Great Leader

The Great Leader (大首領, Daishuryō) is the mysterious high ruler of the criminal organization Shocker, he also served as the primary antagonist of the Showa Era Kamen Rider Series.

Appearance
The Great Leader's appearance remained hidden for nearly the rest of the series, however he made his first physical appearance in episode 33 briefly in a video footage. In his physical appearance, the Great Leader wore a red hood that resembles that of the hood worn by the Ku Klux Klan and a black cloak. Over the course of the the Kamen Rider series in the Showa Era, the Great Leader took on several forms and personas.

Kamen Rider
According to the producer of the Kamen Rider Series Hirayama Tôru and his book Uchûsen Book Collection Special Edition; the Great Leader was once a Tibetan monk named Chan Mao who was said to be able to bring the dead back to life with mysterious, mystical techniques. However, he grew dettached from human emotions and he found a way to transcend his earthly body into a different complete being unable to truly be destroyed, it is believed he no longer has the side of whats left of his humanity which lead to what becomes of him now.

His ultimate goal is to turn the entire human race into kaijin under his rule in order to unite the world as one being. He orders his subordinates via speakers on Shocker's emblem to destroy Kamen Riders Hongo and Ichimonji who are the obstacles of his conquest. The two riders were able to severely weaken the Shocker organization by eliminating most of their key figures (Colonel Zol, Doctor Shinigami and Ambassador Hell), this forced the Great Leader to reform Shocker by allying himself with General Black of the Geldam organization, thus creating Gel-Shocker.

Seeing that old members of Shocker were considered unfit for the new organization, the Great Leader had them all killed one by one. All Shocker secret bases were self destructed and the remaining Shocker soldiers were killed. The riders were able to defeat Gel-Shocker forces and its kaijin's, including General Black. The riders were able to locate Gel-Shocker's headquarters and finally confronted the Great Leader himself, the two riders uncloaked the Great Leader only to reveal that he is actually a Cyclopean medusa. He sets off the headquarters' self-destruct system in a final attempt to kill the riders, but only resulted in him being killed instead and the two riders escaping, therefore ending Shocker's reign of terror. Or so they thought...

OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders
The Great Leader makes a return in the movie Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders]], serving as the film's main antagonist. During a small conflict between the characters of Kamen Riders OOO and Den-O during their time travel in Japan during the 1970s while hunting the Imagins, General Black discovered a Core Medal that was accidentally dropped by Ankh during the conflict. General Black gave the medal to the Great Leader which he combines with the Shocker medal in order to create Shocker's most powerful kaijin Shocker Greeed.

Influence on other series
Even after his apparent demise in the original series, the Great Leader would always come back in a different form in other Kamen Rider series and have some influence on each of the perspective series' plot:
 * Kamen Rider V3 - The Great Leader returns in the succeeding series as the leader of another organization similar to Shocker, Destron.
 * Kamen Rider X - Although the Great Leader is completely absent in this series, it was later revealed in Kamen Rider Stronger that he was responsible for creating the Government of Darkness.
 * Kamen Rider Stronger - The Great Leader returns serving as both the leader of Black Satan and the Delza Army.
 * New Kamen Rider - The Great Leader reappears in this series as the leader of Neo-Shocker, taking the form of a giant dragon.
 * Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!! - The Great Leader makes a brief appearance as the Badan Empire's Generalissimo.
 * Kamen Rider BLACK RX? - Though officially it was not stated if the Great Leader and the Crisis Emperor are indeed the same person, many fan believed that they are.