Welcome to the First Issue Bin, where I — Ethan Kaye — randomly grab one of this week's comics that’s just starting up and give you the details on whether it should get added to your collection … or remain on the comic shop shelf.
Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe #1
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Javier Garrón
Color Artists: Jesus Aburtov, Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer: VC's Travis Lanham
Editor: Mark Paniccia
It's finally here! It arrived! Godzilla is loose! Again!
Marvel has been rolling out a series of one-shots over the past few months, spotlighting battles between the bipedal Japanese mega-lizard Godzilla and some of their biggest stars, like Spider-Man and the Hulk. And they've been …pretty good? I guess? None of them are the next Killing Joke, but not every painting needs to be the Mona Lisa. They're all entertaining romps with big, city-destroying action, quick-thinking heroes, and the requisite Marvel quipping. But they were all ramping up to this: the five-issue mini, Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe.
He's not the first to try either. Marvel's "vs. the Marvel Universe" concept started with 1989's Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe, followed by multiple universe-wide killing spree series starring the Punisher, Deadpool, and Wolverine. As far as we understand, these are all alternate universes, removed from regular continuity, and played just for fun. In fact, DC Comics is doing the same thing at the very same time as Marvel with Justice League vs Godzilla vs Kong 2, currently on issue number 2 of 7.
It's a very good time if you're into kaiju battles, and an even better time if you're into multi-company kaiju battle crossovers.
Writer Gerry Duggan has been a major presence in Marvel for quite a while now, with his delightful West Coast Avengers series running concurrently with Godzilla Destroys. It's clear he gets the joke, that property damage is the name of the game and it really doesn't matter how many buildings the giant lizard knocks down, it's all part of the spectacle. He's writing fun, jokey dialogue as the world shatters, and in my opinion, that's much better than how New Yorkers would really respond to such a disaster. Buildings fall down! Things get crushed!
But Quicksilver ran real fast and evacuated everyone! Even a goldfish!
With the Fantastic Four movie debuting this summer, it's only fair that Marvel's first family leads off the book, confronting their longtime nemesis Mole Man first, but realizing things have gotten out of hand when an enormous Celestial emerges from beneath the Earth's crust. Not something that normally happens, the FF investigate and although they initially figure they can put this genie back in the bottle, the emergence of Godzilla to battle the Celestial complicates plans.
Godzilla whups the Celestial but good then goes off terrorizing the city because, well, he's awake. The Avengers are called in (Doctor Strange as well, but he defers), and there's rock-em, sock-em heroic antics all over midtown. For real, I think Duggan pitched this story just so he could have this incredible Captain America vs Godzilla's radioactive breath moment.
Overall, it's a fun funnybook. The dialogue definitely leans towards the jokier and lighter, despite the subject matter, and it's devoid of any shackles of Marvel continuity that would stymie new readers. It's casting a pretty wide net, grabbing fans of the Marvel heroes, the Godzilla comics, and the Godzilla movies that got a boost in the arm from 2023's incredible Godzilla Minus One. There never has been a need for Godzilla to explain his actions, and Duggan doesn't feel the need to come up with one. It's a big monster vs heroes book and doesn't set its sights much higher than that. It's unrestrained summer fun, baby!
Javier Garrón's art never slows down either, keeping all these battles moving at a great clip, with big and small moments getting almost the same amount of panel space. Ben Grimm actually bites Godzilla, and it really looks like it hurts! For a major team-up book like this Garrón does a great job differentiating features and costumes, so it really has this great Marvel movie feel running throughout. Scenes bounce from location to location and character to character seamlessly and in logical ways that follow the fun rather than get bogged down in complex plot.
I mean, it's superheroes vs Godzilla. It's the match-up we've dreamed about for years, and it's playing out over four more issues!
Kaiju vs Mecha: 5/5
Kaiju vs Sentai: 5/5
Kaiju vs New York: 5/5
Kaiju vs New York Property Values: 6/5, get them rents down
Ben Grimm, Does Godzilla Taste Good?: No
Verdict: Not a must-buy issue, but definitely a fun read. Might work even better collected as a trade, so you can share the whole story with your Godzilla-loving/superhero-naive friends.
