Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters

Hexmage-PA

I just picked up the first two issues of the new Godzilla comic from IDW. Now, to be honest, I mainly picked them up because I'm a huge Godzilla nerd; thankfully, the series looks promising.

Aside from the obvious monster action, the series also seems like it will have a vein of dark humor. In the second issue, a man distraught over the deaths of his children during Godzilla's first attack straps himself to the gills with TNT and jumps off a skyscraper onto Godzilla's snout. The next panel zooms-out to show that the explosion is tiny in comparison to Godzilla, with the sound rendered as a POP!. Godzilla pauses to rub his nose before blowing up the skyscraper the man had just jumped-off of with a blast of his atomic ray.

BTW, for you fans of Chew, the writer of that series is working on his own Godzilla mini-series titled "Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths", which is apparently going to be about a kung-fu cop teaming up with Mothra to take-down the Yakuza.

Has anyone else check this series out yet?

BlankZoe

I picked up the first issue, decided to pass on the second.

It wasn't bad. Powell wasn't afraid to have Godzilla straight up slaughter civillians, which is nice. Hester's art was decent. My main complaint is that it was being portrayed as a black comedy of sorts and the jokes weren't very good. The "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME" joke was used too much and Obama's rant at the end was really ham-fisted and seemed like Powell just taking a political jab for no reason. I say this as a dude who likes Obama.

PLEASE DON'T BRING UP POLITICS OH NOOOO

Hexmage-PA

I like the black comedy angle. Most scenes centering on humans in Godzilla movies are pretty boring, and making those moments humorous is a neat innovation that fits pretty well into a series about monsters wrecking cities.

I will agree that the comic seems to have random political messages thrown in, although they are also handled humorously. Anguirus shows up in Mexico, prompting the governor of Texas to hastily erect a giant wall made of "grade A American steel". A reporter interviewing the governor pretty much says "You know this isn't going to work, right?" moments before Anguirus effortlessly bursts through the wall.

The Obama look-alike, President Ogden, shows up in the second issue during a press conference. When questioned by a reporter as to why the US has decided to take a "wait and see" position regarding action against giant monsters, Ogden replies, "What are we supposed to do, nuke it? The Japanese already tried that, and now that thing can breathe fire! If we nuke it too, who knows what will happen? For all we know it'll start shooting lasers out of its eyes!"

I'm also curious as to where the plot is going. In the second issue a bunch of birds drop dead out of the sky, and a field full of dead cattle is discovered in Mexico. How these events relate to giant monsters I have no idea.

Futt Bucker

There's another moment in the second issue that is politics related.

The governor of Texas is having a wall built along the Mexican border to keep out Anguirus and is talking about blah blah freedom, secure borders, etc. Then Anguirus smashes the fuck out of it and he starts screaming "THIS IS ALL PRESIDENT OGDENS FAULT HE DOESN'T SUPPORT THE STATES blah blah".

I didn't think it was too heavy handed or anything, but if it keeps popping up like that I'm going to get annoyed. The only other gripe I have about the series is the government's complete lack of hesitation at using a nuke against Godzilla. There's a really strong anti-nuclear message in the original films, and to see it treated as such a non-issue really irked the Godzilla fanboy in me. Otherwise I've enjoyed the first two issues. I think Hester's doing a great job on the art and I don't know about you guys but I could read about Godzilla blowing shit up forever.

EDIT: Dang you Hexmage

Munch

Hexmage-PA wrote: »

BTW, for you fans of Chew, the writer of that series is working on his own Godzilla mini-series titled "Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths", which is apparently going to be about a kung-fu cop teaming up with Mothra to take-down the Yakuza.

:shock:

Hexmage-PA

Munch wrote: »

Hexmage-PA wrote: »

BTW, for you fans of Chew, the writer of that series is working on his own Godzilla mini-series titled "Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths", which is apparently going to be about a kung-fu cop teaming up with Mothra to take-down the Yakuza.

:shock:

My thoughts exactly.

DouglasDanger

Hexmage-PA wrote: »

Munch wrote: »

Hexmage-PA wrote: »

BTW, for you fans of Chew, the writer of that series is working on his own Godzilla mini-series titled "Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths", which is apparently going to be about a kung-fu cop teaming up with Mothra to take-down the Yakuza.

:shock:

My thoughts exactly.

oh boy, this is wonderful

Futt Bucker

So, thoughts on issue #3?

I'm still waiting for Powell to explain why all these terrible things are happening.

The two girls were a bit out of place but the ending reveal was well done. I was sure Mothra was going to be in that egg and I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be Battra. Other than that I didn't enjoy this issue as much as the last two. It felt a lot lighter on Monster action this time. I did chuckle at the Korea scene though.