"For two years Japan's greatest export was one of Marvel's biggest stars, and the King of the Monsters upheld his title against some of the best and the worst the House of Ideas had to offer."
From Marvel Essential: Godzilla King of the Monsters (2009).
People might look at you a little cock-eyed when asked if they can remember the time when Godzilla fought the Fantastic Four -- right before he butted heads with the Mighty Avengers. But it did happen. Or his riff on The Valley of Gwangi (1969). Or how about that time he took on Bigfoot? Yes, that really happened, too -- and they all occurred within the certifiably insane pages of Marvel Comics 24-issue run of Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
The late 1970s saw a surge of licensed and toy-based comic books at Marvel: Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, The Micronauts, Shogun Warriors, and ROM: Spaceknight. I’m honestly not really sure how Marvel back-doored into the rights for the character through Mattel, who had imported the Shogun Warrior toyline, which contained an awesome Godzilla toy with a spring-loaded fist that I spent many an afternoon using to knock Evel Knievel off of his Stunt Cycle.
Regardless, it was a good run; and now, thanks to Marvel's Essential line -- phone book style B&W reprints -- they've all been collected together at a very reasonable price for you to enjoy for the first time or, like me, all over again!
Wasting little time, writer Doug Moench gets the ball rolling when Godzilla surfaces and stomps into Alaska -- making this his second visit to American soil; the first, 'natch, being when he pulverized the U.N. Building in Destroy All Monsters (alias Kaijū Sō-shingeki,1968). And from there, the monster heads south by southeast, making an erratic course for New York City, leaving cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Las Vegas in ruin behind him.
And to bring all of this action and mayhem to life, editor Archie Goodwin turned to the hard and bold lines of artist Herb Trimpe -- who was definitely getting his King Kirby on in this thing with his layouts and forced perspective to establish the monster's size.
Known mostly for his incredible work drawing Marvel's other, rampaging green-skinned monster (-- and when inked by John Severin, his was the best rendition of old Jade-Jaws of ever!), Trimpe's distinctively blunt style and constantly morphing main monster might turn some folks off, but I think its just great and his creature designs on the myriad of otherworldly monsters our hero gets to brawl are something to behold and celebrated.
Batragpn! The Isle of Living Demons! Yetrigar! (Alias the Biggest Bigfoot of them All!) And my favorites, The Mega Monsters -- Triax, Rhiahn and Krollar, which includes a rather gnarly decapitation.
Also, one of the book's strongest assets was that not only did it allow Godzilla to fight his way through the Marvel Universe's gallery of superheroes, including those already mentioned plus the likes of The Champions and Devil Dinosaur, it was also a showcase for the long dormant Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Charged with bringing the monster down, the hi-tech counter-terrorism unit definitely have their hands full and Trimpe's designs for all their advanced tech, atomic-gizmos, and hardware are spiffy-cool, including the giant robot, Red Ronin, built specifically to stop Godzilla. (But one has to wonder how in the hell Dum Dum Dugan keeps that ever present stogie in his constantly yapping mouth. You'll know it when you see it.)
Admittedly, the book is more than a little grounded in the decade that spawned it, but if you can get past that, and one really annoying Kenny character, this run is one helluva demented good time.
And with the Essential line a distant memory and long out of print, I am happy to report that at the time of this rehashing (2024), Marvel has released a full color omnibus of not only the Godzilla run, but also The Micronauts and ROM: Spaceknight! With more volumes to come. I got mine, and I encourage all of you to get yours, too, True Believers.
Originally published on May 6, 2009, at Micro-Brewed Reviews.
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