Godzilla Library Collection, Vol. 3

by Duane Swierczynski, Simon Gane (illustrator), Dave Wachter (illustrator)

Relive the destruction of the History’s Greatest Monster series in this IDW Library Collection! Cities, special forces teams, and a legion of kaiju are no match for…Godzilla! The Godzilla Library Collection is a comprehensive line of books that will collect every comic series by IDW! Volume 3 collects the 13-issue series History’s Greatest Monster by Duane Swierczynski and Simon Gane. Godzilla continues to destroy cities and lives all over the world, and ex–special forces tough guy Boxer is a man with a grudge who vows to end the terror—no matter what! He assembles a top-notch team to take Godzilla and the other monsters down at $7 billion a bounty.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Science Fiction

328 pages, Paperback

Published September 24, 2024

About the author

Duane Swierczynski is an American crime writer who has written a number of non-fiction books, novels and also writes for comic books.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

So. This is the third time I have read this storyline. Go figure. I read it in 2015, and then again in 2023 (not remembering I had read it previously). I went ahead and read it a third time because some of the references in the beginning and throughout the story make a bit more sense, now (such as how the monsters are rising again, including Godzilla outside of Washington, D.C., after he had been buried under a "nearby" mountain in the previous series, Kingdom of Monsters; Mechagodzilla being repaired and upgraded after the prior battles and losses).

The artwork was a giant meh for me (no pun intended), especially with issue #12 which had a different artist and messed up the continuity of the story (I think I preferred that artist's work to the "regular series artist"). It has some good moments (like the double-page spread of Mothra zapping the Hummer - that was a cool image!), to be fair, but I did not feel any kind of "dynamic energy" in the artwork; it felt static to me.

Also, dangling plot lines and/or "continuity issues." Like the Asian boy who wants to join Boxer's "unit"/group. Whatever happened to him? He wanted to join Boxer's unit and then disappears from the story. Was he killed? Turned down? Why introduce him like that and then never use him again?

King Ghidorah - what happened to Ghidorah? Was Ghidorah actually killed in the prior series? Or just badly wounded and then ignored? Mechagodzilla hits both Godzilla and Ghidorah with a powerful taser-like weapon followed by some kind of "grenade gun" that uses Godzilla's own power against Godzilla. Considering how powerful both creatures are and Godzilla survived, it makes sense Ghidorah should have survived as well. Yet Ghidorah is nowhere to be seen in this series. Why not? The "Ghidorah" that appears at the end of the series and fights Godzilla, Rodan, and Boxer's crew is a different Ghidorah - this one has four legs, and the color scheme is a little different and is identified as Kaiser Ghidorah, making what seems to be a clear distinction between it and the creature from the prior series. That could have been a cool addition to the fight - King Ghidorah taking on Kaiser Ghidorah!

If Mechagodzilla was not just repaired but upgraded from the prior series, why was it that much more ineffectual in battle? It was mildly frustrating how impotent this mechanical monstrosity is in battle in this series when you consider a soldier who has zero experience in piloting it was able to defeat two monsters in pitched battle in the last series. I wish they would do Mechagodzilla justice, at times.

What was up with the princesses telling Urv The man pulled the weeds that choked the crops . . . But the crops poisoned the man . . . The weeds knew when to grow . . . The man wept in the next world followed by his reaction and then nothing? His reaction made it seem like what they said meant something to him; their ...whatever it was provided a response in him. Why do that at all if you're not going to use it in the story? Perhaps I am just stupid and not getting it. As I am typing this review, it hit me that the princesses could be referring to Godzilla and the other monsters as "the weeds" that humans (i.e. - Boxer, specifically) are trying to remove, but then who or what are "the plants" that poison the humans? Ultimately, that little "riddle" made zero sense to me, and it was both distracting and annoying (because I spent too much time thinking about it before I finished rereading the series, hahahah!).

Godzilla going from Vancouver, BC, Canada to the desert region of California and then somehow hotfooting it to NYC? And getting from California to NYC in a little over five hours? Couldn't suspend my disbelief that much. But "five hours later" would explain why Space-Godzilla showed up in NYC like it did (although the images still look like London to me, hahahah). That one just boggled my brain. At least the giant spider had an excuse - it hitched a ride on Mechagodzilla and was flown to NYC (only to die a quick death). And how did Anguirus arrive in Hong Kong at the same time as Rodan? Did Rodan just fly lazy circles waiting for Anguirus to arrive? Maybe Rodan carried Anguirus and Battra carried Titanosaurus to battle hundreds if not thousands of miles away, hahahah? Just these "time jumps" of the monsters compared to the movements of Boxer and his crew made little sense at all and only seemed to serve the purpose of moving the story along despite the lack of sense in them.

I cannot quite decide if Mothra was killed or not. Nor can I decide if Battra and Titanosaurus were killed. The two of them collided while fighting Space-Godzilla, but it was such a "fast battle" and so poorly drawn I cannot decide if they were killed or not. We see Space-Godzilla do something with its tail, but the reaction did not seem proportional to the initial action. They collided and then what? Battra released its "energy" and killed them both? Made no sense to me.

Same with Anguirus. He took a heavy wound to his neck and unprotected belly by Gigan. Was he killed in that battle as well with Gigan? It is crazy how fast these creatures' healing factors are! Gigan chews up both Anguirus and Rodan with that sawblade in its belly, to no ultimate avail. Anguirus looks like it is killed, but then it's not. Then Rodan looks about to be killed, until Anguirus "wakes up" or "resurrects from the dead" and smashes into Gigan like a spiked wrecking ball, knocking Gigan "out" (if not outright killing Gigan). Why was Gigan not able to kill the other two monsters "first" considering how much damage it had inflicted on them? Their fight last far longer than Battra's and Titanosaurus against Space-Godzilla (which, in some ways, does make sense) despite suffering what looked like far worse wounds than Battra and Titanosaurus suffered.

Part of me thinks Mothra might be dead because of the reaction of the two princesses, how they collapsed after Mothra was knocked down, but then we never seen them again. And no mention is made of the two of them after that, either. Why not? Inquiring minds want to know. Or maybe it's just me. I don't know - that was just . . . disappointing, to say the very least, to have her fate left dangling like that (especially after other monsters appeared to survive far worse than what Mothra experienced).

I still hate what they did with Boxer's character. He has his son restored to him. Boxer promises Harrison he will "be there for him" and wants to make up for the time lost. And then, when the battle is won, what does Boxer do? He resorts to type, loses all of that "character development" that may or may not have occurred, and abandons his son a second time in a vain attempt to kill Godzilla (but jumping into Godzilla's open mouth in a vain attempt to shoot one of Claire's energy weapons through the soft tissue of Godzilla's mouth). It was a crappy ending to the story and a crappy ending for the two characters. Especially as Clair had come back into his (Boxer's) life and the two of them were reconnecting as well (well, she came back into his life twice - the first time on that military base in South Korea, and then again when she apparently came back from the dead and showed up in NYC to help with the final battle). I strongly disliked how Boxer's arc ended. It was frustrating.

The two-page spread of Space-Godzilla wreaking havoc was pretty cool. Same with the two-page spread showing Anguirus, Titanosaurus, and Battra on "Monster Island". And I liked the design for Kaiser Ghidorah when its outer shell was blown off by Godzilla. I loved the color scheme, the gold and gray. And it was crazy that this iteration of Ghidorah had four legs and not just two. I think I would have appreciated if the fight between Godzilla and Kaiser Ghidorah had lasted a little bit longer, to be honest. It felt like that fight was over with before it really got started, on the one hand. Maybe have Battra join the fight, or Mothra being revived and joining the fight (that would have been cool and a nice homage to the movies where Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan teamed up to fight some monster). Or bring King Caesar into the mix - that could have been cool, too, to see him fighting Kaiser Ghidorah alongside Godzilla.

The third time was not the charm for me on this story. I felt like it had the potential for so much more and that potential was squandered. I think two-stars for me this time around.

[Anthony Wendel · Rating 3 out of 5]

These almost feels like the opposite view of the previous story "The Half Century War." Instead of a man coming to terms with how Godzilla's existence is a force of nature we must come to terms with we see a man who absolutely becomes consumed with revenge. Sure for a moment it seems like he sees the bigger picture but this is a momentary distraction and he's right back on his quest for Vengeance. It's a much more meaningful story than what was shown in the second library collection. Definitely library worthy.