Hitting bookshelves in May 2013, the trade paperback of Godzilla: The Half Century War compiles the five issues of this miniseries that started in 2012. In summary, the story details the journey of Lieutenant Ota Murakami, a soldier on the front lines of the war against Godzilla and other kaiju over 50 years, with the starting point being Godzilla's first appearance in 1954. The story then encompasses the years of the war with different locations turning into battle zones, each location seemingly more brutal than the last. The toll it takes on Murakamai become present as he struggles to understand the conflict between humanity and the kaiju that nearly consumes his entire life.

With nearly all of the work handled by James Stokoe (aside from Heather Breckel handling the coloring), the quality of the story and the art is almost uniformly excellent. While there are some inconsistencies and exaggeration with the character designs, they appear in a mostly consistent manner. As for the monsters, their appearance in the comic are almost completely spectacular with vivid details and coloring that helps display their destructive power. Throughout the story, there are links and shout-outs to events and elements from the main movie series. As always, once the story ends, there is a gallery of the cover art used in the individual issues of the mini-series. While the artwork by James Stokoe is overall excellent, the cover artwork done by several of the other artists, particularly the one by John Kantz of Mechagodzilla, are impressive in their own right.

Thus far, the two previous IDW Godzilla mini-series stories (Godzilla: Gangsters & Goliaths and Godzilla: Legends) have proven to be excellent and Godzilla: The Half-Century War continues the trend. For those that have avoided getting the individual issues of this mini-series, the trade paperback is highly recommended as now they can have the story to read in one book.

For reference, the trade includes: Godzilla: The Half-Century War #1, Godzilla: The Half-Century War #2, Godzilla: The Half-Century War #3, Godzilla: The Half-Century War #4 and Godzilla: The Half-Century War #5