Godzilla has faced many challenges in his life. King Kong. Charles Barkley. The Justice League. Now, a new series from IDW Publishing pits the King of the Monsters against an all-star squad of literature’s greatest characters. This battle plays out in an epic fashion in Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre.
Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre is the brainchild of comic creator Tom Scioli. Best known for his work on Fantastic Four: Grand Design, Scioli also illustrated Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics. Fittingly, his style is comparable to Kirby, who dreamed big and drew bigger. This makes Scioli ideally suited to depicting literary giants battling the king of the kaiju.
The comic opens in the midst of a roaring party at the Long Island estate of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s mind is elsewhere, however, his gaze focused on the emerald beacon across the bay. This puts him in the ideal position to observe the rise of Godzilla and the apparent death of his beloved Daisy. Distraught, Gatsby devotes his considerable fortune to establishing a team, G-Force, that will stop the threat of Godzilla once and for all.
Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with kaiju
The story which follows is as ludicrous as it is literary, with Gatsby consulting various experts for his G-Force. This includes an elderly Sherlock Holmes and the nameless time traveler from The Time Machine. There are also “real world” figures like Thomas Edison and a cyborg Jules Verne.
This is the one point where Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre falters. I think it might have been better for the book to remain purely literary, rather than turning Jules Verne into a substitute for Nemo. Then again, Scioli rightly portrays Edison as “a publicity-hungry half-wit” rather than the Great Inventor he pretended at being.
Apart from that one oddity, Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre #1 lives up to its concept. Scholarly sorts may turn their nose up at it, but it remains true to its stylistic sources. It is a silly book, but it is also a good read.
Grade: 4/5
Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theater #1 arrives in comic shops everywhere on October 23, 2024.
