Monsters in America: Godzilla Vs. America

 Godzilla Vs. America: Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, and Los Angeles by Tim Seeley, Caroline Cash, Gabriel Hardman, Dave Baker, and Jesse Lonergan

Godzilla Vs. America book cover

Big thanks to IDW Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to preview an advanced copy of their latest entry in the Godzilla Monsterverse titled Godzilla Vs. America: Chicago, Kansas City, and Los Angeles. It’s an interesting concept where the king of monsters ends up on American soil, specifically targeting the four cities in the title and encountering local landmarks, events, and foods in his visit. I previously read Godzilla Heist, which was a synthesis of Godzilla with crime/action genre, and Godzilla Legends—Mothra, which was a cool time travel story about Mothra. Godzilla Vs. America follows a similar trend in these editions where Godzilla is placed in a unique situation and environment, and the authors and artists imagine what it would be like for Godzilla to visit and/or terrorize American cities. Each city in the collection has 4 stories with different authors and artists highlighting well known (and sometimes not as well known) history, landmarks, events, traditions, and food related to these cities. Although the premise is interesting, the execution doesn’t always land. There are several standout stories, and Boston was my favorite collection of stories in the book. In particular, “The Great Gorilla Whale” stood out to me as the best story in the collection. It’s like a Moby Dick type story, but with an old sailor retelling his tale as the only survivor of an encounter with Godzilla. The artistry and the story have a kind of Tales from the Crypt old school EC Comics feel to it. I loved it. There’s also a really cool story about a mutant lobster that grew due to a thrown away science experiment. The giant lobster was great looking, especially as it wages war for Boston with Godzilla. There’s also a brief, but beautifully illustrated story about Mothra (“Make Way for Mothra”), and a final story about a subway line. Nearly all of the cities feature stories with other kaiju monsters and subways. The LA story about the subway (“How to Use the Los Angeles Metro to Survive a Godzilla Attack!”) was like a history lesson that presents the history of the LA transportation system and how the unknown LA subway system developed. Although it was informative, the colors were brown and white, so it wasn’t as visually appealing as some of the other stories. Maybe it was just the way it appeared on my iPad but the visuals didn’t have the same pop as some of the other stories. Similarly, I liked the story “The Big Break” and the artistry was good, but the color scheme featured bright yellows that didn’t work as well with my digital copy. Regardless, author Jordan Morris and artist Nicole Goux capture what life in LA can be like trying to struggle in the entertainment industry. Kansas City and Chicago were ok. The Kansas City stories featured a lot on barbecue and hot sauce, while Chicago had a lot of interesting landmarks and a fun shout-out to Svengoolie. I especially like “Chi Godzilla” which features a great twist of irony, again reminiscent of the EC Comics where cosmic justice is eventually served. This was a fun collection, but it left me wanting more, especially in the stories. I hope that there is a consideration to expand Godzilla’s visits to other cities, but I’d also like to see maybe a longer, central story where there’s more development of the characters or an understanding of how and why Godzilla ended up in that city.