Godzilla: Cataclysm

IDW's Godzilla

by Cullen Bunn

Years have passed since the monster apocalypse nearly destroyed mankind. Now it is merely a distant, nightmarish memory for Hiroshi, an elder in one of the few remaining tribes of humans. Little does Hiroshi know that the apocalypse is not over, and that his memories of the past may yet save the future!

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

108 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 24, 2015

About the author

Cullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.

All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.

And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.

Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.

Reviews

[Sud666 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tend to like Cullen Bunn's comics. So when I saw he had written a Godzilla comic, I figured I'd give it a try. Well, it's not terrible. Perhaps the actual material he's working with tends to put a damper on overly complicated stories but this is a strange story.

Godzilla has destroyed the world. Humanity lives in very small communities fearing the monsters, some of the humans worship them as gods. Ok fine. Then the story focuses in on a small family that lives in a small village. Apparently, the grandpa was involved in some weird experiment to control the monsters (Godzilla, Mothra, etc) but it failed and the world got destroyed when the monsters went berserk.
Now a creature called Biollante is trying to re-seed the Earth, Godzilla doesn't want that so he fights him. Then Mothra shows up and Godzilla fights him. Then some Praying Mantis things show up and Godzilla fights them. Then super monster shows up and Godzilla and Mothra team up to fight him.

Jesus are you getting the drift? To call this story simplistic would be giving it praise. Is it even a story? Yeah sure. Is it good? Not really. As a stand alone Godzilla story it works..I guess. I expected better from Mr. Bunn..but sometimes he can only do so much.

[Magdalena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw a couple of the old Godzilla movies in my more movie watching years (back when I saw at least one movie a day) and honestly I never saw the charm with them. I have also seen the one with Jean Reno and half of the new one (got bored).

So actually this is probably the best experience I had with Godzilla (although I like Jean Reno the movie was not that good). The art was good, the story, not that bad, Godzilla, Mothra and many other monsters fighting each other, and of course the humans caught in between,

3 stars

Thank you Diamond Book Distributors and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!

Review also posted on And Now for Something Completely Different and It's a Mad Mad World

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pure guilty pleasure, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I'm not a major fan of Godzilla or kaiju in general, but I sure do enjoy a good kaiju film when I sit down with one. This particular Godzilla outing has more in common with Pacific Rim or Attack on Titan than the most recent Godzilla film: the kaiju came, saw, and conquered decades before the beginning of the book, and haven't been seen in years. Human survivors live in cobbled together camps in the remains of cities, salvaging whatever they can find in the ruins. Cool.

There are some aspects of the book that are actually fairly interesting, things that Bunn put more thought in than he absolutely had to. Let's face it, his job was really just to make a vaguely convincing case for why Godzilla would be rampaging in a post-apocalyptic city. He stretches just a bit further than that. There are kaiju cults, which I would really like to see more of. The idea of people desperately making sacrifices to appease rampaging monsters sounds like it would make for a really cool movie or book or something, and I would happily tune in for a Cullen Bunn prequel to this book. There's also the intentionally ambiguous idea, that I would have loved to see expanded, that Godzilla is a monster because humans insisted on seeing him as one. As opposed to a force of nature, like the newest Godzilla movie argued.

If this book has one real failing, it's that there are too many kaiju. Sounds crazy, right? But there really can be too much of a good thing, especially in a five issue miniseries. Besides Godzilla, there's also Biollante, Kamacuras, Mothra, Megaguirus, Meganula, and Destoroyah with significant, present day parts, plus I don't even know how many others in flashback sequences. (Full disclosure: I had to look up some of those names.) Sure, it's cool to see sentimental favorites like MechaGodzilla show up in flashbacks, but sometimes it feels more like a kaiju roll call than an actual story.

But that's literally the worst thing I could say about this. It's a guilty pleasure, for sure, but so much fun.

[Kyle Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I love Godzilla. Always have. Always will. Recent years have been good to fans of the series. While Toho hasn’t made a Godzilla film since 2004’s lackluster Godzilla: Final Wars (but they’re planning a new one for 2016!), we have gotten a new American Godzilla film (which I quite liked), plus we’ve seen a lot of the classics released to Blu-Ray, and IDW has been releasing some good, new stories of our favorite monsters in comic book form. The best of IDW’s output has been the fun and colorful Rulers of Earth series and the visually excellent Half-Century War. Now, let’s add Cataclysm to the conversation, a post-apocalyptic Godzilla story written by Cullen Bunn.

I think fans have long wished for a post-apocalyptic entry into the Godzilla series. Final Wars touched on this in its third act, but... well, the less said about that movie, the better. Godzilla: Cataclysm takes place a decade after the kaiju destroyed our civilization before disappearing into myth. In their absence, the survivors have taken to looking upon the kaiju as the new gods, much like old civilizations prayed to the old gods when storms or volcanoes ravaged their lands. It’s an interesting and unexpected twist on the approach to the story. The people pray to the kaiju, make sacrifices to keep them at bay, and when eventually the monsters return they see it as someone offending the gods. I really liked it.

Mixing with the 'mysticism' is a bit of old-fashioned Godzilla sci-fi tech. Along the way we learn that man created a new weapon to combat the monsters, but ultimately this only made things worse, sending the kaiju into a rampage. In the middle of this is a strong human character: an old man who was partly responsible for upsetting the monsters back then, and believes that Godzilla holds a grudge against humanity because of his actions.

Fan-favorite kaiju Biollante receives her most interesting role to play since her original appearance in 1989. Writers often seem capable of dreaming up new ways to put monsters like Mothra, Mechagodzilla, and Ghidorah at the center of things again, so I enjoyed Bunn’s attempt to give a supporting player like Biollante something important to do. (In addition to Godzilla and Biollante, Destoroyah, Mothra, and Kamacuras also make memorable appearances.)

I also enjoyed the attempt to tell a darker story. In other works we rarely get to see the human impact of giant monsters destroying a city because we’re so focused on buildings falling and tanks blowing up. In Cataclysm, the human action is all on ground level because there is no more military, and so the terror of these giants feels more threatening. The giant insect Kamacuras has never been more nasty and cool than it is in Cataclysm.

I do think the story could’ve been longer, fleshed out the role of certain kaiju more (especially the primary villain Destoroyah), but for what it is I think it’s a tale well told. Dave Wachter’s art is extremely detailed and I have no complaints about how any kaiju was depicted. The colors are a bit drab, though. Ultimately, the color scheme fits the story, but I don’t know if it’s the sort of thing that I’m gonna thumb through for the images alone anytime soon.

Overall, I quite liked Godzilla: Cataclysm, and would definitely recommend it to fans of the series. It may not be IDW’s best Godzilla comic, but it ranks up there pretty high.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.



In Godzilla: Cataclysm, humanity is surviving in refugee camps after the world has been destroyed by the fighting between the different kaiju and also the monsters attacking the humans themselves. It has been years since the last sighting of any of the monsters so the humans have begun (of course) to worship them as gods in the hopes that they will never come back. Also of course, this hope is in vain as Godzilla has far from forgotten what the humans tried to do to him and is determined that they will never rebuild. Godzilla and the other monsters go head to head, often wiping out humans in the process until things come to a head and only one monster can come out on top.

This was definitely a guilty pleasure read for me but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for monster movies in general and this fit in perfectly. I have to admit that I knew almost none of the kaiju other than Godzilla himself and there are a lot of them so if you aren't already familiar with them, keep Wikipedia handy. It's not exactly a real intellectual read but the artwork is good and it's definitely a fun read.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Godzilla: Cataclysm' combines giant monsters with an story about the tragedies of the past. The art by Dave Wachter is reason enough to pick this up, but Cullen Bunn's story is not bad either.

The problem with Godzilla stories and movies, is they often seem to be about building suspense until Godzilla shows up, then, at least in comics, there isn't much to do except read sound effects and flip pages. This time around the story takes place in a near future when the kaiju have had their way with the cities and humans live in sheltered camps trying to eke out an existence. One old man, Hiroshi, has nightmares and memories of the past. Before long, his grandson brings back a deadly plant that seems to draw the kaiju, and another deadly battle begins.

I liked the story. Bringing a more personal element into it helped it to be a bit more than a giant monster slug fest. Dave Wachter's art is detailed and really good. The color scheme is a bit muted, but pops into vibrant red when the action heats up. The muted colors help to show the detailed line work in the art. This was a better than average Godzilla story, and I'm glad I got to read it.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, IDW Publishing, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[A Voracious Reader (a.k.a. Carol) · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Book source ~ A review copy was provided by NetGalley & IDW in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been years since monsters destroyed Earth. There are pockets of human survivors who scavenge for supplies and try to stay alive. Hiroshi is one of the few left who remembers the time before. Many call them gods, but Hiroshi knows they are just monsters and one day they will be back.

This Godzilla tale is a bit weak. It follows Hiroshi and his grandson as well as a few others as they scramble to find a safe place when the monsters come back. Hiroshi’s story is slowly revealed and how he is connected to the monsters, Godzilla in particular. I’m not a huge fan of Godzilla, but my son is and I enjoyed the newest movie incarnation, so I thought this might be a good read. I can’t say I was all that excited about it. Although I did enjoy seeing all the various monsters shown in this book.

The artwork is very detailed and beautifully drawn. However, it was a bit too dismal and dreary for me with the few bright colors given to the monster fighting. Yes, I know this is a post-apocalyptic story and I will say the colors are perfect for it. However, I have to judge on what I like and it wasn’t my mug o’tea. Fans of Godzilla will most likely enjoy it though.

[Luca Ruocco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saldapress, casa editrice che ultimamente torna spesso ad abitare le pagine virtuali della nostra Gazzetta del fantastico grazie alla collana di graphic novel dedicate agli Universal Monsters, è anche la casa italiana dei fumetti dedicati al Re dei kaiju: Godzilla.

Qualche anno ha portato in edicola, in albi a colori e di formato da coimcs americano, alcune delle più importanti saghe fumettistiche con protagonista il lucertolone radioattivo. Ne ha pubblicate altre in formato cartonato, distribuendole in fumetteria e libreria ed è proprio lì che, dopo aver fatto il suo esordio italiano in edicola, Godzilla – Cataclisma torna sugli scaffali in una nuova edizione, di piccolo formato e in bianco e nero, nella collana Ramen Burger.

Con sovraccoperta e formato in stile manga, la storia post-apocalittica scritta da Cullen Bunn e disegnata da Dave Wachter racconta di un lontano futuro in cui la Terra è stata già devastata dal passaggio dei kaiju e dalle loro violente lotte. L’umanità è ridotta in piccoli gruppi che tirano a campare come meglio possono, ai bordi di grandi città completamente distrutte dove, di tanto in tanto, si spingono per raccogliere qualche strumento ancora utile, triste ricordo di una vita che non esiste più.

Continua qui: https://www.ingenerecinema.com/2025/0...

[Francesca Giardiello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno dei più bei fumetti riguardanti Godzilla letti fino ad ora: l'epicità dei mostri rimane integra e viene trasposta in tutta la sua potenza.

Per una volta lo sguardo non viene puntato al passato o su di un nuovo antagonista, ma si sofferma sul mondo 20 anni dopo che non sono apparsi più mostri, così che l'intero "mondo nuovo" diventa il protagonista: un mondo dove i mostri sono diventati delle divinità a cui pregare e in cui rimane un unico sopravvissuto di un ardito progetto per il controllo di quei colossali pericoli.

Le tematiche sono tante e ben narrate nonostante la brevità del fumetto, è una lettura che affronterei più e più volte estremamente volentieri!

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an unexpected departure from Bunn's usual creepy works like Harrow County, Vol. 1: Countless Haints and Pumpkinhead. It is also a shift in what we're used to seeing in a kaiju story. There has been a total destruction and the setting is post-apocalyptic.

It still addresses the issues around man and science such as going to far, crossing natural boundaries, and playing god.

This is not a spoiler if you've seen the covers for the single issues of this comic, so I just want to say I love the meat mechs. We need more of those! There has always been a strange connection between man and the kaiju from enchanted twins to control fetishes. Those have always had a fantasy aspect to them and this is a turn more toward science fiction. It's a nice change and certainly something you can imagine man trying to reach for.

The environmental and original nuclear themes are still present here, especially in the core of the story. The story addresses the struggles of man at the edge of his existence while also looking at the special relationship that Godzilla has with man as both protector and agent of destruction.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story focusses on a family whose Grandpa was involved in using experimental technology to control the kaiju's minds, but the cities were destroyed when they lost control and went berserk. Many years later, the survivors revere them like gods. They hope they may one day help restore the world, and even offer human sacrifices to appease them. In the modern day, where the story begins; the youngsters come across Biollante and take the seed. This seems to summon Godzilla, then one-by-one more Kaiju join the fight. The story doesn't really go anywhere from there really and probably needed a bit more to the story; the backstory seemed way more interesting than the actual plot.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estupenda visión más apocalíptica que de costumbre del universo kaiju de la Toho. Cullen Bunn regala continuas batallas monstruosas para el lector más conformista, pero deja de fondo ese estupendo y agridulce trasfondo de pecado y redención con el personaje del abuelo. Aunque el ambiente es puramente pesimista, el guionista logra que el cómic contenga un luz de esperanza a través de uno de los kaijus.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better entries into IDW's Godzilla run....though that bar is relatively low. Cataclysm is about the end of the world, except it's already happened and humanity is trying to just exist in a monster-ruined, but monster-free world...

...this could have been great, I think, but some of the IDEAS a pretty half-baked in favor of having a few extra kaiju pop up and making Godzilla look more "zomg badass" and that detracts from the overall thing.

[Doctor Doom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Godzilla tale that doesn't match up with G:Rulers of the Earth either in quality or expectation. This dystopian tale is rather bleak [obviously] and stretches one's credulity even farther than the typical Godzilla fare. Worth a read but I wouldn't want to have paid for it [as opposed to a kindle unlimited membership].

[Shamik · Rating 2 out of 5]

জাস্ট খাজা! জানিনা কেন কিছু মানুষ এই গডজিলা আর কাইজু নিয়ে এতো লাফালাফি করে! মনে হচ্ছিলো কারো কিছু বিরাট বিরাট গডজিলার ছবি আঁকতে ইচ্ছে হয়েছিলো, সেটাকে গ্রাফিক নভেল বানাতে গিয়ে তার সাথে খানিক গল্প ঢুকিয়ে দিয়েছে! আবারও পোস্ট-অ্যাপোক্যালিপ্টিক গল্প, এবার গডজিলাগুলোই অ্যাপোক্যালিপ্সের কারণ! ধুস।

[Ben Guilfoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had higher hopes for this one. It's fine, and the artwork is solid, but I didn't think it quite nailed the marriage of post-apocalyptic fiction and Godzilla.

[Deena Wilde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Artwork was very good. The storyline was one that I wouldn't have minded continuing to see where it went and how far out plant monster could spread in healing the earth. An enjoyable read for me.

[zackxdig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why can’t it just be more monster fights.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what it sounds like.

[Adrian Bloxham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apocalyptic take on monsters

[Brannigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun dystopian Godzilla tale. The monsters have laid waste and now humanity is barely hanging on. The monsters return but are they good or bad?

[Lyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an enjoyable quick read
The art of the humans? Didnt like
The art of the kaiju? Pretty awesome
There was no real substance, but I don’t mind that. It wS nice to see the fight scenes.

[Carolina Casas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story.

The Godzilla post apocalyptic story we need to see adapted on live action. It's engaging, suspenseful and terrifying. Additionally, the art work is great.

[Ti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Villian era godzilla

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

love biolanty

Best monster I’ve ever seen in a comic before. A a a a a a a a a sooo good

[Brock Birkner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the one. A full film adaptation of this one would have me in tears. The only knock the comic has is that it's not long enough

[Alex Pottebaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It’s the end of the world as we know it and humanity doesn’t feel fine”

Format -Ebook, Start to End - 7/26-27/2025
Review - 3.5/5 stars
Read before? No

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting idea seeing someone pray for Godzilla to never return. You can really feel the grief and devastation.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful chance of pace from prior entries - focusing on a single family reduces the scale of the tale yet at the same time expands its relatability to the audience.

[Jasher Drake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sick visuals, awesome monster fights, but an absolutely abysmal storyline.

Loved my girl Biollante being front and centre though!