Godzilla: Awakening (Graphic Novel)

Steve Barton |

May 9, 2014

Cover art:

reviews/godzillaawakenings.jpg

Co written by Max Borenstein (screenwriter of the new Godzilla) and Greg Borenstein

Illustrated by Eric Battle, Yvel Guichet, Alan Quah, and Lee Loughridge and features cover art by Arthur Adams

Distributed by Legendary Comics

If you’re like us and cannot wait to sink your teeth into the big screen return of Godzilla, then you are in for a real treat! Legendary Comics’ latest graphic novel Godzilla: Awakening brings the beast back on the page in a big way that feels both new and familiar. This is the big guy that we’ve all been missing! Even better? It serves as a prequel and doesn’t spoil a thing in the new film. In fact… it could only enhance it.

Things kick off when we meet the father of Ken Watanabe’s character from the new movie, Dr. Serizawa. He’s finally making a confession to his son, Ichiro, regarding his life’s work. Turns out pop’s life was a hell of a lot more exciting than Ichiro had once suspected. After surviving the Hiroshima blast, he was recruited, a bit reluctantly, by the Americans to work together at a new program called Monarch, which focused on the study of the top secret M.U.T.O. (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) phenomenon.

You see, people all over the world would see all sorts of nasty creatures attacking this or attacking that. Every time such an event would occur, Monarch would swoop in, do clean-up, and keep things quiet. It was soon discovered that these creatures were subject to a giant predator who would do its very best to keep their population under control. We bet you cannot guess who… or what… that is, can you? To tell you any more would be to spoil it for you, but that’s the gist of things in a nutshell.

The Borenstein duo craft an incredible origin story that answers a lot of questions. The book itself is rife with lots of nods to the original films in the franchise, and the artwork by Eric Battle (X-Men, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman), Yvel Guichet (Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero, Superboy Annual, End of Nations), Alan Quah (Rage, The Vampire Diaries, Anywhere), and Lee Loughridge (Batman Adventures, Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, Marvel Zombies Return) only serves to bring this very vivid world to life in wondrous eye-popping color. If you’re worrying about so many artists working on this 80-page masterpiece at the same time being distracting, allow me to lay your fears to rest. While each artist has his own style, they blend together well and only complement each other.

Whether you’re a new fan just getting into Godzilla for the first time or an old veteran of the series like myself, Godzilla: Awakening is nothing short of a must-buy. Especially if you’ll be making your way to wherever you need to be to witness the return of the true king of the monsters. Hail, hail, baby!