Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Considering how basic an idea Godzilla is the character has managed to star in a surprisingly large number of stories. It's amazing how many variations there can be on the story of a big lizard stomping on things. But of all of Godzilla's many adventures none of them quite compare to his run in Marvel comics as seen in the comic Godzilla King of the Monsters.

I suspect the thinking at Marvel was that a good way to bring in new readers was to not only print a number of comics based upon licensed properties but to have said properties interact with the standard roster of Marvel characters. Not only would the new reader be brought into the world of comics due to their interest in the licensed work but they might possibly become fans of other comics as well. That's one possible explanation for why you could have toy lines and even Godzilla himself interacting with, say, Spider-Man. That, or it was the 1970's and that's the just way they rolled back then.

Whatever the reason, Godzilla was unleashed upon Marvel comics, the United States of America, and unsuspecting readers everywhere. But what version of Godzilla was going to be featured? At this point in time Godzilla was in his full-out goofy phase [like I said, it was the 1970's] in which he only fought to protect Earth. Writer Doug Moench decided not to go with the heroic Godzilla of the time or with the personification of destruction he was in his initial appearances. Instead, Godzilla was cast as a misunderstood monster, a creature out of his place and time whose interactions with others inevitably and accidentally ended up being violent. This was a take on Godzilla that wasn't explored in the movies until much later, such as in the 1993 spectacular Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla. It was an interesting angle to pursue since it meant that Godzilla could be seen in a sympathetic light but could still engage in all the city destruction that he was known for.

While the misunderstood monster angle wasn't a bad idea, it was apparently decided that Godzilla needed to be more relatable. To that end little Rob Takiguchi was introduced into the story. As the grandson of Godzilla-centric scientist Doctor Takiguchi, young Rob is mysteriously allowed to tag along on dangerous military missions, during the course of which he becomes convinced that he is the only person who truly understands Godzilla's place in the world. A large part of the Godzilla comic plays like Old Yeller or some other "boy and his dog" story except the dog is replaced with a gigantic monster that burps radioactive fire. Having a human character who, in their own odd way, identified with Godzilla is something that can work. The patron saint of this site Miki Saegusa is a shining example of the proper use of this plot device. Rob, however, is a bad example. Instead of being the voice of mature reason from an immature character Rob comes across as a whiney little brat who complains about the violence used against Godzilla when he's not busy using the exact same tactics. Rob's finger pointing gets a bit old when he's busy tearing up the countryside in a stolen gigantic robot.

Since Godzilla and a boy-powered robot blowing things up is a bit dramatic even for the world of Marvel comics someone has to put stop to all this giant monster malarkey, or at least try. Marvel's all purpose super military peace keeping force S.H.I.E.L.D. is called in to keep the peace through high explosives. Even though nobody in S.H.I.E.L.D. had ever dealt with a giant monster before they all seem willing to give it the old college try. What was particularly surprising is that Nick Fury, the head honcho of S.H.I.E.L.D., only makes a brief appearance to drop off Godzilla experts Doctor Takiguchi, his assistant Tamara Hashioka, and the previously mentioned annoyance Rob. All subsequent Godzilla action is left up to his second-in-command Dum Dum Dugan. Were there bigger problems in the world other than Godzilla that Nick Fury had to deal with? The world of Marvel comics is a dangerous place.

Even if you had never read about the exploits of the top two members of S.H.I.E.L.D. the reader was clued in right away to how tough they were by the fact that they smoked cigars constantly. It didn't matter whether they were flying state of the art military vehicles, shouting orders, or fleeing giant monsters, the two of them gnashed and puffed away on their stogies like there was no tomorrow. Did military helicopters and super sonic jets come with built in ashtrays back then? Perhaps Fury and Dugan simply ate the remains of their cigars since they were, y'know, tough.

Joining the cigar twins were other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents such as Gabriel "Gabe" Jones. While Jones also had misgivings about the methods being used to combat Godzilla he, unlike Rob, wasn't annoying. Jones was also the black guy in the story. Normally that sort of thing wouldn't merit mention but an evil Godzilla-centric scientist who shows up constantly refers to Jones as "Black Man." Wow. Another agent by the name of Jimmy Woo also was on the case but he spent most of his time flirting with Tamara. Out of everyone in the comic Woo was the only one who was doing something worthwhile with his time.

But all the no-name monsters and second banana super heroes in the world aren't going to sell a comic. If anyone was going to buy this comic they were going to buy it for Godzilla. As drawn in the Marvel house style of the time by Herb Trimpe Godzilla ends up with oddly thin limbs and a slight belly, making Godzilla look a bit like a monstrous Winnie the Pooh. Godzilla also seemed to have a bit of trouble remaining at the proper scale to everything else but the movie Godzilla will sometimes have those same difficulties as well. But even when put into the world of four color comics Godzilla still has to face the same challenge he must always fight to overcome; it's really hard to write a story that has a giant monster for a protagonist. Outside of swatting at them Godzilla can't interact with the other characters in any meaningful way that doesn't come across as ridiculous. The best the characters can do is either stand around and talk about Godzilla or give play-by-play commentary on his fights. Godzilla's thought process is so alien that he can't be given any internal monologue or any other method by which his thoughts or feelings can be related to the audience. Moench even plays around with this by having text that discussing the ambiguity about Godzilla's actions even when the monster is behaving in an anthropomorphic fashion. When it comes down to it all Godzilla can really do is go on rampages and fight monsters.

Mind you, I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I quite enjoy the destruction and rubber suit rasslin' and all that. Plus, Godzilla is billed as the King of said monster activities so you know he's going to be great at that sort of thing. We should all be so lucky to find our calling in life. But in the end Godzilla is a character who has a greater potential than most movie monsters but still can't be used in most traditional stories. That, however, doesn't stop the Godzilla comic from using those stories anyway. There's something completely loony about sticking Godzilla into the middle of a story about cowboys and ranch hands but it's there anyway. You get the feeling that the creators of the comic had a "Why not?" attitude towards the thing and tossed Godzilla into whatever situation came to mind. Besides cowboys, Godzilla went up against giant monsters controlled by aliens, giant monsters controlled by evil scientists [judging from the comic the use of giant monsters seems to be a more popular plan than one would initially suspect] giant monsters who show up for no reason, sharks, dinosaurs, and a New York rat. When Dum Dum Dugan and Godzilla get into a fist fight you know the comic has gone to places that no other Godzilla story has dared to go before.

The Godzilla comic takes a ridiculous concept and delivers as weird a comic book as you would expect. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on how you approach the series but whatever it is, it's something.

Questions and comments can be sent to gleep9@hotmail.com. If you are done here head on back to either the G Review or G Main page.