Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra

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Godzilla Rivals issues
Godzilla Rivals: Vs. King Ghidorah
Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra
Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Gigan
Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra
Cover A for Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra by Oliver Ono
Written by Rosie Knight
Art by Oliver Ono
Cover by
  • Oliver Ono (CVR A)
  • Mark Martinez (CVR B)
  • Tradd Moore (CVR RI)
Letters by Nathan Widick
Edits by
  • Jazmine Joyner
  • Tom Waltz (Supervising)
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IDW
Godzilla Rivals
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Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra is the fourth installment of the IDW Publishing one-shot comic series Godzilla Rivals. It was released on August 3, 2022.[1]

Description

In a quiet beachside town ravaged by constant sewage spillages and toxic waste dumps, something is stirring. Deep under the rolling hills that surround Hackney-on-Sea, Battra is awakening, driven by a single goal: to destroy mankind and save planet Earth. The only one who can stop him is Godzilla, but he hasn't been seen in decades and has never ventured to the cold shores of the English coast... until now. Robbie runs a small bookshop, but her real passion is monsters. She's spent years researching the myth of Godzilla and his fearsome foes, and now that hypothetical experience is about to become a life-saving tool. Can Robbie locate Godzilla? Will Godzilla alone be enough to defeat Battra? Is Battra really wrong? And will the goddess Mothra make an appearance?

Plot

The year is 2027. Robbie walks the beach of the English town of Hackney-on-Sea, lamenting how polluted it has become since she was younger. She returns to the bookstore where she lives and waves hello to the bot, Toshce, stocking the shelves. Obsessed with monsters, she believes that the rising tides and earthquakes her town is facing are portents of an even greater disaster. Her friend Akemi arrives with news of a strange military broadcast he picked up on the radio; after Robbie prepares breakfast, he reveals the message mentioned the monster Battra. After their elderly friend Crain joins them, Robbie has Akemi’s bot FM replay the message, which it dates to approximately 30 years ago. The coordinates it provides matches those of Hackney-on-Sea, confirming Robbie’s suspicions that Battra is sleeping beneath the town.

The tides and earthquakes striking Hackney-on-Sea grow worse over the ensuing week, with a fissure opening up near the church on a hill. Crain and Robbie reflect on what little they know about Battra: it appears when the Earth is in peril and targets the humans who have ravaged it. After Tosche stumbles over, Robbie realizes that the bot contains a secret terra mapping system. Crain recounts rumors that the bots who now help them with daily life were originally designed to find or even battle Godzilla, a mythical monster.

Robbie modifies Tosche to pinpoint Battra’s location, and it leads her towards the church just before Battra bursts out of the hill. Battra flies overhead but does not attack, causing Akemi to conclude that it likes them. Three days later, the monster continues to fly around the town. Sawyer Smith, a prominent ecofascist, organizes a group to gather at Hackney-on-Sea in celebration of what they believe to be Battra's impending purge of humanity. During his drive to the town, he reveals to an unidentified caller that his fundraiser efforts will go entirely towards saving himself with the monster begins its rampage. Sawyer and his followers meet at Monsterland, the town's amusement park. He approaches a newcomer, Kiki, who insists that she has come for Battra, not him.

Watching the gathering, Robbie muses that they need Godzilla to stop Battra, but have no way to find or communicate with it. Watching Battra skim the water, Akemi inspires Crain to bring her family's old fishing bot out of storage, which they take out onto the water. It determines that Godzilla is fast approaching, and Robbie climbs to the top of a seaside cliff to watch the monster emerge. Godzilla and Battra clash; the insect lands the first blow with its claws, but the King of the Monsters tail-whips it into Monsterland. A Ferris wheel breaks its fall. It matches its prism beams against Godzilla’s atomic breath, with the explosion from their collision stunning Godzilla. After Battra electrifies Godzilla with its touch and fires its prism beams again, the saurian retreats. Sawyer and his followers cheer as the enraged insect begins to destroy the town.

As Robbie, Akemi, and Crain retreat to the bookstore and contemplate what to do, Kiki arrives with an offer to help. Having studied another monster, Mothra , since she was a child, she has learned that the divine moth and Godzilla were occasional allies. A certain song could summon Mothra, but she believes it to be lost... until FM starts playing it. Godzilla and Battra resume their battle, but Mothra soon arrives to quell them. With FM translating, it explains to Battra that Hackney-on-Sea is a victim of pollution and the real culprits lie elsewhere. Should Battra attack them, however, they would only create greater horrors to combat it. Battra withdraws, and Robbie vows to help it should humanity fail to change and force it to return.

As his acolytes angrily turn to him, Sawyer tries to pivot towards a call to destroying humanity themselves, then supporting Kiki and Mothra, but the monster condemns him with a screech that knocks him into the sea. Godzilla and Mothra depart as Crain directs Sawyer’s former followers to clean up the beach, with the town to follow.

Appearances

Monsters

Characters

  • Robbie
  • Akemi
  • Crain
  • Sawyer Smith
  • Kiki

Weapons, vehicles, and races

  • Tosche
  • FM
  • Fishing bot
  • Other bots

Locations

  • Hackney-on-Sea, United Kingdom

Gallery

Covers

Trivia

  • Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra contains several references to the 1992 film Godzilla vs. Mothra, Battra's debut film.
    • The number 92 is printed on Tosche's terra mapping system.
    • FM states that the old transmission it picks up is at least 30 years old. Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra was published 30 years after the release of Godzilla vs. Mothra.
    • Instead of Battra hitting Godzilla with a Ferris wheel, Godzilla knocks Battra into a Ferris wheel.
  • Hackney-on-Sea's amusement park, Monsterland, shares a name with the island where Earth's kaiju reside in Destroy All Monsters.
  • This comic's original A cover featured a different logo than all previous installments of Godzilla Rivals; however, it was later changed to the series' normal logo.
  • A cover for Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra marketing it under the series title "Godzilla Rivals II" was created and surfaced through certain online outlets, but was later changed back to simply Godzilla Rivals.
  • This comic was originally planned to be the fifth in the Godzilla Rivals series, set for a June 29, 2022 release. However, Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Gigan was later moved to that date, resulting in Vs. Battra being indefinitely delayed until some retailers finally reported that it had been set for August 3. Vs. Gigan was eventually delayed a second time to August 31, and then again to October 23, making Vs. Battra the fourth issue.[2]
  • While other kaiju have attacked the United Kingdom in Godzilla media since, Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra marks the first time Godzilla himself has visited the UK outside of video games since the Godzilla: The Series episode "DeadLoch" in 1999.
  • This comic ends with an advertisement for the next entry in the series, Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Gigan.

References

This is a list of references for Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Battra. 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. "GODZILLA RIVALS VS BATTRA ONESHOT CVR A ONO (RES)". Previews World. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  2. "GODZILLA RIVALS VS GIGAN ONESHOT CVR A EJ SU". Previews World. Retrieved 16 June 2022.

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