Godzilla: The New Heroes

From Zombie Hideout, Springfield MA, on Free Comic Book Day, 2025.

Title: Godzilla: The New Heroes
Date: May, 2025
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Tim Seeley, Ethan S. Parker, Griffin Sheridan, Chris Gooch
Art: Nikola Cizmesija, Pablo Tunica, Oliver Ono
Colorist: Marissa Louise
Letterer: Brian Kolek
Editor: Jake Williams

IDW's Free Comic Book Day offering for 2025 soft-reboots their Godzilla universe, which is not the same universe as Legendary's Monsterverse, and actually ends up feeling an awful lot like Pacific Rim, with some elements of the Toho films.

There are three stories here, each previewing a new series. The flagship Godzilla title introduces G-Force USA, which immediately feels like more like a superhero team than a military/science operation, and only becomes more so with the addition of  "G-mutant" Jacen Braid. Also on the team is Jet Jaguar (from Godzilla Versus Megalon; I'm not sure if he's made previous comic appearances), who is inexplicably providing comic relief by (*checks notes*) speaking only in rhymes that are apparently set to the tune of its theme-song. Let's just say that I've met Etrigan, and you, sir, are no Etrigan.

Building on the mutation theme, the second story introduces the Dead Zone, an area of the Pacific Northwest that has been turned into a mutant-populated wasteland by kaiju attacks. We really just get a glimpse of the setting here, but if you just picture "mutant-populated wasteland" you've pretty much got it. A mysterious being called the Wanderer is shown battling a maybe T-Rex-sized kaiju, but we don't get too much beyond a basic peek.

The third feature is Starship Godzilla, but it really seems to be Starship Mechagodzilla, and it feels a bit like Guardians of the Galaxy with a heist in space and Mechagodzilla as the getaway vehicle.

I wanted to like this, but it all felt a bit off from what I think of as a Godzilla story, and while I commend IDW for trying some different directions, none of it felt all that original either. Everything felt too reliant on superhero-team tropes, space-opera tropes, and post-apocalyptic tropes. Just a lot of tropes here, and only five pages of actual Godzilla. I think there's potential for this to still come together, but this was not as strong a start as it could have been.

Rating: 4.5/10

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #3

Bought at Bob's Hobbies & Collectibles, Springfield MA USA.

Title: Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong
Issue: 3
Date: 2024
Publisher: DC Comics / Legendary Comics
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Ben Abernathy, Robert Napton

This was back to being a bit of a setup issue, with quick and relatively indecisive conclusions to the giant monster attacks on Central City and Themyscira. In fact, the destruction of Iron Heights Prison and the escape of most of the Flash's Rogues Gallery causes more problems than the titan Scylla does (Hey, look! It's Captain Cold!).

Meanwhile Superman appears to be dead as a result of taking a direct hit from Godzilla's atomic breath. Well, dead in the DC Universe, anyway... I mean actually, this isn't in regular continuity, so I suppose it could go either way. But it still lacks impact much in the same way most deaths or apparent-deaths in alternative continuities lack impact.

Supergirl's scene with Kong doesn't end up amounting to much either, and by the end of this, we're left with an ominous Lex Luthor bit and something of a pause in the action.

Going into this, it felt like it shouldn't be a transitional issue, but that's what we ended up with.

Rating: 5.5/10

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #2

First review of 2024! Bought at Bob's Hobbies & Collectibles, Springfield MA USA.

Title: Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong
Issue: 2
Date: 2024
Publisher: DC Comics / Legendary Comics
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Ben Abernathy, Robert Napton

With all of the preliminaries out of the way, we get right to the mayhem in this issue. Godzilla takes on Superman, Hawkgirl, and Captain Marvel (you know, the Shazam one), while the Batman and a bunch of Bat-family members go after um... okay, I need to look up a list of members of the Monsterverse B-team... Camazotz, who is attacking Gotham City. Two other Titans, Scylla and Behemoth, are attacking Central City and Themyscira respectively, but those battles will wait until next issue. No problem with that; this issue packs plenty of action.

The Justice League characters all get some good moments, and writer Brian Buccellato does a nice job of keeping them true to their characters while delivering fun interactions, including a feel-good moment of Batgirl knocking out Jason Todd.

Godzilla no-sells pretty much everything thrown at him. looking like a Doomsday-level threat to the Man of Steel by the end of this.

This was a fun issue that delivered on what it promised.

Rating: 7.5/10

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #1

Look! A (relatively) new comic! Bought at Bob's Hobbies & Collectibles, Springfield MA USA.

Title: Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong
Issue: 1
Date: 2023
Publisher: DC Comics / Legendary Comics
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Ben Abernathy, Robert Napton

There is a lot more focus on the DC characters than the Monsterverse in this mostly-setup introduction to this epic crossover. That being said, the setup for the crossover, featuring a series of mishaps in a plot by the Legion of Doom (remember Challenge of the Superfriends?), and the Toyman in particular, as they attempt a raid on Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

Clark, meanwhile, is in the midst of getting his act together to propose to Lois (she knows he's Superman, but they aren't yet married in this version of whatever continuity we're in here), only to have the moment (of course) interrupted by the arrival of Godzilla in Metropolis. Pretty much all of the expected mayhem is saved for next issue, but the interactions between Clark and the rest of the Justice League are really good, and the interplay between the Legion of Doom is at least entertaining.

Good setup. The action was a bit on the generic side, but business should pick up (as Jim Ross would say) once the Monsterverse Titans get fully involved.

Rating: 6/10

Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #2

I was at a writers group meeting at the Independence Mall in Kingston MA and picked this up at the Newbury Comics store there.

Title: Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters
Issue: #2
Date: 2011
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Eric Powell, Tracy Marsh
Penciler: Phil Hester
Inker: Bruce McCorkindale
Colorist: Ronda Pattison
Letterer: Chris Mowry
Editor: Chris Ryall

Anguiras and Rodan get added to the mix as Godzilla continues his march of destruction through Tokyo. There's plenty of mayhem to be had here, and a surprising amount of comedy as well. Political satire abounds in the portrayals of President Obama (remamed to President Ogden, but very obviously Obama to the point where I wondered why they bothered with the fictional name) and the governor of Texas, who's building a wall (made of "100% pure American steel"; does such a thing even exist anymore?) to prevent illegal monster immigration across the Mexican border. You can probably guess how well that plan works.

Actually the best bit of satire was a line by the President: "What do you want me to do? Drop another nuke? It could start shooting lasers out of its eyes!" Ha! Godzilla cartoon for the win! Now all we need is an appearance by Godzookie!

Unfortunately, this book had the same problem as the first issue: No likable human characters. In fact, the character that was the focus for most of this issue is pretty thoroughly dead by time we reach the end, leaving me still wondering who the non-monster and non-politician main characters are.

Rating: 6.5/10

Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1 Newbury Comics Edition

Taking a break from the SPACE reviews to look at a fairly well-hyped recent release.

Title: Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters
Issue: #1
Date: 2011
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Eric Powell, Tracy Marsh
Penciler: Phil Hester
Inker: Bruce McCorkindale
Colorist: Ronda Pattison
Letterer: Chris Mowry
Editor: Chris Ryall

IDW's new Godzilla book featured one of the greatest gimmicks in comic history. They created a custom cover art for any store willing to order 500 copies. Each cover showed Godzilla's foot stomping the store that placed the order. Marketing genius! Now you can see your local store get flattened by the King of the Monsters, and if you're really obsessive, there are 75 store-crushing cover variants (not to mention four cover variants for those stores who didn't pony up the bucks for the custom cover deal).

This issue also contains thumbnails of all (79!) covers, and the "standard" cover art is also reproduced in full size on the back cover.

Oh, and there's also a story in between those covers. Well, a bit of one, anyway.

Godzilla awakens and begins stomping things (by "things" here, what we really mean is "the city of Tokyo"). And people are upset about that. To be continued. This seems to be a complete reboot, rather than a "return" storyline such as many Godzilla revivals have done. There is even an "origin" sequence for Godzilla's radioactive fire breath, which involves what has to be the quickest and least agonizing decision to use a nuclear weapon in comics. Because the Japanese are certainly not the types to spend any time worrying about the possible consequences of using a nuclear weapon. Anyway, to that list of consequences, you can go ahead and add "granting radioactive breath powers to monsters".

There is also an appearance by President Obama, and an attempt to make "You have got to be %$@#ing kidding me!" into a kind of recurring catchphrase (those are the book's curse-marks, not mine). What is lacking are any sympathetic characters (Sorry, Mr. President!) other than possibly Godzilla himself.

And while there is plenty of destruction, most of it is in isolated pinup-style pages with little actual effort at transition from panel to panel. The whole comic book felt like it was rushing to get the readers past the dull stuff that they'd already seen a million times and get on with the real story, which starts next issue apparently.

I'm not sure this is the way to score points with the die-hard Godzilla fans who are plunking down their money to see Tokyo wrecked.

The artwork is quite nice, and does a good job of capturing Godzilla's size, something that has been difficult in past attempts to bring the big guy to life in comics.

The series promises more monsters (and Toho even included their little monster logos on the inside cover). Maybe with additional monsters will come likable characters and a plot.

Rating: 6/10