Note: Special thanks to IDW for providing this issue for review!
"END OF THE REIGN." Starting off immediately with spoilers in this review. You have been warned!
The culmination of events has led to this moment: a no-holds-barred showdown between Jacen and Godzilla, and the true intentions behind Lament. Thus, the King of the Monsters is dead. Kind of. While his physical body is gone, his essence has been transferred into Jacen, the boy with the power of Godzilla... now the boy who has become Godzilla!
Credit where it's due, Tim Seeley was able to quash most of my grievances from prior issues. The intolerable actions of Commander Riviera, the less-than-stellar performance of Godzilla, even the indulgent mysteries surrounding Lament were addressed in some way here. Of these, I think the way Godzilla has been handled was the most perplexing, but in hindsight, Godzilla having had his energy sapped during the multiple Yacumama encounters and Jacen being his chosen vessel for Kai-Sei explains many things. Also, Lament waiting for her son's powers to manifest before returning to his side as his "supportive mother" gives me major Ang Lee's Hulk (2003) vibes, so I dig this dark twist. I still wish we could have had more time with Nuki and Incense over the last six issues, though.
It goes without saying that Nikola's art continues to be one of the major highlights, though some of the action panels were a little unclear at times (I'm pretty sure Jacen punched Godzilla in the eye at one point). Undoubtedly my favorite sequence is the psychic confrontation between Rumi and Lament, taking place in an abstract jumble of Lament's memories, and ending with Rumi weaponizing Jacen's unstable emotions to completely overwhelm Lament. The panel of the rage-filled ghostly form of Rumi towering over the screaming Lament is one of the pages I return to often in this issue, as the raw emotions are prevalent in the harsh lines and use of colors.
Overall, I find myself pretty satisfied with how this arc ended, and the last three issues in particular were very quick reads; it was difficult to slow down and absorb what had taken place between issues when I was eager to continue the story! This issue especially has hooked and reeled me in several times when all I wanted to do was refresh myself on certain panels and story beats. As of right now, this series feels sort of like a modernized version of Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), with powerful mutant humans, absurd high-tech weapons able to neutralize kaiju, and a rage-filled Godzilla that everyone fears. This concept won't appeal to everyone, but it's difficult not to recommend based on its unabashed confidence and eccentric style. |
![Comic: Godzilla [Kai-Sei Era] #6](../images/comics/idw_godzilla_kaisei_06_cover_tn.jpg)
