Godzilla in Hell 1 (July 2015)

Godzilla in Hell #1 I’m curious how writer-artist-colorist-letterer (hah to the letterer credit but more on it in a bit) pitched Godzilla in Hell to IDW. Or did they ask him to pitch?

If so, did they ask him to pitch a comic with nothing but Godzilla walking around and fighting. If so, did they ask anyone else to pitch it, because I can’t imagine anyone but Stokoe making Hell a workable prospect.

The comic consists of Godzilla arriving in Hell. He walks around. He fights a couple monsters. He has to weather a huge storm of human bodies (presumably souls). He’s Godzilla. He kicks butt, he takes names, he uses his atomic breath.

There’s no narrative–it feels like a level in a video game, actually–but there’s gorgeous Stokoe art. Whether it’s the highly detailed damned storm or just Godzilla in a long shot, it’s a gorgeous comic book. Goes nowhere, doesn’t have to.

CREDITS

Writer and artist, James Stokoe; editor, Bobby Curnow; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Godzilla: Cataclysm 1 (August 2014)

Godzilla: Cataclysm #1 I wanted Godzilla: Cataclysm to be good. Not before I started reading it, but as I read the first few pages where writer Cullen Bunn sets it all up. It’s got an intriguing ground situation–after the monster war, humans have to make do in their wrecked world. So it’s post-apocalyptic but not futuristic.

And there’s no attempt at explaining the monsters.

Dave Wachter’s monster art is decent too. Giant monsters fighting, lots of detail in the panels. It’s good stuff.

Then the issue gets going and it gets worse and worse as it goes along. Like Bunn not establishing characters; characters need to be interesting even if giant bugs don’t attack them. The bugs would’ve been an adequate menace for the issue, but Bunn can’t help upping it.

Only Wachter doesn’t want to up his game–instead of detail, he does huge sound lettering as backgrounds.

Cataclysm indeed.

C-

CREDITS

Writer, Cullen Bunn; artist, Dave Wachter; letterer, Chris Mowry; editor, Bobby Curnow; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Godzilla (1954, Honda Ishirô)

Godzilla is a peculiar picture. It’s intensely serious, with director Honda never letting the viewer get a moment’s relief. This approach is all throughout the film, which opens with a documentary feel. Honda and co-screenwriter Murata Takeo set up their main characters quickly and without a lot of fanfare–Takarada Akira and Kôchi Momoko’s first scene sets up their relationship before sending them away–she actually just disappears for a while, while he becomes a background player during the first act.

Their romance is the best character work in the film, with the possible exception of Suzuki Toyoaki’s grieving orphan. Takarada and Kôchi’s romance is never quite star-crossed but it’s always difficult. They’re both excellent. All of the film’s emotions play out through Kôchi; it’s like the film has greater need of her than to just have a difficult romance.

Honda moves Godzilla through a few phases–mystery, exploration, devastation–always ratcheting the tension a little tighter. The creature’s destruction of Tokyo is exhausting and relentless. The film implies subtext to those scenes–the creature discovering man’s world–but Honda doesn’t explore them. He presents them matter of fact, the documentary style returning.

The last act is where the film stumbles; Hirata Akihiko gives a histrionic performance. Some of it is the writing, most of it is Hirata. The film already has problems with Shimura Takashi, in a similarly poorly written role. There’s way too much strained symbolism in the finish.

The music, photography and editing are all exceptional.

The film is thoughtful, intricate and affecting.

Godzilla (1998, Roland Emmerich)

Godzilla is tolerably bad for about the first half, then it takes a turn for the far worse as the characters start having longer conversations. Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich’s dialogue would be hilariously bad if it were in small parts, but they string together these scenes. There’s no action, just a lot of bad dialogue and bad acting. Only Hank Azaria seems immune; giving Godzilla‘s best performance isn’t a difficult achievement however.

Worst performance is a little more difficult to ascertain. Doug Savant’s an easy target, but it isn’t his fault Devlin and Emmerich wrote his character to have stuttering as comic relief (really, they did). Harry Shearer, Michael Lerner and Arabella Field are easier targets, but none are in the picture for very long. Maria Pitillo’s worst of the primary cast, but Matthew Broderick doesn’t trail too far behind.

As for Jean Reno… he’s okay.

Besides the crappy script and the awful CG, Godzilla‘s biggest problem is Emmerich. For the first half hour (only twenty percent of the runtime), Emmerich concentrates on ripping off Spielberg. Close Encounters, Raiders, Jurassic Park, Jaws. Emmerich’s unoriginality is at least distracting. Once he just directs the picture straight… it’s so much worse. He can’t figure out how to shoot a giant monster running through New York. It shouldn’t be hard. An establishing shot or two.

But maybe the CG composites just looked too weak.

The only competent thing in Godzilla is David Arnold’s score. Or half of it. The other half’s lousy.

Godzilla: The Half-Century War 5 (April 2013)

270212 20130409213428 large Adequate is probably the best word for this issue. Stokoe doesn’t actually do much with the idea of space monsters. It’s just a big monster fight issue–Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, Ghidorah and Gigan–with a little of the protagonist. He pilots Mechagodzilla, which should work but he’s too busy fighting monsters to narrate.

And Stokoe doesn’t do much interesting with the art. Giant monsters fighting in Antarctica actually doesn’t give him a lot of opportunity for his level of super detail.

Still, Half-Century War is now the stick by which to measure Godzilla stories, comic or otherwise. Stokoe cracked the formula. Danger and fear. He doesn’t even worry about scale–why would Stokoe’s somewhat realistic Mechagodzilla have glove attachments instead of the systems being internal?.

As for the ending… Stokoe goes for cinematic and doesn’t have the pacing. He wastes pages, doesn’t have good time progression.

Like I said, adequate.

CREDITS

The End of the World, 2002; writer, artist and letterer, James Stokoe; colorists, Stokoe and Heather Breckel; editor, Bobby Curnow; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Godzilla: The Half-Century War 4 (December 2012)

264115 20130104011230 large Stokoe turns it all around. He brings in two of the silly elements–Mechagodzilla and Space Godzilla–but sells them through a combination of great art and great characterization of the protagonist.

The protagonist is now bitter and middle aged–a “glorified weather man” who anticipates the monsters’ landfalls and tries to get people out. Stokoe does contrive a way to combine the two monsters appearing opposite Godzilla. All he had to do to make it sell better was make the Godzilla appearances rarer.

It’s a small compliant though. Otherwise, he turns in a fantastic issue. And he’s got a great soft cliffhanger.

Stokoe does two things with Half-Century–he streamlines the Godzilla franchise (it’s like Ultimate Godzilla for the familiar fan) and tell the story of one guy’s experiences with the monster. Marvels for Godzilla.

Sometimes he gets the mix wrong, but not here. This one’s perfect.

CREDITS

Bombay, 1987; writer, artist and letterer, James Stokoe; colorists, Stokoe and Heather Breckel; editor, Bobby Curnow; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Godzilla: The Half-Century War 3 (October 2012)

259013 20121018061418 large Stokoe plays up the human element too much here. He’s got a bunch of monsters–it turns out Godzilla was the only one until last issue–but they’re not getting the attention. Instead, the issue’s more a combination of exposition about what happened at the end of the last issue and off-panel after the first issue and then a human chase scene.

The characters are all weak and there are a lot of them. Almost uncountable but probably fifteen, with five or six having significant speaking parts. It’s just too much for the comic, which doesn’t really have a narrative purpose.

Stokoe draws a bunch of monsters should be great and it is when he draws them, but they don’t get too much intention. Solving the mystery he created this issue is a lot more compelling,

It’s still okay and the art’s fantastic, but Stokoe really fumbles the story.

CREDITS

Ghana, 1975; writer, artist and letterer, James Stokoe; colorists, Stokoe and Heather Breckel; editor, Bobby Curnow; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Godzilla: The Half-Century War 2 (September 2012)

257404 20120920051856 large Wow. Stokoe does great work here. Except for the ominous soft cliffhanger, this issue of Half-Century War speedily surpasses what I thought was possible for a Godzilla comic.

This issue is set in 1967, in Vietnam. Though Godzilla (and possibly other giant monsters) roam the planet, the U.S. is still trying to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. They just have to do it around Godzilla and Anguirus.

Stokoe does get in some giant monster fighting–probably three or four full pages of it–but he’s got lots of human stuff. There’s the funny scientist who makes the silly weapons to fight Godzilla. He introduces the idea of trying to bore through his hide to cause damage makes a lot of sense; I’ve never heard it before.

The protagonist doesn’t have a lot to do. Stokoe’s just using him for narration and that move’s perfectly fine.

CREDITS

Vietnam, 1967; writer, artist and letterer, James Stokoe; colorists, Stokoe and Heather Breckel; editor, Bobby Curnow; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Godzilla: The Half-Century War 1 (August 2012)

255116 20120808132433 large James Stokoe starts Half Century War with an adaptation of the original Godzilla. A tank commander keeps the monster busy while people evacuate. It’s an interesting approach and really does humanize the whole thing. Later, the tank commander gets the chance to fight giant monsters exclusively, hence the title.

But the concept, while good, isn’t as good as the execution. Stokoe mixes styles a lot. Everything is exceptionally detailed, of course, but his protagonist is a traditional manga standard and his Godzilla is nineties style, not fifties. The issue’s action is quickly paced, which is totally different from the source film. Stokoe’s going for breathtaking action.

There’s some humor, a little drama, no real horror. Stokoe raises a lot of questions but they aren’t about the protagonist. Rather, one wonders how he’ll continue the series.

The series is off to a strong start. It’s already better than I ever expected.

CREDITS

Japan, 1954; writer, artist and letterer, James Stokoe; colorists, Stokoe and Heather Breckel; editor, Bobby Curnow; publisher, IDW Publishing.

Godzilla 5 (December 1977)

Oh, I get it, the bad guy keeps calling Gabe “black man” because he’s a racist and it (hopefully) makes the reader take an immediate dislike to the character.

But Moench did basically the same thing with Dum Dum in the last issue and the reader’s not supposed to want Godzilla to step on him.

Huh. Misfire there.

The racial stuff is awful, regardless of Moench’s intention. When Gabe makes a “We Shall Overcome” reference, Moench’s gone off the deep end.

Sutton’s still on pencils, with Klaus Janson of all people joining him on inks. This issue’s almost impossible to follow, but it’s gloriously vibrant and full of movement. Janson’s inks can’t make Godzilla or the other giant monsters look any more proportional but he sure does make the issue fun to read.

When I say it’s impossible to follow… seriously, I haven’t got a clue about half the story.

CREDITS

The Isle of Lost Monsters; writer, Doug Moench; penciller, Tom Sutton; inker, Klaus Janson; colorist, Phil Rachelson; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Archie Goodwin; publisher, Marvel Comics.