A while back, at the end of my review for Monsterpiece Theater 1, I predicted that a mash-up between Godzilla and the Martians from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds was an exciting possibility. A year and a half later, my predictions have come true and now we have been graced with one of the finest crossovers to date with Godzilla: Roar of the Worlds. Written, illustrated, and lettered by award-winning Kyle Baker, and released on August 12th 2026, the third issue of the Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre Presents series is the perfect blending of the two influential science fiction properties.
Unlike previous issues of Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre Presents, Roar of the Worlds is not a retelling or parody of a literary classic, but rather implies that the events of the comic take place in parallel to the events of the original novel. The gist of the plot is exceedingly simple: in Japan, Godzilla fights off the Martian invasion portrayed in the original novel while people flee and struggle for survival. As far as I can remember, Japan was not mentioned in War of the Worlds despite the invasion being on a global scale. Therefore, it is not hard to imagine that in a universe where blood-sucking Martians invade, that a creature like Godzilla might also be lurking somewhere off the coast of Japan. It works and doesn't feel jarring.
Before reviewing the comic though, it’s important to take a moment to explain my appreciation for War of the Worlds and the history behind it in relation to Godzilla.
First published in 1898, H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds is an early childhood favorite of mine. I remember buying a copy of it at a school book fair near the end of the school year and reading it over the summer break. For my age it was a challenging read, but I remember being enthralled by the continual violence as the Martian war machines ripped through Victorian England. Descriptions of innocent and curious people being blasted apart by the first Martians that arrived and later depictions of people fleeing into water to avoid the Tripod’s heat ray have stuck with me. It was horrifying and unlike anything I had ever read up until that point. This experience parallels the feeling of dread I had watching the original uncut Godzilla (1954) and other Toho films like Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971). Like other literary classics, it endures and is relevant to this day.
I’m also a big fan of both the 1953 and 2007 film adaptations of the novel directed Byron Haskin and Steven Spielberg respectively. The 1953 version is interesting as it’s one of the small handful of big-budget science fiction films that predates the original Godzilla film, alongside King Kong (1933), Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), and Metropolis (1927). Therefore, like King Kong, there is something that just works, as War of the Worlds is a genuine contemporary and predecessor to Godzilla. Additionally, many Toho films, such as The Mysterians (1957) and the Godzilla films during the 1960s and 1970s featured alien invasions. While these films are different and have their own originality, I don’t doubt that the novel of War of the Worlds and the 1953 adaptation influenced Toho’s productions during the tokusatsu boom in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Godzilla fighting the Martian Tripods feels very natural and long overdue, in the same way that Godzilla and Kong have been heavily paired in pop-culture consciousness since the beginning.
The 1953 and the 2007 film adaptations are different from the original work while also retaining the same major story beats. The 1953 film takes place in 1950s California, while the 2007 adaptation is set in the 2000s American northeast. This is the same strategy that Roar of the Worlds takes; swap out 1898 England for 1900 Imperial Japan. Roar of the Worlds fits in a large lineage of adaptations and re-imaginings of War of the Worlds and doesn’t stick out too much even with its inclusion of Godzilla.
Kyle Baker’s style is incredibly consistent, and continues the streak of the Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre Presents series by having top-notch art. Without getting too specific, some of IDW’s anthology series have had very spotty consistency in terms of illustration quality. One issue may be drawn by a well-respected career illustrator while the next issue may very clearly look like someone’s first professional comic. There have also been instances where it feels like singular issues do not have consistent quality due to featuring multiple artists. Often this can be immersion breaking and distracting. This isn’t the case here, and Kyle Baker, along with the two previous issues of this run, never has a dip in quality of his work. Baker excels at showcasing the destruction the Martians have caused and making It feel weighty. This shouldn’t be a surprise; Kyle Baker is an award-winning artist and writer who has done substantial work for other major comic book publishers. This must have been a massive get for IDW and the investment has clearly paid off.
Like the previous issue, Baker also balances the ratio of dialogue to illustration nicely. For each page filled with dialogue, there’s also a lot of room for action. As the Martian rampage begins, there’s significantly more pages which focus on action. The composition work here is a bit more simplistic than the previous issue but fits the tone of the story and era it’s trying to evoke. Most of the action takes place in neat boxes laid out from top to bottom. While I prefer implementation with paneling, I respect and think the simplistic approach works well here.
As with the composition work, the approach to colors is simplistic as well. While the end product is a bit different, it reminds me of early comics where large swaths of pages were colored one specific shade. Additionally, the colors tend to be on the duller side, which again fits the retro-vibe of the comic as well.
All of this coalesces nicely, when later panels show Godzilla roaring in victory against different packs of Martians. Godzilla, stands victorious, while the thing bright red frames of the tripods lay askew, a mess of pipes and broken ambition.
Moving past the visual elements, lets discuss the story. To summarize the plot, Hiroshi works for Energy Minister Takahashi in Imperial Era Japan. He loves Akio, Takahashi’s daughter, who is unfortunately marrying Masaru, an egotistical and piggish rich boy. One day, while Minister is showing off the newly-discovered radium the Martians from War of the Worlds invade Japan, destroying everything in their path. As the Martians begin their conquest of Earth, they knock Takahashi’s mansion and the radium into the water. All hope seems lost, until the radium unwillingly draws the attention of Godzilla. The rest of the novel is a frantic race for survival as Hiroshi, Masaru, and Akio try to flee from the Martians and the ensuing carnage that is a result of their fight with Godzilla. The story isn’t complicated and doesn’t need to be.
Godzilla’s design in Roar of the Worlds is an interesting composite of the Heisei incarnation and the design from the original run of Marvel Godzilla comics. While it looks like the design from Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992), its colored a lighter shade of green and is a lot more agile than it’s Heisei basis. It even reminds of the green colored Heisei Godzilla that appeared on old Anchor Bay VHSs in the early 90’s. I doubt that is a reference to that specific design in that line of VHSs, but alongside the design of the Martians, it feels an intentional throwback.
Trait wise, Godzilla jumps, tackles, and punches the tripods throughout the issue and makes the monster appear much more beast-like than usual. Despite featuring a design more associated with an anti-hero Godzilla, Godzilla appears to be in full-on hero mode, continually engaging the Martians and seemingly avoiding causing any collateral damage. Although this can be chalked up to a character’s own interpretation, Hiroshi explicitly denotes Godzilla as an ally at the end of the book. Godzilla fans will enjoy seeing the nuclear menace tear through hordes of Martian machines.
One plot point of interest is the comic’s usage of radium. I’ve always felt that Godzilla being removed from his atomic origins can be a bit tricky, and there are those that think Godzilla media should not take place in a pre-atomic era. This is interesting as while it would be a long time before nuclear weapons were created, radium was discovered in 1898. This makes the setting of 1900 feel fresh, as this specific point in time—before nuclear weapons but after the earliest discovery of nuclear elements—has not been done before. Even without the added bonus of Martian invaders it would be interesting to have a Godzilla comic take place on the cusp of discovery of radium and other radioactive elements. The radium is a simple but genius inclusion by Kyle Baker that showcases his historical fiction and creativity.
The Martians and their machines are great too. A popular reprint of the novel in 1906 featured drawings by Henrique AlvimCorrêa and that’s very clearly what this design of the Martians’ fighting machines are based on. The choice to repurpose Corrêa’s design, also makes the comic loosely a successor to not only the novel but early 19th and 20th century illustrations. There’s been countless other interpretations of the Martians over the years, so while Baker did not design them, he deserves creative credit for choosing to use this specific design as it works well.
This design is very insect-like, making the Martian tripods out to be tall and lanky spiders, roaming over the landscape. Unless I’m forgetting something, I cannot remember a Godzilla foe that was tripodal and it serves as a nice contrast to all the bipedal and quadrupedal foes Godzilla has faced. They also are devoid of any personality and while I would normally take issue with this, it fits here. The insect-approach to the Martians is exemplified when a giant group of at least twenty tripods begins to attack Godzilla towards the end. The Martians here are unique, as they’re a swarm-type threat, but inflict decent damage to Godzilla one on one. They use the weapons described in the novel, such as the heat rays and black fog, as well as basic melee to fight against Godzilla. The comic also doesn’t bother to try to explain the Martians beyond what is alluded at in the original novel, keeping them mysterious and threatening.
As the comic also only features Godzilla and the Martians, the fights feel very satisfying, fleshed out, and well realized. A lot of other comics tend to run into the problem of having multiple new monsters or scenarios unfold, therefore making some of the unique encounters only lasting a page or two, and the result is that the match-ups feeling short lived and undercooked. This is not the case here, and reader will feel satisfied in relishing how many Martian machines Godzilla fights, while also leaving room for well-developed human characters. Thankfully accurate to the novel, there is no Martian leader or shoe-horned in “final boss” of the Martians for Godzilla to defeat. The tension comes from the increasing number of tripods as well as hoping that the human characters survive through the issue.
The characters of Hiroshi, Masaru, Akio, and Minister Takahashi are all very simple classical archetypes but effective. Hiroshi is a strong man who fights for what he believes is right, but also has faults with confidence and his role within imperial era Japan. With his military regalia and hook-arm, Minister Takashi is the most stereotypical character in the comic, but has a surprising moment where he proves he is not a cowardly hypocrite. There’s nuance to him, and other comics might portray such a character as a much more stereotypical villain. The rest of the characters serve their purpose well, and it feels like everyone in the cast gets development without being overstuffed.
However, one issue is that readers may see is Hiroshi being a passive protagonist. With the exception of a moment where he heroically saves a baby, he spends the majority of the comic fleeing and lamenting his circumstances. I’d make the argument that this characterization fits perfectly with the themes of both the original Godzilla film and War of the Worlds. In the original novel with the exception of a few small key moments there is no real way to fight back against the Martians. The other thing, is that although I believe Hiroshi’s love for Akio is real and is trying to be a good person, I have my own doubts as to Hiroshi’s morality. Hiroshi seems upset that he did not blindly follow orders, although it’s a little bit ambiguous if this is a good or bad thing. Despite failing to perform his duty he receives blind praise at the end of the comic by a commander. With the backdrop of a setting of Pre-WW2 Imperial Japan, it’s a bit difficult to ascertain the exact meaning here.
Is loyalty bad? Does the threat of invasion by others justify pre-emptive military action? Does duty triumph over love? Is the hook-armed imperial officer’s sacrifice a noble one, or a wasted effort? Is the discovery of radium a good thing?
I don’t think Kyle Baker is unaware of this lack of clarity, but it’s something that readers may take issue with and more cynical detractors can misconstrue the meaning of. My own interpretation is that these themes of self-identity, and questioning loyalty are actually paralleling the end of the original War of the Worlds novel wherein the narrator essentially gives up after questioning everything around him.
War of the Worlds has been interpreted as criticizing, or at least questioning, imperialism: England, a grand colonizer throughout history is now being reduced to the colonized. It’s deeply ironic. The crimes of England are not a secret: the UK notoriously enslaved people throughout the globe, quelled any uprisings against them in the colonies they established, and routinely went to war with other countries in order to rob them of their resources. But they weren’t the only ones. While not as successful, Japan in the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s was hellbent on pillaging, destroying, and colonizing large swathes of Asia. Through Roar of the Worlds, Kyle Baker is noting this similarity between England and Imperial Japan and has created an interesting dialogue about the machinations of war and colonialism.
In terms of writing and having a deeper meaning, this might make Roar of the Worlds one of the most successful Godzilla comics to date on a literary and thematic level. A lot of the other Godzilla comics tend to be focused on delivering pulpy fun to readers, which is fine, and on occasion tackling environmental and other societal issues. But few, if any, have dared to tackle colonialism and Japanese imperialism. He also handles this topic tactfully, not portraying all Japanese people of this era as monsters, but also dropping subtle and unsubtle hints at the oppressive backdrop of the setting that this takes place in. I can imagine a worse version of this comic that focuses way too much on these aspects in a much darker and edgier way that simultaneously reduces the fun of having Godzilla smash through Martian mechs.
This balance and care make Roar of the Worlds not only accurate to War of the Worlds, but also fits the comic within the spiritual cannon of the works of Shinichi Sekizawa and reaches that caliber of excellence. Kyle Baker has created one of the best written Godzilla comics yet. It’s not giving easy answers to any of these issues, and I’m glad that Baker doesn’t beat readers over the head with his own conclusions about these touchy topics.
The comic may also be inspired by Godzilla Minus One (2023) as some of the events there loosely parallel the events of the film. Hiroshi is a conflicted imperial army conscript who juggles his own morality and humanistic desires against the oppressive backdrop of imperial era Japan. Likewise, a good deal of the comic focuses on his romance with Aiko that is destroyed by the arrival of the monsters. Because in Godzilla Minus One Shikishima is an actual veteran, Noriko is a survivor of war, and the film’s setting in an immediate post-war Japan, the dynamics are different but I definitely get a sense Kyle Baker was inspired by the film. Even the final moments of Roar of the Worldsare very reminiscent of Godzilla Minus One’s ending. This isn’t a bad thing; I enjoy seeing comics that are very clearly inspired by the more recent films and honestly wish more were.
Moving to the covers, they’re all decent, but there’s a clear winner.
Cover A by Tom Scioli is okay. It’s accurate to the comic’s contents, but feels a bit off. I usually like Scioli’s artwork and defend what others may consider ugly by appreciating his style, but this isn’t the case here. Maybe it’s because Mt. Fuji’s presence feels like a cliché—it doesn’t appear in the issue—or how the town Godzilla is fighting the Tripods in feels like too outdated, but something about this cover just feels off. The coloring choice to make the sky yellow and the same colors of the houses also isn’t great. It all blends together while clashing against the rendering of Godzilla vs. the Martians. Visually it’s a mess to look at. Scioli also has a knack for creating bizarre and unique covers and this just feels like the most basic to date. One of Scioli’s least interesting covers so far.
Cover B by Kyle Baker is fantastic. It’s more what I would have wanted out of Cover A. It’s the same premise as Scioli’s cover, Godzilla fighting Martians, but the perspective and colors are just better all around. The focus is on Godzilla, with details about the setting being noticeable in the background but not at all relying on cliches. As it’s done by the illustrator and the writer of the issue, it’s definitely accurate to the issue and the clear winner.
Cover C by artist Flops is nice but dull conceptually. It shows Godzilla glaring at the reader while Martian Tripods roam in the background. Showing Godzilla staring at the reader, or showing his large eye is overdone imagery and I can’t say I’m a fan of this.
Finally, the retail incentive cover by Nicole Goux is also fine. It’s a very clear homage to one of the posters of the 1953 film, mimicking the framing and placement of Martian ships with Godzilla. However, the two people on the cover look like 2010 American hipsters, complete with badges, gauges, and tattoos, while Godzilla destroys what looks to be modern American architecture. Still, it’s a great illustration and I like how menacing Godzilla looks. Despite my prior complaints, it is also very fascinating to see modern Americans in poses of fright that you would see in 1950s and 1960s monster movies. Minor complaint, but I’m also questioning what is going on with the globe as none of the geography makes sense. Great illustration but not the best representation of what the issue is about as it divorces the comic from its 1900s Japanese setting.
Because of Roar of the World’s commitment to its setting and way it ties into both Godzilla as a franchise and the original War of the Worlds novel, Roar of the Worlds succeeds tremendously at the main ethos behind the series. According to Tom Scioli in an earlier press publication on Godzilla.com the idea behind Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre Presents was that, “Godzilla has been with us for centuries, maybe millennia, hiding in the fringes of history and literature.” This issue exemplifies that concept as it seamlessly integrates Godzilla into the original literary work.
I feel like I’m repeating myself here, and it means IDW is on a roll, but I think Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre Presents has once again produced one of the greatest Godzilla comics to date. As it works concurrently as a stand-alone story, a Godzilla story, a new take on war of the worlds, and period pieces, it’s a great purchase for anyone even vaguely interested in it. It would not surprise me if in the future this comic wins an award or receives farther recognition outside of the Godzilla space. I’m glad that IDW chose Kyle Baker to helm such a potentially historic and significant comic. It would have been very disappointing if the concept was fumbled. Thankfully, Baker succeeds. Roar of the Worlds is a must read. |
