BHOC: GODZILLA #22

It had been two issues since I first took a real look at Marvel’s GODZILLA comic book, dedicated to the colossal creature from the Toho films. And I was still buying it. But, you see, I had little choice. As with the previous installments, the Fantastic Four guest-starred in this issue, and my attachment to that group thus made it imperative that I keep on reading it. I had never been much of a fan of monster movies, they were more in the wheelhouse of my younger sibling, Ken.

This issue continued on with a storyline that guest-starred an appropriate but more obscure Marvel star, that being Jack Kirby’s last Marvel creation, Devil Dinosaur. You see, in order to eliminate the threat posed by Godzilla, the Fantastic Four had used Doctor Doom’s time machine to transport the big lizard to the distant past. (Makes you wonder why they never tried the same thing with the Hulk. Possibly because they recognized that Bruce Banner would be forced to go along on the journey.) And in those new environments, Godzilla had come across Devil and his partner and pal, the proto-human Moon Boy.

Writer Doug Moench approached the assignment of writing GODZILLA with the same seriousness and craft that he’d devote to any other assignment–he wasn’t watering down his approach for this licensed material. And artist Herb Trimpe was given full rein to go wild in his Jack Kirby-inspired style, the same style that had made INCREDIBLE HULK such a popular series for so long. GODZILLA wasn’t a terribly deep comic book, and it was rife with contrivance, but it was also fun and well put together.

Moench and Trimpe keep two parallel storylines going on in this one. In the past, Godzilla has interceded in an attack by the Lizard-Men on Moon-Boy’s Valley of the flame, assisting Devil Dinosaur in staving off the invaders. Meanwhile, back in the 20th Century, its mission complete, the assorted supporting players on board the SHIELD Sub-Helicarrier tasked with pursuing and neutralizing Godzilla are preparing to go their separate ways, given that their objective has been carried out. This includes Dum- Dum Dugan, who was in charge of the Task Force, subordinates Gabe Jones and Jimmy Woo, Dr. Takeguchi and his son Rob, and Takiguchi’s assistant Tamar. So there was a decent amount of characterization on display here outside of just big monsters crashing into one another.

Led by Devil and Moon-Boy, Godzilla retreats from the onslaught of the Lizard-Men. The trio pulls back to the vicinity of the Region of the Pits, where Moon-Boy hopes to commune with the Elder who has counseled him in times past. After a brief conversation, the defenders plan on using the Pits as a trap for the invaders. Back in the present day Baxter Building, though, Ben Grimm is unsettled and feeling a strange energy throughout the headquarters. He and Reed check in on Doom’s Time Machine, and find it radiating strange energies that it absorbed from Godzilla. Reed determines that these energies are likely to boomerang Godzilla back to the present before to long.

Back in the past, the trap is lain, and Godzilla and Devil work to lure their attackers into it, which they do. The Lizard-Men aren’t killed by falling into the pit, the Comics Code might have frowned upon that. Instead, the mystical energies within them transports them…elsewhere. Which practically amounts to the same thing. At the same relative time in the present, the Fantastic Four had relocated the platform of the time machine to the open area of Times Square, anticipating Godzilla’s imminent arrival.

And that’s about all she wrote for this issue. As the final pages close, Godzilla is indeed pulled back to the present day, materializing in Times Square just as predicted. Fortunately, Dum-Dum’s SHIELD team hasn’t disbanded quite yet, and are ready to once more attempt to corral the beast. And the next issue blurb also indirectly teases the fact that the Avengers will be getting into the action as well.