The Horror of Godzilla #1 Review
The creative team—consisting of writers Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan, artist Tristan Jones, colorist Josh Burcham, and letterer Tom Napolitano—takes us back to the beginning of IDW Publishing’s Kai-Sei Era as The Horror of Godzilla #1 illustrates how history shows again and again how nature points up the folly of man.
Yes, my GateCrashers colleague Jacob Pollard had already written an early review of this issue on June 11. So why am I doing it again? Because I love Godzilla, as I mentioned in my previous review. While the IDW Kai-Sei comic book line explores the franchise in a more extravagant, medium-specific way, with titles like Starship Godzilla and Escape the Dead Zone, I was immediately drawn to what Parker and his team were offering in their more grounded showcase of the origin of this shared universe by harkening back to the very first original Godzilla film.
Throughout his 70-year career of steady growth, the King of the Monsters has played many roles as a cinematic icon. In the United States, and more specifically in Legendary’s Monsterverse, Godzilla embodies nature and balance as the guardian of the planet. Other incarnations have been more unconventional. For example, he is a constantly evolving and agonizing abomination in Shin Godzilla by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, or an inferior-form extradimensional entity in Godzilla: Singular Point.
But at the core of every Godzilla story is the sobering realization that humanity has lost its dominant position on the food chain. We are no longer able to claim the throne because we are unable to confront the creature born from our ego and sins. Now, our only viable option is to fight for our survival. In my opinion, this is much more evident in Shin Godzilla, as well as in Godzilla: Minus One, Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, and even Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla (although the latter falls short), and obviously the original 1954 film directed by Ishiro Honda. Much of this is due to the fact that, in each of them, humanity faces the King of the Monsters for the first time.
What makes The Horror of Godzilla stand out? Narratively, nothing. And I don’t mean that in a negative way. On the contrary, I say this with admiration. The comic embraces everything that characterizes the Japanese atomic dinosaur, without trying to reinvent the wheel, even though it belongs to a shared continuity and its narrative revolves around concepts originating from it. Simplicity is the dominant force in Sheridan and Parker’s story.
Jones’s art, accompanied by Napolitano’s lettering, is what truly makes this comic stand out, and the two elements complement each other very well. Jones depicts Godzilla from the perspective of ants, whose roars shake the ancient world and pave the way for a brighter future, as the comic says. This so-called brighter future comes from innocent suffering, with people either drowning or being transformed into monstrous mutants, and all because a pair of scientists played with forces that are beyond them. There goes Tokyo indeed.
I’m very impressed with what the creative team has achieved so far with this single issue, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
