 |
Title |
| Godzilla Kingdom
of Monsters #1 |
| Author(s) |
| Eric Powell
and Tracy Marsh |
| Pencils:
Phil Hester |
Inks:
Ronda Pattison |
| Language:
English |
Release:
2011 |
| Publisher:
IDW Publishing |
Pages:
32 |
| Colors:
Cary Porter |
Cover:
Alex Ross |
| |
 |
| Monster
Appearances: |
Aliens,
SDF, & Misc Appearances: |
| Godzilla |
- |
|
| Comments |
 |
Anthony
Romero & Chris Mirjahangir |
 |
|
|
We are
doing things a little differently with this review.
Rather than doing the traditional one person, one
review for the product, we are dedicating two people
to the task, each doing a slightly different take.
For Chris' review, we are actually breaking the mold
and doing a graphic intensive one that has been turned
into an editorial, which can be found here:
Graphic
Editorial Review by Chris Mirjahangir
We are also doing a traditional text only review by
Anthony, which can be found below ~
In October of 2010, IDW Publishing made a formal announcement
of their upcoming Godzilla comic series called Godzilla:
Monster World. Five months and a title change
later, the first issue of Godzilla Kingdom of Monsters
finally sees release. Creative work on the writing
is a collaborate effort between Eric Powell, of Goon
comic fame, and Tracy Marsh while the art is done
by Phil Hester. So how does this first issue measure
up as a kick off to IDW's new comic series on the
legendary character? Eh... so-so.
The issue starts off on a beach with a pair children,
who are inadvertently eaten by Godzilla a few pages
in as he emerges from under the sand on the beach.
The King of the Monsters then attacks the nearby town
where he is confronted by a squadron of jets whose
attack seems unsuccessful. The Japanese prime minister
decides to then launch a nuclear missile at the creature,
which ends up only increasing the monster's power
and giving him an atomic ray. Godzilla then attacks
Tokyo before the issue ends.
While I considered holding back on spoilers, essentially
above is the entire issue. There really is no stand
out human cast or any other details to elaborate on.
The kids get some dialogue, but are killed off. The
prime minister talks a bit with his general where
they pretty much instantly agree to launch a nuclear
strike against Godzilla (more on this later). While
the president of the United States closes the issue
with a page for him discovering the news. If any of
these characters are going to be reoccurring is hard
to say, outside of Barack Obama who is mentioned in
a later issue summary, but what the first issue does
not do is develop the human cast in anyway. No frame
work is set up for this going forward, making one
wonder if its only going to focus on the monsters
and only have minor commentary from a constantly cycling
backdrop of human characters. The problem with that
approach is it makes the story seem incredibly simplistic.
Let's go back to the nuclear strike, though. If anyone
has seen The
Return of Godzilla (1984), they are probably
going to find it odd to see Japan portrayed as a nation
so quick to resort to nuclear weapons. Yes, jets weren't
able to slow down the creature, so what's a modern
country to do? Some would probably opt for that nuclear
option right off the bat, but Japan, which is a country
that doesn't even have nuclear weapons, would probably
be more resistant. Heck, scratch out "probably",
we know they would be, as this is a country that still
has watch groups who look for respectful depictions
of nuclear strikes and their effects, which is what
resulted in Prophecies
of Nostradamus (1974) going under its self
imposed ban. However, the Japanese prime minister
here shows no hesitation when presented this option
by a general, which will probably ring a little off
with those familiar with the nation.
So what about Godzilla himself in the comic? Well
its hard to get a feel for the overall direction.
He kills the kids, along with an elderly woman and
a young man trying to save her, and so it seems they
are trying to portray him as a horror figure. Nothing
is mentioned about his origin, though, and the story
would seem to indicate that this is his first appearance.
So the jury will have to be out until later issues
to come to a conclusion on how this works and if any
depth is added over time. One thing that's not handled
well at all is the pacing, though. The issue seems
to jump all over the place. For example, having the
jets fire missiles at Godzilla before cutting away
to the prime minister... only to find out that this
is much later and the jet attack is over. Kind of
artsy, but then a similar approach is done from jumping
to Godzilla out at sea gaining his ray and suddenly
him inside Tokyo. It lets them cover more ground in
less amount of time, but really makes the issue feel
like its on fast forward.
In terms of the art, Phil Hester does a good job.
The nuclear strike and other sequences are done well
with a stylized look and some of these images do a
good job at impressing the reader. Godzilla looks
great most of the time, except in a few shots and
when they actually draw in the eyes. In fact, in regards
to the eye aspect its very inconsistent. Sometimes
Godzilla will look like he is straight out of Godzilla,
Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
(2001) with completely white eyes. Other times the
eyes will be totally drawn in, and there seems to
be no rhyme or reason on why sometimes this is done
and sometimes its not. Typically, though, Godzilla
has the all white look to his eyes.
So how does this issue as a whole stack up? It will
be hard to judge. Right now, I wasn't left impressed.
It didn't really hook me to read more, or give me
any sense on where this was going. Outside of showing
Godzilla getting his ray, it felt like a pretty generic
story featuring the monster. To put it in contrast,
it lacked that "oomph" that the first issue
of Dark Horse's run had, Godzilla:
King of the Monsters #1. To be fair, that
wasn't quite their first issue with the character,
but the comic did a number of things: introduced G-Force
for those who weren't familiar with them, presented
the unique and almost iconic comic image of a Godzilla
foaming blood at the mouth, while it also ended with
a promise of a showdown between Godzilla and Cybersaur
in the next. That issue was memorable, set things
in motion and captivated you to want to read the second
issue. With Kingdom of Monsters, its more of
a benefit of the doubt for picking up issue two as
this one really does none of the above. In the end,
its disposable so it will be a wait and see if it
improves once more of the Toho monsters are thrown
into the mix. |
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