Godzilla: War for Humanity

Let us now speak on Godzilla. One of the great lizards – perhaps the greatest of all the lizards? Your friend and mine.

The big guy has had a good few years. You don’t need me to point that out to you. But for the sake of the record, not only have the most recent Japanese Godzilla features been critically acclaimed and internationally popular, but the American Godzilla movies of recent vintage have also proven enduringly popular, if perhaps not quite so critically acclaimed. There’s even a TV show with Kurt Russell, of all people. Me? I’ll ride for King of the Monsters. Gorgeous movie. Stuffed with hot William Blake action.

And so too in comics has Godzilla proven enduringly popular. Right now you can find the big lizard appearing under three publishers. We just saw a Justice League vs. Godzilla vs [King] Kong event from DC, notable for shipping with electronic gimmicks that made the “SKREE-ONNK!!!” Godzilla roar when you opened the covers. That’s newly available in trade. Marvel’s back in the lizard game, too, with a scheduled Omnibus reprint of their 1970s Godzilla series, with the excellent, delightfully off-model Herb Trimpe art. That’s the one where Godzilla fights Dum Dum Dugan and a New York sewer rat, alongside everyone else in the Marvel Universe. Given all that, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t go back for a matching Avengers vs Godzilla vs King King at some point in the not too distant future.

While we’re on the subject, hey Dark Horse, why no Facsimile Edition of Godzilla vs Barkley? It’s still relevant. So’s the Art Adams Godzilla, for that matter.

Godzilla’s main home in American comics in the here and now remains, however, IDW, who publish Godzilla alongside other such popular characters as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Trek, and Sonic the Hedgehog. They’re currently shipping a Godzilla crossover with the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. (Those guys are still around, too, if you can believe it.) Added up that’s a surprisingly significant chunk of the American comics industry supported by a big lizard just this year celebrating his seventieth birthday.

Which brings us to the subject of our review today, a Godzilla story that may just have flown under the radar in the context of the previous four paragraphs of big lizard merchandising. It’s called War for Humanity, and it initially shipped as a five-issue series from August of 2023 through to May of this year. Written by Andrew MacLean with art by a man named Jake Smith, and it is one of the most gorgeous comics I’ve seen in a good while.

It definitely looks different from just about anything else from the company. I flip through most of the Godzilla stuff I come across, but remain picky about what comes home with me. I did bring home IDW’s recent Godzilla 70th Anniversary special, a fat one-shot filled with self-contained short stories by a number of different creators. I purchased it based on the new James Stokoe Godzilla pages, which is why you might want to track it down yourself. There aren’t but a handful of essential Godzilla stories crafted outside of Japan, but Stokoe’s Godzilla corpus is one such object. Half-Century War is certainly a story of unexpected pith, but don’t overlook his issue of Godzilla in Hell. Don’t overlook the rest of Godzilla in Hell, either. One of the most amazing comic books ever published – and there’s a freebie for you, IDW trade department.

Anyway, that Anniversary special feels like it’s missing a chunky text piece of some kind, but don’t sleep on the rest of the book. Matt Frank does an especially gorgeous black & white story, with probably the most delightful two-page spread in the volume. E. J. Su and the team of Michael Conrad and Gegê Schall, also deserve special consideration.

While we’re on the subject, it was announced a few days ago that Tom Scioli’s going to be a doing a Godzilla vs Gatsby, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and the guy who made the Time Machine in the Jules Verne book series, which seems like an excellent idea for Tom Scioli, and only for Tom Scioli. That promises to be excellent, though it’s worth pointing out Scioli also has an entire Godzilla graphic novel in thumbnail form, which has been officially rejected. He’s put up videos about it online. Maybe if everybody goes out and buys Scioli’s Godzilla vs Gatsby, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and the guy who made the Time Machine in the Jules Verne book book IDW might reconsider the first book as well. Those thumbnails all on their own look pretty fine.

So it’s not as if IDW is above publishing good Godzilla comics. War for Humanity goes right to the top ranks of the best Godzilla comic books that have ever been published, at least in this language. It is self-evidently an object of superlative and monkish dedication, meticulously drawn. An absolute metric shit-ton of hatching on the page, evocative of une certaine epoque in historical manga. The pages are dense, stuffed with color and texture, filled with interesting storytelling decisions. It’s a fast read, despite being so meticulously put together. Definitely knows how to pull you along. You’ll want to go back to soak up all the detail.

It seems remarkable to me that I had never seen anyone talking about this guy. Admittedly, it’s not like I see everything, but I catch a lot. And Jake Smith was no one to me before I brought this book home. And now he strikes me as one of the most interesting young artists in the field. Allow me to say it as clearly as possible: this book looks really good.

So who is this Jake Smith guy, anyway? Well, turns out no one’s really heard of him yet. He’s got a handful of covers and short stories, anthology work. The big series to date has been Blood Force Trauma, with Hiram Corbett, which first saw life as a Kickstarter campaign before seeing print from Dark Horse comics last year. It’s based on '80s fighting games. So he’s got fans, at least, which brings us to the present moment. I probably just need to get out more. Apparently the present series started as fan art which made its way up the chain thanks to the writer, Andrew MacLean. He had significant success a few years back with a book called Head Lopper, from Image. It looks pretty good, worth taking a look if the idea of a book called Head Lopper sounds like something up your alley. Dime store Shakey Kane-drawing-Adventure Time vibe (compliment).

Both MacLean and Smith provided a series of covers for the book, which points to an essential unfairness at the heart of the world, because both gentlemen produced five excellent covers, but I, a mere mortal, could only rationalize purchasing one set. I chose MacLean, who produced five striking pictures of Godzilla, but the Smith pieces are printed in the back of the book. 

Another reason the book stands out in the raft of Godzilla series is its dogged harkening back to an earlier time in the history of the franchise. The later Showa era, if we’re being technical. With the rounded edges and colorful designs. Minilla is featured prominently, if that’s going to be a problem. But it’s also very consciously set in the present time, sort of an eternal Showa era where people have cel phones and venal billionaires. The venal billionaire doesn’t end up being much of a player here, which seems like a lost opportunity in a book that otherwise manages to hit all the right notes. Perhaps they’re setting up for a sequel. There are small hints in the final passages the story might indeed have another salvo unheard.

The series introduces a new villain to the Godzilla universe, a fungal creature name of Zoospora. He’s been popping up around the globe, traveling underground as fungus, popping up to fight other kaiju and infecting them with mind-control spores. We get to check in with a couple relatively deep cuts, such as the endearingly generic Gorosaurus, and awesome Chinese dragon, Manda. Smith draws such singularly expressive monsters. Rodan and Mothra join the fun before too long. Do we see the fairies? you ask, out loud, to no one in particular.

You bet your ass we see the god damn fairies.

Zoospora is an interesting opponent because, as it turns out, he can talk to humans. I mean, technically Godzilla can talk, too. Godzilla vs. Gigan happened. But you know what I mean. These guys don’t usually hold forth, is the point. Zoospora hates humans, specifically, and he’s driving the kaiju into killing frenzies to wipe the planet clean of human beings. The human story is focused on Dr. Yuko Honda, a world leading expert in kaiju studies, fresh from Berkeley, who faces a great deal of resistance in her career based on genuine faith in the inherent goodness of Godzilla and his willingness to help mankind. Not necessarily popular opinions in a world where, you know, Godzilla is a real thing. But she was saved by Godzilla as a little girl, after the great lizard moved her out of the path of a rampaging Hedorah, so she’s biased.

Anyway, despite her bleeding heart she’s still tapped by the top strikeforce entrusted with getting to the bottom of Zoospora’s rampage. Parenting is the theme, which is why Minila’s here. Dr. Honda is a single mom, too, just like Godzilla. Unlike Godzilla she’s got a terrible relationship with her mother. Godzilla’s response to Zoospora is framed through his responsibility as a parent to Minila. The little guy gets kidnapped so of course the big guy gets dragged into the fight.

It’s just a great comic, excellent both as a comic and as a licensed Godzilla adventure. I mean, really, I like Godzilla as much as the next person. But a lot of latter day Godzilla stuff is, well, stuffy. Serious business, certainly not a hint of camp. Certainly no edges blunted to make the character more kid-friendly. Nothing toyetic whatsoever. But my strongest association with the character, the still undefeated aesthetic experience, was seeing all those Showa era classics on a shitty old Zenith TV when I was a kid and regular-ass TV channels you got off the antenna just ran old movies all day and all night. Watching those classics, and even the original black & white run, with my parents and my grandfather. Before I was even old enough for school, old enough to understand anything at all, really, I could still understand that the big green monster was just about the strongest and best superhero in the entire world.

If you miss that guy, too, the one with the muppet eyes who hung around Monster Island with all his pals and his kid - well, friend, he’s here. The real dude. Like you haven’t seen him in a very long time. Fuckin’ A.

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