Do you miss Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Do you have a hankering to see more literary characters assemble Avengers-style to battle a massive threat?
You won’t have to wait much longer. Coming October 23rd is IDW’s Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theater #1 (written and drawn by Tom Scioli), which brings together real-life and fictional characters to face off against old radiation breath himself.
The book takes place in 1922, with James Gatz (AKA the Great Gatsby) obsessed with killing Godzilla after a tragic event happens. Yep, Godzilla becomes Gatsby’s Moby Dick, and much like Captain Ahab in the Moby Dick novel, Gatsby pursues Godzilla across the globe, meeting tons of characters in his relentless quest to destroy Godzilla.
Supporting players from The Great Gatsby also have key scenes, including Daisy Buchanan, who was Gatsby’s obsession before Godzilla stomped into his life and who always looks like she can dance a wicked Charleston.
What’s great about this book (the first part of a three-part miniseries) is that you don’t have to have a PhD in English literature or have read enough books to fill the Grand Canyon to understand who the characters are and their motivations throughout the issue. I personally love The Great Gatsby. It’s one of my favorite novels, but even if you never touched the book (or saw any of the many film adaptations of it) you’ll know what kind of person Gatsby is within the first few pages (hint: he’s a jazz age version of Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark, but without their intelligence or wit).
Credit: IDW
The mix of historic and fictional people that pop up in the issue are too many to count, ranging from the obscure to the infamous. I especially liked Scioli’s version of Thomas Edison, a self-professed genius who everyone else seems to think is a clod. I won’t give away the other appearances (unfortunately a couple are given away on the cover of the book) but you’ll find a few wonderful surprises and be delighted with at least a couple of the characters who pop up here.
As for Godzilla (he’s the book’s star, you know), Scioli makes him terrifying, very reminiscent of Godzilla’s first appearance in 1954’s Gojira. He’s a walking titan of mass destruction, smashing skyscrapers and eating bridges. In one particularly chilling scene, Gatsby’s friend Nick Carraway watches as Godzilla rampages through the city, police and firefighters desperately trying everything to stop him but being swatted away like gnats. Godzilla doesn’t roar or snort, he just relentlessly plows forward, eating, blasting and obliterating everything in his path.
It’s nice to see “monster” Godzilla making a comeback here and in recent films such as Godzilla Minus One. For years, films and TV shows went all-in on the new, cuddlier version of the character. I never could understand that. Godzilla should always be a force of destruction and at the forefront of Kaiju horror.
Tom Scioli’s art is a unique style that fits the book surprisingly well. Maybe it’s because the story is set in the past and his artwork always gives off a retro feel. Any time I crack open a Tom Scioli-drawn book, I feel like I’ve discovered a lost issue of a 1960s Marvel comic that magically appeared in my hands from someone’s attic. That’s not a bad thing. There’s a reason why books from that time are considered classic now and this one gave me that same warm nostalgic feeling.
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