| Four comics into Godzilla Rage Across Time and once more a new creative staff for a new issue. This time Ulises Farnias and Erick Freitas (spelled as "Erik" in the comic, but appears to be a typo) take over writing duties, having previously worked on IDW Publishing's Judge Dredd series. The pair is joined by artist Pablo Tunica, who did work on several mini series comics for IDW around the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise. Together they send Godzilla 2,234 year ago to the time of Hannibal Barca and his conquest for Rome. The result is... sadly muddled. The comic has a unique premise going for it, but is generally hard to follow and lacks the pay off to really tie it all together.
In terms of story, the comic tracks Hannibal Barca as he is being pursued by Roman soldiers. Hannibal, however, is more interested in tracking Godzilla. As the King of the Monsters lays waste to a platoon of Rome's troops, Hannibal plots to attack the beast. The next day, though, the military strategist fails, calling for a surrender. Despite losing the battle, though, he plans further in hopes of besting the creature so he might continue his mission toward Rome.
It took a good three reads to start to grasp the story fully. The plot shifts from the Roman soldiers, to Hannibal, to a failed attempt on Godzilla, to a pack of random soldiers led by a druid, to finally back to Hannibal against Godzilla again. It's an odd combination of feeling like not much is happening, while also making the reader feel slightly lost at times. Part of this is because of the plot, but also because of the art itself. I do enjoy Pablo Tunica's work here, as he has a detailed and unique style, but it's not always the clearest to follow. The sequence where Hannibal transitions from watching the Roman troops to venturing back to his own is not very clear without a few good reads, for example. Tunica does imbue the art with a personalized touch, although I found the pupil-less eyes of all the animals to be odd.
As a side note, Godzilla's nuclear beam has an odd characteristic in this comic of actually igniting things in a blue burst of flames. This is not in the traditional sense of something catching fire and dying in a painful manner, but almost fantasy in nature. For example, there are a stampede of blue elephants toward the start of the comic. Initially I thought these were some sort of specters or mutants, before reading further and realizing this is just the residual effect of Godzilla's ray.
For the covers, this comic has three to pick from. The first is by Bob Eggleton and shows a Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) circa Godzilla against a dark background with an elephant seen on the ground. Said background is a bit nondescript, but the job on capturing Godzilla is great and another excellent one from Eggleton. This is followed by a subscription cover by interior artist Pablo Tunica which shows Hannibal on an elephant as Godzilla marches in the distance. The elephant looks great... Godzilla does not, looking slightly goofy which takes away from the cover. The final one is by one of the writers, Ulises Farnias, as he draws Hannibal on horseback as Godzilla looms at head level. It's a great image with dynamic colors. Godzilla looks great, as does the vivid level of detail placed on everything. For the best cover, though, the tip of the hat goes to Eggleton's cover for the really great depiction of Godzilla.
Overall, I was not won over by this issue and found it the weakest of the series so far. I have enjoyed the unique stories this mini-series has given us, but this one just didn't connect and felt far too disjointed on the first couple of reads. The lack of any sort of monster battle is likely to turn off some of the more action oriented readers as well, while this has been one of the few comics in quite awhile where the only monster showcased is Godzilla himself. |
