Godzilla Rivals: Round One

Godzilla Rivals (collected editions) #1

by Paul Allor, Mary Kenney, Adam Gorham (Artist)

Epic monster battles featuring some of Godzilla's fiercest Hedorah, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Battra! Each story is an all-out, knockdown Kaiju brawl. First, Godzilla and Hedorah smash their way through New York City while the search for the only scientist who can stop the chaos goes on in the streets below. Then, Mothra, the ancient and beautiful guardian of nature and humanity, is trapped in Lake Ikeda, but when one Kaiju awakens, Godzilla is close behind. When Mars invades Earth, Godzilla surfaces from Tokyo Bay and is pulled into battle with the flying saucers. Captured and taken by the Martians, Godzilla is forced to fight in a gladiatorial arena, where the King of the Monsters faces its biggest challenge King Ghidorah. In the finale, at a quiet beachside town ravaged by constant sewage spillages and toxic waste dumps, something is stirring. Deep under the rolling hills that surround Hackney-on-Sea, Battra is awakening, driven by a single to destroy mankind and save planet Earth. By an exciting mix of creators including Paul Allor, E.J. Su, Mary Kenney, SL Gallant, Adam Gorham, Rosie Knight, and Oliver Ono.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Science Fiction, Monsters

170 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 24, 2023

Reviews

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best Godzilla comics I’ve ever read - simple, well told stories with great art. Interesting locations and twists on old stories, if you like Godzilla you’d like this.

I’m getting a Hedorah tattoo for sure

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, quick read. It is four stories compiled into one volume; the way they are written came across as occurring one after the other to me but I was unsure how Godzilla made it back to Earth for the fourth story after the events in the third story. The artwork was hit-and-miss for me; I thought the artwork in the second story was the best followed by the artwork in the third story. It held my interest throughout, overall.

The one-page shot of the diver hovering in front of Mothra in the lake was amazing. The best image in the book, in my opinion. I thought that story was the best, overall, in terms of the story itself as well as the artwork. For whatever reason, Mothra has been captured by the JDF and is bound in chains in a lake. The diver frees Mothra; her actions encourage Mothra to fight on behalf of the humans to save the people of Japan from Godzilla's coming rampage. It was a good story; a bit bittersweet and . . . not quite "preachy" but still "preachy", if that makes any sense. Just not in a bad, "in your face" way.

Third story was my second-favorite story. Godzilla is captured by the Xillians and taken to Mars to fight in their kaiju gladiatorial-style theater. He fights against three Kamacuras, which was pretty cool, and eventually fights King Ghidorah. I did not expect Godzilla to lose the fight as quickly as he did let alone be killed, but it was a great plot device to have the solar radiation recharge his G-cells and allow them to quickly reform back into the giant lizard. He is super-pumped, though, because of the powerful solar radiation, and quickly makes short work of King Ghidorah before going on a rampage across the surface of Mars. It was a fun story, too, although the other element of the story involved the relationship between a human woman and male-looking robot that has a crush on her.

I love Godzilla; I read the Marvel comics back in the day (even with their horrible artwork) and then Dark Horse's run of the big green lizard. I even read most of the paperback novels from the early 2000s that were written about him; those were fun to read as well. As much as I enjoyed this compilation, I do feel like IDW has been pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to Godzilla and the other Kaiju of "his" universe (like the last compilation by IDW I read - it was a real stinker). This one, however, was pretty good overall and I enjoyed each of the stories on some level.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not really like the human characters but the fights were good.

[Zach Rust · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the comic does deliver on its premise of kaiju vs kaiju action, what ultimately separates the great Godzilla stories from the just okay ones are the quality of the human stories within the action. And due to the anthology nature of the comic, that means the series is something of a mixed bag in that regard. Still though, I found Godzilla Rivals to be an enjoyable read for fans of the genre.

[Vail Chester · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great anthology of how various people deal with the kaiju threat.
Varies by how each characters treat Godzilla & the giant critter he tussles with.
Sometimes, they're just the natural disaster and people do their best to survive it.
Sometimes, Godzilla's the attacker and the government chained up another kaiju that's humanity's best defense.
Sometimes, aliens are doing their War-of-the-Worlds thing and kidnapped Big G to fight as a gladiator, and a mad scientist sends a robot boy & an experimental spacecraft pilot to stop the monster & alien threat both.
Sometimes, it's exactly like Legendary's King of the Monsters movie said: a big ol menace is a response to humanity messing up the planet and big skreeonking lizard fights to protect the world & the puny people living on it.
Art style's pretty good too for each of the stories; doesn't capture the same charm as actual live-action stuff, but it's fine for 2D.

[Dubzor · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

One of the better Godzilla trades out there.

[Dasamur76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Los comics sobre peleas de kaijus siempre están bien, y si uno de ellos es el gran lagarto gigantón, aún mejor. La personalidad que destila el bicho es arrolladora, aunque no haga sino rugir como un volcán, y eso le da peso a unas historias que, eso sí, a veces se quedan un poquito cortas. Apetecería un poco más de contexto y/o desarrollo (sobre todo en la 'historia marciana'), que diera tiempo a empatizar con esos pequeños seres humanos que pululan, con sus propias historias historias de violencia o redención, alrededor de los monstruos, casi siempre belicosos, como si pudieran hacer algo frente a semejante deidad animal. Pero es lo que tienen estas historias, que si dejas a un lado las tortas, siempre te quedas con ganas de más.
La edición del libro es de buena calidad, lo que siempre es un añadido cuando el tomo no presenta tapa dura, y deja buen sabor de boca de cara al siguiente volumen de enfrentamientos.

[Cuchillo Lope · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gotta say, I loved it! I felt each story was very well done because it had some good character dynamics. While I am a huge Kaiju lover, I also understand that they need some sort of plot to hold it together. A lot of times the human characters don’t live up to the story and it becomes a slog till the monsters arrive to beat the hell outta each other. Which is why I was so surprised by the humans of this volume. Each one had interesting worlds and characters that Godzilla and his rivals inhabit.
On top of that, the artwork of each one is fantastic! My favorite was the Battra story. It just had this cozy atmosphere even with the destruction and monster battles.
Great start to this series.

[James Rodrigues · Rating 4 out of 5]

Released by IDW Publishing, Godzilla Rivals is a series of one-shot comics focusing on the titular creature fighting a different foe. Each story has its own distinctive visual style, capturing the Kaiju carnage and human reactions as the stories span different time period and locations. The first volume, entitled Round One, collects the first four issues.

My review can be read at Bloody Good Screen.

[Timothy Pitkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty cool idea for a Godzilla comic as instead of having it be a continuous story it is basically an anthology with each story kind of focusing on Godzilla fighting a different monster. Some of them are obviously better then others with the best ones being the Hedorah story as it focuses on the destruction around them and I like that they talk about the Kaijus as being beyond human understanding and Godzilla vs King Ghidorah as I like the idea of humans having to save Godzilla to help them against the aliens.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of standalone stories featuring different kaiju. I found the stories to be interesting and would like to have seen them expanded upon. The first story sees Godzilla and Hedorah battling in the streets, meanwhile a man is trying to get his scientist sister to the hospital. In the next, Mothra is freed from Lake Ikeda in order to stop Godzilla. Then Godzilla is captured by aliens and taken to Mars to fight in a gladiatorial arena. The final one has a cult leader predicting the end of the world and worshipping Battra who appears at a coastal town Hackney-on-Sea.

[Michael P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well-done compilation of comics pitting the King of the Monsters against various other kaiju, including fan favorites King Ghidorah and Mothra. The first two comics are very good, striking an excellent balance between human drama and kaiju action and even raising interesting moral questions about fighting kaiju. The third comic, featuring King Ghidorah, isn't as deep, but gets by on sheer fan service, piling on references to at times obscure Toho characters, including Dr. Hu (no, not that Dr. Who.) While the fourth comic is the weakest, it's still entertaining.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really glad I went through a bunch of the vs films before reading this. The furthest Heisei era film I've watched as of writing is Godzilla vs. Mothra. That film and its earlier predecessors primed me for the fairy characters, so imagine how confused I would've been seeing them for the first time in a comic. Lots of visual art to appreciate in these fights. I was also impressed with how the human characters were handled.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

IDW keeps pushing these Godzilla series out without adding much to them. This one is Godzilla fighting different monsters in the background of each issue from the 1970s to the 2020s. It's about humans dealing with the destruction. It's fine.

[Donavon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 stories all set in different timelines, no connection to each other or other media.

Vs Hedorah- 4 stars, best of bunch
Vs King Ghidorah- 3.5 stars
Vs Mothra- 3.5 stars

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fun time. Not too deep just fun adventures with different monster set ups.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kindle Unlimited

[Archos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action-packed all the way to the end

[George]

Honestly better than I was expecting

[Richard Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine. Some villains are more interesting than others