Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth #2 – Review

By: Chris Mowry (story/script), Matt Frank (story/art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: The King of the Monsters demolishes Honolulu and fends off a pretender to the throne.

The Review: This sophomore outing for IDW’s new Godzilla series the big guy squaring off against Zilla, the much maligned star of the disastrous American Godzilla. Fans of the franchise have seen such a battle once before, in Godzilla: Final Wars, but unlike that brief affair, this time the battle consumes much of the issue.

It’s hard to know exactly who on a creative team contributes what to a fight scene as the amount of freedom granted to the artist can vary drastically. I just hope that Chris Mowry doesn’t use the ‘Marvel method’, otherwise his partner, Matt Frank deserves better billing. Indeed, the dialogue in this issue is sparse and, where it is present, it’s somewhat lacking. Though Mowry tries to imbue his characters with personality, he falls just short and the resulting dialogue often betrays its utilitarian purpose.

Lucy Casprell strikes an odd balance between charming and worrisome. Though anyone with the moxie to run towards a kaiju battle is to be respected, her enthusiasm comes off a little bit manic at times. I also worry about a passionate megazoologist who can’t identify immediately that Zilla is bipedal, though I suppose that can be attributed to her vantage point.