 |
Title |
| Godzilla Kingdom of Monsters #2 |
| 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:Phil Hester |
| |
 |
| Monster
Appearances: |
Aliens,
SDF, & Misc Appearances: |
| Godzilla,
Anguirus, Rodan |
N/A |
|
| Comments |
 |
Anthony
Romero |
 |
|
|
While
the first comic in this series didn't leave much
of an impression, Eric Powell does a nice 180 degree
turn to deliver a satisfying second issue. Its not
without some faults, but overall is starting to
gain its own identity and is building up nicely
in regards to developing a monster torn world. Pacing
especially is improved, as this feels like a more
engaging and well constructed issue than the first,
with decent art by Phil Hester.
In terms of story, Godzilla continues his rampage
across Japan while a father, whose children were
killed in the previous issue, contemplates how to
combat the monster. Meanwhile, Anguirus appears
in Mexico approaching the Texas border. In Moscow,
Rodan hatches from an egg a kid took from a museum,
only to escape and fly off with the three kaiju
on the loose by the issue's end.
Although the story sounds simple, this issue does
actually provide some backbone to add some depth
to the destruction. The biggest step forward is
simply that the human characters are actually focused
on. President Ogden (apparently a stand in for Obama,
but considering the attention paid to detail in
modeling him after the president they should have
just called him thus) continues to deal with the
issue and we get some decent real world moments
of him being confronted on why he isn't using the
military to attack the creatures in the other nations
right now. A Texas governor, building a large border
to try and block off Anguirus in Mexico, is also
focused on briefly, although the latter is a little
cheesy and lacks any subtly in its political statement.
The stand out character, though, is the father who
was seen briefly in the first issue. The man becomes
extreme in his determination to stop Godzilla and
avenge his children, to the point where he does
an unsuccessful suicide bombing against the King
of the Monsters. Suffice to say, the world that
Powell is crafting here is very dark, but he is
constructing original ideas for the franchise and
will be interesting to see how this translates in
future issues. The issue is certainly slanting toward
a direction where its not for children, though,
unlike the previous comic series about the character.
As for how the three monsters are presented, and
spoilers ahead for those concerned, they are done
okay. Godzilla doesn't get to do a whole lot as
the comic interweaves the scenes of Japan's destruction
with the rest of the story. By the issue's end,
he's doing the same thing he was at the start and
all the way through: destroying a city in Japan.
Anguirus awakes in Mexico and does his famous "rolling
ball" move from Godzilla:
Final Wars (2004) before leveling a school
and moving toward the Texas border. Rodan is a bit
of a surprise, as its actually a pet sized infant
freshly hatched from an egg a kid in Moscow stole
from a museum. The child ends up being pretty twisted,
talking about squishing birds heads earlier and
feeding the quickly growing Rodan any animal he
can find. This sets it up for the story inevitable
where, after trying to feed Rodan his neighbor's
cat, the monster eats the kid instead and flies
off (don't worry, the cat makes it out okay to see
Rodan fly off). For whatever reason, the issue focuses
twice on mass animal death when both emerge, with
ravens falling dead out of the sky when Rodan's
egg is found and cows up and dying before Anguirus
emerges from the ground. Neither is explained, so
will have to wait for later issues to see if its
explored. All in all, its a decent representation
of the monsters, although its odd to see Rodan portrayed
as more of a horrific figure, ala the Gyaos, as
that hasn't been done since his debut film.
In terms of the art, it takes a step back from
the previous issue. Godzilla still looks good, as
do the human cast. Rodan doesn't look all that impressive,
though. There isn't much detail in Hester's Rodan
and he looks a little generic, not based on a particular
version from the films at all. Anguirus fares much
better, with some really dynamic and great frames
with the character. His model seems to be based
off a mix of the Showa and Millennium versions.
Its an uneven rendering, though, as there are a
few points where Anguirus isn't drawn so well, such
as when he first emerges from the ground.
The covers for this issue number four different
ones in total. There is the default Phil Hester
one, seen above, a variant done by Eric Powell,
another variant by Matt Frank and finally an ink
only version of the Hester one. The main comic cover
is okay. Its not too memorable, but is a decent
image that looks very appealing. The Powell cover
is good, except Anguirus looks a little off. Finally,
the Frank one with Rodan is easily the best of the
four, and is a great rendering of the character
as its a good meld of the Heisei and Millennium
characteristics.
Overall, not a great issue, but a good one for
those who like their Godzilla with a dark, slightly
real world edge. Its definitely paving its own path
and feels unique, so it will be interesting to see
how the series progresses with even more monsters
brought into the fold. Suffice to say, this is a
notable improvement over the first issue.
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| Variant Covers |
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