Battle Fever J was a co-production of Toei Company and Marvel Comics, inspired by Captain America and the third series in the Super Sentai series that would eventually come to America as the Power Rangers.

General Kurama has put together four young agents who have traveled the world to be trained. Along with FBI agent Diane Martin, whose father was murdered by the evil Egos, the team becomes Battle Fever J, kind of like a Japanese superhero show version of the Avengers. They are Battle France, Battle Cossack, Battle Kenya, Battle Japan and Miss America, backed up by their secret weapon Battle Fever Robo.

As for Egos, well, he works for a god named Satan Egos and has a series of monsters that he uses against the heroes, such as Death Mask Monster, Umbrella Monster, Psychokinesis Monster, Sports Monster, Anicent Fish Monster and Cicada Killer Monster.

At some point, Diane gets injured by the Dracula Monster and moves back home to the United States and is replaced by María Nagisa, another FBI agent trained by Diane’s father. She becomes Miss America II.

To prove that this is a Japanese show, death is a fact of life. Battle Cossack is killed in battle and replaced by his friend Makoto Jin, a silent cowboy who carries a trumpet into battle that he uses to taunt his enemies.

Across 52 episodes and a movie version of episode 5, the team battled evil and was popular not just in Japan but also in Hawaii. I love that Marvel has this property and doesn’t use it. Kind of like Toei’s Supaidāman show, which comes from a world where motorcycle racer Takuya Yamashiro takes the part of Peter Parker and gets his own flying car, the Spider Machine GP-7, and a giant robot named Leopardon.

You can watch this on YouTube.