Luke Owen looks at Godzilla: Rulers of Earth #13…
While Godzilla’s disappearance has brought calm to the planet, a threat from the past is set to resurface and take back the world they once had control over. No monster is safe and no future is certain as one of Godzilla’s greatest enemies prepares to return in a way nobody saw coming!
Just as IDW’s Ghostbusters series comes to a close in the next few months, so does Chris Mowry and Jeff Zornow’s Godzilla: Rulers of Earth. Thankfully we know that the 60th anniversary of The King of the Monsters will continue at IDW with Cullen Bunn’s Godzilla: Cataclysm, but it will be sad to see Mowry and Zornow leave the series.
Why? Because of issues like Godzilla: Rulers of Earth #13.
The monsters are all now set on Monster Island at it is now four years later. And while some powers feel that we need to put protective measures in place in case they come back, others argue that we don’t need to continue research into Godzilla because he is presumed dead. But with The Big G rising from his icy slumber, it looks like the Mechagodzilla project will be a sure fire thing.
Godzilla: Rulers of Earth has always walked a fine line between being too monster action-ordinated and being exposition heavy. It’s important to have both, but you need to have the balance right as too much of either would be a detriment. With that said, Godzilla: Rulers of Earth #13 is a lot heavier on the dialogue and it’s very lacking in the monster fighting – and yet it’s a knock-out issue.
This is mostly down to the fact that Chris Mowry writes excellent Godzilla comics. He is a man who understands the franchise and can mirror the sort of scenes you would expect from those movies in a modern day setting. In the 1970s, Mechagodzilla would be created by monkey-aliens, but in today’s world, he would be built by a corrupt scientist who is looking to exploit wealthy countries with his designs.
And oh my, the panels with Mechagodzilla.
This is where Jeff Zornow comes into his own. Like Mowry, Zornow is a man with a lot of time for Godzilla and all of his rubber suited foes and this is shown beautifully in the section of the comic with the introduction of Mechagodzilla. We’ve seen him before in previous issues, but comic writers always seem to go for the 2003 Kiryu model from Godzilla X Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S, but it’s been a long time since we saw the 1974 model used in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Terror of Mechagodzilla. Zornow seems to take great glee in this fact as he adds in all the little touches from the ’74 movie like his Godzilla “skin” and the rainbow eye beams. It’s great stuff.
So even with a text heavy comic, the pair manage to bring out another brilliant issue for fans and non-fans alike. IDW should really be pushing these comics forward as Gareth Edward’s newest incarnation of the creature should inspire new fans. And if they are new, what better introduction to the franchise than a great comic written by two creative fans?
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published June 24, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
