“Yesterday’s” Comic> Gamera #4

Missing the old days, the Human Torch attacked the wrong kaiju.

Gamera #4

FINAL ISSUE

Dark Horse (November, 1996)

Lutz is forced to fly Freena’s ship while she tries to keep things together and STILL capture Viras. Instead the ship crashes. Meanwhile, Mayumi convinces Gustavo that Carbone needs to be rescued from Viras, and he ends up freeing Gamera from Viras’ control at the cost of the mad scientist her life. Gustavo sacrifices himself to get Gamera the fire he needs, distraught over Carbone’s death (although we later learn they never found a body), and the giant turtle defeats Viras. Freena hides herself in Paris since she can’t go home now, Mayumi clear’s Lutz’s name, and Lutz finds the amulet, leaving it unclear if he returns it to Asagi or not, possibly bating a sequel with him that never happened.

What they got right: A great finale, as everything is wrapped up nicely. The battle between Gamera and Viras was rather good and the human part of the story worked as well.

What they got wrong: Ultimately, Freena’s addition to the story was too small to bother with her. Zigra could have easily been an escaped experiment, or since the later movies showed other monsters not connected to the ancient experiments, simply written off as another of those.

Other notes: Since Dark Horse didn’t produce any more Gamera comics and the first movie to follow this one showed Asagi with the amulet, we can just say he decided not to keep it and either gave it to Mayumi to give to Asagi or visited the girl himself.

Recommendation: Gamera and kaiju fans who don’t already have this miniseries should track down all four issues. It was a great story and as far as I know there were no other Gamera comics made (if there were some in Japan I’ve not heard of them), making this even more fascinating. Seriously, look these four up.

Related articles

• “Yesterday’s” Comic> Gamera #1
• “Yesterday’s” Comic> Gamera #2
• “Yesterday’s” Comic> Gamera #3