To compliment the normal comic review, found here, I’m doing another review with added graphics. So this is a graphic review of Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #3 to help give a more in-depth review of the publication. In terms of issue #3 of the series, it has a slightly better way of telling a story this time around. It’s not great, but it’s still a vast improvement over the past two issues. Hopefully the writing will get better as the series progresses if some of the small subplots for the nonsensical and meaningless characters who add nothing to the story can be weeded out.

Story

Mysterious twin girls are introduced into a new school and one of them is promptly (and accidentally) hit with a soccer ball from a nearby game on the school yard. The girl’s solution is to use her special power to attack the offending player via an invisible monster. The child is left on the ground, freaked out and bleeding as the twins walk away. Meanwhile, Godzilla, Rodan, and Anguirus get their names pulled out of thin air by the series’ scientist as all three monsters continue to wreak havoc around the world. Well, except for Rodan. He’s only shown in one panel due to the writers not knowing how to spend their 22 pages per month. A Lady Gaga like character has a concert telling everyone that the monsters shouldn’t be harmed etc and in Texas, where Anguirus is rolling around, two lone Texans decide that since the military can’t do anything about him; it’s up to them, their rifle, and their pickup truck to take him out. Obviously, it doesn’t work.

At the end of the story, the mysterious twins make their way onto a beach and through their telepathic powers, kill all the soldiers that are guarding a mysterious egg. The girls, using their powers, communicate with the egg and as it hatches, they name the creature inside Battra. After this, there’s a small surprise at the end which you should read for yourself. It’s pretty good.

Cover(s) The Eric Powell cover here is nice and creepy yet it’s an odd pairing since the “Battra Twins ©” so far have nothing to do with Godzilla in this issue. Foreshadowing perhaps? The Jeff Zornow cover is rather perplexing seeing as how Rodan only appears in the comic in one panel and the monsters don’t even meet up to fight. The artwork here is rather “standard” and just gives me a “meh” reaction when I look it over. The most interesting cover is the Anguirus cover by Matt Frank. The monster has never been shown in such an epic shot before. The mix of yellow and brown combined with the excellent use of lighting really bring the character to life.

Artwork

Monsters look great; the girls look creepy with their pupil less eyes and sometimes wearing Long Ranger style like masks. Some of the movements look at little weird. For example, look at how high this kid’s leg is. I’ve never seen anyone defy their bone structure that much to kick a ball.

Conclusion

Well, the writing is getting a little better and it wasn’t the fiasco it was in the first issue. However, too much in the way of page space is wasted with temporary characters being introduced to make a statement about how dumb the writers think Texans are or to demonstrate how much the writers just hate kids. Although Battra is the first monster introduced that didn’t kill a child straight away, one child still gets some sort of punishment. That’s par for the course in this series I guess. Show a kid, make sure the audience knows the kid is a jerk either by nefarious actions or having the kid expose themselves to be twisted by hateful dialog, and then hurt/kill them. It’s gotten pretty old by now but I guess the writers have some issues with children and are using the comic to vent their frustrations.

I would have liked to have known how the monsters got their names in this comic as they seem to have been pulled out of thin air. I know a lot of thought didn’t go into naming the monsters in the films, but this was the chance to tell the story of these monsters in a new light.

All in all, it was a better comic than the last two issues and if the ending is a sign of things to come, it’s going to get good and monsters are going to FINALLY fight, although the buildup would be better is the story had one clear narrative rather than jumping all over the place. Hopefully from here on out, the series will tighten up and the temporary characters will be excised and the comic will have a cohesive story. Get that done; lay off with the kid killing/hurting fetish, get the monsters fighting, and you’ll have a really cool comic.