Godzilla performs his trademark “Kaiju Clutch” and it’s all over now!
Godzilla #4 – Godzilla versus Batragon! (November 1977)
Writer – Doug Moench
Penciler – Tom Sutton
Editor – Archie Goodwin
March of Godzilla 2013 continues plowing through issues of Marvel Comics’ Godzilla, because that’s what you expect from a movie review site! This time, Godzilla actually fights a monster, and not in one-panel flashback form! And it’s not one of those “man is the real monster” cop outs, though new villain Dr. Demonicus is certainly a real monster. If you need to get a quick catch-up on who is who in the Marvel Godzilla U, drop on by our splash page. Now let’s get this party started!
A monster named Batragon attacks a random oil tanker off the Pacific Northwest. The action attracts Godzilla, who immediately attacks the new monster because that’s what Godzilla does. Batragon is what his name suggests, a combination of bat and dragon.
Meanwhile, a new oil tanker driven by masked goons shows up to siphon off the oil out of the first damaged oil tanker. The masked goons mention their boss Demonicus, and how he created Batragon and other monsters to help them rob oil so their criminal empire doesn’t suffer from the gas shortage that America is going through. These costumed goons look straight out of Japanese tokusatsu shows!
Let my Eskimo go!
Batragon flies into its volcano home on an Aleutian island, where a few other monsters are, and more of the masked goons and their leader, Demonicus.
The monsters live on a lifestone that is a radioactive meteor at the bottom of a volcano, and Batragon is using it to heal now. The other three monsters aren’t named until the next issue, but they are: Ghilaron, Lepirax, and Centipor. More on them next issue.
Dr. Demonicus’s men are using Eskimo slaves to build a flying craft out of the meteor rock so they can fly the creatures around the world without them needing to return to the volcano to recharge. The Eskimos are not too happy with being slaves, so the bad guys gun a few down!
Dr. Demonicus looks like he got his uniform from a drawing a drunk person did of Killink. The teeth of the skull section droop down and make him look like he was left out in the rain and his skull paint went runny. During these issues, Demonicus’s men are dressed in costumes that look similar to his, but when he appears again in Iron Man, they will be less similar and more like a generic Hydra costume. Perhaps he had to scale back his costume budget after Godzilla trashes everything…
The cruelty of man against his fellow man, Godzilla sees all. And attacks Dr. Demonicus’s men! Go Godzilla! Godzilla blows up the meteor metal smelting machine. Then he attacks the monster lair where the four monsters are charging. Dr. Demonicus has a shield defending the monsters (that also acts as a cage keeping them in), but Batragon crashes through the shield it and attacks Godzilla!
Godzilla: King of the Monster Freedom Fighters!
But Godzilla kicks his butt! Batragon is now gone, because he’s dead.
Then SHIELD attacks, having noticed the action, but they attack Godzilla as they are unaware there is a volcano full of monsters.
Dr. Demonicus decides to not unleash the rest of the monsters until the two sides destroy each other….
TO BE CONTINUED!!!
Die, unofficial Toho kaiju!
When monsters who love to hate, hate to love!
No one noticed their eyeball windshields blocked the path of the missiles until too late!
Death to anyone who laughs at our uniforms!
It’s the CEO of Exxon! Run!
A villain who threatens child rape and guns down helpless Eskimo slaves, and he makes it to mainstream Marvel comics!
