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 |
Title |
| Godzilla Kingdom
of Monsters #3 |
| 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:
Eric Powell |
| |
 |
| Monster
Appearances: |
Aliens,
SDF, & Misc Appearances: |
| Godzilla,
Rodan, Anguirus, Battra |
- |
|
| Comments |
 |
Anthony
Romero |
 |
|
|
Graphic
Editorial Review by Chris Mirjahangir
The third issue in Eric Powell and Tracy Marsh's series
on Godzilla is another good entry in the Kingdom of
Monsters series. It doesn't feel as balanced as the
second, and will probably play better in trade format,
but still progresses the story and does benefit from
the increased monster roster. The issue still introduces
some original ideas, has a greater emphasis on the
human element, and Phil Hester produces his best work
yet in the series.
In terms of story, demonstrations are being held by
a small group who are in support of the monsters while
Godzilla makes his way across Korea just as Anguirus
rampages across Texas. At the same time, a mysterious
pair of mute girls in France discover a giant egg
that washed ashore.
Once again, the story sounds simple on paper, but
does work better in execution. The "battle"
alternate cover to the issue, though, is the most
misleading yet. Rodan, outside of a quick view on
a television screen as a scientist names him, is not
in the issue at all. Godzilla gets about three pages
devoted to him, but he is getting increasingly overshadowed
by his costars. Of the three, Anguirus gets the most
focus here, which is perhaps fitting since he has
one of the alternate covers devoted just to him. None
of the monsters actually fight each other, though,
or even meet. The human side of things once again
feels more fleshed out than the first issue, and continues
a notable slant toward political references. The real
meat of this story, though, is on the mute girls,
Minette and Mallorie, who end up being almost horror-like
in execution and are even introduced well in the issue.
The pair takes a fascination with the egg as it emerges
and even begin attacking others through psychic powers,
all to keep safe the being inside who they can hear
"singing".
As for a spoiler to the issue's end, and yes treat
that as a fair warning to stop reading the review
if that's a concern... the egg does hatch to reveal
that the female being inside is not Mothra, as many
might assume when the egg washes ashore. It's actually
Battra (interesting to note is that the review copy calls the monster a female, while this line was removed from the retail copy), which
was shocking to me as I thought Mothra would have
been introduced first. The monster emerges with the
previous trend as well, as many insects appear and
all die, similar to the birds for Rodan, fish for
Godzilla and cows for Anguirus. It will be interesting
to see how this angle is addressed in the end. The
issue closes with the real Shobijin looking at a TV
screen with Battra on it saying how this isn't right,
leading to the first real cliff hanger of the series
and the greatest incentive yet to pick up the following
issue.
In regards to the art, Phil Hester really outdoes
himself. Not only is he very consistent here, with
everything looking spot on, but I have never seen
a more impressive Battra than his drawing of the larval
form. It makes an already great, surprising moment
even more fantastic with the stunning amount of detail
placed into the creature. Anguirus and Godzilla, especially
the latter, also fair very well, and the human cast
is constructed with a nice sense of detail. The mute
girls are a little over simplistic, but this actually
tends to work in making them look a little unnerving
from the start and plays to the slight horror homage
with the two.
The covers are pretty nice this go around. Of the
ones available, the Matt Frank one tends to be the
most impressive with a great rendering of Anguirus,
although he looks a little more animated and not as
savage as Hester's version of the creature in the
comic itself. The Powell cover is also great, and
the first to feature something other than the monsters,
as the mute girls appear front and center. The Jeff
Zornow's "battle" cover is nice, although
Godzilla's mouth looks just a little too big while
the concept of the three monsters fighting is, once
again, very misleading.
Overall, another good but not great issue. The series
is shaping up to be an increasingly good read, and
this is the first issue that ended with me really
wanting to read the next, as a good serialized comic
should. The increasing monster cast seems like its
already producing some trouble for the creative team,
but its great to see characters like Anguirus and
others given page time even if the title character
feels very downplayed by this point. |
| Variant Covers |
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