Comic Review: Godzilla The Half-Century war

    Godzilla, like many long running franchises (James Bond, Star Trek, Doctor Who, etc.) has been many things over the years.  It started as an atomic allegory with strong post-Hiroshima/Nagasaki imagery.  It evolved into an environmental message series, aimed primarily at the young.  And it came back (twice) as slightly more serious, less intellectual, bad-science fiction, typical of contemporary, post-anime Japanese film.  Along the way, it has featured comedy, adventure, mystery, conspiracy, and occasionally horror.  The best films use Godzilla and the other monsters as forces of nature…natural disasters.  The best of the films feature compelling and interesting people trying to survive and understand as the world is torn down around them.  And with Godzilla: The Half-Century War James Stokoe has extracted some of the best of the films to create a five chapter, five decade epic of one man’s life in the shadow of the beast.

    Starting with its first appearance in the 50s, our hero Ota and his spaced out friend Ken are on the front line of history.  After proving their metal in the burning hell of Tokyo, they’re recruited for a special group gathered to study and stop Godzilla.  During the Vietnam War, things escalate when it is discovered that Godzilla isn’t so unique, and there might be people working behind the scenes with ulterior motives.  From there the story takes us to Africa, then Bombay, and finally to Antarctica, as the world is hammered down into burning rubble by the chaotic battling of kaiju.  Stokoe manages to work in many series favorites, even some of the weirder, lamer new monsters, while weaving the sad life’s story of a man trying to understand the wild thing he has spent his life fighting.

    Several especially effective moments stand out, particularly in the turning point story set in Ghana.  Here, as so many monsters come together and lay waste to a city, Ota is irrevocably changed.  The scenes of him sitting in the blasted building, watching the carnage, are quite striking.  And the sequence in the VW bus just the right dash of comic relief, which feels like something right out of one of those 70s films.  And Stokoe’s art manages to be extremely busy, yet evocative.  The colors are beautiful and the action very well done.

    For any Godzilla/Kaiju fan, this book is an absolute must.  It gives the genre the respect it deserves, tells a good story, and I think lives up to the potential of the ideas.  In many ways, this is to the Godzilla series what Marvels by Busiek and Ross was to the Marvel Universe.  And like Marvels, you don’t need to be a fan to appreciate it, but if you are a fan, I think it will be especially affecting.

Godzilla: The Half-Century War
Author/Artist: James Stokoe
Publisher: IDW
ISBN: 978-1613775950

-Matt

Dork Art: Alex Ross' Django Unchained

Oh good golly.  This is beautiful.  These days I think it's easy to take comic cover superstar Alex Ross for granted.  He's pumping out the covers for Dynamite - Shadows & Spiders & Lone Rangers.  Heck, he even does Star Trek model kit boxes now.  But then something like this comes around and knocks you on your ass.  This piece will be the cover for issue #6 of the DC Comics adaptation.  I still haven't delved into that series, but I'll dive in once it's all complete.

--Brad

Dork Art: Planet of the Apes - Cataclysm

After some success with their Planet of the Apes minis, Boom Studios is taking the plunge with an ongoing series subtitled Cataclysm.  Set eight years before the events of the original Chuck Heston film the story appears to be focusing on the terror of the Alpha & Omega bomb and the slipping political grip of Dr. Zaius.

Here's the official synopsis:

BRAND-NEW SERIES! GREAT JUMPING-ON POINT FOR NEW READERS! Acclaimed writers Corinna Bechko (HEATHENTOWN, FEAR ITSELF: THE HOME FRONT) and Gabriel Hardman (HULK, AGENTS OF ATLAS) start a new chapter of the PLANET OF THE APES saga, launching the fan-favorite franchise into its most exciting era yet! Eight years before astronaut George Taylor fell from the stars...the stars fell on the PLANET OF THE APES! Once the destroyer of human civilization, the Alpha-Omega bomb of yore has slept silent in the dark side of the moon. One mad monk seeks to wake the beast...and all of ape society is at risk. It's a race against time as Doctor Zaius struggles to find an end to the madness that has engulfed all that he knows! Don't forget to ask your retailer about the rare Alex Ross Black and White CGC 9.8 Near Mint variant!


Sounds fun enough to me.  But to be honest, I'm just really excited about the Phil Noto & Alex Ross variant covers shown above.  Posters please.

--Brad

Dork Art: Alex Ross' Star Trek

I really haven't been that excited about Alex Ross these days.  Kingdom Come and Marvels was a long dang time ago.  That being said, it's pretty cool to see the superstar artist tackle Kirk, Spock, and Bones for this Enterprise model box art.

--Brad

Garth Ennis' The Shadow

Here's some interesting news in the comic world.  According to Newsarama, Garth Ennis has signed on, along with artist Aaron Campbell, to do an ongoing comic series based on the pulp hero, The Shadow.  Ennis has written some of my all time favorite comics (Preacher, The Punisher, Just A Pilgrim, 303, The Boys) and the idea of him tackling The Shadow is incredibly appealing.  But I also have doubts with the publisher, Dynamite.  They've acquired the rights to a lot of cool characters, but rarely do I feel that their interpretations live up to their creations.  Fingers crossed here though.  I definitely dig these four covers being done for the first issue.

Read further details on the first six issue HERE.

--Brad