IDW's Godzilla Titles

*Cipher* · 05-18-2013, 06:46 PM

I'm a big Godzilla fan, but never bothered with the comics until recently, as I thought they'd mostly be nothing but monster vs. monster fan service.

I decided to pick up the Legends trade on a whim and was blown away. Easily the most pleasantly surprising comic-book experience I've had this year. It was a great little anthology series that really reminded me of Mirage's Tales of the TMNT Vol. 2 -- not just in concept, but in tone, using these pop culture Toho monsters to tell short stories that were sort of somber, surreal, and fun. I got Gangsters and Goliaths along with it and, while I was sort of disappointed with how over-the-top the last two issues were, I was also pleasantly surprised by it. Both did exactly what I think a comic series should be doing with the license -- taking the opportunity to tell interesting human-oriented stories against a Toho monster backdrop -- the kinds of things the movies can't or aren't willing to do.

Is anyone else following this? What else is worth reading? I've read a few issues of Kingdom of Monsters and it seems okay on a sort of guilty-pleasure level, but that's about it. Half-Century War got a lot of good press, but I bought a digital copy of #1 to try it out and wasn't impressed with either the writing or art. Does it get better?

05-18-2013, 06:46 PM	#1
Cipher Foot Elite Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 3,454	IDW's Godzilla Titles I'm a big Godzilla fan, but never bothered with the comics until recently, as I thought they'd mostly be nothing but monster vs. monster fan service. I decided to pick up the Legends trade on a whim and was blown away. Easily the most pleasantly surprising comic-book experience I've had this year. It was a great little anthology series that really reminded me of Mirage's Tales of the TMNT Vol. 2 -- not just in concept, but in tone, using these pop culture Toho monsters to tell short stories that were sort of somber, surreal, and fun. I got Gangsters and Goliaths along with it and, while I was sort of disappointed with how over-the-top the last two issues were, I was also pleasantly surprised by it. Both did exactly what I think a comic series should be doing with the license -- taking the opportunity to tell interesting human-oriented stories against a Toho monster backdrop -- the kinds of things the movies can't or aren't willing to do. Is anyone else following this? What else is worth reading? I've read a few issues of Kingdom of Monsters and it seems okay on a sort of guilty-pleasure level, but that's about it. Half-Century War got a lot of good press, but I bought a digital copy of #1 to try it out and wasn't impressed with either the writing or art. Does it get better?