Godzilla 70th AnniversaryLimited RIVariant One-Shot Comic
Featuring the Limited 1 for 50 Retailer Incentive Variant Cover by Arthur Adams. Awesome!!
Editors: Jake Williams, Jamie S. Rich, & David Mariotte
RI Variant Cover by: Arthur Adams
Celebrating 70 years of Godzilla! Since 1954, Godzilla has been King of the Monsters, and what better way to celebrate than with a gigantic anthology of tales that get to the heart of Godzillas lasting popularity! From the American Old West to modern Tokyo and beyond, this collection features stories of the King of the Monsters fighting with its allies like Mothra, against old enemies like the terrible Mechagodzilla, and reshaping the lives of all who fall in its path! Nine titanic stories by first-time and beloved Godzilla creators alike, including Joelle Jones (Catwoman), Michael Conrad (Wonder Woman), Matt Frank (Godzilla: Rulers of Earth), James Stokoe (Godzilla: The Half-Century War), Adam Gorham (Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant), Dan DiDio (Metal Men), and many more!
James Stokoe's opening story shows us a Godzilla through the eyes of the men who have to clean up his messes. A companion piece to Stokoe's excellent The Half-Century War miniseries. The story actually takes one of the concepts touched upon briefly in that series and expands on it a bit, that of the OTHER specialized teams employed by the Anti-Megalosaurus Force. This particular story focuses on Mehmet Yilmaz and Ömer Bulut as they deal with studying and containing the Smog Monster himself, Hedorah.
This story focuses on virologist Mizuno, who has developed a mysterious virus. It's never quite clear for what reason the virus was developed (Mizuno stresses that it “was never meant to be weaponized”), but it ends up being all for naught anyways, as the virus unleashes a kaiju!
Lore and Piriz use the parallels of a monster fight and the petty squabbles of two criminals in the devastated city below. The story follows Ito, the titular con artist as he attempts to sell fake Destoroyah remains to a local crime family for a quick buck. An expert, Dr. Kikuchi, almost finds our not-quite-hero out, but Ito is saved at the last minute as the city is caught up in a titanic battle between Godzilla and Biollante. Hara, the crime family's muscle, survives and attempts to kill Ito for his lies, but things don't go so well for him either, with Ito realizing that in the grand scheme of things, all his lies over the years are infinitesimal compared to the size of these monsters.
Japanese Calligraphy: Maki Takarada
Matt Frank's manga-inspired story shows us the King of Monsters through the compassionate eyes of a child. The story follows an unnamed school-girl caught up in Godzilla's attack in 1954. Seemingly the only sign of life in Tokyo, our heroine comes upon another, unlikely survivor: a trilobite, left in the wake of Godzilla's destruction, much like the one found on Odo Island in the original film. Rescuing the prehistoric creature, they struggle to survive throughout the monster's rampage, before finally releasing her new friend back into the ocean along with Godzilla.
Jet Jaguar appears in E.J. Su's clever chapter. The story is told from the perspective of a young child, who suffers from nightmares about Godzilla. Thankfully, for the young boy, Godzilla's not the only kaiju to show up in his dreams: Jet Jaguar appears to help the boy conquer his fears by giving the big lizard a run for its money.
Gorham shows Godzilla as a metaphor for different brands of human suffering. In this story, Pop, Hector and Lisa are attempting to get out of town in the midst of a titanic battle between Godzilla and another new kaiju, which sadly goes unnamed in the book: a giant, glowing vampiric snail. Naturally, this is all taking place during a flood as well (or perhaps the snail is the cause of the flood), so there's even more incentive for them to leave. Pop is reluctant to leave behind his store that he ran with his departed wife Junie, but when there's two giant monsters in town, there's not much choice. They run into two other survivors, Ray and Bo, and move to higher ground in hopes of staving off the water and the additional man-sized, as well as man-eating snails. Eventually they're rescued, and months later, it's revealed that Pop is planning on opening his store back up, despite all the destruction.
“Ain't No Place for an Angel”
Gilly and Kangas bring in Mothra and her fairies in a very clever way. Set in Senica Springs, an old mining town populated by women who have been cast out by society, watched over by the mysterious queen and her “two daisies.” An unnamed outlaw enters the town, demanding the gold stashed away in the mine (despite the mine having gone bone dry years ago), but Mothra, the aforementioned queen appears to defend the town. Unfortunately, Mothra's presence in Senica has attracted Baragon, whose appearance causes enough of a distraction that the outlaw heads down into the mine, the mine collapses in fight, killing him. Mothra is injured in the fight, but Zadie, a blacksmith (with a little help from Godzilla), is able to forge a prosthesis for her out of gold, allowing the queen to take flight once more.
Writer: Michael W. Conrad
Conrad presents a story of birth, death, and obsession. Tomoyuki Abrams is born on the day that Godzilla first makes landfall in Japan in 1954 and his father is among the souls lost during the creature's rampage. Abrams commits his life to studying the creature, hoping to one day find a way to kill it, even after its more heroic turn after defeating Mechagodzilla. As he details his life story, Abrams eventually comes to realize that, despite what it took from him, he does have a deep-seated respect for the monster. He eventually even stops trying to understand the creature. “Even claiming it to be an uncaring god, or a force of nature, loses something,” he says in his notes. “…Try as we may to decode such things, they simply are.” Godzilla isn't an animal, or a monster, or a god. Godzilla is Godzilla.
Godzilla 70th Anniversary Limited 1 pour 50 RI Variant Comic IDW Arthur Adams collection art
