Godzilla (Marvel)

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Godzilla® (Marvel)
Godzilla in Godzilla, King of the Monsters #1
The mutated Godzilla in Iron Man
Subtitle(s) King of the Monsters
Species Giant irradiated prehistoric amphibious reptile
Height 1 foot (shrank, smallest),[1]
4 feet (shrank, human size)[2]
Forms Shrank (sub-human height, human height),
Doctor Demonicus' mutation
Controlled by Doctor DemonicusIM #193-194, 196
First appearance Latest appearance
Godzilla, King of the Monsters #1 The Thing #31

Godzilla (ゴジラ,   Gojira) is a giant monster who appeared in Marvel Comics' Godzilla, King of the Monsters series. He is the first incarnation of Godzilla to originate in American media, as well as the first incarnation featured in an American comic.

A giant prehistoric monster roused by atomic testing, Godzilla first menaced Japan in 1956 before gradually becoming the lesser of two evils, fending off other more malevolent creatures and unintentionally defending mankind in the process. At some point, Godzilla became frozen inside an iceberg, only to break free once the iceberg reached Alaska. Godzilla then began a destructive campaign across the United States, tracked by S.H.I.E.L.D. and crossing paths with the many heroes of the Marvel Universe. This finally culminated in a battle against the Avengers in New York City, which ended in a draw as Godzilla decided to leave and returned to the ocean. At some point, Godzilla was captured and mutated by his old nemesis Doctor Demonicus and used as a pawn in his evil plans, at one point clashing with Iron Man. Godzilla disappeared afterward, though many creatures resembling him have since appeared.

Name

The name "Godzilla" is a transliteration of Gojira (ゴジラ), a combination of two Japanese words: gorira (ゴリラ), meaning gorilla, and kujira (鯨 or クジラ), meaning whale. At one planning stage, the concept of "Gojira" was described as "a cross between a gorilla and a whale." The two words "whale" and "gorilla" describe Godzilla's traditional characteristics: "whale" represents his aquatic lifestyle and bulky size, while "gorilla" represents his sheer strength and the strategic thinking he uses when fighting against other monsters.

After the close of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, this Godzilla is never referred to by name during any of his subsequent appearances, due to Marvel Comics no longer holding the rights to the character. Though, perhaps jokingly, the mutation which appears in issue #31 of The Thing is alluded to as "Godzilla."

Design

This incarnation of Godzilla is entirely green unlike the character's film incarnations, and has purely red eyes. His dorsal plates start near the top of his head, similarly to the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla. His head is more dinosaur-like, with a long snout, sharp teeth, and eyes positioned higher on his head and facing slightly to the sides. His dorsal plates maintain the traditional maple-leaf shape, but are green in color rather than bone-white. The Marvel Godzilla has long, muscular arms with four claws. The Marvel Godzilla tends to keep his tail suspended in the air rather than drag it across the ground.

In the Iron Man comics, Godzilla's mutated form has webbed fingers and large fins staring at his armpits, and going down to his wrists. During his appearances in The Thing, the Godzilla mutation has very short arms, and large scales on his brow and lip areas. In both comics the mutated Godzilla has a large fin in place of his dorsal fins, and two horns protruding from the top of his snout.

Personality

The Marvel Godzilla is an aggressive creature who often attacks anything in his path. His aggressiveness frequently puts him into conflict with other, more malevolent monsters, painting him as the lesser of two evils as he unintentionally defends mankind from his monstrous foes. This Godzilla's portrayal as a violent force of nature is somewhat in line with the character's portrayal in the early films of the Showa era, and predates his similar portrayal in the Heisei series of films.

Origins

The Marvel Godzilla is a prehistoric hybrid of land and sea reptiles who was awakened in 1956 by an underwater joint-nation nuclear weapon test in the Pacific Ocean which split open the ocean floor and released him. The King of the Monsters first attacked the ship which oversaw the test before attacking Japan. Over the ensuing two decades, Godzilla became the lesser of two evils, fending off malevolent monsters that would attack Japan. By unknown means he was eventually trapped in an iceberg, and managed to break free once the iceberg reached Alaska in the 1970's.

History

Godzilla, King of the Monsters

"The Coming!"

Godzilla suddenly erupted from an iceberg that floated into Alaskan waters, capsizing a supply ship. The monster quickly stomped ashore and destroyed a lighthouse before making his way to the Alaskan Pipeline. The King of the Monsters easily lifted the pipeline and slammed it on the ground like a whip, causing untold destruction. S.H.I.E.L.D. was alerted to the attack and sent a Helicarrier commanded by Agent Timothy "Dum-Dum" Dugan to attack Godzilla. Soldiers were deployed on floating platforms and opened fire on Godzilla, who simply swatted them out of the sky. Dugan commandeered a Disc-Plane and flew at Godzilla, but the monster simply snatched it in his mouth, with Dugan barely escaping. Fighter jets began firing missiles at Godzilla to no effect, with the monster snatching one out of the air and breaking it in half. S.H.I.E.L.D. next deployed an advanced laser cannon invented by Tony Stark to attack Godzilla, which succeeded in hurting and enraging him. Godzilla lashed out with his radioactive fire breath, obliterating the cannon. He continued spewing flames from his mouth, igniting the oil which leaked from the destroyed pipeline and setting the surrounding encampment ablaze. Dugan and Agent Jimmy Woo drew Godzilla's attention and made him smash a nearby mountain, triggering an avalanche that smothered the raging fire. Godzilla then walked off into the sunset unopposed.

"Thunder in the Darkness!"
"A Tale of Two Saviors"
"Godzilla Versus Batragon!"
"The Isle of Lost Monsters"
"A Monster Enslaved!"
"Birth of a Warrior!"
"Titan Times Two!"
"The Fate of Las Vegas"
"Godzilla vs. Yetrigar"
"Arena for Three!"
"The Mega-Monsters from Beyond! Part One: The Beta-Beast!"
"The Mega-Monsters from Beyond! Part II: Triax"
"Mega-Monsters Part III: The Super-Beasts"
"Roam on the Range"
"The Great Godzilla Roundup!"
"Of Lizards, Great and Small"
"Fugitive in Manhattan!"
"With Dugan on the Docks!"
"A Night at the Museum"
"The Doom Trip!"
"The Devil and the Dinosaur!"
"The King Once More"
"And Lo, a Child Shall Lead Them"

Iron Man

"The Choice and the Challenge"
The Godzilla mutation in Iron Man #193

After being captured by his former nemesis Dr. Demonicus, Godzilla was mutated to an unrecognizable extent, with further mutation being used as punishment for misbehavior. One day while in the Pacific Ocean, the former Godzilla swatted an Avengers Quinjet out of the sky and onto an uncharted island, though Demonicus was greatly angered by the fact that the beast had not destroyed it completely. On reaching the shore and seeing the ship unoccupied, Demonicus discovered a native village, and ordered the monster to destroy it. However, Tigra, the ship's pilot, attempted to lure him away and leapt at the beast before trying to run away to divert its attention from the villagers. The monster grabbed her, but was then attacked by the Avengers. Hawkeye fired an explosive-tipped arrow into its mouth, causing it to drop her. The mutated monster attempted to swipe at Hawkeye, but was stopped by Tony Stark, who used an old Iron Man suit to carry it away over the ocean.

"Otherwhere"

After the suit's boosters could no longer sustain their combined weights, Stark and the former Godzilla fell into the sea, the latter losing interest and swimming away.

Iron Man #196

After abandoning Stark, the creature discovered his abandoned suit of Iron Man armor and brought it back to Demonicus' lair. There, the doctor took the beast back in and shelved his plans to take over the world with an army of clones of his creature, now favoring the use of Stark's armor to take personal revenge on him for his interference in his schemes.

The Thing

The Godzilla mutation in The Thing #31
"Devil Dinosaur: The Movie!"

Whether it was the same creature that had once been Godzilla, or simply one of its clones, a member of Demonicus' race of gigantic reptiles surfaced near the set of a movie based on the Devil Dinosaur. Likely intrigued by the Devil Dinosaur animatronic, the beast came out of the ocean and attacked. The crew and technicians did their best to fight back, trying to swing their suspended "pteradactyl" prop to distract it while they prepared to operate the robotic Devil Dinosaur. The monster quickly bit the neck of the robot, electrocuting it. Unused to the sensation, the creature retreated back into the ocean and was never seen again.

Abilities

Fire Breath

Instead of firing the character's traditional atomic breath, the Marvel Godzilla is able to breath radioactive flames from his mouth. Godzilla can also shoot a non-lethal blast of hot air from his mouth instead of fire breath. Godzilla's fire breath is strong enough to overpower the Human Torch. However, he appears to lose this ability following his mutation at the hands of Dr. Demonicus.

Durability

Like most other incarnations of Godzilla, the Marvel Godzilla displays an impressive level of durability. Godzilla is immune to all conventional weaponry, and appears to be mostly unharmed when hit full-force by Thor's hammer.

Physical Strength

Godzilla possesses immense strength not unlike that of past incarnations of the character. His strength appears to be equal with that of Thor, as neither could outdo the other while pushing opposite sides of a building.

Roar

Godzilla's roar is spelled "MRAWWW" in the comic.

Trivia

References

This is a list of references for The King of the Monsters/Sandbox/Marvel. 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]

  1. Moench, Doug (February 1979). Godzilla, King of the Monsters #19: "With Dugan on the Docks!". Marvel Comics Group. p. 1. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. Moench, Doug (January 1979). Godzilla, King of the Monsters #18: "Fugitive in Manhattan!". Marvel Comics Group. p. 31. Check date values in: |date= (help)

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