The idea of a super robot Jesus transforming robot team came from... well, in the 80s we'd watch Japanese TV shows including a show called "Chojin Sentai Changeman". These colorful over the top action children's shows were lots of fun to make fun of. At some point it struck Dave Merrill that inserting Jesus into the concept would be funny. Actually just intoning the phrase "Chojin Sentai Jesus" is funny. The super robot Jesus was dutifully inserted as a character in the Ozone Commandos comic story by David Merrill. In the early 1990s Shaindle Minuk and David Merrill were both in the Animanga amateur press association, and Shaindle drew a picture of the Jesus robot and her concept of its crew; Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Mary, students at a bible college who were also pilots of the five super vehicles that combined, Voltron style, into the super robot Jesus.
This was a vastly superior concept than the "Ultraman" style Jesus found in the Ozone Commandos. Dave and Shain immediately embarked upon a comic story featuring the new combo-robot Jesus. Because nobody in America knows what "chojin sentai" means, the strip was titled "Super Mechanical Fighting Team Jesus". The first story involved the Jesus team battling the evil Beez Le Bubb, a demonic figure in charge of a left-wing conspiracy to destroy America via rock music, drugs, abortion rights, and feminism. The first story in fact featured the "Abortion Ray", a ham-handed bit of political theater that is as relevant today as it was in the turbulent days of 1991. This story saw print in Shaindle's small press comic "Negative Buttheads".
The next full SMFTJ story would not come until 1995, and would feature Beez Le Bubb in drag attempting to corrupt the distaff member of the Jesus Team. This story saw print in the 2003 anthology DRUNK TANK, but we're presenting it now as a public service to you all.
The independent filmmaking collective Corn Pone Flicks also featured the Jesus Robot in their production of "Ozone Commandos" - a Jesus robot suit was created by Jeff Tatarek and was filmed in several scenes by Matt Murray. The film has yet to be completed.
What new adventures await the Chojin Kikai Sentai Jesus? Only time will tell!!
The Feminism Menace
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