Luke Owen reviews the final issue of Godzilla…
“The devastating conclusion to Swierczynski & Gane’s monster epic is here! Godzilla is battered and beaten but not down for the count… yet his most fearsome foe ever still stands before him! With the end of the world near, Boxer has one final decision to make: to kill or not kill Godzilla!”
As Chris Mowry and Matt Frank’s Godzilla: Rulers of Earth impresses fans and critics alike, its predecessor comes to an end in Godzilla #13. But rather than roar with an epic finale, the comic just whimpers to an unimpressive close.
The on-going Godzilla series has been full of problems since around issue #6 and its never really recovered or got going. Duane Swierczynski gave us issue after issue of set ups and filler to eventually lead to the final battle between Godzilla and the space monsters, but even when the monster action eventually kicked off, it was never satisfactory. It felt like Swierczynski and his team were trying to emulate 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars and, just like that movie, it ended up as one big incoherent mess that was trying to do to much in the way of fan service.
But even with all of the boring issues that came before it, none have felt more flat than Godzilla #13. The fight between Godzilla and Kaiser Ghidorah is very dull and unimaginative, taking elements from the aforementioned Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla vs King Ghidorah and 1964’s Ghidorah, The Three Headed Monster, but never quite capturing the thrill of its live action counterparts. Some of it is okay, but it never comes across as like a worthy conclusion to all of the build up this showdown has been given.
Not only that, but Swierczynski presents us with one of the dumbest endings to a Godzilla story in all forms of medium. You can sort of see what he was tying, but it just doesn’t really work. Even if it follows into Mowry’s Godzilla: Rulers of Earth (which I hope it doesn’t), it’s still really stupid.
Though the ending is beyond stupid, it was never going to able to make up for the deficit created by earlier issues. Godzilla #13 was always going to have an uphill struggle on its hands and it never quite makes it. The artwork is sloppy, the story is boring and the character dialogue is horrendous. Boxer is supposed to be a British character, but he feels about as English as McDonalds apple pie. Just saying “bollix” over and over again does not make him British.
It’s testament to IDW’s belief in this series when they release the issue that is supposed to follow on from this story a couple of weeks before hand. Many fans had already given up on this series and quite rightly so. It had a fairly decent start, but in a year that has given us Godzilla: The Half-Century War and the first issue of Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, it just pales in comparison. But even without these comparisons, it has not been a very good series. Godzilla #13 is just a below average end to a very weak Godzilla story.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth’s Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth’s Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published July 10, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
