Thursday, April 7, 2011

Recurring Monsters of Ultraman: Red King

Red King is a dinosaur-like monster featured in Ultraman (1966). Its first appearance was in Episode #8, "The Lawless Monster Zone." Red King's name comes from the fact that Ultraman's original name was "Red Man" and Red King is considered the "King" of Ultra monsters. Red King appeared in Ultraman 80, The Ultraman, Ultraman Powered and Ultraman Max. Red King's body appears much like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, with the long neck, and narrow, pointy head of a Brachiosaurus, and large bulky Gorilla-like arms.

Its mouth is armed large dagger-like fangs. Redking's "Shparr!" cry is one of the most characteristic monster sounds from the series (its roars sound very similar to cries of both Godzilla and it's mixed with the roar used for Green Gargantua of the War of the Gargantuas). The first Red King was discovered on a remote island with other monsters, where a small group of scientists had been terrorized and all but one were killed. Red King appeared along with Magular and Chandrah, and identified by some as Peguila (from the Ultraman prequel, Ultra Q). Red King defeated Chandlar by tearing off a limb/wing and throwing the dismembered limb, as well as some rocks, at him as the monster fled.

Red King killed Pigmon by creating an avalanche of rock. Once Ultraman appeared, Red King was defeated without the need for the Spacium Ray. When Red King reappeared, he was as part of another trio of monsters, including Dorako and Gigas. Red King viciously tore Dorako's wings off, and Dorako died of its injuries soon afterward. Gigas was driven off by Red King and fell victim to an experimental Science Patrol bomb. All three monsters apparently precipitated out of a fragment of comet debris, or were awakened by the comet's radiation. Apparently Red King now presented an extra danger, as it had swallowed a long-lost atomic weapon. Ultraman ultimately paralyzed Red King and raised it off the ground with one of his rarely used telekinesis powers. He then used two of his energy rings to slice Red King into thirds. Apparently the atomic weapon was resting in some sort of gullet in Red King's digestive tract, because Ultraman took the head and neck portion and flew away into space with it to allow the atomic device to detonate without harm.

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