Justice League (Dinniverse) vs. Japanese Equivalent?

[Majin Gojira]

The JSDF sets up its own Super-powered team and thus causes some concerns, as they answer directly to the JSDF. The JSDF claims they need it because of various Kaiju and Kaijin attacks that the Justice League rarely gets to in time to be of any long term effect.

Gorilla Grodd uses the international tension to push the teams against each other during an inspection, leading to a short-lived all out brawl between the teams.

Sure, they'll eventually team up and take down the damn dirty ape, but let's focus on the initial fight for now:

The Justice League consists of the Big 7 of the Diniverse, at that power level. To refresh your memories:
1) Superman
2) Batman
3) Wonder Woman
4) Green Lantern (Jon Stewart)
5) Martian Manhunter
6) The Flash
7) Hawk Girl

Their opponents on the JSDF are as follows:
1) Astro Boy/Atom (Tetsuwan Atom) - One fo the oldest and most beloved heroes in Manga created by the God of Manga himself, Osuma Tezuka. Astro Boy or the Mighty Atom is a Robot with an artificial soul. No, really. There's no angst about being a "Real Boy" because aside from his frame and construction, he is a moral, kind child who can truly enjoy life. This does not make him better than other robots, at least it doesn't to him. He sees all sentient life as equal and argues for equal rights and peace between robots, humans and any other sentient life form he may encounter. Some have taken to calling him the robotic Martin Luther King because of this.

Astro was created as a replacement for a scientist's dead son. He concluded that he could not replace his son and abandoned Astro. After many obstacles, he managed to end up living with an kind hearted colleague of his father--who went off the deep end into full Mad Scientist mode a short while after that.

Though even if he is a peace-nik, he is not afraid to fight when he has to. He has a tendency to see the best in people and was initially very naive by virtue of being new to the world, however, his "Heart of Gold" allows him to innately differentiate right from wrong--a true miracle of science.

Astro is sort of like Superman in that he has quite a wide swath of powers. As a machine, he's made of a super-tough metal, and has truly superhuman strength ("equivalent to 100,000 Horsepower"). He can also fly via jets in his feet.

Beyond the Flying Brick package, his sensory apparatus include ultra-sonic hearing (x1000 human) and is eyes can act as lamps. Strangest of all, his electronic "heart" can actually sense evil intention. Given the situation, he may not be able to fully resist Grodd's manipulations, but he may not act on it.

Intelligence-wise, the boy knows 60 languages, has a computerized brain for extraordinary processing speed/power.

He is also armed. He can generate a small energy beam from his fingertips, or a larger energy cannon from his whole hand. Most amusingly he is equipped with a pair of rapid-fire energy weapons ("Machine Guns") that reveal themselves from his rear. Yes. He shoots people from his butt.

I should note that a lot of the more esoteric powers ("Detect Evil" and so on) have been dropped in later incarnations, so feel free to ignore them as the plot demands.

2) Captain Shin Hayata/Ultraman (Ultraman and followup series) - One of the first heroes to come to television and one of the most enduring, Ultraman and his ilk are iconic heroes of Japan. Shin Hayata was the first, a pilot and member of the Science Patrol. The Science Patrol was a military group that handled Super-Science back in 1968. They fought mutants, aliens and ancient arisen gods with the help of Ultraman--though, to be fair, Ultraman did a lot of the heavy lifting most of the time. That didn't renger the team useless, however. Shin Hayata managed to maintain his team position after becoming Ultraman. Ultraman is a really, really good analogue to Hal Jordan's Green Lantern (Alien Space-Cop comes to earth chasing a criminal). However, Hayata starts his career being revived by Ultraman and used as a time-share body whilst on Earth (his new jurisdiction) because Hayata died fighting the monster Bemular. They eventually became a single being. This new Hayata transformed into Ultraman using the Beta-capsul (a pen-shaped device) to battle threats to humanity and the earth. Like Hal Jordan, he was a rather flat character back in the 60s--Brave, Moral, A-type personality. In later appearances, he took the position of Kind Mentor, and later "Badass Grampa". That later version is the one used here.

As Ultraman, Hayata is granted various powers but on the Earth's Surface, he can only remain active for a few minutes at a time due to the environmental degradation. In Space and on other, cleaner planets, he can act for longer periods. His life-force is usually indicated by the beacon on his chest called a "Color Timer". It begins to blink as his life/energy/time limit fades in battle. He may transfer some of his life energy to heal other light-life forms.

In human form, he has no overt powers aside from being a receptive Telepath. He requries a small device to transform, the "Beta Capsule" a pen-sized trinket. Back in his science patrol days, he had a raygun pistol.

Ultraman stands 130ft tall, though can alter his size to human standard as needed (and back).

He can fly at Mach 5 in the atmosphere or at Faster Than Light speeds through space. Though extremely draining, he can also Teleport (range unknown). He can leap 2600ft into the air and run/swim at roughly 280 miles an hour. He's strong enough to lift giant monsters off the ground--though the 200,000 ton monster Skydon flummoxed all attempts to move him--until the Science Patrol loaded the thing with Hydrogen to float it away.

Seriously.

As an energy being, he has many energy-projecting abilities. This includes raising a reflective shield and blasting enemies. His two signature attacks are the Specium ray (used to blow up most monsters) and the Ultra-Slash, which creates giant saw blades that cut monsters to shreds. Sometimes, this verges on New Powers as the Plot Demands.

Ultraman is also telekinetic, with the same lifting force as his arms behind that power. Sometimes, he uses this powers to through off a monster's balance and confuse it.

Other odd powers include the ability to see into the X-Ray/Gamma ray spectrum, generate streams of cold water from his hands and his eyes can generate beams that neutralize cloaking technologies and disable energy shields/defensive fields. Finally, unlike any other Ultraman, he is completely immune to electrical attacks.

3) (NSFW Link) Honey Kisaragi/Cutey Honey - (Cutey Honey and remakes) - The first "Magic Warrior" type magical girl that Sailor Moon popularized. Hani was created as a replacement for a mad-scientist's deceased daughter (as Astro was). He died and she went to live with a colleague she calls her "Uncle". She is something of a dizt and unlike many heroines from Japan, is mocking and teasing towards her foes (a massive social faux pa)--not that she doesn't tease other people too.

Originally designed as an action-comedy character with Echii (Perverted) overtones, Honey was eventually morphed into a more positive role model (HA!) when her author, the infamous Go Nagai (who will have more than one character in this team) realized how many young girls were reading his work.

Still, she invented the "nude-but-featureless transformation sequence" almost every Magical Warrior Girl has today.

Honey's primary power comes from the Air Molecule Converter built into her system. This allows her to alter the molecules in the air around her to form new materials. This can generate weapons (her sword, mostly) and any disguise she chooses for herself. Honey is a master of disguise, shifting between many different forms and sneaking in unnoticed amongst enemies (despite her ditsy-ness--or sometimes because she comes off as such a ditz). Like other heroes, she transforms ("Henshin") with a catch phrase: "I'm changing now: HONEY FLASH!"

The fact that she then goes through a nearly-nude transformation sequence is purely intentional.

Often with different professions thrown in depending on what has been recently used.

As a robot, her physical abilities are far beyond that of a normal human (really, her strength is early on par with mid-teir hitters of the DCAU like Aquaman or Vixen in a strong animal Totem). Her speed and reflexes are such that she can pull Wonder Woman's "Bullets and Bracelets" trick with her single sword--against almost a dozen attackers shooting from multiple angles. Aside from the sword, her other weapon is the "Honey Boomerang"-- a cutting implement that launches from her upper arm, down past her wrist, towards her enemy and then returning.

Oddly, she fuels herself with (large amounts) of food, and can be prone to running out of fuel. Honey is also extremely attractive, and uses that to her advantage (but just as often doesn't realize its there).

4) Hongo Takeshi/Kamen Rider - (Kamen Rider) - One of the most annoying things about heroes in Japan is that the starting hero will always be the weakest. Each subsequent hero in the franchise adding powers and increasing the overall strength of the character. Hongo Takeshi's powers are not that great compared to his followers, but he is the first. A motorcyclist and genius, he was kidnapped by the evil organization Shocker (remnants of the Nazi movement) and turned into a superhuman Cyborg. Before Brainwashing could occur, though, he escaped and turned his new found powers into Shocker's greatest threat. He can transform from human to armored cyborg with the aid of his belt. As a Cyborg, he has Superhuman strength, durability and agility -- low end (Spider-man-ish). He is modeled after a grasshopper, so he has extraordinary jumping prowess.

He retains his intellect and motorcycle skills and uses them in combat on occasion. His intellect is so great, that when he teams up with other cyborg heroes who have flaws in their construction--he usually ends up fixing them. He upgraded his motorcycle to transform into a suped-up version when he transforms. This cycle, the Cyclone, has blades on either side of it which are used to slash at the enemy while traveling at high speed.

He has two signature attacks: "Rider Punch" and "Rider Kick". These extremely powerful blows send foes flying and often cause enemies to explode through internal damage. Both are usually jump-and-strike attacks.

5) Cardcaptor Sakura/Sakura Kinomoto - (Cardcaptor Sakura) - One of the things I tried to do was hit on some of the well known creators as well. In terms of modern-day heroics, CLAMP offers us a classical magical girl. Sakura is an energetic, honest cheerful and kind character. At 10 years old, she's the second youngest member of the team (Astro, being about 5, is the youngest), but tries her best and manages to hold her own--largely through magic, but she's no slouch in other ways either.

Her magic comes largely from the Sakura Cards, magical summoning artifacts that she activates with a wand. They range in power from "What Kind of Lame Power is generating Flowers"* to "Trap target in Darkness that slowly destabilizes molecular integrity."

*It's lame because she can't cause flowers to grow inside people.

The only thing that hampers her combat effectiveness is an unwillingness to harm needlessly. She doesn't even consider some of the more ruthless tactics she could employ with her 19 cards. The cards generally allow for control over the substance describe or to generate what the card describes. These cards include The Light (Light Manipulation, dispells darkness), The Dark (Manipulation of Darkness and can 'delete' things trapped within it), The Windy, The Earthy, The Wood, The Fiery, the Watery (all elemental manipulation), The Flower (It makes FLOWERS!), The Fly (Allows flight), The Jump (incredible jumping ability and the ability to survive high falls), The Erase (removes things, but can return them), The Mirror (creates one copy of an object), the Shield (protects her from both physical and magical attacks--very powerful), The Maze (creates Labyrinthine pocket dimension trap), The Illusion (guess what it creates), The Sword (Hyper-sharp sword), The Shadow (Shadow Manipulation), The Thunder (Elemental manipulation), and The Glow (Creates small lights).

She can activate more than one card at a time. Unlike the other heroes, she has no set costume, er "Uniform"--but thanks to a friend of hers, she has an extensive wardrobe of 'hero costumes' to go through. She thinks its a little much, but her friend is very insistent (and tries to film the magical incidents when she can because she thinks its just so cool).

6) Mazinger Z, piloted by Kabuto Koji, 60ft tall.

Mazinger Z has gone through more permutations than may be healthy for a franchise. Let's go with the most recent iteration for consistences of plot and also, JAM project. Though for sheer fairness, lets bring down the power level to that of the original iteration.

This series is interesting because it's basically about a war between two Mad Scientists with the hero caught in the middle, pilot his Grandfather's answer to his rival's army of robots. He didn't have ALL good intentions and he was a little off his rocker, but Koji cared for the coot. Kabuto Koji, Mazinger's Pilot, is the archetypal young, hot-blooded mecha pilot. Leaping before he looks more often than not and very passionate in combat. He's got folks to reign him in normally, and he does get better, but losing his grandfather and being thrown into the front line of a war between two mad scientists? Not something most people deal with.

He vowed to use his father's Mazinger to protect people, have it be a "God of Protection" rather than a "Devil of Destruction".

Aside from the weapons described above, Mazinger Z is constructed of an uber-metal, Super Alloy Z, found at Mount Fuji, and powered by "Photonic Energy".

Mazinger's main weakness is the clear cockpit on top of its head. Because a seperate machine

7) Moonlight Mask

One of the three oldest Super Heroes of Japan* (the first to appear on TV), Moonlight Mask doesn't have powers, but has a costume. To summarize in a single sentence: "Japanese Batman". First appearing as a live action TV hero (of serials) in 1958, he received later Manga and Anime Adaptations, but he's a bit more "Shadow"-like than Batman. For one, he uses guns (a pair of modest pistols). For another, in his original form, no one knew his identity. He also employs shuriken, a whip and a moon-shaped boomerang as weapons. Drives around on a Motorcycle (god, that's three heroes on motorcycles, for the love of...), he keeps hiis identity secret from everyone--including his closest allies. By day, he's a detective Jurou Iwai.

Given how Japanese police are generally equipped, it actually is less an unfortunate implication than it first seems.

Now, with that set up, the questions are:
1) How long do they rumble until the truth is revealed?
2) Who is involved in subverting Gorilla Grodd? (IE: Realizing what's going on and rooting him out)
3) Who "Wins" the brawl?

* The other two? The first movie hero Super Giant (Super strong robot sent to prevent nuclear disaster), and Orgon Batto/Golden Bat -- atlantean warrior with lightning projecting and earthquak causing staff among other base abilities)--the very oldest Japanese Superhero.