Godzilla Heist by Van Jensen,
illustrated by Kelsey Ramsay
Many thanks to IDW Publishing and NetGalley for sharing an
advanced copy of Godzilla Heist by Van Jensen and illustrated by Kelsey
Ramsay. I was excited to find this graphic novel since I love a good Godzilla
story, and I haven’t come across too many Godzilla graphic novels. This one particularly
piqued my interest since it situates Godzilla in a crime caper. I wondered how
exactly the author might synthesize two different genres of film- Kaiju monster
movies and crime/heist stories, into one graphic novel series. This edition is
a digital version that collects 5 issues of the story into one volume. The
story follows Jai, a thief who primarily works alone and has developed a system
of drones and has harnessed the power of neutrinos to capture Godzilla’s
attention and might, allowing Jai to create distractions and destruction while
he makes off with the loot. It’s a little far-fetched since it doesn’t seem
like Godzilla can really be controlled, and Jai doesn’t seem to be in complete
control of Godzilla, but nevertheless, he uses the King of Monsters to his advantage.
Word gets around the criminal underground, and Jai is abducted by a mysterious group
of mercenaries who only refer to one another by Greek alphabet names like
Kappa, Pi, and Alpha. They have a plan to attack a highly secure and secretive
site using Jai’s methods. This is where the story breaks down a little. For one,
we don’t learn too much about this crew, and I found it somewhat hard to
differentiate them. I wish there was more time to learn about their backstory
or their motivations or at least have some of the characters stand out a little
more than others. We do learn a little more about how Jai came to understand
the power of Godzilla, but it also seems a little far-fetched and this
backstory is not developed in depth. In fact, one of the issues starts with
this backstory, although we aren’t told about its connection until later in the
story. I found that kind of narrative disruption a little confusing. As other
reviewers have mentioned, the story gets a little muddled with betrayals and
crossings, but I ultimately wondered why the crew wanted to rob this site. Their
motivations were unclear. It didn’t seem like it was monetary, but it also didn’t
seem political. I wish there was more explanation and development of the crew
to better understand their motivations for this heist. Although the story
elements were underdeveloped, it’s still a fun read to envision Godzilla
partnering with a thief to travel around the world, robbing lucrative sites.
The artwork by Kelsey Ramsay is pretty good too, especially the panels that
detail Godzilla attacking. I hope that there will be some more adventures or
issues featuring Godzilla working with Jai. I wondered whether they will
continue their collaborations, or if this is it for the big guy. The end of this
edition includes some cool imagined Godzilla movie posters by Pablo Tunica, including
some that look like a take on Reservoir Dogs, The Fast and the Furious, and
Mission: Impossible.
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