Godzilla first roared to life in 1954’s GOJIRA from Toho Studios in Japan, and was later re-edited and released in the US as GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS in 1956 and he’s been a star ever since, although the character evolved from a horrifying example of nuclear destruction when he first appeared to a villainous creature up against more benign characters like Mothra and even King Kong who seemed to be defenders of mankind.
Eventually Toho Studios followed in the footstep of rival Daiei Studios who had introduced the heroic giant turtle Gamera who was friend to children and Earth’s protector so by the end of the 1960s Godzilla was also a protector of mankind. He even went so far as to save the world from the evils of pollution in 1971’s GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER.
In the comics world Marvel was the first to tackle the giant lizard in GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS #1 May 1977– Marvel landed the license after negotiating with Toho Studios and created what would be the first Godzilla media outside of Japan and knowing the direction the films had taken it was surprising that Marvel would opt to go with a Godzilla as villain in original stories, rather than adapt the popular film series. Comics history shows a long list of failed villain themed comic series because its tough to write the bad guy in a sympathetic way. But that was the direction they decided to take.
This version of Godzilla often behaved in a more animal way than the sometimes clever man-like thinking qualities of the film Godzilla’s we’d seen in the fifteen films produced up to that time. The story begins as an iceberg which has encapsulated Godzilla floats into the Alaskan waters which soon leads to Godzilla’s escape and subsequent attack on the United States. SHEILD, led by Dum Dum Duggan responded and drove him out of Alaska.
When Godzilla reappeared in the next issue he headed towards Seattle and once again SHEILD was deployed to stop the monster with the adventures becoming a bit repetitive as he would be temporarily defeated only to resume his attack in the next issue.
As the series went on for 24 issues Godzilla would face off against not only SHEILD but The Avengers, Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four even going through a storyline that found the giant lizard shrunk down to human size and finding himself hiding among the populace wearing a hat and trench coat.
Sadly series writer Doug Moench and artist Herb Trimpe never thought to have the Big G face off against Marvel’s Fin Fang Foom– he did go up against other giant monsters created for the series many of whom were in the direct spirit of the Toho film monsters.
Marvel carried the effort valiantly but with mixed success never really figuring out what the secret sauce was that made Godzilla the popular character he was. In the end the series is more of an oddity in Marvel’s publishing history than it is a landmark adaption of a character from another medium.
In 2006 Marvel reprinted the entire 24 issue run in their Black and White Essentials Series. Back issues of Godzilla still sell for relatively low prices although interest, especially in the first issue and other key issues, has been steadily heating up.
GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS #1-#24
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