Godzilla versus...

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

After hearing that this guy was a character from the old Godzilla comic, I had to look him up.



A smattering of images from the 30-page Godzilla #1, circa 1977.

KING OF THE MONSTERS

For some reason I have always preferred the look of covers in the ads more than the actual thing.

Backstory:





Godzilla was, for some reason, frozen in a big glacier. Off the shore of Alaska, it melted just enough for him to break free. He heads inland.

Much of the story seemed to be plotted out like a series of bouts. Godzilla versus--big truck! (Truck loses.) Here, we see Godzilla versus--Alaskan oil pipeline!



But help WAS on the way! SHIELD arrives via helicarrier and launches an army. They lose. SHIELD launches a Stark-designed giant superlaser! It makes Godzilla mad.



Yes, not just fire. RADIOACTIVE FIRE.

It's later explained that Japan didn't allow SHIELD to help with the Godzilla problem, but still..You'd think "OMG IT BREATHES FIRE" would've crossed their desks sometime.

At this point Dum Dum Dugan and his assistant, Agent Woo, realize that fighting a firebreathing monster in giant pools of spilled oil = BAD



Thank goodness Agent Woo has a plan!



WTF, Woo.

Godzilla seems surrounded by a luck aura that affects everyone else. Man in truck that Godzilla defeated? Falls out ("YAAHHH!"), survives. Man in lighthouse that Godzilla crushes? Survives. Almost too dazed to alert the authorities. Anyone who actually dies, like the nuclear scientists and seamen on the ship that woke him, are never really shown. THEIR TINY LIVES ARE AS ANTS BEFORE HIM.



Nick Fury has picked up a Godzilla expert from Japan--and his entourage.



WHO'S GONNA THINK OF THE GIANT RAMPAGING RADIOACTIVE MONSTER'S FEELINGS HUNH?!

You selfish bastards.



Oh, yeah, I'm sure using a nuke on a giant radioactive monster wouldn't go wrong at all.

Oh, and plotty stuff.



The letters page:





The interweb informs me that Toho owns Godzilla, though Marvel has reprinted this title in an Essential volume, but all the Japanese characters are original and belong to Marvel.

Suggested tags: publisher: marvel comics, creator: doug moench, creator: herb trimpe, creator: jim mooney, title: godzilla, char: godzilla/gojira, char: nick fury, char: dum dum dugan, char: jimmy woo, char: dr. yuriko takiguchi

Comments

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Toho owns Godzilla, though Marvel has reprinted this title in an Essential volume,

Yeah. In the mid-late 90s, I think, Toho went on a licensing binge there for a bit, and Marvel picked up the comics license again just long enough to publish the Essential Godzilla.

[trueredorion.insanejournal.com]

Actually it was in 2006 and it was a special agreement with Toho where Marvel could do one and only one printing run of it IIRC.

Dark Horse had the license in the 90's and gave the world the wonder of Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley.

[majingojira.insanejournal.com]

Man, if only they published a Mini/What-If where Godzilla returend to the Marvel Universe while they had the lisence.

Totally dropped the ball on that one.

Also: YEA! Someone posted bits of Marvel's Godzilla and it WASN'T ME!

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

That's right. I was off by a decade.

Why Godzilla is awesome.

[box_in_the_box.insanejournal.com]

There are a number of supposedly uniquely "American" character archetypes who nonetheless have rough equivalents of sorts in Japanese culture, but as far as I can tell (and I lived in Japan for a few years) the "redneck" is not one of them.

Except for Godzilla.

You know THAT guy? That ONE guy on your street, who has the "NO TRESPASSERS" sign in his front lawn, right next to the pickup truck on blocks? That's Godzilla. He's the guy who's homicidally possessive of what he regards as his property (ie. ALL OF FUCKING JAPAN), at the same time that he treats his own property like shit. He's the guy who shits where he eats, and then freaks the hell out whenever anyone tries to get him to stop treating his own fucking yard like a goddamn garbage dump.

See those stubby little arms? Those are worth about jack fuck-all in a fight, which is why he always uses his tail and his nuclear breath for his finishing moves. Those stumpy arms are vestigial appendages, fit only for holding oversized versions of a can of brew in one hand and a scotch-taped smoke in the other. See that sagging beer gut, and those thick-ass thunder-thighs? That's the kind of physique that wife-beater shirts and sweatpants were MADE for. Couple this all with his slow, loping gait, and he's only a thinning mullet and a trailer park away from being that middle-aged guy who wakes up at the crack of noon with a hangover pissed off because some young dumb punk kids are blaring Sabbath outside his window, and he hauls his bleary-eyed ass out of bed to beat them the fuck down because he doesn't want them on their skateboards on HIS sidewalk. Take a second look at all of Godzilla's fights with other monsters - this describes EVERY FUCKING FIGHT GODZILLA HAS EVER HAD.

Re: Why Godzilla is awesome.

[taggerung301.insanejournal.com]

one would almost think that you dislike rednecks box :)

Re: Why Godzilla is awesome.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

He played Sabbath in a trailer park once.

ONCE!

[box_in_the_box.insanejournal.com]

If I do, then so do Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy, since what I've said here pales in comparison to what they say in their stand-up sets. :)

And it may be a cop-out when white people use it as an excuse to talk shit about people of color, but I'll use it here nonetheless - I'm descended from redneck stock myself, so I get to say this shit. ;)

Re: Why Godzilla is awesome.

[blakeyrat.insanejournal.com]

Why don't you tell us how you really feel? Stop holding back.

[box_in_the_box.insanejournal.com]

See my reply. :) (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/1016398.html?thread=29143118#t29143118)

Re: Why Godzilla is awesome.

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

Dude, that guy was totally one of my neighbors as a kid, and he was an asshole. Used to let his dogs run loose and attack everybody's pets and chase their kids, then would get all indignant about HIS PROPERTY if anyone threatened to call the animal patrol (or, in my granddad's case, threaten to shoot the bastards if they ever came into his yard after us grandkids).

[jkcarrier.insanejournal.com]

Bravo to Trimpe for being able to make the characters identifiably Asian, without resorting to over-the-top caricature. And they're even colored in actual human skin tones, instead of day-glo yellow. That was sadly rare at the time.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

I can barley remember a story where some gang of cowboys take off after Godzilla...priceless.

[blakeyrat.insanejournal.com]

I love Godzilla so much.

[timgueguen.insanejournal.com]

Godzilla Versus Gigantoneko. That's a film someone has to make.