Face front, True Believers! It is time for this week’s riveting Marvel Rundown! After last week’s new Amazing Spider-Man #1, It’s a clash of the verdant titans with Godzilla vs Hulk #1. Who will come out on top in this monstrous mayhem!? Meanwhile, in the Rapid Rundown, we check in with everyone’s favorite Canadian Mutant in two wildly different tales with Ultimate Wolverine #4 and Wolverine #8.
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Godzilla vs Hulk #1
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Penciler: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Inker: Daniele Orlandini
Colorist: Fedrico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Ariana Maher
Cover artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Daniele Orlandini , & Fedrico Blee
In the continuation of Marvel’s recent series of one-shots showcasing the King of Monsters battling various Marvel heroes we have Godzilla vs Hulk. As with all of these one-shots, the stories are largely standalone that have their own internal continuity. Honestly, it reminds me of IDW’s Godzilla Rivals series of one-shots. They both follow similar premises of having Godzilla battle another monster, but the battle is largely secondary to the main human conflict. Godzilla vs Hulk is no different as it focuses on Thunderbolt Ross and his team of Thunderbolts, who are tasked with taking down the Kaiju threat.
Writer Gerry Duggan does an interesting job here establishing this timeline of events. Primarily by having Banner on the Thunderbolts alongside Dr. Demonicus, an old Marvel Godzilla villain. The Banner of this world is in control of the Hulk but somehow more of a monster than usual by the implication that he frames Rick Jones as the Hulk and lets him die to keep his identity a secret. That is such a weird footnote to the story but something that is worth exploring. Obviously not in this comic but it is a weird distinction for a comic that is a period piece set in the 1970’s and largely fits the general tone of Godzilla movies from this era. While Banner is bizarrely mischaracterized, Godzilla is presented as more of an altruistic monster that is characteristic of the 1970’s. These character moments aren’t necessarily bad, but it does feel weird in a comic that is largely successful in matching the tone of the era for the rest of the characters.
The pacing is brisk. It does a bit of worldbuilding early on but quickly moves into the action. The focus early is on the human characters. This is trademark of most Godzilla movies and necessary for a Godzilla story to work, in my opinion. The story constantly ramps up as Godzilla attacks. We go from fighter jets, to mechagodzillas, the formation of Hedorah until we eventually the titular fight. The fight is anticlimactic but I think it fits in with the nature of Godzilla and the Hulk in the 1970’s.
The art team of Giuseppe Camuncoli, Daniele Orlandini , & Fedrico Blee do a wonderful job here in constructing the action set pieces and illustrating the various Kaiju. Godzilla is a deceptively complicated monster to draw due to his misleading simplicity. Scale and emotion are very difficult for a lot of artists to convey with Godzilla, but they do a great job of it. The decision to use Hedorah is a great one as they are probably the most memorable monster of the 1970’s and the new origin is pretty unique. It turns out having someone named Dr. Demonicus on your team is just setting yourself up for betrayal.
Overall, this is a fun Godzilla story. I have read dozens of Godzilla comic for The Beat, other review outlets, and just for leisure. I love the King of Monsters dearly and this comic FEELS like a proper representation of Godzilla. It does have weird decisions regarding Banner being even scummier than normal, but those can be chalked up to the alternate timeline stuff. Duggan does a great job with establishing the world without bogging everything down in flashbacks. The art is solid and successful in executing size and scale of the brawl. I had a lot of fun, and most Godzilla fans will as well.
Final Verdict: BUY
The Rapid Rundown
- Ultimate Wolverine #4
- A fun thing to do once in a while is to look through a comic and ignore all the words
Ultimate Wolverine #4 and just sit with the visuals and how they tell a story. In Ultimate Wolverine #4, which homages, thematically more than literally, classic Barry Windsor Smith Wolverine tales, artist Allesandro Cappuccio depicts an evocative war of symbols and metaphors. The noble wolf and the savage bear battle for control of the Winter Soldier. The push and pull of this spiritual battle is depicted in the way the creatures volley back and forth for domination of the page. Bryan Valenza’s muted colors, whites and cool blues spoiled by the vivid red of blood, highlights the character’s unsparing ferocity. There is no need for words to understand the stakes here. That’s not to slight Chris Condon’s script. This is a great issue all around but it is a phenomenal tour de force for Cappuccio. There is a lot of dialogue throughout, mostly as captions as people react to Logan, unseen, in the waking world. Those reactions accentuate how frightening the character is but ultimately are disconnected from the real meat of the story told through the visuals. Cory Petit’s lettering gives a crowded, cacophonous feeling as the captions stack on top of one another but never obscures the beautifully macabre art. All this and a big surprise reveal on the final page. What’s not to love? – TR
- A fun thing to do once in a while is to look through a comic and ignore all the words
- Wolverine #8 (Legacy #400)
- ADAMANTINE UNLEASHED is the firs
Wolverine #8 t story for this “400th” issue by writer Saladin Ahmed and artist MartínCóccolo as they double down on the action with two action-filled chapters of everyone’s favorite Canadian. The past few issues have had Logan battling anyone touched by the near-indestructible alloy Adamantium. All of them were under the spell of the spirit of Adamantine, the mythical metal that Adamantium is based on, come to life. This story does a great job setting up this grander concept of Adamantine, its goals, and what this will mean for Logan in the future. For the second chapter, THIS IS YOUR LIFE, Ahmed and Cóccolo give us a front-row seat to Logan’s constant battle of control as he has always been the epitome of the Nobel Savage type, as incredibly worldly as he is dangerous. Now, he is forced to stop the Wendigo he has been mentoring from murdering innocent people for the amusement of the demented criminal Arcade. Logan is forced to race through Arcade’s elaborate murder maze, encountering robots that resemble important people in Logan’s life, making him relive painful moments on his way to save the young boy afflicted with the Wendigo curse. They elevate the typical internal trauma that we generally get from Logan, and then they drop a hell of a surprise for Logan at the end of their story. Backing up the regular creative team is one of my recent personal favorite creators, Daniel Warren Johnson, with the short story ONRYŌ. This tale of Logan in feudal Japan is everything we would expect from Johnson’s storytelling tastes and artistic styling, stunningly brutal with a frenzied line that encompasses all that Logan is as he seeks vengeance for a lost friend. – GC3
- ADAMANTINE UNLEASHED is the firs
That’s it for this week’s Marvel Rundown. Join us next week as Avengers enter into the One World Under Doom!
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