“Fine, you win. No anchovies.”
Godzilla #0
Dark Horse (May, 1995)
“Blast From The Past” WRITER: Randy Stradley PENCILERS: Bobby Rubio & Rich Suchy INKERS: Brian Garvey & Daniel Rivera COLORISTS: Matt Hollingsworth & Cary Porter COVER ART: Bob Eggleton LETTERERS: Clem Robins & Mike DeLepine DESIGN: Mark Cox EDITOR: Robert Vincent Conte
I missed the Godzilla Color Special although I would love to have that to complete my collection. It was there that G-Force, a team dedicated to researching Godzilla, was introduced. Here they are joined by Noriko, now a professor, and Burton, now her pilot. While G-Force wants to study Godzilla, Noriko has used what she learned from Godzilla’s scale to get her revenge when the team is alerted to an unconscious Godzilla floating near the place the slab from the Summer special was dropped. Noriko’s poison seems to be having an effect when Godzilla awakens, angry and drooling poisoned blood everywhere.
G-Force includes team leader Kazushi Kagaku, his wife Reiko, her brother and electronics make Také, and pilot Kino (the only one not related or married to anyone).
What they got right: Stradley wrote the Summer special years prior but it’s nice seeing him using it for this first story arc. And he gives a flashback for anyone who missed it and introduces the characters for anyone who missed the Color Special like I did. The art is very good.
What they got wrong: Although I don’t understand why the artists, right down to the letterer, are different from the rest of the comic. Also, it’s in black & white (like the Summer Special, which is a nice touch for a flashback) but Porter is still listed as colorist for this section.
Recommendation: I’m going to warn you right now that the Dark Horse run, despite not having the other Toho monsters like the current IDW run does, is my favorite of the Godzilla comic series. So I’m pretty much telling you now to buy all the issues or a trade if it exists.
BW Media Spotlight 