by Svitska Donkun » Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:20 pm
While it's a great picture and I'd love to see it fit in with the rest of the covers(if it does), something is making me ill about it as an interpretation of Godzilla to deal with constantly. I've made it clear before how horrible the suit design for GMK was. It was a good design on paper, and in the model stages, but as a suit it was easily the worst looking, and least convincing of the millennium era. Sure you can say FW Goji looks bad, but it is still a fully seamless and well integrated suit with no points that betray that it IS a suit. It's also far more optimized for functionality. this is the most complimentary I'll ever be about GFW. But that's not my point here, GMK Goji design CAN look good, but the problem with this illustration is that it takes that concept too far in one direction. In GMK, Godzilla may have looked cheap and awkward, but he was still tall and imposing and featured some key Godzilla traits in his mannerisms, posture, and face. This illustration goes too far into Dinosaur territory. While technically Godzilla came from a dinosaur, he himself is not one anymore. The posture is much like a modern depiction of a theropod, and his head is far too large and "Crocodile" esque, which has never really been integrated into a Godzilla design before and seems unfitting. I mean look at the face and maw, it's disproportionately huge. I mean, God, look at that neck. Speaking of proportions, Godzilla loses his tall, imposing nature in this work. I would call this Dwarf Godzilla. And Godzilla's sheer stature adds a lot to his overall personality. Here, he seems squat and all mashed together. He has bizarre looking hands, and disproportionate legs and feet. I guess the eyes could be cool, but this is a problem I had with the original suit design. When you blank out the eyes, you lose any kind of personality. GMK Godzilla and his artwork/toys are cursed with one permanent expression. It de-characterizes him. The last complaint I have about this work is that it seems like a lazy effort on Adam's part, especially when compared to his Dark Horse work. How cool would it be to see his Heisei design on the cover?, which for most, is the definitive Godzilla design. Or better yet, look how beautiful his other comic covers in this line were. He took the classic designs for Hedorah, Anguirus, and Rodan(Titanosaurus and Kumonga haven't really changed in 40 years), and drew loving, faithful, extremely detailed illustrations of them that made us beg for full sized prints. This Godzilla doesn't capture the essence or glory of the character at all. It seems like a half hazard effort. A full on Heisei plate, or a revitalized version of 70's Goji would have been drop dead gorgeous and amazing...here, to me anyway, he just kind of dropped the ball. I just don't think its a very accurate portrayal of Godzilla, or at least not what Godzilla deserves when compared to the other plates. I can find much better images on Deviant, I think its love is due just to fanboy love for GMK.
