Godzilla Versus Seattle

Category: Godzilla
Last article published: 5 January 2020
This is the 52nd post under this label

Well folks, if you've been with us for a while, you might remember that in 2009, after I'd covered every single appearance by Rom Spaceknight, I ran a poll as to what should be next for my Saturday slot. What If? was the series that won, but one of the runner-ups was Marvel's Godzilla - King of Monsters series from the late '70s. Like the other "losers", it got one lonely post (SEEN HERE). As we tour the blog's labels, I get to take the feature out of mothballs...

...oh sorry, Mothra. And yes, reinvite my monstrous co-hosts to talk about Godzilla #2 (by Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe, with inks by Giacoia and Tuska). So to catch you up, the Big GZ has basically decided to start his U.S. tour in the American Northwest, and SHIELD is on the case, with Dum-Dum Dugan and Jack Woo our audience identification figures for most of, if not the entire, series.

Calm down, Rodan, let me get into the issue before you start chirping in. Anyway, Godzilla was hit with a giant laser cannon last issue and he's trying to soothe his pain by destroying harbors down British Columbia's coast and now into Washington state. Now Seattle is under threat. In the skies above, the "Godzilla Squad" has an exposition meeting in which an expert from Japan explains how titanic monsters were awakened by nuclear tests and so on (this is just like the movies).

Presumably, Marvel's deal with Toho didn't include its other stars. Maybe these are just untold adventures, you know? Godzilla vs. Antenagon and Godzilla vs. Roccuda or something. As we near Seattle, destruction already in progress, Doug Moench places an ad for comics he will only write in the '90s: "...for as NIGHTFALL descends on the city, so too, does the specter of CHAOS." (Emphasis his. He plans ahead, clearly.)

You're right Mothra. I feel like maybe he's trolling SHIELD with the "spanflex" armor he makes Dugan and Woo wear. I don't know if it does anything... It also seems like the city council hasn't yet voted SHIELD's plan to cut the power to the city (which is attracting Godzilla), even as the King of Monsters takes a peek inside the revolving restaurant at the top of the Space Needle.

Having gotten no news from the city council, Dum-Dum orders the power plant destroyed, causing an instant blackout. Probably not great for the revolving restaurant patrons who were trying to escape via the elevators. Worse, the Needle has caught on fire and it's the only light for miles around, so it has the monster's attention. SHIELD has to use its little flyers to create a chain of lights leading out to sea.

And when he's on the cliff, blinded by the Helicarrier's flood lights, Dum-Dum unleashes... the Block-Busters!

Don't ask me how they work, but this Stark tech is enough to knock Godzilla off balance and into the ocean and he swims away.

Tony Stark bricks, Rodan! What did YOU think, Mothra?

Pretty sure you're right. The next issue blurb advertises the Champions - it was the '70s, after all - the last line of defense on the West Coast. You think Angel can make a dent?

And on this, friends, my co-hosts fly away and I'm left sitting in the rubble (I'm gonna have to call a roofer).