Luke Owen looks at the third issue of Godzilla: Rulers of Earth…
San Diego has become the latest victim of a monstrous invasion from the sea. With Godzilla recovering from his last destructive battle it’s up to a familiar face to fight off the mysterious Destoroyah swarm!
Godzilla: Rulers of Earth rolls on with another really good issue that serves as more of an exposition piece after the first two action-focused parts. The writing is strong, the artwork is ace and it does a great job of not only setting up future issues, but also establishing some lesser known Godzilla adversaries in the process.
Chris Mowry has stated a fair few times that he was focusing his monster selection on the more aquatic creatures from the Godzilla cannon. In order to get a full list though, he has gone to the deepest corners of the Universe to pull out two creatures that weren’t originally from Godzilla movies, but eventually had cameos in his world. Mandra first appeared in 1963’s Atragon before having a fairly decent role in Destroy All Monsters and an even briefer appearance in Godzilla: Final Wars while Gezora, who was only used in stock footage in Godzilla: Final Wars, started out life in its own movie, 1970’s Space Amoeba. It is common knowledge that Gezora featured as one of their earlier bosses of the NES Godzilla game and due to his connections with Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya he is seen as part of cannon, but it still seems a strange choice. Not that there is much room to complain about it as it’s nice to see different and more underused monsters being pushed to the forefront as opposed to being given the same line-up again and again.
But the main villains of this issue are the crab-like creatures that will eventually form Destroyah, one of the more underappreciated characters from the Godzilla universe. This makes for a good action scene at a wrestling show that showcases our human characters do their thing. The Destroyah crabs are just a bit taller than the soldiers and after the massive-scale battle in Godzilla: Rulers of Earth #2, this human fight makes for a refreshing change of pace before we get the showdown between Godzilla and Destroyah in issue #4.
Matt Frank’s artwork is once again stunning with great attention to detail on all of his monsters as well as human designs. It’s clear that both he and Mowry are giant fans of the franchise (why else would they have plucked Gezora out of obscurity?) and this shines through the plot that has been put together, which appears to be an homage to the Showa era movies. We got a tease of alien life at the tail end of issue #2 and now we get to see them in their full glory and they are really, really cool. Sadly they’re not cockroaches in human suits, but shape shifting aliens are a good second choice. Their disdainful dialogue is a joy and it will be really interesting to see them grow as the series progresses.
It will be interesting to see where the series heads next as we’re treated to the rise of Destroyah as well as the return of Mothra in the next issue. As it stands, Godzilla: Rules of Earth #3 has been the weakest of the run so far, but it’s a necessary evil to set the plot up for future issues. But even with it not being as strong as the previous two issues, there is still a lot to take away from it.
Originally published August 27, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
