Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters Vol. 1

Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1

by Eric Powell, Tracy Marsh, Phil Hester

Collects KINGDOM OF MONSTERS #1-4! The King of the Monsters rises again, and for the first time in comics, he's bringing lots of other beloved Toho monsters with him in one destructive saga! When Godzilla appears off the coast of Japan, the Japanese government must respond quickly to contain the disaster... but before long, other monsters start appearing all over the world. Can humanity survive this mysterious onslaught of giant beasts? Writers Eric Powell (The Goon) and Tracy Marsh bring the mayhem a-plenty, and artist Phil Hester (Green Arrow, Swamp Thing) brings the massive monsters to life!

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

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 27, 2011

About the author

Eric Powell has contributed work on such comics titles as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Hellboy: Weird Tales, Star Wars Tales, The Incredible Hulk, Black Panther, The Avengers, The Hood, MAD Magazine, Devil Dinosaur, Swamp Thing, the Avengers, She-Hulk, the Simpsons, Arkham Asylum: Living Hell and Action Comics.

Although eking out a meager living in the comics field since 1995, Eric didn't find true success until he launched his critically acclaimed dark comedy series The Goon. The Goon was subsequently picked up by Dark Horse Comics and boasts a diehard cult following.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mean-spirited, pessimistic, nihilistic, and devoid of any joy. This is just a tale of misery and pain, with shoddy art and lazy, off-kilter writing. This is the worse thing associated with Godzilla, which includes the 1998 'remake' and lesser entries in the franchise like "All Monsters Attack" and the anime trilogy.
Long live the King!

[Ripley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good Godzilla story but it comes off more like a parody as it spends a good majority of the panels riffing on pop culture. The art is kind of cartoony. While it's decent artwork I don't think it fits the tone of Godzilla. This first volume is around 100 pages and it's a bit goofy but a decent read.

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is great (the humor is a bit too early 2000’s sitcom for me but it isn’t bad) and the mix of human characters politically dealing with the Kaiju and actual human death and violence is great. It feels like a Shin Godzilla prelude- everyone is trying to cover their ass while a giant monster is destroying the world.

My biggest complaint is the artwork being so comic style, it really takes away from the mayhem. A Stokoe drawn version of this would be godly. The story opens with two children getting eaten alive by Godzilla but it doesn’t feel that visceral because the artwork looks too plain.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun. Lots of funny moments, including some nice digs at the political/cultural world of the early Obama years, not to mention page after page of nice monster shots.

Looking forward to eventually reading Marvel's 1970s Godzilla comic. I'm curious to see how a character with no obvious thoughts can be sustained over 20+ issues. He's not a character so much as he is a force of nature. Is "he" even gendered? I'm not totally up on my Godzilla mythology. Feels like maybe "it" was a "she" in the Matthew Broderick abomination. There aren't really characters, monster or otherwise, here, mostly just set ups for jokes and real world-analogues. I'm curious to know more about the powerful French twins who kill people with their minds and have a psychic link with Battra.

[Mechajira]

By far best Godzilla comic aside from rulers of earth and I love how this story ties into rulers o fearth too just a really great comic would 100% recommended

[Evelyn Blackwater · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even as a massive Godzilla fan this one ends up being something of a missed opportunity. (Using nuclear weapons this quickly in the narrative felt like the wrong kind of pacing. There was barely a fight over the issue. You watch Godzilla 1985 and half the plot is debating whether or not a nuke should even be used at all. Similarly with Batman V Superman, once the nukes start being used, stakes are pretty much thrown out the window and I find it harder to care).
The silly and fluffy nature of the comic prevent me from disliking it altogether- Because I have a soft spot for even the goofiest Godzilla films- I suppose there was a part of me that was anticipating something a little more self serious. Which is completely my fault. Always go in with no expectations and you will never be disappointed. Words I will heed next time. And who knows- future readings may change my mind on this one. The art, after all, was superb.

Translation: It's harmless.

[Lucas Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well drawn, but unfortunately the authors have a real mean streak to their writing I wasn’t on board with. We have lots of children discovering the monsters then dying (particularly a little boy who is eaten alive by a baby Rodan), ham-fisted parodies of pop music and reality television stars (a main character lets the ersatz Jersey Shore cast die when he could have saved them, all because he recognized them from their show), and even the creation of a frigging suicide bomber that barely irritated Godzilla’s nose.

None of it funny, and all too grim.

[Kevin Harber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to suspend disbelief after it had the Japanese military using a nuclear missile on Godzilla in the opening pages. A bit more research into the Japanese views regarding use of nuclear weapons would likely have avoided this glaring error. Apart from that faux pas, it was pretty grim and mean spirited and focused almost exclusively on stage setting.

[Timothy Pitkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok when it focuses on the Kaiju its fine but when it attempts to reference what was considered to be mainstream stuff like Lady Gaga or Jersey Shore it made me cringe. Also it is largely unfocused as we keep jumping around between several different characters in several different stories and we really do not get any real main characters until like halfway through this volume.

[Anthony Wendel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent introduction of the IDW comic series but later incarnations have a much better style. Still, the interesting real-world consequences of giant monsters appearing in the world are entertaining to watch unfold.

[Christos · Rating 1 out of 5]

A bunch of pretentious BS. I hate this comic

[chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is embarrassing. I don't want to be a jerk, but if this is the level of Eric Powell's writing nowadays he should stick to drawing.

Literally everything about this is bad.

The parodic aspect totally fails, because it's obvious Powell doesn't actually understand some of the things he's whining about. Take the extremely shallow Lady Gaga parody, for example: Lady Gaga is not known for her outspoken animal rights support, nor is she an outspoken social darwinist, so the random shots at her feel out of place. The lazy, predictable shots at PETA and reality television made me roll my eyes.

There's also the protagonist, a sociopathic war veteran whose rambling inner monologue reads like if Frank Castle spent all his time on Reddit. His first appearance concludes with him letting a group of seemingly innocent people die because... they offended him by appearing on a reality TV show he didn't like. And this is the character we're supposed to root for.

God, this is terrible. I've heard the other IDW Godzilla comics are better. I hope so, because if this is how they treat the franchise they deserve to lose the rights to it.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty wild going back to this after about 13 years reading it while it was coming out. The art is a mixed bag. I do like the general story idea though of the Monsters being a completely new phenomenon against a completely unprepared world, although the attempts at social commentary are bizarre and all over the place. The right is dragged over the coals repeatedly for insane conspiracy theories (guess not much has changed there), but there's also very obvious analogs where lady gaga and jersey shore are parodied so I really felt dropped back in 2011 with that. The thing is it just comes down to "we live in a society" and it feels dumb and pointless. I'm all for social commentary in my kaiju media but if you're gonna do it it has to matter. So yeah it's fine

[Brian Lakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Godzilla was…as I’m sure for a lot of others, was my introduction to the world of Japan. As a 5 or 6 year old kid I remember watching re runs of the movies at my great grandparent’s house. Godzilla sparked my imagination and made me hunger for more. I’ve spent a lifetime exploring the tokusatsu universe and never felt that it was wasted time. This work brought back all that nostalgia and like the little five year old I was, I want more. Godzilla has always been a commentary on society. It is just that in this work and I love it for that.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover art is much better than the interior art itself. I’m really not into this art style whenever I encounter it. Some of this story is very much about the American response to Godzilla and how Japan needs aid. President Ogden seems to be modeled after Obama and some of the scrutiny he faced. You’ve also got the obligatory far right character obsessed with building a wall. Some of the exaggerations here felt very South Park but also somewhat true. There is an attempt at saying something when it’s pointed out how people are forced to choose a party in a two-party system.

[Ben A · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novel effort for trying to relaunch the world of Godzilla, but the monsters just feel off and the human characters are all parodies of whatever was "hot" in pop culture at the time. It just hasn't aged well over the years. I've seen that the story isn't what was proposed and it's really sad that this was how IDW kicked off it's Godzilla line. I'm glad they kept at it though as they have elevated the stories considerably in the recent releases.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Godzilla appears off the coast of Japan, followed by other monsters across the world. Most of the book is introducing characters then killing them off. Many are young, and some are parodies of celebrities like the cast of Jersey Shore, and Lady Gaga. It's an aspect that either seems a bit grim (in the case of the youth, or the father turned suicide bomber on his quest for redemption against Godzilla), or a bit silly with the celebrities. There's some interesting ominous twins who seem to have mind control abilities and link up with Battra. In the US, the president, who seems to be based on Obama, is constantly worrying about his reputation and how to handle this new threat.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review is for three volumes read consecutively

It's Godzilla, what more do you want? Plot, good art, more than one human character? That's not happening. But the script is thin enough that it doesn't really interrupt the splash pages, so it won't take to long to read.

(How magic mind control children got in here, or when Japan got nuclear weapons of it's own, I don't know. Maybe those things are part of Godzilla canon?)

[whit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Godzilla story. The thrill is in the destruction the monsters cause. This is my first Godzilla comic, though, and I found that the monster madness doesn't translate well to paper. There's a lot of social preaching in this, but it seems middle of the road politically so it comes off as very weird.

[Jaime Guzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Godzilla appears in Japan and lives are shattered as destruction is left in his wake. Other giant monsters make unexpected appearances all over the world such as Rodan and Anguirus. Plus who are the teen twins with telepathic powers that have nefarious intentions?
A quick and simple read that provides some humor and a bits of nostalgia for giant monster fans.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art which is really all you really need out of something like this. Good friends like Anguirus and Rodan show up, and the underused Battra shows up as well. Story seems entirely inconsequential and derivative, there's some real dumb pop-culture riffing too but that's easy to skip over and head right to the chaos of the monsters themselves.

[Charl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art's outstanding, but maybe I've just seen too many Godzilla movies. The story feels like a reboot of all the old movies and left me "Eh. New origin, same monsters."

Still, excellent art, and it IS a new set of origin stories, so if you're at all interested, check it out for yourself. Don't let this jaded Olde Pharte dissuade you.

[Cole Zeller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good intro to the series. Gets right into the action pretty quickly. It gets a little political. However I do like the idea of giant monsters being the center of political conflict. How would we react?

[Derek Moreland · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cultural parodies have aged like milk, the attempts at satire are puddle-shallow, and what little kaiju fighting we get is dull and uninteresting. The creators are better than this, and the property deserves better than this.

[Doo22]

God some giggles out of me, despite the early 2010s reeking off of this thing, with no satiric bite to what it chooses to parody.

Kinda funny how we may have forgotten about Jersey Shore if it weren't for the glut of mockery it received from other properties.

[Tabitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting comic

Always loved Godzilla movies, comic lives up to movie depictions, very exciting and has great graphics and colors of monsters

[Adrian Bloxham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monsters and stuff

[Brannigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun take on Godzilla and the other Kaiju. The humor is more satire than jokes. The art is fun a little more on the cartoonish side than realistic it sets up several story lines.

[Francesca Giardiello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un po' lento e relativamente scontato l'inizio di questo fumetto, spero possa migliorare continuando la lettura!

[Alberto Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Godzilla bebé 💚 hace años que quería leer este cómic y por fin el tiempo ha llegado! Si son fans del MonsterVerse, no se pierdan esta colección con dibujos increíbles del gran Dios Godzilla.