Godzilla

Review: Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #2 (AKA: > Monsters Gone Wild)



Writers: Eric Powell & Tracy Marsh
Pencils: Phil Hester
Inks: Bruce McCorkindale
Publisher: IDW

There’s a fantastic selection of licensed comics available these days. That wasn’t always the case. I think a number of factors have changed the product from a throwaway quick money grab by publishers to Grade A material. One big reason is that licensors seem to work with publishers to help produce a meaningful product. The main reason, though, is that most of these licensed titles are being crafted by professionals that grew up with these characters and have a vested interest in the material dating back to their formative years. This love, or at least an understanding, of the licensed material leads to a much stronger product.

Eric Powell is a man that knows how to make monsters kick ass. If you’ve never read The Goon then, my friend, you are missing out on some epic action. The Goon lays the beat down on all kinds of creatures and nasties, so you can imagine that Powell is practiced in telling tales of mayhem and chaos. Here I am pumping up The Goon and I haven’t read the book in a few years. I seemingly forgot to buy the past few trades, which I will correct in the near term. What a review, I’ve helped sell product not related to the book at hand. Anyway, streaming consciousness back on track…

If you want to see Godzilla, Rodan, and Angiurius wreak havoc on the world, this is the comic for you. What you won’t realize is there’s a very deep story, as Powell mentioned in a Newsarama interview, he was “Taking the giant monster idea and making it semi-allegorical with a good dose of dark satire.” The way we as societies deal with disasters is an issue Powell tackles. Think back to various cataclysms the world has faced and just how often recovery has been botched. Considering the story was written before the recent tragedy in Japan there’s a great deal of unintended connection to our world. It’s amazing how dead on Powell is to the world’s seeming helplessness at the power of unforeseen catastrophe. The best science fiction has always used modern fears to fashion riveting material. Well, that proves this is great sci-fi!



I frequent two comic stores: Classic Comics in Rahway, NJ and Little Shop of Comics in Scotch Plains. Classic is closer to my house, so that’s where I get most of my comics, but for those harder to get books I journey to Little Shop. I wasn’t sold on the Godzilla comic from the solicitations, but the promotion IDW ran where a shop that ordered 500 copies got a special issue emblazoned with their shop on the cover certainly made me want to throw support to my local. Unfortunately, Classic didn’t take part in the promotion, but Little Shop did. I couldn’t give a second thought to the purchase when I saw they were also donating a portion of the sales to Japan Relief. I bought the comic and didn’t expect to come back for more.

Not only was the first issue a success, but the second issue actually improves on it! The premiere introduced the crisis of Godzilla hitting ground and destroying Japan, but this issue continues that tale and also merges in Angiurius ravaging Mexico as well as Rodan hatching and doing some damage in Russia. The Rodan material offers a nice gag as we see the result of a teenage hockey player hoping to feed a cat to Rodan. Animal cruelty is serious business! The mixture of whimsy and seriousness is a brilliant combination.

Powell, joined by Tracy Marsh, fashion a sharp script that even includes a poignant moment or two. Powell/Marsh populate the book with a variety of very real human beings. The subplot following a man’s attempt to avenge his missing children is a mix of satire with enough poignancy that it may choke you up. Some political ideas, that seem to lean quite to the left, come off as pretty realistic reactions that could be expected if this situation occurred. Considering this is “just” a monsters-unleashed book you’d be hard-pressed to find a deeper work with greater subtext.

Don’t be fooled into believing this is a talky political mess. That’s the furthest thing from the truth. Phil Hester has more than enough time to pencil full-on creature rampage. I’ve enjoyed some of Hester’s recent writing stints (Dynamite’s Green Hornet), but his pencils complete the veritable creative dream-team. Hester lends the creatures and the humans equal inspiration. Sure the giant monsters will get your attention, but it’s the human element that is keeping me interested. Hester excels in both areas, so you are left with a stunningly enjoyable comic!

Powell, Marsh, and Hester have come together to create what has to be the most amazingly unexpected can’t miss comic of the year. Preconceived notions are hard to overcome, but it will be an utter shame if this comic doesn’t receive an Eisner Award nomination!

http://insidepulse.com/2011/04/30/review-godzilla-kingdom-of-monsters-2-aka-monsters-gone-wild/


April 29, 1964: Godzilla, Mothra Clash for First Time



1964: Mothra vs. Godzilla makes its screen debut in Japan. Or was it Mothra Against Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Mothra or Godzilla vs. The Thing?

By whatever name you choose — and it went by all of them at one time or another — for those of us who grew up watching these entertaining romps, this is the quintessential Godzilla movie.

It had everything you could ask for: wonderfully cheesy special effects (acute halitosis never looked so good); great dubbing (in the English-language release, the talking went on after the Japanese actors had stopped moving their lips); a couple of hot Japanese twins (albeit a pair of faeries scarcely a foot tall); wanton, widespread destruction (Nagoya, rather than Tokyo, took the hit this time); and a monster to root for (the big moth).

The Godzilla-Mothra imbroglio wasn’t the first time these two had courted trouble.

Godzilla had already been around for a decade, rising from the sea in the 1954 film Godzilla to ravage the Japanese mainland following a hydrogen-bomb test gone awry. Godzilla evolved over the years, his dinosaur-like appearance always changing. But he never lost the atomic breath that, along with his sheer bulk, served as his main weapon of destruction.

As for Mothra, she (yes, Mothra was all woman) made her original cinematic bow in the 1961 flick bearing her name. Maybe because fictional lepidopteran Mothra originated in a novel before coming to the screen, she was more nuanced than her troglodytic antagonist. Unlike Godzilla, Mothra possessed an intellect, which she put to use in a series of films.

The plots for what are loosely called “Godzilla movies” follow the same simple formula: The monster — usually our man Godzilla — is awakened from its slumber, either by man’s folly (nuclear testing) or man’s greed (there always seems to be an evil capitalist lurking in the weeds, eager to exploit a lost culture or a slumbering monster). Fully awake now, the monster wreaks vengeance on the hapless Japanese, whose soldiery, never fully recovered from Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, lies prostrate before the rampaging beast.

The soldiers do know how to die dramatically, though, which makes for some entertaining cinematic moments.

In the end, the movie’s alpha monster is finally overcome, either by a few plucky scientists who dream up some goofy formula that works, or by another hairy, scaly or wing-flapping opponent, who — for reasons never adequately explained — decides to temporarily ally itself with the perfidious two-legged mammals that stirred up this hornet’s nest in the first place.

Simple and repetitive as the story lines may be, the ‘64 film began a complicated relationship between Godzilla and Mothra, who, over the course of several movies, died and were reborn, were alternately vanquished and victorious, and lined up both as friend and foe. Their relationship with humanity was equally complex: Mothra could be punishing but was ultimately benevolent. Godzilla, usually the heavy, occasionally emerged as a kind of antihero, earning our sympathy in his role as avenging angel.

The Godzilla franchise was born in the Toho film studios in the 1950s but has been spun off so many times that it’s impossible to chronicle the monster’s lineage here. Suffice it to say, Godzilla has appeared on the screen — both large and small — in comic books, videogames, novels and myriad other places as a pop culture icon.

OK, so maybe Mothra vs. Godzilla wasn’t Kurosawa. But it was a fine way to kill a Saturday afternoon.

http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/04/0429mothra-godzilla-movie-premiere/