Godzilla has faced off against some of Marvel’s biggest heroes this year, but now it’s time for an entire team to take him on in Godzilla vs. Avengers #1. Like the previous installments, this is a low-buy-in one-shot since it’s a done-in-one. Fans of Godzilla get an extra dose of crossover this week as Jet Jaguar also enters the fight. It’s a fight comic with a humorous angle, and a massive Marvel kaiju thrown into the mix as well.
Godzilla vs. Avengers #1 takes the very logical idea that Fin Fang Foom would take great offense if another kaiju entered the universe to cause a ruckus. This adds a Marvel wrinkle to a series of one-shots that’s Godzilla-centric. Throw in Jet Jaguar, and it’s a different kind of battle, to say the least.
While the story opens after the dust has cleared and the fight is over, the focus is largely on the Avengers trying to mitigate casualties and property damage. That makes this battle less of a one-on-one fight, comic, reducing the Avengers to bystanders trying their best. That makes the stakes feel quite low, and even lower when you know all the heroes come out alright by the end, since the framing device is set in the future.
Georges Jeanty draws the heck out of these big monsters. The scale is well rendered, and the weirdness of Fin Fang Foom is given a nice touch. The detail and design of all the Avengers are also spot on, and there are really no complaints there.
Always nice to see the big green lizard.
Credit: Marvel
Outside of the low stakes, this story also tries very hard to be funny, but ends up being repetitive. The number of times characters point out Jet Jaguar isn’t a jet or a jaguar grows tiresome and then downright annoying. Maria Hill ends up being like a parent to the Avengers, who squabble and talk over each other, driving her nuts. It drives the reader nuts, too. In a twenty-panel page, we get headshots of each character talking back and forth, and it’s fairly pointless. The humor doesn’t work, and the various personalities don’t suit this team. The Avengers should work well together, not waste time talking over each other.
Woven into the squabbling is the introduction of the Kaiju Chasers United group. It’s a bunch of 20-somethings trying to make a difference with Jet Jaguar tech. It’s another wrinkle for Godzilla fans who liked Titan Chasers, but it’s present just as a nod, adding little to the story.
Godzilla vs. Avengers #1 brings spectacle and scale but falls short on story and tone, offering a shallow crossover where the monsters impress but the heroes disappoint.
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