Godzilla in Hell #1-5

Godzilla in Hell #1-5

Originally released in 2015

Written by James Stokoe (#1), Bob Eggleton (#2), Ulises Farinas and Erik Frietas (#3), et al.

Art by James Stokoe (#1), Bob Eggleton (#2), Buster Moody (#3), et al.

After making it to the end of Secret Wars last week, I thought I'd try to take a break from superhero comics for a week.  That's easier said than done, given that the only comic apps that I have are Marvel and DC, but I figure I can challenge myself a bit.

Humble Bundle had a set of Godzilla comics that were available recently, so I picked that up.  It included today's topic, "Godzilla in Hell", which tells you everything that you need to know about the premise in the title.

Godzilla has died, and he has been cast down into Hell.  He has to fight his way through varied landscapes, and many of his old does, for a chance at resurrection.  Given the nature of the protagonist, the stories have little to no dialogue, with most of the words being in the form of narration.

Each issue has a different creative team depicting the various realms of Hell that Godzilla travels through, with issue 2 being a highlight.  Each panel in that issue looks like a classical painting - I'd seen a few Godzilla movie posters done in a style like this, and they look gorgeous.

Throughout this story, he is attacked by a cloud of his human victims who are seemingly eager for revenge.  He is offered a chance for redemption, which he rejects. (And eats some of the angelic beings who are offering it for good measure) I haven't read too many stories that largely tell the story through the art alone, but it made for an interesting experience.

It's unclear how much Godzilla can understand the words that he sees and hears - if he's intentionally rejecting the warnings and offers that are given to him, or if he's just lashing out in an animalistic rage.

I haven't seen many of the Godzilla movies, so I'm not familiar with all of the foes that he faces here, though they all have striking and distinct designs. Of course, King Ghidorah, who is Godzilla's arch-nemesis, appears in more than one issue. Mothra, another popular monster in these movies, is only alluded to through the angels' wings - I guess the implication is that if/when Mothra dies, she goes to Heaven instead of Hell. (From what I've seen, she's a defender of humanity, whereas Godzilla tends to target humanity as much as he fights other monsters, though maybe that differs depending on the continuity)

Due to the relative lack of dialogue, much of the story was open to interpretation, which made for an interesting reading experience. The art was vivid, varied (due to a different creative team working on each issue), and downright grotesque at times. Godzilla in Hell was a short read, but I went in with little idea of what to expect and found myself hooked.