Godzilla Rivals: Rodan Vs. Ebirah

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Godzilla Rivals: Rodan Vs. Ebirah Written by James F. Wright Art by Phillip Johnson Cover by Phillip Johnson (CVR A) Brenda Chi (CVR B) Jahnoy Lindsay (CVR RI) Stefano Landini (online exclusive) Letters by Nathan Widick Edits by David Mariotte Jazmine Joyner Tom Waltz (supervising)

Godzilla Rivals #1 • #2 • #3 • #4 • #5 • #6 • #7 • #8 • #9 • #10 • #11 • #12 • #13 • #14

Godzilla Rivals: Rodan Vs. Ebirah is the sixth installment of the IDW Publishing one-shot comic series Godzilla Rivals. It was published on January 11, 2023.

Description

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Hundreds of kilometers above Tokyo orbits the ParaSOL science facility, connected to terra firma by a massive space elevator, together two incredible feats of engineering and international cooperation. But when the subdued kaiju Rodan and Ebirah arrive at the lab's mysterious Section X, all of that threatens to come crashing down-literally-when the pair escape their confines and tear into each other. With the two titans locked in battle and plummeting to Earth down the space elevator shaft, it's up to a team of scientists to stop them before their velocity is truly terminal-for them and for humanity.

„

Plot

Cryptobotanist Dr. Carole Kincaid and seismologist Dr. Hazuki Oe meet at the foot of the space elevator near Tokyo Bay in the year 2030. They ascend the elevator to reach ParaSOL (Panoptic Array Synchronous Orbiting Laboratory), which is stationed 400 kilometers above sea level. Kincaid questions the need for scientists with their specialties in space; Oe explains her own presence by saying that some of the research subjects in the laboratory can have dramatic effects on the Earth. Upon arriving at the laboratory, they are greeted by Dr. Fatima Ogbannaya, who shows them the experiments in robotics, genetic engineering, teleportation, and extrasensory perception being conducted there. She presents ParaSOL as a space where scientists can conduct potentially dangerous research free of regulations or environmental risk for the betterment of all humanity. Kincaid has been summoned here because of the plant kaiju Biollante—one of her mouthed vines has been preserved in Sector X, along with a comatose Rodan and Ebirah, but is not exhibiting its usual regenerative powers. Kincaid is stunned by the presence of the kaiju, but Ogbannaya assures them that both have a purpose: Ebirah is aiding studies into extended the human lifespan and developing more resilient armor, while Rodan could yield insight into flight that doesn't require fossil fuels. Kincaid likens the presence of the monsters in the same space to their research on megaflora in Utah: two isolated plants brought together in the same environment devoured each other.

Rodan suddenly opens his eyes and bursts out of his containment tank, the havoc he causes quickly releasing Ebirah as well. With Ogbannaya in a state of shock, Oe lowers the platform the three of them are standing on so the scientists below can escape to safety. Kincaid snaps Ogbannaya back to reality by telling her how seeing her lecture at Howard University inspired them to become a scientist. As she states that Rodan's wings are his primary weapon, the kaiju unleashes them against Ebirah, sending him crashing through all the sectors the trio toured. Their battle soon takes them to the entrance of the space elevator; with Ebirah grabbing hold of Rodan and shredding his wings, both begin to plummet to Earth. Watching them from the control room, Oe concludes that they will wipe out Japan if they slam into Tokyo at their present speed. Kincaid suggests shutting off the artificial gravity in the elevator, but they find that the gravitational control room has already been destroyed. Ogbannaya fears that Rodan's uranium heat beam will pierce the elevator walls, but Ebirah blocks the attack by closing a claw around Rodan's throat and slamming him into a wall.

Oe convinces Ogbannaya to deploy the last-resort Cocoon Protocol: cannons loaded with Mothra silk. The countermeasures successfully ensnare both kaiju, and the laboratory sends dozens of Biollante tendrils to retrieve them. When the vines start going berserk and attacking the scientists, Kincaid charges into the fray and lures them in the right direction by singing to them and diving at the cocoon. As they latch onto it and begin to flower, Rodan unleashes his heat beam, incinerating the cocoon and freeing both himself and Ebirah. Pulled to safety by one of the vines, Kincaid returns to the control room and hands Oe a flower, which promptly sprouts fangs and snaps at her.

With Rodan stunned by the exposure to his own beam and both monsters still partially webbed up, they have no hope of stopping their own descent. Ogbannaya contacts Dr. Tajima of the Shinseki Ground Command Center and asks him to deploy Mechagodzilla. When Kincaids asks why the machine couldn't have been deployed before they risked their life, Ogbannaya offers two reasons: Mechagodzilla's rockets have limited range and his activation will quickly attract Godzilla to Tokyo. On cue, Godzilla begins to rise to the surface of Tokyo Bay. Mechagodzilla reaches Rodan and Ebirah, dodges the latter's claw, ties them up even further, hoists them on his back, and deploys all his thrusters. Though it generates a massive dust plume, it lands safely, and as it returns to its hanger, Godzilla withdraws. Ebirah suddenly springs to life and disappears into Tokyo Bay, while the JSDF moves to restrain Rodan. Kincaid and Oe are exuberant, but are surprised to find that Ogbannaya has vanished. In Sector Z, she faces an imprisoned BabyGodzilla and proclaims that "it's [his] turn now."

Appearances

Monsters Rodan Ebirah Mechagodzilla Godzilla Biollante (tendrils) BabyGodzilla Smiling robot Giant capybara Elephant sego lily Jovian lavender-leaf sundrop Mothra (mentioned) Moguera (drawing) Characters Dr. Carole Kincaid Dr. Hazuki Oe Dr. Fatima Ogbannaya Dr. Tajima Inagaki Mendel Craven (cameo) Mae Jemison (mentioned) Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (mentioned)

Weapons, vehicles, and races ParaSOL Space elevator VTOL Maser Cannon Locations Tokyo, Japan Utah, United States (flashback)

Gallery

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  Cover A by Phillip Johnson

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  Cover B by Brenda Chi

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  Cover RI by Jahnoy Lindsay

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  Online exclusive cover by Stefano Landini

Trivia

• This comic marks the first appearance of BabyGodzilla in an IDW Godzilla comic. Dr. Ogbannaya refers to him as "Little One," a nickname characters use for him in the English dub of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.
• Dr. Kincaid is the first non-binary character to appear in a piece of Godzilla media. However, the non-binary character Tam Nassar previously appeared in Kingdom Kong, which is part of the Monsterverse and features Godzilla in a cave painting.
• Dr. Mendel Craven makes a cameo appearance in PARAsol's robotics lab, appearing as he does in Godzilla: The Series. According to artist Phillip Johnson, the smiling robot he advances towards with an axe "was supposed to be N.I.G.E.L. with a handgun but our editor said not to include too many [E]aster eggs."
• Dr. Oe describes Rodan and Ebirah as "conservatively" weighing a combined 36,000 tons. This figure is close to the combined weights of their Showa incarnations (38,000 tons).
• Although the Mechagodzilla in this comic is specifically based on Kiryu, Brenda Chi's cover B art depicts the Heisei Mechagodzilla instead.
• This comic ends with an advertisement for Godzilla Rivals: Biollante Vs. Destoroyah and Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Unusually, Godzilla Rivals: Mothra Vs. Titanosaurus, the next entry in the series, is not advertised at the conclusion of this comic.

References

This is a list of references for Godzilla Rivals: Rodan Vs. Ebirah. 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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