COMICS: Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters

It has been far to long since Godzilla has stomped a comic city to smithereens. But thanks to IDW Publishing, The King of Monsters comes roaring back to comics in March. The team behind his triumphant return is "Goon" creator Eric Powell co-writing with Tracy Marsh and artist Phil Hester.

In an interview with CBR, we learn that in “Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters”, the world in which they come storming out to has never before encountered a threat like them. Marsh adds, “it’s about as prepared to handle the attacks as it was to handle September 11 or the earthquake in Haiti. The results are much the same as they were after those events—everything goes haywire. People are scared, hurt, dead, homeless, in need of resources they can’t get. But in 'Kingdom of Monsters,' it happens over and over. SNAFU!”

Powell goes on to tell that the team was really trying to capture what would be the effects of a monster invasion, especially the aftermath . “We set out from the very first conversation to look at the premise of giant monster attacks in a more consequential way,” Powell said. “What would really happen if giant monsters popped up? Well, your infrastructure would be screwed. It would be like Katrina and the oil spill times giant frickin' monsters.”

When asked about the heroes of the comic, Powell says “Kingdom of Monsters” would have a revolving cast. “But,” Marsh added, "all the characters’ stories have a common thread, which is trying to cope with the increasingly deteriorating world around them. Instead of following one or two main characters, we wanted to follow the monsters themselves and show glimpses of their effects on lots of different people.”
As to what their incarnation of the Lizard King represented, the each writer had a different angle they used to look at the world of "Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters".
“Godzilla was originally an allegory for the nuclear age, and we’re definitely going for a modern-day interpretation of that,” Marsh said. “But readers want to see Godzilla and his buddies eff stuff up. So that’s what they’re gonna get.”

Powell, for his part, said, “To me, he still represents what he represented when I was seven. He's a big giant cool looking monster that breathes fire and smashes buildings. Which is awesome.”

“Luckily, that’s really fun stuff to write, too, so it all works out,” said Marsh.
“Like with every story, you have to lay the ground work. Here's what the world was like when it was normal and then... monsters. Things get bad quick and go downhill fast,” Powell told CBR. “I don't want to give too much away, but we've laid in plenty of satire about the world we live in.”