors#18) – Richard and Genji held an impromptu autopsy on one of the men in black. They were both stumped. When Ilongo radioed for assistance, Richard flew there in Raydeen’s Firehawk mode. Finding him fighting the giant robot Megatron, Richard was at first overwhelmed by the sheer power of the machine. Coming up with a plan, Richard and Ilongo tricked the monster machine into the deep ocean waters, which sank it. Later, Richard proposed that they all fly to New York City to warn Reed Richards about the alien threat.
(Shogun Warriors#19) – Leaving Raydeen in Madagascar, Richard piloted Combatra with Genji and Ilongo. Arriving in New York City, Richard was the one to try and convince Reed Richards of the threat facing him. Mr. Fantastic was skeptical, until the robot Gigatron arrived and darkened half of the city. Richard and the others scrambled into Combatra. Each taking a component, Richard piloted his piece around the robot in an effort to distract the mechanical monster until Genji could disable it. However, Richard grimly remarked over Gigatron’s shell that the fight wasn't over yet.
(Shogun Warriors#20) – As the Shogun Pilots discussed their latest enemy, Richard remarked that the Primal One seemed to remind him of Maur-Konn. When Gigatron’s body was stolen, Richard and the others piled into Combatra and followed it. When the Fantastic Four slipped away in an escape pod, Richard and the others stayed behind to fight the crew of the Nightwind. When Maur-Konn's ruse was discovered, Richard stood among the heroes.
(Shogun Warriors#20/Fantastic Four I#226 - BTS) – Arriving later, it was decided to hide Raydeen and Combatra inside a hollowed-out mountain silo near Richard’s beach house.
(Fantastic Four I#226 –fb) – While returning home from a hard day of film shooting, Richard, Deena, and Genji were surprised by the Samurai Destroyer. Richard rushed to Raydeen’s hiding place, but a well-timed blast destroyed both robots and left Richard with a broken arm.
(Fantastic Four I#226) – Richard and the others flew to New York City to enlist the aid of the Fantastic Four. The seven decided to begin their search in Japan. The Fantastic Four found the Samurai Destroyer and were easily beaten in their first encounter. Richard and the other pilots slipped away to search the ruins of the Sanctuary, hoping to find a way to beat the robot. William McLaughlin, the Destroyer pilot, trapped them within the base and introduced himself. The next fight with the Fantastic Four went more in the heroes' favor. While McLaughlin was distracted, all three pilots slipped inside the robot via its head. Attacking him, McLaughlin panicked and set off a self-destruct sequence that destroyed the robot and annihilated the remains of the Sanctuary of the Light. The Fantastic Four pulled Richard and the others to safety before the robot was completely lost. When the smoke had settled, Richard lamented that going back to being ‘regular’ person after the experiences he had seemed impossible, but he resolved to go back to the States and just be a stuntman with Deena after a small talk with the Fantastic Four.
Comments: Created by Doug Moench (writer), Herb Trimpe (pencils) and Dan Green (inks).
At the end of #14, Dr. Demonicus was turned in and they headed home. In #15, they made it clear that they were all staying at the Sanctuary and training (yet there is nothing to suggest this issue is a flashback, and the gangsters made it clear that they had heard of them and that they had been active for a while); however, #16 begins with the team returning from the events in #14, with no mention of the assault.
Profile by David Lawrence.
CLARIFICATIONS
:
Richard Carson has no known connections to:
A fellow stunt driver and sometime girlfriend of Richard, Deena was sharp-tongued and handy with a shotgun. She was bewildered by the changes in Richard’s life, but she stood by him and helped when she could.
--Shogun Warriors#6 (7,8,9,10,11,12,14,16,17, Fantastic Four I#226
images:
(without ads)
Shogun Warriors#1 p15 pan4 (main image)
Shogun Warriors#16 p14 pan5 (head shot)
Fantastic Four I #226 p30 pan2 (stunt rider)
Shogun Warriors#16 p10 pan7 (Deena)
Appearances:
Shogun Warriors#1 (February, 1979) –Doug Moench (writer),Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#2 (March, 1979) – Doug Moench (writer), Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#3 (April, 1979) – Doug Moench (writer), Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#4 (May, 1979) – Doug Moench (writer), Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#5 (June, 1979) – Doug Moench (writer), Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#6 (July, 1979) – Doug Moench (writer), Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#7 (August 1979) – Doug Moench (writer), Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Al Milgrom and Jim Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#8 (September 1979) – Doug Moench (writer),
Herb Trimpe (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Al Milgrom and Jim Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#9 (October 1979) – Doug Moench (writer), Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Jack Abel (inks), Al Milgrom and Jim Shooter (editors)
Shogun Warriors#10 (November, 1979) – Doug Moench (writer),
Herb Trimpe (pencils), Steve Mitchell (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter (editors)
Shogun Warriors#11 (December, 1979) – Doug Moench (writer),
Herb Trimpe (pencils), Jake Abel (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#12 (January, 1980) – Doug Moench (writer),
Herb Trimpe (pencils), Jake Abel (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#13 (February, 1980) – Doug Moench (writer),
Herb Trimpe (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#14 (March, 1980) – Doug Moench (writer), Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#15 (April, 1980) – Steven Grant (writer),
Mike
Vosburg (pencils), Bruce D. Patterson (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter (editors)
Shogun Warriors#16 (May, 1980) – Doug Moench (writer), Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#17 (June, 1980) – Doug Moench (writer), Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#19 (August, 1980) – Doug Moench (writer),
Herb
Trimpe (pencils), Rick Parker (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim Shooter
(editors)
Shogun Warriors#20 (September, 1980) – Doug Moench (writer),
Herb Trimpe (pencils), Rick Parker (inks), Al Milgrom & Jim
Shooter (editors)
Fantastic Four I#226 (January, 1981) – Doug Moench (writer),
Bill Sienkiewicz (pencils), Pablo Marcus & Bruce D. Patterson
(inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
First Posted: 01/23/2009
Last updated: 01/22/2009
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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