GODZILLA IN HELL #1 Review

By Daniel Alvarez on Wednesday, July 15th, 2015

Godzilla returns with a brand new mini-series! Does the intriguing premise deliver? Let’s take a look.

Here’s the official description from IDW:

Godzilla meets his greatest adversary of all time-the impossible tortures of Hell! Each issue of this special miniseries will see Godzilla enter a new level of the underworld to do battle with the impossible.

Many were worried as Rulers of Earth approached its final issue that IDW was going to be done with G comics. But not too long ago the company announced a brand new mini-series would be coming out afterward, titled GODZILLA IN HELL. The premise is obviously intriguing, and putting James Stokoe on it multiplied the hype by a thousand. (He did what is probably the greatest Godzilla mini-series of them all, the Half Century War.) Obviously the main question is why G is in Hell. Did someone send him there? Is he actually dead? Unfortunately this question is not answered, but what we have is definitely one of the most interesting starts to a Godzilla story yet.

The review is probably going to be shorter than usual because there is no technical writing present. There are no human characters, so no dialogue is spoken. The last time a comic only starred Godzilla was 19 years ago in Dark Horse’s final issue of their run. It can be tough to craft a comic with no dialogue, but with Godzilla it can certainly be welcome. So, since there’s no dialogue to evaluate, we can look at how the story progresses. Godzilla, like the reader, is pretty confused. Big G is not taking all this in stride; you can see it in his face that he doesn’t understand what the heck is going on. Stokoe’s depiction of Hell is appropriately nightmarish for our monster.

As expected, Stokoe’s art is unparalleled. The gritty look is especially appropriate considering the setting. Godzilla has some off moments in regards to his face, but it’s a minor thing. The monster he battles was awesomely terrifying. The main cover is a fantastic shot of Godzilla as a giant tentacle is about to grab him. It’s a moody piece , and perfect for standing out on the shelf. The subscription variant by Jeff Zornow is quite cool. The look is a fun homage to classic horror comics. The devil commanding King Ghidorah to attack G is just quite an awesome concept and hopefully we’ll see something like it in the coming issues.

“GODZILLA IN HELL” is off to an intriguing start. We’re not given any reason why G has entered the Lake of Fire, and I suppose that’s the mystery which will be looked at in coming issues. So I won’t count this unanswered question a negative. No human characters offers a fresh change of pace, since I think everyone has wondered what a Godzilla movie would be like with no humans. Stokoe’s art easily engages the reader from start to finish. What we have could very well go down as the most unique Godzilla tale of them all.