Marvel’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Explained

Godzilla has been smashing, crashing and destroying everything in sight on the big screen for decades, with his first movie debuting in theaters 70 years ago. Since then, he’s appeared in countless works, most of which were produced by parent company Toho. The Big G has also had his fair share of incarnations handled by Western companies, with Marvel Comics being one of them.

During the late 1970s, Marvel had its own take on the mighty Godzilla in an ongoing comic book. One of the publisher’s many licensed comics from that era, these books and their take on the character have become one of the more esoteric iterations of Godzilla. Now, he’s set to return to his former publisher with a collection of Marvel’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters comic book, allowing fans to read how the house that Spider-Man built utilized one of the most iconic giant monsters in fiction.

What Led To Marvel’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters Comics?

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975): Directed by Ishiro Honda

The Godzilla: King of the Monsters series by Marvel Comics ran for 24 issues, lasting from 1977 to 1979. During this era, the character had metaphorically and literally returned to the sea in his primary medium of the movies. The Showa era Godzilla movies by Toho temporarily ended with the release of Terror of Mechagodzilla (which once again pitted Godzilla against his silver, robotic doppelgänger).

This was due to a tightening economy in Japan at the time, with that film being the least financially successful entry in the franchise to this day. Part of this lack of popularity was due to how the title monster and his movies had been portrayed in the previous decade, with what was once a harrowing and fairly grounded allegory for the atomic bomb being reduced to a silly, meandering series of increasingly goofy and cheap monster battles. Nevertheless, the monster himself had several fans across the world, and one of them was Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee.

Lee sought the license for the Godzilla character in 1976, noting how many fans of Marvel’s usual fare had grown up with his movies. This was during an era in which the publisher dove further into using licensed characters for its comic books. The first example was Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, who had his own popular comic by Marvel starting in 1970. Japanese movie studio Toho, which created the Godzilla series, agreed to license Godzilla to Marvel, and it was pretty hands-off beyond that in terms of the comic book’s production.

Former Incredible Hulk artist Herb Trimpe was chosen as the artist for the series, with his goal to continue to evoke the idea of Godzilla being “a guy in a rubber suit,” a la the movies. The writer was Doug Moench, who had previously worked on darker and more street-level titles such as Master of Kung Fu and the spooky Moon Knight, the latter of which was one of his most well-known works. With the creative team decided, Marvel’s monstrous new book was set to firmly bring a movie monster into the world of superheroes.

Marvel’s Godzilla Comics Put the Monster Right Into the Marvel Universe

First Appearance: Godzilla #1 (May 1977) by Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe

Doug Moench took from several sources to create the scope, tone and status quo for Marvel’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters comic book. First and foremost was the general concept of the character, with Godzilla being a massive, dinosaur-like bipedal lizard that gained his current form due to atomic testing in the 1950s. There were some alterations, however, some which came with the new publishing territory.

Godzilla’s skin was portrayed as green, contrasting the usual black or charcoal color scheme in classic Japanese Godzilla movies. This pigment was later seen in the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla animated series that was released one year later. Likewise, the character’s atomic breath was portrayed as more like fire breath, and his dorsal fins never lit up whenever he used this power.

Besides creating Moon Knight, Doug Moench is known for working on Batman at DC Comics and creating the villainous Black Mask and the Gotham City police officer Harvey Bullock

Moench created a consistent supporting cast that appeared alongside Godzilla, namely the young Rob Takiguchi. Fascinated by Godzilla, the character was conceptually inspired by similar young children seen in the latter-day Showa era Godzilla films. Also present was a mecha called the SJ3RX, a.k.a. the Red Ronin (created by Tony Stark/Iron Man). Imprinted with Rob’s brain patterns, it could only be piloted by the boy, who used it to ward off the monster instead of doing him actual harm.

This robot was included due to how popular Super Robot anime franchises were at the time, with many of these shows being brought over and dubbed into English. Rounding out the rest of this cast were Doctor Yuriko Takiguchi (Rob’s grandfather) and Tamara Hashioka, as well as several characters from the wider Marvel Universe. Marvel employee Archie Goodwin suggested that the book take place in the continuity of Marvel’s other comic books, which is why the cast also included S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Dum Dum Dugan, Jimmy Woo, and Gabe Jones (completing the Godzilla Squad).

The main issue presented by having Godzilla in the same universe as Marvel’s other characters was how he would be presented as a threat while logically keeping characters such as the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and the X-Men from defeating him. Having either party constantly interacting and beating the other would devalue both, but there were a few workarounds. For one, Moench and Trimpe decided that the powerful Incredible Hulk would be absent from the series because the latter had tired of drawing him in past books.

Likewise, most of the action was kept outside of New York City, where most of Marvel’s major heroes were operating. These other characters eventually appeared, however, namely the Champions and Devil Dinosaur. Those characters had just had their ongoing titles canceled, with their bouts against Godzilla a way to tie up loose ends. Likewise, the science-based Fantastic Four made sense in terms of interacting with Godzilla, especially since they were more in line with sci-fi adventurers than traditional superheroes.

Marvel’s Godzilla was one of the monster’s largest incarnations, being around half the size of the 1200+ foot tall Empire State Building

The license for Godzilla from Toho only included the title monster himself, with none of the other iconic kaiju, such as Mothra or Rodan, included in the deal with Marvel Comics. Thus, Godzilla faced off against original villains, namely the monstrous creations of the evil Doctor Demonicus. These included the Sasquatch Yetrigar and the trio of Triax, Rhiahn and Krollar, the latter controlled by different alien species. This plot line evoked King Ghidorah and other classic monsters with similar backstories. The Godzilla Squad had temporary “truces” with Godzilla to combat these foes, with their bouts taking them all across the world. While the connections to Marvel’s wider universe were definitely there, the series also occupied its own corner.

Of course, there were many ridiculous and now questionable storylines in the series, namely a plot in which Godzilla was accused of cattle rustling. Likewise, the monster is briefly shrunken to a tiny size through the same Pym Particles used by the Avenger Ant-Man/Giant-Man. He eventually regained his normal size, but not before having a fistfight with Dum Dum Dugan. After traveling through time and returning to face the Avengers, Godzilla was convinced by Rob Takiguchi to end his feud with the rest of the world and return to the sea from whence he came. This ended Marvel’s official time with the character, though it was far from the end of the company’s licensed comics ventures.

Marvel’s Further Use of Godzilla

Godzilla Comic Book Publishers: Marvel Comics (1977-1979), Dark Horse Comics (1987-1999) and IDW Publishing (2011-Current)

Marvel Comics’ Godzilla: King of the Monsters initially sold decently, with the title’s first issue selling 200,000 copies. After two years, however, Toho suddenly raised the fee to renew the license. Instead of doing so, Marvel decided to let the publication rights lapse due to fears over cost offsetting for a property the company didn’t own. This marked the end of the character’s official appearances in Marvel Comics, but the characters who debuted in his book appeared elsewhere. This included Doctor Demonicus, who appeared in the Shogun Warriors comic.Godzilla was in the Shogun Warriors toy line, but his comic and thebook for the toys never crossed over.

In a more unofficial capacity, later appearances by an unnamed, altered-looking yet similar monster under the thrall of Doctor Demonicus in other titles suggested that the villain had finally gained total control of his old enemy. There was also an unauthorized appearance of Godzilla in 2007’s The Mighty Avengers, but this didn’t really amount to anything. Conversely, a planned appearance of Godzilla in Marvel Spotlight #5 was changed to another character, with the real appeal being the launch of Marv Wolfman and Steve Ditko’s “Dragon Lord” character.

Beyond Godzilla: King of the Monsters, several other licensed comics were published at Marvel in the decade following the book’s conclusion. These included Rom: The Space Knight and Micronauts, both of which were based on preexisting toylines. Their adventures were made canon and somewhat crucial to the rest of the Marvel Universe, making their absence after losing their licenses particularly felt across the fanbase.

Nicholas, who was clearly S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Nick Fury, seemingly referenced Marvel’s Godzilla (as a “fire-snortin’ lizard) in Marvel Comics’ The Transformers #3

Likewise, Hasbro’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Heroand The Transformers also had their own comics by Marvel, with the latter initially portrayed as being in some version of the Marvel Universe. This was soon dropped, however, with the licensed Hasbro books soon portrayed as only really being in continuity with each other. The canon of the G.I. Joe title by Larry Hama continues to be published at Skybound Entertainment, with the book existing as a separate comic from the publisher’s recently launched Energon Universe comic books.

One decade after the launch of Marvel’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Dark Horse Comics released their own roughly two-year stint on the character and released a translated version of a Godzilla manga from Japan. Since 2011, IDW Publishing has held the comic book rights to the character, launching several books featuring him and various classic Toho monsters. Likewise, Legendary Comics – a subsidiary of Legendary Pictures/Legendary Entertainment – handles the comic book tie-ins to that studio’s MonsterVerse movies, which involve Godzilla, King Kong, Mothra, Rodan and various original “Titans.”

While Marvel’s time with the fearsome beast is over, fans can still relive the classic 1970s comic book series. In 2023, it was announced that Marvel was set to release an omnibus of the Godzilla: King of the Monsters series. This collection will become available on October 1, 2024, leaving fans only a little more than a month to pre-order it.