Happy New Year everyone! Let’s kick 2023 off the right way: with a comic that features giant kaiju committing acts of incredible violence against each other.
While kaiju monsters may not have the pop culture impact that superheroes have in this day and age, they are pretty awesome to watch and have cultivated a pretty loyal fanbase over the decades. I’ll be honest, I was never that much of a kaiju fan until fairly recently. Granted, my interest is mostly due to some friends of mine being diehard kaiju fanatics and the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed the recent Godzilla movies, but it’s never too late to hop on the fan bandwagon.
Let’s see if IDW’s most recent kaiju slugfest “Godzilla Rivals: Rodan vs. Ebirah #1” is a worthy addition to the kaiju cannon.
Written by James F. WrightCover by: Brenda Chi
Illustrated by Phillip Johnson
Lettered by Nathan Widick
Hundreds of kilometers above Tokyo orbits the ParaSOL science facility, connected to terra firma by a massive space elevator, together two incredible feats of engineering and international cooperation. But when the subdued kaiju Rodan and Ebirah arrive at the lab’s mysterious Section X, all of that threatens to come crashing down-literally-when the pair escape their confines and tear into each other. With the two titans locked in battle and plummeting to Earth down the space elevator shaft, it’s up to a team of scientists to stop them before their velocity is truly terminal-for them and for humanity.
It’s the year 2030 and Dr. Carole Kinkaid and Dr. Hazuki Oe are invited onto ParaSOL: a laboratory orbiting the Earth and connected to the surface by a sophisticated elevator. The lab is run by the talented and ambitious Dr. Ogbannya, who believes that her work will help save humanity. The lab itself was created to house some of the deadliest and strangest creatures and experiments; including the infamous winged kaiju Rodan and the monster crustacean Ebirah. Unfortunately, humanity has yet to gasp that it is impossible to contain monsters this powerful and the two rival kaiju escape. Now it’s a desperate race against the clock to save the lab and calm the massive beasts before they crash back down to Earth with the force of a giant meteor.
When creating a book like “Godzilla Rivals: Rodan vs. Ebirah #1” it’s important to understand your audience and what they expect and want out of this kind of book. Fortunately, writer James F. Wright understands what is being asked of him and delivers in spades. While the book does a decent enough job of establishing the human characters and the setting of the story, we’re all here for one reason: watching two kaiju beat the living crap out of each other. Wright has done a fantastic job of not only blocking out and crafting an epic fight scene, he has placed the monsters in a scenario that ramps up the excitement and terror. By placing the kaiju on a space station hundreds of kilometers above the Earth there’s a unique and special element of danger because not only do the humans have to worry about being thrown into the void of space, they have to worry about calming down two godlike titans that plummeting towards Earth from orbit and will kill millions if they fail. It’s an amazing set up for a fantastic idea that is executed incredibly well.
While “Godzilla Rivals: Rodan vs. Ebirah #1” does what it needs to do in order to be a great kaiju comic, it does have a few problems. The sad fact of the matter is that while the human element is simple fluff in stories like this, it does need attention and it does fall a bit flat in this comic. Wright does put a token effort into making the human characters a bit relatable by playing up their need for success and acceptance, but it feels like a token effort at best and unnecessary at worst. Also, the book feels a bit too long with over thirty pages and a surprise cameo from another part of the Godzilla universe and while it claims to be a one shot on the cover, there is a rather clunky ending that feels like it’s setting up more for the future.
Continued belowThe artwork for “Godzilla Rivals: Rodan vs. Ebirah #1” is provided by Phillip Johnson and like the writing, it delivers when it counts. Johnson’s style has some very distinct manga influences, especially when it comes to the simple features of his character designs. The big eyes, big smiles, and exaggerated and blurred motions of the characters allow the comic to maintain a sense of big energy and simple emotion. On top of that, Johnson does a great job of world building by showing a human race that has used science to advance, but just enough to be believable.
But again, it’s the kaiju that steal the show. If there’s one thing that Johnson understands about these creatures it’s the sense of scale and terrifying violence that Rodan and Ebirah are capable of committing. Whenever there are more than two or three panels on the page Johnson never shows the creatures as a whole, just zoomed in parts of them to give them an added sense of malice and mystery. However, when it comes time for them to fight, Johnson allows the comic to breath, giving the monsters plenty of splash pages and double page spreads so the reader can truly understand just how powerful they are.
The simple fact of the matter is this: no matter what problems there might be with the character and story of “Godzilla Rivals: Rodan vs. Ebirah #1”, it is a book that understands exactly what it needs to be and delivers some of the best kaiju combat ever seen.
Final Verdict: 8.5- While the human characters and story might come off as a bit weak, it still delivers an awesome kaiju fight that is accessible to both new and old fans of the genre.
