Is It Good? Godzilla: Rulers of Earth #16 Review

Last month’s issue gave us lots of great action and some terrible plotting. Will #16 be more of the same… and is it good?

Godzilla: Rulers of Earth #16 (IDW Publishing)

The issue begins with Lucy and a bunch of the book’s other human characters about to be shot by Russian troopers. It’s a decision that I would’ve wholeheartedly supported.

Lots of goodwill up for grabs, Mr. Putin.

Instead, we are whisked over to the evil Cryog (purple dude) monologuing to his twin minions about how evil and sinister his plan is.

Unfortunately, his brilliant idea of not killing Godzilla when he had the chance totally backfires, resulting in another great fight scene. This time Big G is joined by a revived Anguiris. The dynamic duo not only kicks all sorts of ass, but also manages to pull off one of the coolest kaiju fighting moves you will ever see in your lifetime.

Meanwhile, Woods continues whining to his adopted daughter about how hard life is. I kept hoping for Russian troops to show up near him as well, but to no avail.

Please just drop Godzilla right there!

Is It Good?

This issue is a near perfect example of everything right and wrong with this series. On the positive end, the fight between Godzilla/Anguirus and Mechagodzilla/Mecha Ghidora is a superb sequence (despite being a bit hard to follow). It’s also worth mentioning that GODZILLA SWINGS ANGUIRUS BY HIS TAIL AS A WEAPON! IT’S GLORIOUS!

And on the other end of the quality spectrum, we have the story and plot…which is really not good. The Cryog’s clunky exposition, the human character’s stupidity…and how long has Woods been in the same place whining to that girl about how bad things are?

My apologies to Chris Mowry, but he is a MUCH better writer than this. Even with the issues of this series I haven’t enjoyed, it was still clear that Mowry is a talented and capable scripter. This one, however, fell well below his usual high quality of work. Add in the ever compounding mythology/story issues and you might as well just skip the dialogue all together and enjoy the combined artistic efforts by Matt Frank and Jeff Zornow.
Let’s hope that next month’s issue has Mowry back on his game again… and maybe another instance of GODZILLA SWINGING ANGUIRUS BY HIS TAIL!