Godzilla Library Collection, Vol. 2

by Eric Powell, Phil Hester (Illustrator), Víctor Santos (Illustrator)

The King of the Monsters reigns supreme, but there are plenty of others ready to battle for the title!

The Godzilla Library Collection is a comprehensive line of books that will collect every comic series by IDW! Volume 2 collects the 12-issue series Kingdom of Monsters by Eric Powell, Tracy Marsh, Jason Ciaramella, Phil Hester, and Victor Santos.

When Godzilla appears off the coast of Japan, the Japanese government must respond quickly to contain the disaster...but before long, other monsters begin appearing all over the world. Can humanity survive this mysterious onslaught of giant beasts?

Featuring Anguirus, Battra, Destoroyah, Gigan, Hedorah, King Ghidorah, Kumonga, Mechagodzilla, Mothra, Rodan, SpaceGodzilla, and Titanosaurus!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

304 pages, Paperback

Published April 23, 2024

About the author

Eric Powell has contributed work on such comics titles as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Hellboy: Weird Tales, Star Wars Tales, The Incredible Hulk, Black Panther, The Avengers, The Hood, MAD Magazine, Devil Dinosaur, Swamp Thing, the Avengers, She-Hulk, the Simpsons, Arkham Asylum: Living Hell and Action Comics.

Although eking out a meager living in the comics field since 1995, Eric didn't find true success until he launched his critically acclaimed dark comedy series The Goon. The Goon was subsequently picked up by Dark Horse Comics and boasts a diehard cult following.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a dark story. I did not expect that. The artwork: I wish the artist who drew the first four issues finished the last eight issues; the change was jarring and I did not care for the new artwork. The character development was ... okay, I guess. I would say there were four "main characters" from "start to finish": Sergeant Woods, Allie, the President, and the Japanese scientist. And it ends on a very negative note, too, hahahah! It is written as if there is hope for mankind because the "most dangerous" of the monsters have apparently been killed: Godzilla, Rodan, and Battra. But then the last couple of pages show "Space Godzilla" looking at the Earth with an evil grin. So apparently humanity is going to bite the dust after all?

I am not sure about Anguirus, if "he" is knocked out or not. Nothing is ever said about Kumonga after "he" appears, either. And what about King Ghidorah? Is it just unconscious? It seems like that monster should be "okay" because it was "merely" stunned with a heavy dose of electricity; it was not engaged in battle after that. On the bright side, it was a fast read.

It was such a dark story! I could not believe the number of children being shown killed right away! The two Asian siblings killed by Godzilla (in some horrible artwork - does Godzilla have some kind of hinge in his mouth or something?) on the island. The Russian boy eaten by Rodan before it escapes from the boy's house and terrorizes Moscow as it quickly grows in size. Then the creepy French twins killing others "just because" before they start controlling the monsters (Battra, then Rodan, before attempting to control Godzilla). So many other people were killed as well! A guy trying to help a woman is stomped by a Godzilla! (Not that Godzilla necessarily did that on purpose but they were still killed). Godzilla killing everybody on a highway "just because". Sgt. Woods "letting" the cast of "Jerseyfied" die in their limo (that's a hard call to make; if he had tried to save them, he would have been killed when Godzilla blasted their limo, and then Allie would have died "later" because Sgt. Woods wouldn't have been alive to save her.

It was kind-of odd, too. At one point, there were moments of humans helping other humans. But most of the story portrayed humanity in the worst light possible. Constantly fighting with each other and trying to kill each other over food, water, and supplies. I am very surprised the author decided to let humanity survive their encounters with these giant monsters. Granted, Space Godzilla at the end could just be the final curtain for humanity. Unless, of course, King Ghidorah is "ok" and works with Mechagodzilla to fight Space Godzilla. But, yeah, humanity was mostly portrayed at its worst until it was time to "rebuild" after the "Big Three" were (apparently) killed.

Then you had that "weird" picture/image of that singer wearing what looked like a costume of Godzilla crucified on a cross. I was, "what the heck?", hahahah!

I am not sure how I felt about Mechagodzilla "going crazy" like it did and attacking Atlanta, GA. That did not make any sense to me. I realize the robot was damaged when Godzilla attacked it from behind, but why attack Atlanta? It would make more sense for the AI to go rogue and attack the controllers in D.C. than for the giant robot to attack Atlanta.

Nor could I get a sense of the passage of time in the story, either. Sgt. Woods starts out in Los Angeles, California but somehow quickly hikes across the country to "find" Mechagodzilla somewhere in Alabama. And shortly after that, he marches to D.C. to fight Godzilla and King Ghidorah. Yet it apparently takes him no time to figure out how to control Mechagodzilla because during that time, Godzilla and King Ghidorah have been fighting in D.C. And as quickly as Americans were able to build the first Mechagodzilla, why not build more? Especially considering how long it would have taken for Sgt. Woods and Allie to hike across the United States. Yes, I realize it's "fiction", but the distance from Los Angeles, CA, to the western border of Alabama is 2,141 miles; if he walked non-stop, Google Maps puts it at 902 hours of walking (or 37.6 days), but you'd have to double that because he can't walk 24 hours per day, non-stop, so it would be closer to just over 75 days if he walked 12 hours per day.

What's weird, too, is it seems like he starts out in Los Angeles after speaking with his parents, but then we find out later he supposedly was on his way to his parents when Godzilla destroyed the small northern California town where they lived? He's wearing a gas mask when he finds Allie in the wreckage on the interstate outside of Los Angeles; how did he reach the point of seeing his parents die when Godzilla destroyed the town in which they lived when he was in Los Angeles at the time? Did the author forget where Sgt. Woods was in the beginning of the story? And why didn't the editor catch this mistake?

As dark as the story was, I was surprised there was some humor in it. Granted, the humor was pretty dark, too, hahahah! The Americans try to gas Anguirus with a "heavy gas" that will stay low to the ground, but he then stands up and walks out of the cloud of gas. The only beings killed were any survivors of its initial attack followed by its fight with Godzilla. Then you had the German soldiers mocking the Americans for being stupid and using heavy gas; they launched missiles with "lighter gas" to take out Rodan only for Rodan to use its wings to force this "new" poisonous gas back to the ground and killing the German soldiers and any civilians in the area.

The author was trying to mock Texan arrogance, it seemed, but I am not sure how well it worked when Anguirus crashed through "the wall" (which wasn't much of a wall/barricade, anyway) and the governor of Texas was made to look like a fool before and after it happened.

The two newscasters changing their story mid-stream was a delight. It was pretty hilarious and reminded me of both Orwell's 1984 and The Prize Fighter with Don Knotts and Tim Conway (the announcer during the final fight is ragging on Tim Conway's character but changes in midsentence to start praising him; it was pretty funny) because of how they were talking out of both sides of their mouth at the same time.

The "poker her in the face"/"poker face" was funny, too, as was the way the two guys handled it. I could see that kind of humor/moment taking place. It was pretty funny. So was the moment with the "rednecks" trying to kill Anguirus with just a rifle. A special kind of stupid, there, I think.

I cannot decide if the whole story was some kind of commentary on modern human society or not, or if that was just relegated to chapter 4. Sgt. Wood has this inner monologue throughout that entire chapter/issue comparing and contrasting modern society with the generation(s) that lived through the Great Depression and WWII and finding modern society wanting. His comment, "I picked a side the moment I put this uniform on, ma'am", was priceless, I felt. It definitely focuses on the worst aspects of humanity, that is for certain!

As bad as the artwork was in the last 2/3rds of the story, the cover art of some of the issues was fabulous. I loved the giant eye looking at the person on the mountain ridge. That was pretty cool! And then the image of Godzilla's head above water looking at the submarine heading towards him was beautiful. Best cover in the compilation, I thought.

I wasn't sure what to expect. Not what I was expecting. While I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped I would, I am glad I still took a chance and read it. Hopefully the next compilation is "better" (art-wise, if not story-wise as well).

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume has pretty good art in a style that feels somewhat inspired by Mignola (one of my favorite comic artists), and a fun B plot about a soldier and an orphan trying to survive in the monster apocalypse, but I can't give it more than 3 stars due to how jarring it is that the early issues of Kingdom of Monsters use caricatures of real-life pop culture and political figures for seemingly no other reason than to roast celebrities that the author(s) don't like; the in-universe Obama is generally portrayed as an idiot, Lady Gaga is an insane Godzilla apologist that speaks mostly in gibberish, and the cast of Jersey Shore make cameos throughout until Godzilla vaporizes their tour bus while they beg for help from the emergent MC. There's a bit where human depravity and excesses are explicitly commented on, and I figure that's why these folks show up in the plot to be used as examples, but that theme falls by the wayside in later issues as the hardscrabble realities of the apocalypse set in more and more and socio-political commentaries are replaced with the classic "humans may be the worst monsters of all" train of thought.

Overall a fine read, but I'm unsure if I'd recommend this one to anyone but another Godzilla fan.

[Mikey · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the first volume in this series, I was really looking forward to volume 2. I finished reading it last night and I am struggling to find positive things to say about this story. Maybe I'm just too woke but the political aspect of this book just felt very dated to me, especially compared to how things have been in the states lately.
The characters fell flat for the most part. I found myself feeling more sympathy for the people this story was criticizing than any of the main characters. I thought the monster fights were very well drawn, that something nice. I just felt pulled out anytime we cut back to our human characters because outside of the little girl, they were all just very annoying to listen to, or they were just very poor caricatures of real-life political figures. I don't know, if you like Godzilla stories that are political, check out Shin Godzilla or Godzilla Minus One. Those films are better uses of your time in my opinion. This book unfortunately was just not for me.

[Anthony Wendel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This didn't age well and I don't necessarily mean it in a bad way. This was written pre covid and showcases the plot of a more political element to how a Kaiju attack would play out. Before covid it might have been dark parody to showcase the absurdity of the idea that people wouldn't come together for a colossal world changing event. Now after the pandemic this collection of comic seems like it was foretelling the future itself. It is so on point it hurts.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Godzilla- this is a fun new chapter!