Planet Rusty and the Rulers Of The Earth (giant monster ones anyway)
Oh my oh me. You know what they say, so many comics, so little time.
But what have I always made time for since I was 5 years old and KCTV would show his movies on the Saturday afternoon creature feature? Godzilla!
And now IDW has given us the next chapter in their Godzilla books. This one? Rulers Of The Earth. So with this one it’s time to pick up where the last series left off and time to stir the pot with some more action between the good and evil giant monsters that opt to make major cities around the world their battlegrounds. SPOILERS AHEAD!!
So where are the big bruisers now? For the most part they’re laying low, except for a throw down between Gigan (cyclops monster with the saw blade in the chest) and Kumonga (the giant spider) we see. Dr. Ando is leading a megazoology seminar with our leading lady Lucy Casprell in attendance — and she’s gonna get more than she bargained for when she comes head to head with Zilla (the Toho name for the Godzilla version from the HORRIBLE American movie). But if you got the imitator trying to make his presence known, you know the original is going to have something to say about that. All the while we have some shadowy folks who seem to have been pulling the strings of the evil monsters out there. Call me crazy, but I predict a storyline along the classic Godzilla movies where aliens try to take over using giant monsters to flatten all the poor humans down (Destroy All Monsters and Invasion of Astro-Monster are great examples).
For the first issue we have a good jump off and IDW is promising some big things with this series. What’s really making me happy on this one is having Matt Frank on the art detail. Totally enjoy the work he does with the big guys! But the gripe that some diehard Toho fans may have is it’s not following anything movie series-wise, and because of this some of the monsters’ origins come into question. For instance, where did SpaceGodzilla come from if we didn’t see Biolante happen? And smog monster Hedorah was supposed to be a by-product of pollution, not an evil spawn from space.
But the way I see it, if Toho is giving the thumbs up for IDW to do the stories like this then I’m cool with it. And I do have it on good (shall remain nameless) authority that Toho has the final say on everything that happens with this book. After the god-awful American movie we got do you blame them? And even though Zilla did get a cameo in the Final Wars movie, it is a brave and bold (no pun intended) move to put the least popular monster out there in the book.
But when it comes down to it, until the new remake hits next year, and Toho is letting him chill for the time being on their end, this is the Godzilla material we get for now. Silly nitpicking of who and what aside, this ride has been fun and I couldn’t be more satisfied.
