Godzilla: Awakening

Monsterverse comics
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Godzilla: Awakening Written by Max Borenstein Greg Borenstein Pencils by Eric Battle Yvel Guichet Alan Quah Colors by Lee Loughridge Cover by Arthur Adams Design by John J. Hill Production by Nicolas Sienty Edits by Bob Schreck Greg Tumbarello (associate) Letters by Patrick Brosseau Publisher Legendary Comics villagebooksJP Publish date May 7, 2014 July 25, 2014JP Genre Graphic novel

Godzilla: Awakening (ゴジラ:アウェイクニング〈覚醒〉,   Gojira: Aueikuningu <Kakusei>) is a graphic novel published by Legendary Comics on May 7, 2014. Intended as a canonical prequel to Legendary Pictures' Godzilla, numerous of its events have since been contradicted, leaving its canon status unclear. A translated Japanese version was published in Japan by villagebooks on July 25, 2014, making it the first ever American Godzilla comic to be released officially in Japan. Legendary Comics will reprint it along with subsequent Monsterverse graphic novels Skull Island: The Birth of Kong, Godzilla: Aftershock, Godzilla Dominion, and Kingdom Kong in Legends of the Monsterverse: The Omnibus, which is set to be published on February 6, 2024.

Description

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In May 2014, audiences will witness the epic rebirth of the King of the Monsters as Legendary and Warner Bros. bring Godzilla to the big screen. To pave the way for the iconic creature's return, Legendary Comics is proud to present the official graphic novel Godzilla: Awakening. This 72-page story, set decades before the film, is co-written by Max Borenstein (screenwriter of the new Godzilla) and Greg Borenstein. Delve into an incredible mystery, generations in the making. At the dawn of the atomic age, humanity awakens lifeforms beyond imagination, unleashing monumental forces of nature. This explosive, larger-than-life adventure is the perfect way for fans to experience the new Godzilla before seeing it in theaters.

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Plot

In Tokyo in 1980, Ishiro Serizawa meets with his father who asked him to come urgently. Serizawa's father begins telling him about his job, the one he had kept secret from him. He begins his story in Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM. After the atomic bombing of the city, Serizawa went looking for his wife and newborn son but only found his son. After finding him, he sees a creature in the air, "summoned by our own monstrosity," who flies away, with something in the water observing. Serizawa left off Ishiro with his grandparents for his safety and continued working in the Japanese Navy. One year later, he and his fellow sailors are sent to provide aid to an American vessel that sent a distress call from a nearby island. After finding one of the American men, the sailors find the wrecked ship deep inland and are attacked by the Shinomura. They go inside the ship to rescue the men trapped inside but the Shinomura throws the ship down at the sea, sinking it. No one but Serizawa and the one American they rescued, named Shaw, survives. Shaw, impressed with Serizawa surviving, offers Serizawa go work for the U.S. government, which Serizawa accepts as Godzilla looks on at the Shinomura flying away.

Later, Serizawa becomes part of the first Japanese-American military unit since Japan's surrender in World War II: Monarch. General MacArthur explains that the job of the Monarch unit is to kill the Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms in secrecy to avoid world-wide panic. Shinomura attacks places all around the Pacific Ocean each year following, starting with Russia and the Philippines in 1946, Western Australia in 1947, Moansta Island in 1948, New Zealand in 1949, Yap in 1950, and Guam in 1950. Every time Shinomura attacked, eye-witnesses reported both it and a giant crocodile-like creature that chased the Shinomura away. Serizawa believes that the monster, which a citizen of Guam calls "Gojira" after a creature from Pacific Island myth, actually exists, while the rest of his team doesn't. Serizawa gets some people to go down in the ocean and to find Gojira using the first nuclear submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus, but after weeks of searching, Gojira isn't found.

Three years later in 1953, Serizawa is playing with his son Ishiro, as Shaw comes and tells Ishiro he has to take his father for "shipping company business." At Monarch headquarters, Serizawa meets with Doctor Zamalek, who shows him and others a giant cell discovered in the Philippines from the Shinomura. Doctor Zamalek then exposes it to a beam that makes it grow, but it is set on fire and presumably killed. Serizawa comes up with the name shi no mure for the super-organism, and Zamalek claims that they don't understand why it hasn't taken over the world yet, which Serizawa answers to with Gojira. Serizawa points to depictions of Gojira throughout history and believes he is from a time when the Earth was ten times more radioactive than today. 250 million years ago, a Shinomura unknowingly landed near Gojira and gets blasted by his atomic breath and sent down a cliff just as a meteor hits the Earth, diminishing atmospheric radioactivity forever, and forcing large creatures that fed on radiation like Gojira down closer to the Earth's core. Shinomura and Gojira were awakened with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the radiation it released. Every time Shinomura attacked, Gojira drove it away. Serizawa wants to find Gojira and let him fight the Shinomura, but no one believes Gojira exists.

Serizawa goes back with his son who put an injured sea star in his fish tank. Ishiro explains to his father that sea stars can regenerate, even an entire body if they need to, just as the "dead" Shinomura cell at Monarch HQ regenerates. Ishiro and Serizawa hear a sound but Serizawa assures Ishiro it's probably just the wind as the Shinomura flies past the window. Monarch headquarters has been destroyed. Serizawa is back there with Shaw, who believed the Shinomura was destroyed, but Serizawa explained that even with microscopic remnants it can regenerate. Serizawa asks to find Gojira, which Shaw allows but lets him know that he will be alone at sea looking for Gojira. Serizawa says goodbye to his son and goes out to live in the ocean alone on a ship, looking for Godzilla.

A year later, in March of 1954, both Shinomura combine into one on Monsta Island as Godzilla rises from the ocean and engages it in battle. A boy sees them and tells Papa Brava, who notifies "the monster man", Serizawa, who in turn alerts Shaw and Monarch. Godzilla and Shinomura's battle rages on, setting a section of the island aflame as Serizawa reaches the island. Godzilla separates the two Shinomura with his atomic breath and kills one with another blast. As Navy ships arrive, the other Shinomura escapes, which only Serizawa sees, and Godzilla follows, having been seen by Monarch and therefore now proven to exist.

The next day, the Shinomura carcass is found and shown to Serizawa, who says he saw one fly away. Days later, the military decide to intercept Gojira in Bikini Atoll. Serizawa insists on letting Godzilla kill the other Shinomura and let him return to where he came from, but they say it's too risky. Just then, General MacArthur arrives on a helicopter and gives them permission to nuke the MUTO. Serizawa stops MacArthur, saying he has some concerns, and MacArthur says that he knows he does--that he's thought of the bombing of Hiroshima every day since 1945, but he also spent those years working to build a modern world which he'd kill to protect. At Bikini Atoll, Serizawa convinces the natives to leave. Later on, the Castle Bravo "test" is conducted, killing the Shinomura and presumably Gojira, but Serizawa assures Ishiro that he's still alive as he finishes his story. A year passes and Serizawa passes away and is buried in the Yanaka Cemetery. After the burial is over, Ishiro is approached by Shaw, and Ishiro, knowing the truth, tells Shaw that he's ready to join Monarch, but Shaw claims that he's not sure "anyone's ready for what's coming."

Appearances

Titans and MUTOs Godzilla Shinomura Giant shrimp Giant ape Giant carnivorous plant Giant flying reptile (skeleton) Mammoth-like creature Bipedal monster Miscellaneous Theropod Sauropods Pterosaurs Characters Eiji Serizawa Ishiro Serizawa Lee Shaw General Douglas MacArthur Dr. Zamalek Papa Brava Satou Kuso Nakamura

Weapons, vehicles, races, and organizations Monarch USS Nautilus Boeing B-29 Superfortress Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw U.S. Navy ships U.S. military planes Monarch helicopter Locations Japan Hiroshima Kyoto Tokyo Moansta Island Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands Yap Guam Novosibirsk, Russia Busselton, Australia Rotorua, New Zealand

Staff

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

• Written by   Max Borenstein, Greg Borenstein
• Illustrated by   Eric Battle, Yvel Guichet, Alan Quah, Lee Loughridge
• Covert art by   Arthur Adams
• Editor-in-chief   Bob Schreck
• Publishing operations coordinator   David Sadove
• Associate editor   Greg Tumbarello
• Story writer   Robert Napton

Development

During the production of Godzilla (2014), which spanned the spring and summer of 2013, Legendary Comics approached the film's screenwriter, Max Borenstein, with an offer to write a graphic novel prequel. He collaborated on Godzilla: Awakening with his cousin Greg Borenstein, an academic and technologist at the MIT Media Lab with whom he had already been developing a graphic novel as a side project. Max viewed the comic as a way to explore the backstory for Monarch and Dr. Ishiro Serizawa that he had formulated in his mind but didn't have room to include in the Godzilla screenplay.

Due to time limitations, four artists illustrated Godzilla: Awakening, with Eric Battle supervising the others.

Gallery

Concept art

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  Godzilla concept art

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  Godzilla: Awakening cover concepts

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  Godzilla: Awakening penciled cover

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  Godzilla: Awakening inked cover

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  Penciled page

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  Penciled page

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  Penciled page

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  Penciled page

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  Penciled page

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  Penciled page

Scans

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  Godzilla's sightings across history

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  Godzilla disguised as an island

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  Godzilla uses his atomic breath during the Permian

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  An asteroid strikes the Earth, "forever diminishing atmospheric radiation"

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  Godzilla is drawn to the surface by a nuclear submarine

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  Godzilla vs. Shinomura

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  Unnamed monsters at Monarch Unit Headquarters

Miscellaneous

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  Spanish cover

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  Japanese cover

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In other languages

Language Name Meaning Japanese ゴジラ：アウェイクニング〈覚醒〉 Gojira: Aueikuningu <Kakusei> Transliteration and translation of English title Mandarin Chinese 哥斯拉：觉醒 Gēsīlā: Juéxǐng Translation of English title Czech Godzilla: Probuzení Translation of English title German Godzilla: Das Erwachen Godzilla: The Awakening Spanish Godzilla: Despertar Translation of English title

Videos

Gareth Edwards' announcement

Trivia

• Godzilla: Awakening contradicts the events of Godzilla in several ways. In the film, Dr. Ishiro Serizawa and Dr. Vivienne Graham state that Monarch was founded in 1954, the same year the USS Nautilus awakened Godzilla. In the graphic novel, Monarch is founded in 1946, and the first sighting of Godzilla takes place in 1948. The film does not show or mention Shinomura at all, even though the comic shows the Castle Bravo H-bomb deployed against both Godzilla and Shinomura in 1954. Serizawa and Graham also suggest that multiple nuclear tests in the Pacific were in reality attempts to kill Godzilla, though only one takes place in the comic.
  • The film Kong: Skull Island settles one continuity issue, with Bill Randa clarifying that Monarch was founded by President Harry S. Truman in 1946; he also possesses a Monarch ID that was issued in 1952. Randa later refers to the "1954 Castle Bravo nuclear tests" as attempts to kill Godzilla, although in reality Castle Bravo was just one test from the Operation Castle series.
  • Despite the continuity discrepancies between Godzilla: Awakening and other MonsterVerse material, Legendary considered it canon to the Monsterverse as recently as 2019. Writer Max Borenstein, who worked on both the film and comic, offered in 2018 the explanation that details from Awakening that are not shown or mentioned onscreen could simply have been kept secret by Monarch. However, the 2023 Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure TTRPG only makes vague reference to the comic's events, with Shinomura never named.
  • Though Godzilla: King of the Monsters - The Official Movie Novelization is not necessarily canon to the film on which it is based, it includes a brief recap of the events of Awakening.
  • Complicating things further, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters implies that Lee Shaw did not join Monarch until at least 1952 rather than 1946. It also implies that Godzilla was not known to Monarch until 1954. However, several shots of the Castle Bravo "test" are incredibly similar in composition to panels from the comic's retelling of the event.
• Yvel Guichet, one of the illustrators for this graphic novel, was also a penciller for Legendary Comics' previous kaiju graphic novel, Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero.
• Godzilla: Awakening shows the USS Nautilus searching for Godzilla in 1950, though the real submarine was not launched until 1954.
• General Douglas MacArthur is shown briefing the founding members of Monarch in 1946 and gives the order to target Godzilla and Shinomura with a hydrogen bomb in 1954. In real life, MacArthur was relieved of his command by President Truman in 1951. This suggests that MacArthur was either never fired within the continuity of the Monsterverse or retained in secret to oversee Monarch.
• One of the monsters held at Monarch Unit Headquarters is a giant gorilla, likely a reference to King Kong. Godzilla: Awakening was published before Legendary Pictures announced the shared universe which would allow Godzilla and the real Kong to meet.
• The given name of Ishiro Serizawa's father is never provided in this comic, though his character biography for Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) later revealed it to be Eiji.
• The character of Shaw would later reappear in the 2023 Apple TV+ television series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which gives his first name as Lee.
• Moansta Island, the South Pacific island where Godzilla battles the two Shinomura, was named after Monster Island.

External links

• Gifs of the Godzilla: Awakening motion comic shown at Legendary's booth during San Diego Comic Con 2014

References

This is a list of references for Godzilla: Awakening. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]

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