Luke Owen reviews the latest issue of Godzilla…
“The end is NIGH! Space Godzilla and other interstellar enemies arrive on Earth and they’re here to stay… and destroy humanity! Boxer, with his team decimated, realizes just how over his head he is. There’s only one possible ally he can turn to… his greatest enemy, Godzilla!”
I said back in my review of Godzilla #7 that it was nothing more than a placeholder issue to build suspense for the final act of Duane Swierczynskis story which was followed up in the final panels of Godzilla #8. Sadly, Godzilla #9 is yet another place holder issue which doesn’t further the story along one iota.
It’s becoming increasingly frustrating to read Swierczynski’s Godzilla series for the simple fact that nothing seems to be moving forward. We get glimpses of the monster action but that’s all we get. The cosmic monsters (Hedorah, Gigan, Kaiser Ghidorah and Spacegodzilla) are given a couple of panels between them as we spend 95% of the issue with Boxer and the rest of the human characters. We’re even given another tease that we’ll see some of the previous monsters from past issues such as Kumonga, Titanosaurus and Anguirus on Monster Island but again it’s only reserved for one panel so we can focus on a conversation between Boxer and Hikari.
I understand that Swierczynski can’t just jump into the deep end and give us all the money shots we want. I also understand that by stretching out this story that he is adding suspense so that the issues that do pay off all of his teases will be geek heaven. But the problem is that the build has been boring. None of the characters are interesting, none of them are particularly written well and none of them are engaging. It’s this severe handicap that is bringing the series down month by month. Build and suspense is good when it’s written well and this is far from being written well.
One other heavy criticism that I have given this series so far is the artwork from Simon Gane. I still don’t like really his human designs and his Godzilla, but the rest of his monsters all look really good (if a little too cartoony). There is a fantastic spread at the start of the issue of Spacegodzilla blowing up a famous landmark which is something really cool to behold. But it’s not worth buying the issue for.
Perhaps next month we will finally get to see some of the teases come to fruition, because I’m not sure how much more padding I can take. You’ve been building this up for some time Swierczynski – it’s time you gave us a payoff.
Originally published January 22, 2013. Updated November 6, 2019.
