Rodan (IDW ongoing series)
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Rodan (ラドン is a giant Radon)Pteranodon kaiju that appeared in IDW Publishing's comic book series Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, Godzilla, and Godzilla: Rulers of Earth.
Name
- Main article: Rodan#Name.
Rodan's Japanese name, Radon (ラドン, is a truncation of " Radon)Pteranodon." It may also have been chosen to suggest radiation.
In Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, Rodan is named by Kenji Ando.
Design
In Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, Rodan has a radical new design. His color scheme is a brownish orange with lighter, more tan-like shades on his underbelly. In place of his traditional spikes, Rodan has reptilian armor plating on his pectoral and abdominal regions. His face is more reptilian and menacing than the traditionally more bird-like appearances of his predecessors. His tail is elongated like a lizard's, his beak is akin to that of a bird of prey, albeit more reptilian and with sharp teeth, and his eyes are orange.
In Godzilla, Rodan bears his 1956 original Showa design.
In Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, Rodan mostly resembles his design from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster through Godzilla vs. Megalon, albeit with the same color scheme as his design from Godzilla Final Wars.
Personality
(TBA)
Origins
In Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, Rodan hatched from an egg which had been encased in a gem discovered in the aftermath of the Tunguska event. The gem, and Rodan's egg within, was stolen from a Russian museum by a boy named Mikhail during an earthquake. Mikhail took the gem to his room, where it disintegrated, revealing Rodan's egg. Rodan promptly hatched and rapidly grew, consuming all of Mikhail's pet insects and reptiles while he was at hockey practice. When the boy returned home, Rodan ate him as well before bursting through the roof and flying off into the night sky.
In Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, Rodan is depicted in a portrait on Infant Island, where he and many of Earth's other monsters are shown as natural guardians of the planet, associated with the elements. Rodan was associated with the sky.
History
Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters
Shortly after the appearance of Godzilla in Japan, an earthquake struck Moscow as a school group visited the Vernadsky State Geological Museum. Amidst the chaos, a student named Mikhail stole a crystalline rock recovered from the site of the Tunguska event in 1908 and brought it home with him, hoping to break it open and find diamonds inside. Before he could act, the stone crumbled to reveal an egg, which promptly hatched to reveal a baby pterosaur-like creature. Mikhail hid the baby monster inside of his closet and left for hockey practice; hours later, Mikhail returned to discover that the beast had eaten all of his pets, growing dramatically in the process. After devouring Mikhail, the monster flew off, where it would later be dubbed "Rodan" by Professor Kenji Ando after the pterosaur genus Pteranodon. Rodan grew rapidly and continued to terrorize Russia, killing a researcher claiming to have discovered where the monsters had come from. As Rodan flew toward Battra's location in Paris, he passed over Germany, where the army attacked him with a poisonous gas via rocket barrage. Rodan shrugged off the gas with ease and returned it to the soldiers below with a single flap of his wings. He arrived in Paris to find Battra cocooned and instead targeted the divine moth's masters, the psychic twins Minette and Mallory. Battra emerged just in time and chased off Rodan with his Prism Beams, but Rodan countered by shredding Battra's left wing. With a powerful psychic command, the twins brought the battle to an end as Rodan fell under their control as well. As a newspaper reporting on Godzilla's rampage blew past them, they set their sights on the King of the Monsters. The twins guided Rodan and Battra to Washington, D.C. where they found Godzilla, still unconscious in the wake of his battle with Mechagodzilla and King Ghidorah. He soon revived, but ignored their commands, causing them to theorize that he was too low on energy. Rodan and Battra then carried Godzilla to a nuclear power plant and dropped him on top of it, with Battra blowing it up with his Prism Beams. Believing that Godzilla was now under their control, Minette and Mallory approached him, only for him to knock them off Battra with his atomic breath. The King of the Monsters quickly defeated Rodan, catching his beak in midair and slamming him into the ground before delivering a flying stomp. Godzilla and Battra then locked beams, causing an explosion that buried the monsters under rubble. In the aftermath, as humanity began to rebuild, Rodan recovered and left for parts unknown.
Rodan in Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters
Godzilla
As the monsters of the world began to reawaken, Rodan attacked the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Brazil while a race was in progress, injuring racer Harrison. Harrison's father, Boxer, subsequently offered his son a position on his so-called Monster Kill Crew, who went on to defeat Anguirus and Kumonga with their unique Headache Beam weapons before setting their sights on Rodan. In São Paulo, the Monster Kill Crew attempted to use a Headache Beam to lure Rodan into a giant electrified Kevlar net that they had set up nearby, only for Rodan to fly over the net instead and avoid capture. Later, after hearing about the emergence of Titanosaurus, the Monster Kill Crew traveled to Tokyo to stop the monster, only to be intercepted by Rodan upon arriving. Boxer fired a Headache Beam at Rodan from their helicopter, but Rodan retaliated by knocking the helicopter out of the sky and into a nearby building. The Monster Kill Crew then pivoted to goading the two kaiju into fighting each other to wear them both out. Disoriented by the Headache Beam, Rodan fell into Titanosaurus, riling the aquatic dinosaur. Before he could act, however, Rodan used his wings to knock a building into his foe and rammed him into the side of a massive skyscraper. As Rodan continued to bite and attack Titanosaurus, the Monster Kill Crew took advantage of the situation and dropped explosives on the dueling behemoths, destroying the building that loomed over them. As the rubble buried Titanosaurus, Rodan managed to take flight in time and escaped yet again.
Sometime later, the space monsters SpaceGodzilla, Gigan, Hedorah, and Monster X descended upon the planet, at which point Rodan converged on Hong Kong to challenge Gigan. After the Monster Kill Crew freed the kaiju that they had captured from Monster Island, Anguirus joined Rodan in the battle against the cyborg. Rodan snuck up on Gigan as he attacked Anguirus, and though Gigan attempted to stop him by firing his cranial laser, Rodan dodged the beam and flew directly into Gigan's head to shatter the cyborg's eye visor with the spikes on his chest. As Rodan circled around for a second attack, Gigan caught him by surprise by jumping up and grabbing him, pulling him back to the ground and slicing into his stomach. Fortunately for Rodan, Anguirus recovered and defeated Gigan soon afterward. With his foe vanquished, Rodan rushed to New York to aid the outmatched Godzilla, who was in the midst of battle with the powerful Keizer Ghidorah. Upon arrival, Rodan was met by Keizer Ghidorah’s Gravity Beams, though he quickly recovered. Using his wings, Rodan created a sonic boom powerful enough to sever one of Keizer Ghidorah's heads clean off. However, Keizer Ghidorah retaliated and concentrated two beams on Rodan, sending him flying out of the city and effectively knocking him out of the fight. However, as a result of Rodan's help, Godzilla was able to defeat the weakened alien monster to save the planet.
Godzilla: Rulers of Earth
Rodan was classified as an "air" monster in a cave mural on Infant Island.
During a Megazoology Conference, Dr. Kenji Ando revealed that Rodan was heading north above Canada. He was later sighted flying over China, and though he was believed to have left the area of the Huanren Reservoir when Dr. Ando and his investigation team arrived, he soon returned when Varan emerged nearby and initiated a battle. During the fight, Varan grabbed Rodan, pulled him to the ground, and slashed into his back with his claws, though Rodan was able to escape and strike back by picking Varan up and slamming him into the side of a mountain. The Chinese military attempted to break up the fight as the monsters drew dangerously close to a secret base, but despite their best efforts, the two kaiju continued their battle and eventually came crashing into the base itself. Within the base, Varan used the spikes on his back to shred into Rodan's wings, forcing the injured kaiju to withdraw from the fight and return to the skies above.
At some point in the years that followed, the Counter-Kaiju Reaction Forces successfully captured Rodan and contained him on the Monster Islands alongside Sanda, Gaira, Baragon, and Kumonga, where he lived in peace and his damaged wings healed. The islands were eventually besieged by a race of alien monsters called the Trilopods; Rodan fell to one of the monsters, which absorbed his DNA and took on his physical characteristics. The Trilopods took Rodan and the islands' residents back to their massive Hive in Los Angeles, where they were held captive alongside the rest of Earth's kaiju. Later, King Caesar freed the imprisoned monsters and led them into battle to assist Godzilla against the Trilopod army. Rodan managed to kill the Anguirus-Trilopod and attempted to fight the titanic Magita as well, though he was easily swatted aside by the massive Trilopod, who was ultimately defeated by Godzilla. After the battle, Rodan, along with the other kaiju, followed the weary Godzilla out to sea.
Abilities
Flight capabilities
Naturally, Rodan is capable of flying at high speeds, proving himself against Gigan through it. He completely dodged a blast of the cyborg monster’s eye beam and sent him crashing into some buildings with a flyby, in addition to chipping his visor with his torso spikes.
Sonic boom
Rodan is capable of creating a sonic boom by clapping his wings forcefully, which succeeded in decapitating Keizer Ghidorah’s middle head in Godzilla.
Weaknesses
In Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, Godzilla easily overpowered both Rodan and Battra.
In Godzilla, Rodan was launched very far away from a combined blast of Keizer Ghidorah’s Destroyed Keizer beams from his two side heads.
In Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, Rodan’s wings were pierced by Varan’s spikes.
Trivia
- In Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters, Rodan is shown hatching from an egg. This is seemingly either contradicted or retconned in Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, where a mural on Infant Island depicts Rodan among the kaiju in Earth's ancient natural order. However, it is possible that it is one of his ancestors that is shown here.
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