Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone #6 is packed full of surprises, but arguably the biggest one is that this is the end of the series – for now. An editor’s note offers a simple explanation: to let Pablo Tunica work his artistic magic, the book operates on a “season model,” going on hiatus after each story arc. So how do you bring this strange, beautifully badass series to an end? You bring in Godzilla himself!
The King of the Monsters makes an explosive appearance in the middle of the issue because the mysterious mutant community that kidnapped the Wanderer also had his son, Minilla, captive! In true Godzilla fashion, Tuinica draws a full page spread featuring Godzilla roaring in anger, sending cars flying and buildings shattering. When he unleashes his atomic breath, it’s a pulsing stream of green fire that wipes out everything in its path. Whenever he stomps on something, there’s a wet, sickly splash of flesh and bone crunching under his mass.
Godzilla’s rampage isn’t the only standout scene in this comic, though. Throughout Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone #6, Tunica also draws a fierce battle between the Wanderer, titanic pre-teen Sherry, and the dinosaur-esque Baragon. It’s as chaotic as you’d expect, given that one of the combatants is a kid who’s never thrown a punch, even at giant-size, and the other’s a hardened mutant with a mean streak. Adding to the sense of chaos is when Baragon gets hit with a burst of Kai-Sei energy, mutating him into a more massive form. Nathan Widick’s lettering feels as chaotic as the imagery on the page, filling every panel with roars, laser blasts and Godzilla’s signature “Skreoonk” cry.
IDW
It’s up to Ethan Parker and Griffin Sheridan to make sense of all this chaos, and they pull it off. The narration, a part of the book since its inception, takes on a somewhat somber tone, as if the narrator knows that tragedy lies around the corner. Soon enough, there’s a moment that’s genuinely shocking because you’ll never see it coming, but it also leads to emotional catharsis – something Parker and Sheridan are becoming very, very good at in their body of work.
Like all good season finales, Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone #6 closes its run by wrapping up loose plot threads while also keeping a few mysteries dangling for the next chapter of this story. The Church of Godzilla meets a rather dark fate when the King of the Monsters enters the picture while the mutant beasts who were being kept captive find themselves loose. There’s even a nod to G-Force, the organization who’s combating Godzilla in the main Godzilla story. Like the rest of the series, this issue manages to touch on the wider world of the Kai-Sei universe without feeling bogged down in any way.
Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone #6 brings its story to an explosive, emotional end, or at least the first chapter of it. It also cements the Kai-Sei era as one of the most interesting things being done with Godzilla’s mythos in the past 70 years – where else are you going to get a story where he fights a surly mutant and stomps on a cult?
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