Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Manda
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Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Manda is the 14th installment in the IDW Publishing one-shot comic series Godzilla Rivals. It was released on July 31, 2024.[1]
Description
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Late into the night, the crew of a small fishing trawler off the coast of Australia is keeping busy by telling stories of the sea. Little do they know, they’re moments away from happening upon a mysterious shipwreck… and the fearsome sea dragon Manda going toe to toe with Godzilla in the middle of the most brutal ocean brawl any sailor has ever seen.
Can this small crew make it back to shore safely in the midst of this all-out kaiju battle? Join Jake Lawrence (Teen Dog, A Nice Long Walk) on a thrilling adventure on the high seas to find out![1] |
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Plot
One stormy night on the Indian Ocean, far off the coast of Victoria, Australia the squid fishing vessel Muttonbird is not catching much. Crewman Stewart asks his shipmate called "Old Man" if he thinks their dry streak will change, but the elder sailor brushes off "slow months" as a simple fact of life. Their crewmate "Rooster" pipes up claiming to have read that these waters are cursed, which led to numerous disappearing ships and planes over the years. Stewart chalks this up to the typically erratic weather in this part of the world. Rooster tries to back up his claim with accounts of having seen Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, and even a mermaid firsthand while in the area. Stewart remains skeptical, but Old Man props up the possibility of some truth in Rooster's story by preparing to tell his own tale dubbed "The Night of the Giant Cuttlefish." The captain, a woman called Nell who had been sailing with Old Man since she was a little girl, comes out of the wheelhouse to inform him that they have all heard the story several times by now, but Old Man continues.
It had happened when he was a boy of 12 or 13, only a few months into his career as a fisherman, on a particularly dark and stormy winter's night when the fishing was abnormally plentiful. All of a sudden the fish disappeared. The captain suspected a great white shark was in the area and was scaring them off, and so ordered the men to haul anchor and move to different waters. However, when they tried to do so, something struck the boat with a great "Crunch," before it began to drag the ship backwards and below. Just as they were about to capsize, they saw a gigantic cephalopod arise from the depths, drawn to the light of their ship the way that regular squid are drawn to the light of the Muttonbird, and encircled the ship with its tentacles like a cage. It was this encounter that made Old Man reconsider his stance on the veracity of the tales of the Kraken and other sea monsters. The ship's one-legged captain rushed to the deck with an axe and a flare gun, which he fired right between the giant cuttlefish's eyes. The creature was fazed but unharmed, which allowed the captain to cut the anchor line, which had gotten wrapped around the creature's tentacle. As the sun rose, the freed beast sank back into the sea, and it quickly seemed like it had never been there at all.
Stewart criticizes Old Man's habit of increasing the cuttlefish's size with each telling, but Rooster sides with Old Man. Stewart tries to get Nell to agree with him, but she insists that she is busy working. Rooster tries to coax a story from her, citing her lifelong experience on the seas, and she agrees on the condition that they get back to work. She points to a light on the horizon, a light on the vessel belonging to a fellow fisherman named Bruce. She reveals that when she was a little girl, out sailing with her father and the then-younger Old Man, there were dozens of such lights, but now it is just them and Bruce. She tells of how the ocean is full of plastic and pollutants, and that she fears for the future of the ocean and their way of life. Rooster encourages her not to worry about climate change, as the wealthy Lizard People responsible for it would not destroy the Earth as it is their home as well. Nell is not comforted by this. Stewart then notes that while they have been talking, the light from Bruce's boat has gone out. Stewart suspects that he has gone home due to the storm. Knowing this would be out of character for Bruce, Old Man tries to reach him on the radio, but is unsuccessful. Nell has the crew haul anchor to go investigate, as she has a bad feeling about the situation. She has the crew gather ropes and blankets to rescue anyone overboard, and soon arrives at the completely destroyed wreckage of Bruce's boat. The men search the water with flashlights and soon Old Man spots Bruce and his shipmate Davo floating on a piece of wood. They reel the men aboard, and Bruce reveals that only the two of them had been aboard. When the ship was destroyed, Bruce had grabbed Davo and expected to die until the Muttonbird arrived. He insists that they are all in danger, and tells Nell to get them out of the water as soon as they can. As the storm continues, Nell orders Bruce to get the survivors below decks and to give them some whisky from her cabin before getting back to the wheelhouse. She tries to radio the Port Authority, but finds the radio broken. Rooster then calls out to her to look out for the long sea serpent, Manda, barreling toward their vessel.
Before it can crush the boat in its jaws, Manda is smacked aside by the tail of another creature. Nell is not interested in sticking around to see what exactly the beast was, or whatever had saved them, but the monsters quickly arose from the sea nearby, with Manda beginning to coil around their more lizard-like savior, Godzilla. Manda roared at Godzilla, who walloped his foe with a punch to the head before Manda's long serpentine body swept him off balance. Nell does her best to get out of their swell to keep from being sucked under or crushed in a wave. Against Stewart's insistence, Bruce comes up from below, driven in part by his guilt over causing Davo such distress to help however he can. He is then shocked to see that there are now two gargantuan sea monsters. He confirms to Nell that the "long bugger" sank him, but then disappeared. Nell suspects that the "chunky one" was to blame for that, and they watch a moment as they do battle outside. Nell tells Stew to get the others to toss anything heavy overboard before getting and staying below decks and proclaiming her intent to get everyone home safely with no unnecessary risks.
Stewart then finds Rooster taking an unnecessary risk by trying to float a net in the sea using buoys, hoping that it would tangle and incapacitate the thrashing monsters. He refuses to listen, claiming that he is thinking like a captain, but he is tangled in the rope and starts going overboard. Stew hangs onto his crewmate, and Old Man rushes over with an axe to cut the line. Rooster only suffers a broken ankle, and Old Man tells Stewart to get him below decks and make sure he doesn't get any other bright ideas. In the wheelhouse, they watch as Manda begins swimming in rapid circles around Godzilla to create a whirlpool. Not only is Godzilla struggling against this technique, but the Muttonbird is in danger of being sucked in as well. Nell leaves Bruce at the wheel and launches a flare from the Muttonbird's bow. The monsters watch the bright red light as it travels through the sky, allowing the ship a brief window of calm seas to escape on. Manda then bites Godzilla on the neck, causing him to sink to the ocean floor.
Manda makes a beeline for the Muttonbird, but dives below it just before it makes impact, toying with the crew. Knowing that the ship cannot outrun the monster, Nell runs out with another flare that she aims at the water. Under the sea, the light draws Godzilla back to consciousness, and Nell watches in disbelief as a light appears on the water's surface, hot enough to emit steam. Godzilla then rises to the surface with his dorsal fins aglow. Manda darts straight toward Godzilla, who blasts it with a beam attack to the head that incapacitates the sea serpent. Manda then swims quickly away in defeat. Stewart then expresses fear about the remaining monster, who turns to notice the rising sun, and begins swimming toward it before disappearing under the waves. They quickly move to head back to port before any other monsters decide to attack them, and Bruce thanks Nell for saving him. Old Man then approaches her to commend her efforts as well, and Nell tells him that he now has a story to outclass "The Night of the Giant Cuttlefish." Old Man expresses doubt that anyone will believe this story either, and Nell admits that she barely believes it herself.
Appearances
Monsters
Characters
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Weapons, vehicles, and races
Locations
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Gallery
Concept art
Covers
Cover A by Jake Lawrence
Cover B by Michael Shelfer
Cover RI by Aaron Gregory
Trivia
- The cabin of the Muttonbird is decorated with several signs and posters including:
- A regional tour poster for the Australian rock band Magic Dirt.
- A calendar with a picture of a moth resembling Mothra.
- A sticker with the Australian Aboriginal rights slogan "Always was, always will be."
- There is a newspaper aboard the Muttonbird with the headline "Nuclear Weapon Testing Resumes In Outback Australia Despite Protests." Given that none of the sailors recognize Manda, Godzilla, or Gezora, it is possible that the paper is meant to imply that these nuclear tests are the inciting incident for the monsters' appearances, if not their outright creator. The long gap between the appearance of Gezora and the others, and the tests being said to resume after an implied break, could be read to support this notion.
References
This is a list of references for Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Manda. 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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