Tom Sutton (1937–2002)

Godzilla wanders across the Marvel Universe's USA! If that right there doesn't interest you, this comic isn't for you. It's wonderfully dumb stuff.

Doug Moench stayed incredibly faithful to the spirit of the Toho movies in these comics. It's got giant monsters, giant robots, Godzilla blowing stuff up for no reason, Godzilla saving lives for no reason, and, of course, the Japanese Kid With The Special Bond With Godzilla. But Moench doesn't stop there: he adds The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, SHIELD, time travel, a four-issue arc in which they shrink Godzilla, and a bunch of ridiculously-written cowboys.

After a while, the whole thing gets so blessedly ludicrous that you can't help but smile while reading. Or, at least, I couldn't.… (mehr)

Marvel’s Essential Godzilla: King of the Monsters collects issues 1-24 of the series that ran from 1977 to 1979, written and illustrated by Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe, respectively (with Tom Sutton penciling two issues). Marvel licensed the character from Toho Films and pit him against S.H.I.E.L.D. as he breaks free from an iceberg in Alaska and begins terrorizing the West Coast of the United States, encountering various Marvel heroes along the way including the Champions, the Fantastic Four, Moon-Boy & Devil Dinosaur, and the Avengers. The series even includes what the blurb on the back cover of this collection calls, “One of Spider-Man’s most gratuitous guest-shots ever!” Marvel lost the copyright to the character, but Godzilla later reappeared in Iron Man nos. 193, 194, and 196 as well as The Thing no. 31, though he was further mutated and not called “Godzilla.” Seeing Godzilla appear alongside classic Marvel characters is easily one of comics’ greatest crossovers. At times, Trimpe’s depiction of Godzilla more closely resembles some of the comic book depictions of dinosaurs from that era, but Godzilla’s portrayal as a force of nature occasionally on the side of humanity fits with his various film incarnations.

Throughout the series, Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan of S.H.I.E.L.D. plays the role traditionally held by the military in Toho’s Godzilla films arguing for the monster’s destruction, while Agent Gabriel “Gabe” Jones works alongside Japanese scientist Dr. Yuriko Takiguchi, his assistant Tamara Hashioka, and his grandson Robert Takiguchi to argue against destroying Godzilla, preferring instead to understand him and try to relocate him. Like the films that inspired the comics, the series offers some interesting environmental commentary. For example, writer Moench reveals in the first issue that Dr. Takiguchi was the lone dissenter to a Japanese nuclear test, while in the fourth issue, Dr. Demonicus references the OPEC oil embargo and General Motors’ dependency on foreign oil, using it as justification for his crimes. Another experimental weapons test in issue 10 frees Yetrigar, a giant Sasquatch-like creature who battles Godzilla at the Grand Canyon. Engaging in some social commentary, in issue four Dum Dum Dugan must also address his anti-Japanese prejudice, having fought the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and now finding them allies both as part of the Cold War and as S.H.I.E.L.D. works to defeat or contain Godzilla. Marvel couldn’t license other Toho monsters, so when Moench wanted to pit Godzilla against other giant monsters he had to create his own. Some of these belonged to Dr. Demonicus (with one closely resembling Mothra) and others come from outer space in issues 12-14. He also adds a giant mecha in the form of Red Ronon, a battle robot piloted by Robert Takiguchi, the young grandson of Dr. Takiguchi. This further recalls elements of Japanese cinema, including Mobile Suit Gundamn, which premiered shortly before Marvel concluded their Godzilla series.

After Marvel lost the rights to use Godzilla, the mighty King of the Monsters appeared in comics published by other companies. Beginning in 1987, Dark Horse Comics published Godzilla comics and trade paperbacks for twelve years. Later, Trendmasters included a Godzilla comic with some toys in 1994 while Fox Kids Magazine featured two Godzilla comics as a tie-in to the animated series that spun-off from Roland Emmerich’s 1998 film. IDW published Godzilla comics between 2010 and 2016, while Legendary Comics published tie-ins to Legendary Studios’ 2014 and 2019 films. Few of these, however, so perfectly capture the Shōwa era of Godzilla films while also engaging in the type of storytelling that was only possible in the late 1970s. Fun for both Godzilla fans and those who enjoy this era of comic books!… (mehr)

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

Let's start with the complaints about my IDW version. There is a vast body of uncollected Star Trek comics out there. IDW's Star Trek Omnibus line was a decent effort to get some of it into print. While two of its five volumes were already-collected IDW material, the other three reprinted material that had largely not been collected before: the original Marvel ongoing, Early Voyages, and the film adaptations.

The Star Trek Archives line, on the other hand, was ferociously misguided. Very little of DC's ten-year run of well-regarded Star Trek comics have been collected, and yet the majority of the issues reprinted in volume 1 of the Archives, published 2008, had just been reprinted by Titan in its Star Trek Comics Classics line in 2006! Why not try to reprint something never before reprinted? Volume 6 of the Archives reprints issues #9-16 of DC's Star Trek vol. 1, a storyline called New Frontiers, already reprinted by DC itself under the title of The Mirror Universe Saga; you can still get that collection for $11 including shipping on the secondary market, while IDW charged $25 for its new collection! Why? (I still bought it, though, so I guess that's why.)

Plus the paratext is, as always, bad. The indicia claims the collected issues are #9-16 of a series called Star Trek: New Frontiers, and I don't get why the title is "Best of Alternate Universes." Is it really a "best of" if it only has one story in it? And why "alternate universes" when the story is from one specific alternate universe, the so-called "mirror universe"? If "The Mirror Universe Saga" was out of the question, then surely "Best of the Mirror Universe" would have been better?

All that aside, I read this between the adaptations of Star Trek III and IV in the Movie Classics Omnibus. I remember reading this in high school and finding it just okay, but rereading it in context reveals what a good job scripter Mike Barr did. In Back Issue! no. 5, he says the difference between his work here and his work on the Marvel Star Trek series is the Marvels were written like tv episodes, but the DCs were written like comics.

However, this reads like a film to me. If instead of The Voyage Home, the third Harve Bennett-produced film had been a trip to the mirror universe, it would have been exactly like this. Barr totally nails the scope of those films, the humor, the moments of characterization, the sense of fun. Big, titanic things happen here-- this isn't the small-scale adventures of Marvel's Star Trek. It draws together threads from the two films before it; I like that Amanda, Spock's mom, gets an appearance (there was no room for her in Star Trek III). I like that Tom Sutton draws Saavik as Kirstie Alley even though she'd been recast as Robin Curtis by this point. The idea that Spock's post-resurrection mental confusion would be cured by melding with mirror Spock is completely delightful. The use of David is neat (though it could be more emotionally impactful). I like the idea that after destroying his ship, Kirk kind of gets to step foot on its ghost. I like that Kirk gets a worthy adversary-- himself!-- and I love that mirror Kirk outplays our Kirk by using the same trick our Kirk used on the Klingons in Star Trek III.

It starts to flag near the end (the final showdown seems one too many), and I'm not sure Kirk needs two order-following martinets as antagonists, nor that his defiance of orders really makes sense, but this is unabashed greatness in comics form. Has the Excelsior even been this impressive? I love The Voyage Home, but there are moments where I wish this had been made instead. Or maybe as Star Trek V? With some small tweaks, I could see it.… (mehr)