Godzilla: Age of Monsters

Godzilla (Dark Horse) #2

by Randy Stradley, Bob Eggleton, Arthur Adams

Noriko Yoshiwara's world changed that fateful day her father discovered the big "rock." Little did she know that the discovery became Godzilla's wake-up call and set the pace for her life's work -- studying the King of the Monsters. Follow her lead and the scientist team called G-Force through Godzilla's adventures as he battles Hero Zero, Charles Barkley, and more!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 1998

About the author

"Nearly thirty years of writing and editing comics, and this is what I have to show for it."
—Randy Stradley, pointing to this biography.

More to come, folks!

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of connected stories chronicling the battles between Godzilla and G-Force, the special team tasked with tracking and studying him, and protecting the civilian population from monster rampages. It's entertaining and fun, nothing too profound. One odd thing I noticed is that Dark Horse must not have had the licensing/permission to use any of Godzilla's classic enemies- so there is no Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, Rodan, etc. It turns out fine, though...some interesting new opponents show up in the course of these stories.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good collection of Dark Horse's Godzilla comics, which were, really good. They have stories they want to tell and aren't just about which Toho monsters they can make fight. Maybe that's because they didn't have the rights to any other Toho monsters, but given that they do a thing with "Cybersaur" which is very clearly "Legally Not Mechagodzilla" it seems like even if they had other kaiju rights, they'd probably have been similar in their execution even if they had the roster at their disposal.

The Gekido Jin issue is probably my favorite Godzilla one-shot ever.

[Brannigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Godzilla storyline that reminds me of a ToHo Godzilla film. I loved it. I normally don’t like Black and White comics but I really enjoyed it in this story.

[Luke Baldock · Rating 4 out of 5]

After devouring every single theatrical release of Godzilla, and some of his friends including Rodan and Mothra, I still hadn't had enough. I just bloomin' well love Godzilla. You can take him as a simple monster smashing up cities and fighting other monsters, or you can add environmental messages. The possibilities are endless and well demonstrated here. It is comprised of a mish-mash of different stories, some which connect, and all of varying quality. It starts well by going for a very personal story of a young girl losing her parents in an attack. This humanises the carnage often present, and also gives us a character that ages and grows throughout some of these issues. She embodies the theme of revenge, but what is interesting here, is how do you take revenge on a mindless animal? The next short story has something I would love to see on film. Godzilla and another monster doing battle in the days of the dinosaurs, unaware that a giant meteorite is about to wipe out all other life. This really characterises Godzilla as a loner and the last of his kind. Rather tragic. The majorit of the other stories focus on G-Force and there constant run ins with the big G. One story has them using faith to awaken a demon possessed statue. I really enjoyed the artwork in all of these stories, each one being in simple black and white. The battles are incredible even if the dialogue isn't up to much. But this is Godzilla so I can forgive that. The final story is simply a very bizarre comedic kid friendly tale. It's completely different in tone and art. Seems similar to something you may find in The Beano or Dandy. I didn't hate it, but ending this collection with it was a bit of an anti-climax. Godzilla fans should enjoy this book, but you may need to be familiar with a few of the films (especially the recent ones) to fully appreciate it all.

[YALibrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good considering I'm not a huge fan of action/adventure or comic books and I enjoyed it. Noriko is a great protagonist and it's nice to have a book that sort of follows the movie franchise without being a direct interpretation of it. I remember seeing the movies and not being terribly impressed with the storyline, so Noriko's study of the age of monsters is kind of cool. The drawings are a little difficult for someone not used to black and white super detailed pictures...but understandable. One could almost 'read' the whole book without paying attention to any of the captions and dialogue.