History ComicBook / Judomaster

Judomaster was a Creator/CharltonComics character created by Joe Gill and Frank [=McLaughlin=] who was later bought by Creator/DCComics, under whom he became a legacy character with three successors.

Sergeant Hadley "Rip" Jagger was introduced in an intended one-shot in 1965 where he ended up as the only American survivor on a small island currently being overtaken by the Japanese in the Pacific Theater of WWII. He was rescued by a group of guerrilla fighters trying to push the Japanese military from their home island, who took him to their hidden base and taught him martial arts. He is given his costume and hero name by their leader after he starts helping them fight against the Japanese and manages to prove unbelievably adept at Judo, somehow surpassing his instructor in his short time training. Rip was brought back with his own self-titled ten-issue series due to popular demand where he picked up the Japanese-American kid sidekick Tiger, who later underwent a HeelFaceTurn and fought against his former mentor and other former Charlton heroes, who had banded together as ComicBook/{{LAW}}. Rip was said to have been a member of the ComicBook/AllStarSquadron during the war and was killed by ComicBook/{{Bane}} in the Battle for Metropolis during ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''.

The second Judomaster was introduced nine years later in 1994, where he helped the Justice League and befriended [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Guy Gardner]]. He remained a mysterious figure, never being seen out of costume and never having his secret identity revealed to the reader. His costume also took little inspiration from Rip's bright yellow and red spandex number, basing it instead on a simple gi. He was followed by Rip's son Tommy in 2006. Tommy worked for the American government as an agent of ComicBook/{{Checkmate}} and was also known by the code name White Knight.

The Japanese woman Sonia Sato became the fourth individual to adopt the Judomaster name and costume. While Sato was the first woman to use the title in the main DCU, a woman greatly resembling her had previously been depicted as the Judomaster in the ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' Elseworlds tale. She chose to become a vigilante to fight her father's murderers and as recompense for her father's criminal activities. Sato was an ally of the ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey who later became a member of the [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]]. In the ComicBook/New52's ComicBook/Earth2 reality, she is a high-ranking official in the World Army rather than a costumed hero or vigilante.

Judomaster made his live-action debut in the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse in Creator/JamesGunn's ''Series/{{Peacemaker|2022}}'' portrayed by Nhut Le, on Creator/HBOMax.

[[folder:Judomaster I, Hadley "Rip" Jagger]]

* CListFodder: By the time of his death in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''. Partially helped by the fact that his ongoing series had been absolutely chock full of ValuesDissonance even if his origin story had mostly avoided it.
* KilledOffForReal: ComicBook/{{Bane}} killed Rip in the climax of ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'' by breaking his back as he did to Batman in ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}''.
* MilitarySuperhero: Rip is a sergeant in the US Army, and also a special army operative under the Judomaster name.
* SupernaturalMartialArts: Jagger, after training in Nanda Parbat, can accomplish feats such as ripping through solid steel, phasing through restraints, and reviving Tiger after killing him.
!!!Notable Appearances of Rip Jagger
[-[[AC:Comic Books]]-]
* ''Special War Series'' (1965)
* ''Judomaster'' (1966 -- 1967)
* ''ComicBook/{{LAW}}'' (1999 — 2000)
[[/folder]]

----
!!Charlton Comics' ''Judomaster'' provides examples of:

* AffirmativeActionLegacy: Rip Jagger, a white man, was replaced with Sonia Sato, an Asian woman. There was a previous Asian Judomaster in the 90s. He appeared in one issue and was never seen again.
* AllAsiansWearConicalStrawHats: One of these hats even provides the perfect disguise for a white blonde blue-eyed woman in Tokyo. It lets her pass as a Japanese man somehow.
* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: Tiger, Judomaster's Japanese-American KidSidekick. He actually got the name due to Rip calling him "tiger" in the same way one might say "kid" or "sport" and his costume does not reflect the animal at all.
* AsianSpeekeeEngrish: It's almost always unclear what language is actually being spoken outside of interactions between members of the American military but the Mountain Storm seems to have trouble with English.
* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: Several of the dinos on can be sort of compared to actual dinosaurs even if they only look kinda inspired by them, but then there's the giant iguana. That is definitely just a giant iguana regardless of what any characters claim.
* AsianBuckTeeth: Quite a few of the Japanese characters have buck teeth, including Tiger, although only in his first appearance.

[[folder:Judomaster II]]
* BadassNormal: Just a man who is a very talented martial artist.
* LegacyCharacter: The second hero to use the Judomaster name.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Judomaster III, Thomas "Tommy" Jagger]]
* AffirmativeActionLegacy: The first and thus far only openly gay Judomaster.
* BadassNormal: Like his father before him Tommy has no superpowers, just training, and backing from the US government. He was even able to defeat Bane, The Man Who Broke The Bat.
* HeroicLineage: His father was a superhero. While Thomas didn't become one he does follow his father's footsteps by serving the side of good.
* LegacyCharacter: The third hero to use the Judomaster name.
* LightIsGood: He is one of the more ethical members of Checkmate's White Side.
* LineageComesFromTheFather: To the point that his mother is never named.
* TheFettered: Despite having a chance to avenge his father's death at Bane's hands, Thomas chooses to spare the criminal's life.
* YouKilledMyFather: His father was killed by Bane.
!!!Notable Appearances of Tommy Jagger
[-[[AC:Comic Books]]-]
* ''ComicBook/{{Checkmate}}'' (2006 -- 2008)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Judomaster IV, Sonia Sato]]
* ActionGirl: Sonia is a highly-skilled martial artist.
* AffirmativeActionLegacy: The preceding Judomasters were all American men of European heritage while she's a Japanese woman.
* BulletDodgesYou: Sonia can project an "aversion field" which prevents her from being hit by attacks specifically aimed at her. This does not include attacks that have no aim, such as random projectiles and explosions.
* CapeBusters: In the ComicBook/New52 universe, on Earth-2, she's part of the Wold Army, which is dedicated to protecting the earth from super-powered threats at all costs.
* ChestInsignia: Her costume has the sun of the rising sun centered over her left breast with the rays expanding out over her body.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Her personality and English proficiency are subject to change, as she'd originally been a capable English speaker who was rather witty, and was then portrayed as completely incapable of speaking English and cold and silent by later writers.
** ComicBook/{{Judomaster}} -- The fourth one could project an "aversion field" which prevented her from being hit by attacks specifically aimed at her, though not ones with wide effects like explosions. She was also a skilled martial artist just like her predecessors. * InscrutableOriental: Her first appearance in Justice Society of America is characterized by her being silent, cold, and reserved out of combat. Mind you, before then, she'd been portrayed as witty and perfectly capable of speaking English, but [[DependingOnTheWriter these things happen]]. Mind you, she did warm up a bit when she fell for Damage.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Weaponized. She projects a shield around her that throws her opponent's aim off. However, she can’t stop an attack that’s not focused directly on her.
* LegacyCharacter: Sonia adopted the Judomaster identity to repent for her father’s past deeds and has since been on the run from the Blood Soldiers.
* LogicalWeakness: While Sonia can generate an aversion field, which makes it impossible to hit her, this means she's at a disadvantage against attacks not specifically directed at her, like an explosion, or a foe that can attack her from every angle, like the Justice Society villain Tapeworm.
* MoralityChain: Damage's death sent her back to trying to kill her father's killer, but he had left her a message that managed to bring her back.
* ResignationsNotAccepted: Her father Yoshio tried to leave his employment with the Yakuza only to be killed by his former employers for his attempt to defect.
!!!Notable Appearances of Sonia Sato
[-[[AC:Comic Books]]-]
* ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' (1996)
* ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' (2007)
* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' vol. 3 (2008 -- 2011)
* ''ComicBook/JSAAllStars'' (2010 -- 2011)
* ''ComicBook/Earth2'' (2013 -- 2015)
* ''Earth 2: World's End'' (2014 -- 2015)
* ''Earth 2: Society'' (2015 -- 2016)
[[/folder]]

* PteroSoarer: They call it a flying reptile and make it look like a bizarre long-necked scaled dragon, but claim it's something from the dinosaur age that's miraculously survived to the era.

[[quoteright:258:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/judomaster.jpg]]

Sergeant Hadley "Rip" Jagger was introduced in an intended one-shot in 1965 where he ended up as the only American survivor on a small island currently being overtaken by the Japanese in the Pacific Theater of WWII. He was rescued by a group of guerrilla fighters trying to push the Japanese military from their home island, who took him to their hidden base and taught him martial arts. He is given his costume and hero name by their leader after he starts helping them fight against the Japanese and manages to prove unbelievably adept at Judo, somehow surpassing his instructor in his short time training. Rip was brought back with his own self titled ten issue series due to popular demand where he picked up the Japanese-American kid sidekick Tiger, who later underwent a HeelFaceTurn and fought against his former mentor and other former Charlton heroes banded together as L.A.W.. Rip was said to have been a member of the ComicBook/AllStarSquadron during the war and was killed by ComicBook/{{Bane}} in the Battle for Metropolis during ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''.

The second Judomaster was introduced nine years later in 1994 where he helped the Justice League and befriended Guy Gardner. He remained a mysterious figure, never being seen out of costume and never having his secret identity revealed to the reader. His costume also took little inspiration from Rip's bright yellow and red spandex number instead being based on a simple gi. He was followed by Rip's son Tommy in 2006. Tommy worked for the American government as an agent of Checkmate and was also known by the code name White Knight.

The Japanese woman Sonia Sato became the fourth individual to adopt the Judomaster name and costume. Sato was the first woman to use the title in the main DCU but a woman greatly resembling her had previously been depicted as the Judomaster in the ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' Elseworlds tale. She chose to become a vigilante to fight her father's murderers and as recompense for her father's criminal activities. Sato was an ally of the ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey who later became a member of the [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]]. In the New 52's Earth-2 reality, she is a high ranking official in the World Army rather than a costumed hero or vigilante.

Judomaster will make his live-action debut in the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse in Creator/JamesGunn's ''Series/{{Peacemaker|2022}}'' portrayed by Nhut Le, on Creator/HBOMax.

* CListFodder: By the time of his death in ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''. Partially helped getting there by the fact that his ongoing series had been absolutely chock full of ValuesDissonance even if his origin story had mostly avoided it.

* ''Living Assault Weapons'' (1999 — 2000)

* BadassNormal: Like his father before him Tommy has no superpowers, just training and backing from the US government.

* ActionGirl: Sonia is a highly skilled martial artist.

* CapeBusters: In the New 52 she's part of the Wold Army, which is dedicated to protecting the earth from super-powered threats at all costs.
* ChestInsignia: Her costume has the sun of the rising sun centered over her left breast with the rays expanding out over body.

* InscrutableOriental: Her first appearance in Justice Society of America is characterized by her being silent, cold and reserved out of combat. Mind you, before then, she'd been portrayed as witty and perfectly capable of speaking English, but [[DependingOnTheWriter these things happen]]. Mind you, she did warm up a bit when she fell for Damage.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Weaponized. She projects a shield around her that throws her opponents aim off. However, she can’t stop an attack that’s not focused directly at her.

* MoralityChain: [[spoiler:Damage]]'s death sent her back to trying to kill her father's killer, but he had left her a message that managed to bring her back.
* ResignationsNotAccepted: Her father Yoshio tried to leave his employ with the Yakuza only to be killed by his former employers for his attempt to defect.

!! Charlton Comics' ''Judomaster'' provides examples of:

* AsianBuckTeeth: Quite a few of the Japanese characters have buck teeth, including Tiger though only in his first appearance.
* {{Chickification}}: Suzikawa Suizi was an active and stoic member of the resistance fighters in the origin comic, where she ended up getting shot and was back on her feet in short order. Here she's reduced to the love-struck love interest who stays cooped up in the resistance fighter's hidden base pining after Rip, and only leaves it to join the adventure in the final issue where she is quickly captured and lets men and children do the fighting while she stays behind them for protection.

* DumbMuscle: Mountain Storm is treated this way by everyone, and is definitely the muscle in his every appearance but he seems no more or less intellectual than anyone else in the story. Save maybe Bushuri, but he cheats by being the only regularly practical character in the book.
* FadSuper: A twofer, cashing in on the the late '60s Japanophilia and the popularity of World War II stories.

* MightyWhitey: Who knew, in order for someone to truly exemplify the Japanese code of honor and show them how to ''really'' use their martial arts just teach some blonde white guy about it for a couple of months.
* MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: Rip and Suizi, who went from a stoic active member of the resistance in the origin comic to the teary eyed completely enamored non-action love interest in the series.

* NoSwastikas: Averted. Not only is Rip running around wearing a slightly recolored rising sun the Nazi villain Smiling Skull wears a swastika.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Tiger. Rip called him "tiger" in their fist meeting and then slowly seemed to forget that it wasn't the kid's actual name, going so far as to call him the shortened "Tig" when he wanted to call him something other than Tiger out of costume.
* PteroSoarer: They call it a flying reptile and make it look like a bizarre long necked scaled dragon, but claim it's something from the dinosaur age that's miraculously survived to the era.

* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: Judomaster mostly works behind enemy lines and he has some trouble getting back out on at least one occasion, and brings up the potential complications a few times.

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: The setting is WWII's Pacific Theater, except for the two issues in America one of which was at a incarceration camp and the other of which was as Rip's old college.
* YellowPeril: Most of the villains play on this, but "Japanese Sandman" really plays it straight with his Literature/FuManchu facial hair and long nails.

* BulletDogesYou: Sonia can project an "aversion field" which prevents her from being hit by attacks specifically aimed at her. This does not include attacks that have no aim, such as random projectiles and explosions.

* PitTrap: Rip falls into one while looking for Tiger, even though their original plan had called for one of them staying behind. Later he and Tiger are tossed back into it together and a real tiger is released in with them.

* AllAsiansWearConicalStrawHats: One of these hats even provides the perfect disguise for a white blonde blue-eyed woman in Tokyo. It lets her pass as a Japanese man somehow.
* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: Several of the dinos on can be sort of compared to actual dinosaurs even if they only look kinda inspired by them, but then there's the giant iguana. That is definitely just a giant iguana regardless of what any characters claim.
* AsianBuckTeeth: Quite a few of the Japanese characters have buck teeth, including Tiger though only in his first appearance.

* FadSuper: A twofer, cashing in on the Kung-Fu craze and the popularity of World War II stories.

[[folder:Judomaster III, Thomas Jagger]]

Sergeant Hadley "Rip" Jagger was introduced in an intended one-shot in 1965 where he ended up as the only American survivor on a small island currently being overtaken by the Japanese in the Pacific Theater of WWII. He was rescued by a group of guerrilla fighters trying to push the Japanese military from their home island, who took him to their hidden base and taught him martial arts. He is given his costume and hero name by their leader after he starts helping them fight against the Japanese and manages to prove unbelievably adept at Judo, somehow surpassing his instructor in his short time training. Rip was brought back with his own self titled ten issues due to popular demand where he picked up the Japanese-American kid sidekick Tiger, who later underwent a HeelFaceTurn and fought against his former mentor and other former Charlton heroes banded together as L.A.W.. Tiger later became part of the group that killed and the fourth Judomaster's father. Rip was said to have been a member of the ComicBook/AllStarSquadron during the war and was killed by ComicBook/{{Bane}} in the Battle for Metropolis during ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis''.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Strangely in a book that often contains a short educational segment following the story lack of research and misinformation is everywhere and anywhere:
** Bushiri, the family name of the Japanese man who trained Rip is indeed a real life surname, just not from Japan. The surname is common to the Congo and Tanzania. Sadly Bushiri never discusses his apparent Central-African heritage.
** The resistance guerrillas are supposedly not Japanese, despite the fact that they speak Japanese, wear Japanese clothes, use Japanese martial arts, use Japanese weapons, have Japanese family members, live on an island which can be easily paddled to from Tokyo, mostly have Japanese names (besides Bushiri, who is said to be Japanese), and have their hall decorated with the [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun rising sun emblem of Japan]].
** Issue #89:
*** Theres a whopper when Commander Suzuki says "I am one of a handful of remaining Ninjutsu!" with a note defining "Ninjutsu" as "An almost extinct cult of magicians". This is especially odd since the educational segment later provides an alright introduction to ninjutsu as being the skills used by ninja, who are treated as spies and occasional assassins rather than magicians.
*** Dangerous man-eating Japanese fish are not a real thing, despite the prison camp supposedly having a moat full of them.
** Issue #94: The commander condescendingly tells Rip that a "true budo warrior" would just surrender and die. This does not reflect the concept. He also is using budo in a military context where some would argue budo is the civilian evolution of the militaristic bujutsu, this distinction is indistinct and arguable however.
** Issue #99:
*** Tabuki/タブウキ is said to translate to Isle of Dragons. If you think that seems like a lot of words to get out of that one small one you'd be right. Tabuki is only written using the latin alphabet, but definitely does not translate to Isle of Dragons. Dragon is generally Ryū (竜) or Dragon, neither of which appear anywhere in "Tabuki". Isle is Shima (島).
*** While most of the dinosaurs and pterosaurs are quite off they're at least attempts to draw dinosaurs, however the first "dino" shown which shows up again at the climax is clearly just a gigantic iguana.

* IdiotBall: While the idiot ball is a popular accessory in this series Rip's Judomaster costume nearly seems a visual representation of one as he seems far more competent and sane as Rip, probably due to acting like a Sergeant rather than a martial artist superhero who needs to solve everything with martial arts.

* ValuesDissonance:
** Racist terms are used regularly for the Japanese.
** Mountain Storm, a sumo-wrestler, is called an ape and a "missing link" by allies and opponents alike despite just being a large Japanese man.
** The entire premise is that a white American learned Judo and Karate in at most a month and is now able to defeat any and all Japanese martial artists, also every time he faces them a big deal is made out of how honorable he is while his opponents aren't honorable.
** No actual propaganda broadcasters went by "Tokyo Rose", and its use as the name of the already decades out of date stereotype of the seductive DragonLady propaganda broadcaster is especially appalling given the outcome of the public application of the name (and stereotype) to the real life US citizen Iva Toguri. Would have been passable if it was just the Americans referring to the character that way, but it was the other way around.[[note]] Iva ended up trapped in Japan for the duration of the war and refused to renounce her American citizenship, risked her life to sneak food to [=POWs=], and was forced to do the broadcasts in order to have enough money to survive. Her propaganda broadcasts were written by American and Australian [=POWs=] and were interpreted by [=GIs=] who heard them as someone who was on their side rather than allied with Imperial Japan. At the end of the war she was arrested and then released after it was determined she had committed no wrongdoing. Then when she tried to return home she was charged with treason, had her citizenship revoked and spent six years in prison because a gossip columnist and several others roused up a fervor over her being "Tokyo Rose", originally a generic name used to refer to the women making English language Japanese propaganda broadcasts.[[/note]]
** It is highly unlikely a group of armed Japanese soldiers would react to a child throwing dirt in someone's face and running into the jungle by considering the kid a ghost or ninja and then stand around being too terrified to go after him. Because "he's a ninja", which is, according to this book, more terrifying to a Japanese person than having their boss point a gun at them.