Wait, What's "Destro" Doing Fighting Kamen Riders?

Toei's bizarre experimentations with Western ideas give birth to weird villains. Professor Monster from Supaida-Man was practically inspired by Doctor Doom. Toei also took ideas from Knight Rider creating Tokkei Winspector and Kamen Rider Drive. Robocop was given two shows that gave tribute to him namely Kidou Keiji Jiban (which is getting a licensed sub release) and inspired the look for the otherwise fully mechanical titular hero of Tokosou Robo Janperson. What I never bothered to write this "insignificant detail" from Kamen Rider BLACK RX. 

Anybody familiar with G.I. Joe may notice that General Jark may resemble Destro. Destro later wore a gold mask and a cape and it's his Iron Grenadier uniform. I guess Toei really liked Destro's alternate outfit and created General Jark out of it. Unlike Destro, General Jark wasn't the type to answer back to his superior Grand Lord Crisis, and hated the way General Dasmader (who's actually Grand Lord Crisis' host body) treated his subordinates. Sure, General Jark punishes his subordinates but he only does so to keep them in check. 

That's probably why Maribaron was named MariBARON. Did they get inspired by the Baroness from G.I. Joe? Maybe yes, maybe no. There were hints of a romance between General Jark and Maribaron. Atsuko Takahata really makes Maribaron SCARY. I'm glad that Janperson gave tribute to her character in a rather strange episode written by Hirohisa Soda. The Baroness is often portrayed as Destro's woman in G.I. Joe. Both Maribaron and the Baroness are from noble families. Both of them also use subtle tactics to get their plans in motion.

That's what probably makes BLACK RX a strange mix. It's got the influence of the now-defunct Metal Hero series. In recent times, Kamen Rider may be the reason why the Metal Hero series was canceled but not forgotten. The lightsaber is obviously taken from Star Wars. One could say that Rideron the car was obviously taken from Knight Rider. Later, Drive featured the Trideron as the main vehicle of the titular hero instead of a motorcycle. Drive would also have a crossover with Shuriken Sentai Ninninger which was decent IMHO. I may dislike Ninninger but I'm a fan of Drive. 

Later on, General Jark (alongside Shadow Moon) became butt monkeys in the Heisei era. Some non-canon films never ceased to make fun of General Jark. The Kamen Rider SD OVA short had General Jark in extreme OOC mode with Shadow Moon as his sidekick. General Jark would often serve in the roster of Kamen Rider massive non-canon crossovers for a reason. Heck, General Jark and Shadow Moon were also seen in that D*MN AWFUL SH*T movie Super Hero Taisen with Neo-Shocker. The non-canon Kamen Rider Grand Prix also had him return just to be killed off by BLACK RX. General Jark managed to get a fanbase even if BLACK RX wasn't well-received during its time.