After assisting Greek heroes and fighting off Martian invaders, the final issue of Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre Presents has Godzilla cross over into the fantastical land of Oz. Written by Mike Costa, with art by Ryan Browne, Kaiju of Oz loosely adapts L. Frank Baum’s children novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In execution, the comic is more of a truncated retelling of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz with Godzilla added.
The story is as follows: The Kaiju of Oz opens with Dorothy crashing in Oz like in the original tale. However, Toto has been mysteriously transformed into Godzilla and chaos ensues. This is a unique element of the story that unfortunately is quickly dropped in favor of following another character. Despite initially appearing to focus on Dorothy and Godzilla, a bulk of the comic is focused on the Wicked Witch of the West’s efforts in recruiting and meeting the cast of the original story. We learn about the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion through the perspective of the Wicked Witch while Godzilla rampages in the background. Eventually, everyone converges on Emerald City and a massive brawl between Godzilla, the Wicked Witch, and many of Oz’s denizens, unfolds.
Unfortunately, Kaiju of Oz is the weakest issue of Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre Presents. It’s not the worst Godzilla comic ever released, but it’s a severe drop off in quality from the preceding issues. Reading it I didn’t get the impression that the writer had the same reverence for both Godzilla and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as the previous issues did with their source material. Writer Frank Tieri and artist Ilias Kyriazis felt like they had personal investment in Godzilla's The Odyssey. Kyle Baker made it clear he understood what made both War of the Worlds and Godzilla work in Roar of the Worlds. Those comics made clever, thoughtful, choices to integrate Godzilla into the classical work they were lampooning. That thoughtfulness isn’t present here and it’s primarily a side-effect of the comic’s off-kilter tone.
The Kaiju of Oz is filled with crude and distasteful humor, both verbal and on the written dialogue. Examples include the Wicked Witch of the West accidentally stepping in the Cowardly Lion’s scat, the Wizard of Oz constructing a hot air balloon from women’s panties, and implied drug use with the repeated mention of a “Gumdrop Dispensary”. When the Flying Monkeys come in to attack Godzilla, one of them has a hat that merely says “Fart”. Most egregiously is when the Good Witch of the North gives middle finger to the Wicked Witch of the West in her final moments of life. It’s not a one-off thing instance either. The Wicked Witch of the West also flips the bird to the Scarecrow towards the end of the comic. Bizarrely, there’s times where the word “ASS” is drawn on the page with an arrow pointing at the respective rear of one of the characters. None of it is particularly clever, and comes off as incredibly immature.
I am not a prude and often enjoy off-putting and subversive art. Romeo & Juliet and Godzilla featured gore and innuendos, but given the original source material of a Shakespearian tragedy it felt much more appropriate. Additionally, the edgier elements were balanced out nicely with emotion and it still felt respectful towards the original story of Romeo & Juliet. However, in The Kaiju of Oz there’s not much substance to it beyond cheap shock value and it feels like the creative team was more interested in making an edgy Wizard of Oz parody rather than a comic where Godzilla lands in Oz alongside Dorothy.
The result is that the comic unfortunately reminded me of a lot of recent crass horror remakes of beloved public domain characters. Those feel created not out of genuine love and appreciation for the original works, but rather a lazy attempt at shock humor in place of a story. While not as bad, this comic has a similar vibe. What if the Wicked Witch of the East oozed a stream of blood when she was crushed? What if the Wicked Witch of the West was really wicked and burned Munchkins to death with her magic? What if everyone in Oz were self-serving degenerates? The story also seems to assume that the audience will root for Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion, despite not giving us any reason to do so. If everyone is nasty to each other, why should the audience care? Like the Tinman, this comic doesn’t have much heart.
That’s what makes it disappointing. The comic could have been a story about the people and powers of Oz uniting and defending against Godzilla, or a cheerful affair as Godzilla defeats the cruelty of the Wicked Witch of the West. If they wanted to do something more experimental, they could have even tapped into a darker reinvention of Oz that the IDW Goes Dark cover portrays.
The comic does have some positives though. Mike Costa covers a lot of ground and establishes a lot of characters in a short space quite effectively. Despite not liking specific choices, he manages to make his take on the characters of Oz memorable and distinct from one another. Given the large cast, that’s impressive. It’s also bolstered by artist Ryan Browne’s line work which complements Costa’s writing well.
Looking through Browne’s portfolio, it’s very clear he excels and enjoys creating chaotic farcical messes. His art is easy to follow and despite some grossness here and there I think his character designs are fantastic. I liked how regal and noble he made the Cowardly Lion in contrast to the sardonic Tinman and aloof and somewhat goofy Scarecrow. Additionally, I appreciate how nasty the Wicked Witch looks and Browne added a disgusting detail where insects and other critters are shown to be crawling all over the Witch.
I also do really like the full-spread page of the flying monkeys, armed with chain saws and all sorts of whacky weapons, descending upon Godzilla. Its manic and unique. I wish the entire comic captured the energy on display here, and instead it feels like there was a critical misstep with not focusing on that.
The Kaiju of Oz wants to be edgy and farcical, but focuses on the wrong things. While in theory it was cute to have Godzilla be Toto, it does little with the idea and prevents the story from having Godzilla being a villain. It also seems that because punches are pulled it’s not as humorous as it could be. For example, the munchkins are portrayed as normal people—albeit with attitude. So, when they are blown apart by Godzilla it’s not particularly tragic. However, if they were presented as cutesy fantasy folk and invited Godzilla to sing with them before being blown apart it would be a lot more visually amusing. To be clear, that would still be very unnecessarily edgy, but it would be so over the top it would circle back to being amusing.
I’ve focused on my disdain for its portrayal of Oz, but haven’t touched on how Godzilla is handled. Regrettably, not much better. Godzilla is in the comic, but outside of him being implied to be a transformed Toto, there’s nothing creative in how he is handled or his involvement in the story. Godzilla spends the entire issue rampaging throughout Oz unimpeded. Not that Godzilla necessarily needs one, but there’s no motivation or real cause of this attack, and given the comic’s ending and focus on the witch he almost feels like a background character. Sure, we see Godzilla blast the Wizard of Oz’s hot air balloon, but why? Is Oz an oppressor here? Should we be cheering? When Godzilla blasts apart the Martian war machines in Roar of the Worlds there’s satisfaction. Compare this to Godzilla being the hammer of Zeus and fighting Toho monsters in ancient Greece in Godzilla’s the Odyssey, or the discovery of radium in Roar of the Worlds. Those click and there’s clear indication by both the art and the writing on how readers are supposed to feel.
As I write this though, I concede that that might be the point. Godzilla is a chaotic entity that doesn’t care and lacks loyalty to any side or faction. In the same way Godzilla serves as a resetting force upon humanity, Godzilla is waging the same war against Oz. Good, bad, and weird, is all crushed beneath Godzilla’s feet. If that was Mike Costa’s intention, I have a lot more respect for the comic overall. Likewise, Costa may have just been updating perceived darkness that is present in the original text that its first famous film adaptation down plays. In some ways, it also serves as a nice antithetical to other takes on Oz such as Gregory McGuire’s Wicked. Unlike Wicked, darkness and wickedness are not rationalized or complex, but simply portrayed as nasty.
Covers this time are okay. All of them are good in different ways. Tom Scioli’s main cover is chaotic and cute. I love the little detail of Toto hanging on to Dorothy’s dress as they narrowly avoid Godzilla’s destruction alongside the rest of the cast. The only blemish is that the Emerald City looks like a confusing mess that is brushing against Godzilla as though it were alive. Still, it’s a fine cover and makes me wish Scioli got to do his own take on Godzilla entering Oz.
Ryane Browne’s cover B is the most accurate to the issues’ contents and I like it a lot. It portrays Dorothy and her friends riding atop Godzilla as he blasts the flying monkeys away. As I mentioned earlier, my favorite part of the comic was when he created and captured farcical insanity with the hordes of whacky flying monkeys. I enjoy the amusing visual gags where with one of the flying monkeys taking a photograph and another skewering bananas with its saber. I also enjoy Dorothy having a great time atop Godzilla with the rest of the cast acting as they should. Again, I wish the comic was more like this than what we got in the final version.
Cover C by Zande Cannon is okay. The cast recoils in horror towards Godzilla’s reign of terror. It’s drawn nicely and the purple sky is cute. However, the perspective is strange with the cast facing away from Godzilla and pointing at the reader.
Next is the retail incentive by Elizabeth Beals. It features Dorothy and company marching down the yellow brick road while Godzilla rampages in the background. It’s extremely cutesy, and like the Scioli cover I wish the contents of the issue were like this.
Then, in complete contrast to what came before it, there’s IDW Goes Dark Cover by Ayala. Whoa. Godzilla faces off against The Wicked Witch of the West—who is some sort of abomination with the Tinman, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow erupting from her body. What I assume to be the Munchkins are portrayed as baby-like skeletal goblins. It’s all very gross, but in a very distinctive and eye-catching way. It reminds me of the illustrations by Stephen Gammel of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark fame. I’m repeating myself here, but I would have loved it if the comic took this direction as well.
I like all the covers but I think I like the Elizabeth Beals cover and the one by Ayala the most. However, there’s a trend with all the covers. I like the direction that the covers took the crossover a lot more than the one we got. And that’s the issue with The Kaiju of Oz. There’s just so much untapped potential towards the premise, and it just feels like the final version doesn’t live up to that.
Despite all my negativity, I do think that The Kaiju of Oz is a good comic. It’s clear that Ryan Browne is a talented illustrator and I think Mike Costa had a fun concept that just didn’t come together perfectly in the end. Despite it being off-putting for my own personal tastes, it’s not bad.
I also think that despite it being the weakest entry of Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre Presents, it fits nicely alongside the rest as it serves as a nice foil to them. Including Godzilla Meets Robin Hood and His Merry Band of Outlaws, none of the issues of Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre Presents feel similar to one another. All of them have drastically different goals and creative energy behind them. Likewise, simply because of its premise, The Kaiju of Oz is still leaps and bounds above other Godzilla comics where Godzilla simply fights a foe. The Kaiju of Oz isn’t always wonderful, but it’s distinctive enough to be worth a read for Godzilla fans. |
