Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Ultraman (1966)

 Japan's entree into the superhero sweepstakes wasn't limited to anime.

In 1966, Tsuburaya Productions introduced the Ultra Series, the collective name for a family of adventure series, which began with Ultra Q, and would continue with Ultraman.

United Artists acquired the rights to both series, but Ultra Q has never aired here due to it being produced in black & white, and by then, Americans were getting used to seeing everything in full color. Today, Shout! Factory has the American rights to DVD releases of each available Ultraman series, including 1996's Ultraman Tiga, which landed here in 2002 on Fox.

With Marvel Comics having acquired a license last year to adapt the franchise, now would be a good time to scope the series opener. The English subtitles certainly help.

What Marvel has basically done is bring the original story forward into modern times, as we've discussed over at The Land of Whatever. Only 39 episodes were produced for this series, but they would retool the franchise with different series titles over the next 50+ years. And I know there's a few of you who can't get enough of men in monster suits. The sets were cheesy, of course, which is part of the charm.

Rating: B.