The Teen Titans are a team of young heroes from around the U.S., but like many teams of superheroes they are not opposed to welcoming heroes of vast cultures and races. One reserve member of this team hails from a land of Japan. The hero in question is today's Z-Lister, Bushido!
Created by Geoff Johns and Ben Raab in "Titans Annual #1" in 2000, Ryuku Orsono came from a long lineage of Bushido. A Bushido-to summarize-is a warrior who seeks to die in battle rather than flee from one. Ryuku was trained by his mother to be a warrior, but Ryuku was not interested. However, when he was a teenager Ryuku's mother was murdered by a demon known as Tengu-in reference to the Japanese kite demon of the same name-and her last words to Ryuku were "continue". Ryuku took the title of Bushido like his ancestors before him and fought evil from modern day gangsters to ancient demons in Japan. When he wasn't training or fighting crime he was tracking down Tengu to have his revenge. He had trained in the use of naginata, jitte, hachiwara, shuriken, and the katana, all of which carry the guiding spirits of the Bushido before him.
The demon Tengu possessed the body of Beast Boy, a member of The Teen Titans. When The Teen Titans followed the possessed Beast Boy to Japan, they came to conflict with Bushido who knew Beast Boy was possessed by Tengu and claimed the only way to free him and destroy Tengu was to decapitate him with his magical sword. Though The Teen Titans tried to stop him, Bushido sliced Beast Boy's throat which freed Beast Boy and killed Tengu.
Bushido retuned to join Beast Boy's Titans West/Titans L.A., but the team quickly dissolved due to lack of member commitment. Bushido returned to The Teen Titans to help fight Superboy-Prime. Superboy-Prime is an entire post on his own, but simply put he's an immature, misunderstood, and uncontrollable version of Superman. Bushido is quickly killed by Superboy-Prime, as the villain cuts Bushido in half using his heat vision. Bushido was later revived as a Black Lantern zombie to join a group of Black Lanterns and kill Superboy-Prime, but the same thing happened, more or less.
Bushido hasn't been seen since, though he had a minor appearance on the "Teen Titans" animated series. I think this character is pretty cool, little known fact about me: I like Japanese culture, especially historical stuff like the bushido. I'm disappointed the character has such a short history and two unimportant deaths. Characters like this who carry cultural diversity and honorable lore should receive more attention. However, with the main Teen Titans book being so poor, part of me doubts we'll see this character anytime soon. Maybe he can team up with Katana or something. No, no the sword, there's an actual character named Katana. What does she do? Well, she....has a katana. Hmm.
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