Monsterverse Madness: Godzilla’s New Frenemies and a Kaiju-filled Future

Way back in 2014, a little movie called Godzilla arrived in theaters across the country to decent reception. Now unless you’ve been in a coma for the past few decades, even as a casual filmgoer, you’re well aware of the iconic Japanese monster and his long screen history, alongside Mothra, King Ghidorah, Anguirus, etc

You’ll also recall that the road to Hollywood was a long and often disappointing one. There was an aborted 3D stop-motion project and eventually a CGI schlockbuster that didn’t really even feature Godzilla at all, just a generic mutant iguana with the same name. Then the property came to Universal and Legendary.

As a blessing-in-disguise, the 98 film and its vitriolic reception served as a template of what not to do with Godzilla. Legendary remained true to the idea and concept of the atomic monster, with what most consider some reasonable tweaking. Realized via state-of-the art CGI, the mighty king of monsters was presented as larger, more powerful and more realistic than ever before. Given a credible opposition in the form of the Mutos, Godzilla did what he does and disappeared into the sea, suggesting a return.

Flash forward to present day and we have a well-established universe comparable to Marvel or DC that even includes tthat other icon of monsterdom, the first US giant monster and Godzilla’s inspiration — (King) Kong. Toho, Godzilla’s parent company has always been notoriously difficult when it comes to allowing use of other monsters from the franchise, such as Mothra, Rodan. With the success of the 2014 film came an arrangement that provided for exactly that.

Even as the creative team conjures wonderful new additions to the kaiju pantheon they also make use of the towering veterans just as they should, giving them all the power and personality they bore in their Japanese source material. Yet, Legendary’s own new additions to the monsterverse are thus far, compelling in and of themselves with well-considered lore and personalities.

The Mutos from the first film, seemingly designed with Gamera foe Gyaos as inspiration, provide viable opposition and even pathos at times as mates just trying to prepare a place for their brood. Their EMP weapon is a fresh change from the beams and rays of practically every monster since Ghidorah.

With the introduction of Kong in Kong: Skull Island came an entire monstrous ecosystem, as befits the homeland of our mighty ape hero. In addition to the terrifying Skull Crawlers, a race of slithering fiends bent on killing Kong, as well as anything else that looks like a potential snack.

The Sker Buffalo is a more docile creature, not likely to join in the wars waged among the kaiju in future films, but a nice, down-to-earth inclusion in an otherwise wild pantheon.

Mother Longlegs is what you might guess: a giant spider, but with attributes unseen in its smaller kin. At roughly the size of a bus, the lady is, like the Sker Buffalo, not likely to take part in the high-stakes monster warfare. A giant spider seems a given though, considering the long history of outsized arachnids from films past, such as Tarantula!, Earth Versus The Spider, and Eight Legged Freaks. Toho’s universe already has one named Kumonga, who could just as easily enter the monsterverse.

Likewise, Toho monster flicks have a long history of monster octopi presaging the Mire Squid, a slimy nuisance that Kong quickly dispatches… by eating it.

Of these fearsome fauna, only the Skullcrawlers, Kong’s equivalent to the Mutos, have carried over into later media, one serving as a light warm-up for MechaGodzilla in Godzilla vs Kong.

Godzilla King of The Monsters confirms no less than eleven new titans, mostly only in passing. The official novelization gives a little more information, some of these newcomers even receiving their own dedicated scenes. Most are named after mythological characters but a few bear the names of legendary crytpids from around the world. Extensive liberties have been taking with their attributes, the main one being that none of these mysterious beasts have been reported as being hundreds of feet tall.

Most interesting of these are the handful who appear at the climax to pay tribute to the w inner of the Godzilla-Ghidorah face-off. Scylla, named after a mythological sea monster, this creepy-looking creature sports both multiple segmented arachnid-like legs and a face full of tentacles, making for a dangerous opponent to any other monster.

A new Muto, larger and more heavily armored than its predecessors, also drops by. We already know the versatility and combat capacity of the Mutos. Given the more battle-ready appearance of this evolved form.

Behemoth, presumably named after a monster from Jewish scripture, sports an interesting amalgam of elephantine and ape characteristics -massive tusks and long powerful arms- topped off by somewhat saurian, boney back chines. As striking as it looks, it’s hard to imagine this monster being an effective offensive fighter. While the tusks and spine armor offer a near-impenetrable defense, for its soft spots, those same tusks would hinder use of its powerful arms, limiting the towering chimera to ram-like charging attacks, as the points of the tusks curve backward, away from an opponent. This assumes that Behemoth has no beam or projectiles, so perhaps that would be its secret ace card. Possibly the horns could act as a sort of tuning fork, allowing for a powerful sonic offense.

Anguirus, Toho’s second ever movie monster creation, makes an appearance of sorts, in the form of a skeleton, during the scene in which Serizawa traverses the subterranean temple to rejuvenate Godzilla. Apparently, Angy’s remains did not fall under the purview of original kaiju disallowed by Toho. Though it’s a quick shot treated mostly as a kind of throwaway Easter egg, Anguirus’s popularity among western fans suggests a possible future role for the shelled one. It would be cool to see his fight along side his buddy Godzilla again — minus any speech balloons or dubbed cartoon voices, of course. In terms of combat, it seems an obvious upgrade would be to have him launch a few of his back spikes in battle, the way a porcupine flicks its quills.

Although the official novelization makes portrays the barely-glimpsed mountainous Methuselah as a new creation specifically for that film, with a clever bit of retrofitting, Methuselah and Anguirus could turn out to be one and the same.

Moving on to the next entry in the Monsterverse Godzilla vs Kong, we travel with Kong and friends in the earth’s core, where more giants lie in wait. The biggest threat is clearly the Warbats, Roughly matching descriptions of the ancient Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, these creatures are equipped with both wings and long sinewy tails used for constriction. While Kong is demonstrably too powerful for just one, the Warbats seem to travel in groups of three and are aggressive in their attacks, pushing the mega ape to his limits. Should an intelligent force take control of earthly monsters Kilaak-style, the Warbats, along with the Skull Crawlers, would make for a strong advance wave to occupy our guys Kong and Godzilla while more wily King Ghidorah type beasts lay waste to civilization.

Last among the giants of K v G is a creature variously known as HEL (Hollow Earth Lizard) or affectionately among fans simply as Doug. While it appears this beast is little more than a stout crocodile, its brief appearance doesn’t tell us much about it, other than it seems to enjoy snacking on monster crabs

Legendary’s own version of Mechagodzilla proved to be possibly the most powerful monster in the ‘verse, very nearly killing both Kong and Godzilla. Though it was ultimately defeated, as a robot it could easily be rebuilt, a precedent way back in 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla. The thought of an upgraded version tailored without the few weaknesses of the first bodes grim for the champions of earth.

As of two weeks ago, Legendary has teased the next entry in the series, and what appears t be its major protagonist as well. Surprisingly, the beast seems to be, like Kong, an ape. In its brief runtime, the teaser suggests the newcomer to be at somewhere the level of humans in terms of intellect, similar to the evolved simians of Planet of The Apes. Some have even conjectured a crossover film. The name and nature of this beast remain a mystery, but it’s a welcome addition to the wonderfully weird pantheon The Monsterverse.

And with that, we’re well on our way to a potential modern day Destroy All Monsters! Bring it on, Legendary.

THIS JUST IN!

Dangerville has just released this video detailing a brand new Monsterverse board game that will feature even more new titans! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsLnXLEhm5I