Review: Godzilla Awakening

Godzilla: Awakening

Right before Godzilla 2014 hit theatres, Legendary released the Godzilla: Awakening comic. This would act as the prequel to the movie and give the readers a little more history on the reinvention of Godzilla for a new era. Produced by Legendary Pictures and written by Max Borenstein (the writer of the Godzilla 2014 script), Godzilla: Awakening gives the reader something to think about before seeing the legend reborn.

The comic takes place decades before the events that unfold in Godzilla 2014. The comic opens in Tokyo, 1980, where Serizawa's father begins to tell his secrets before he passes. Hirshima is bombed in 1945 and Serizawa senior is desperately searching for his old home and new born son (who would later become Serizawa in Gareth's Godzilla). Somehow his son survived the bombing and while removing him from the rubble a flying monster, Shinomura, appears before Serizawa Sr. So begins his fall into the mysterious world of mutants, monsters, and Godzilla.

Essentially the comic serves as an introduction to the world of Godzilla. Borenstein writes around the scientist Serizawa, which any fan knows, pays homage to the original Godzilla in 1954. Serizawa was the name of the scientist who created the Oxygen Destroyer which led to the death of the original Godzilla. In Awakening, Serizawa now has a mission: to protect his only son from the dangers of man and now the dangers of monsters. The vast majority of the comic is spent on Serizawa tracking down the creature, known as Shinomura. This creature is from the same time as Godzilla and is actually a super-organiasm, or a creature made from millions of microscopic organisms to create the appearance of one. Shinomura very much echoes Godzilla final foe from the 90's, Destoroyah.

We also come to learn that MUTO's have been around and documented by Monarch for sometime. We even get a glimpse at some of the other colossal creatures that shared the Earth with Godzilla long ago. While this all adds depth to the Godzilla universe, it really only acts as a stepping stone into the movie. The story is very basic and doesn't really break new ground. That is not necessarily a bad thing. When reinventing a series, you must compliment the old with the new. Awakening does just that, immersing the reader in a new world with new monsters with the original Godzilla.

The artwork is beautiful but can get difficult to decipher at times. Being that it is illustrated by three different artists, it is sometimes hard to follow the story because characters change appearance and color palettes are different. The battles between Godzilla and Shinomura are really just glimpses, with the action merely hinted at. While this does seem to set-up Gareth's Godzilla fairly well, it doesn't lend itself to the comic format. We want to see full color drawings of the new Godzilla and this new enemy he must face. The cover is probably my favorite artwork in the entire comic.

While Godzilla did have a short-lived Marvel series, Legendary has produced a quality comic to supplement this new universe Godzilla will inhabit. The story is good while basic, the artwork is superb when it works, and the brief history is all we need to feel Godzilla belongs once again in the modern world.