I have been unbelievably excited for Mothra: Queen of the Monsters for months. The debut solo issue for our Queen feels incredibly important in concept for the Kaiju community: This is the first time a Toho monster other than Godzilla has received their own comic series. Who else deserves this historic honor other than Mothra?
This series has so much potential with a character-driven, women-centric Kaiju story written by a woman! No men in sight in issue one! Speaking of the writing, it’s really fun! Sophie Campbell does a phenomenal job of fleshing out both of the Mothra twins, giving them specific identities. Mira is jaded and haunted by her past, and Emi is incredibly bubbly and optimistic. Their lives splitting when Antra first attacked really changed the courses of who each of them would become. I thought their interactions were really fun and felt very real as sisters. Unfortunately there is some iffy dialogue that just exists to efficiently drive the narrative faster than a longer series would be able to pull off. The first fourth of the book is way more visual, but as it progresses, the setup becomes necessary. Some of the aforementioned setup feels like an info dump though, but what it is setting up has so much potential for a great series with some really cool lore!
Matt Frank’s art shines in this comic and the muted colors are pretty great at establishing the post-apocalyptic setting… although it doesn’t keep them the entire story. It looks like the series will have different tones for different time periods and that’s incredibly fun. I’d argue that the post-apocalyptic art feels very James Stokoe (writer/artist of Godzilla: The Half Century War) and has an extremely oppressive tone. The character designs are great, especially the Mothra priestesses. They even have extremely cool word bubbles! They look more alien than I’ve ever seen them before, and they have some Mothra themed attributes. This book’s art really carries it and gives it an amazing atmosphere. The opening sequence is heartbreaking and well told with its entirely visual portrayal of the battle between Mothra and Antra!
In regard to Antra, the new Kaiju for this story is a really cool design as well, she looks like she could easily be a prop in a tokusatsu movie. We don’t get a full look at her so I’m not sure if she looks like a guy in a suit. Antra also has a dynamic red, black and yellow color scheme that clashes really well with Morhra’s white, blue and orange coloring. She kind of fits the place of Battra narratively and that’s interesting, but she has some fun parallels with Mothra that Battra doesn’t have, making her a unique addition! However I won’t be spoiling anything here.
Overall, Mothra: Queen of the Monsters has a solid start, but is a little clunky because of how much it has to set up. The set up is really cool and interesting and I can’t wait to see how it pays off. It’s not a great comic, but it’s a start to something that could be. Also be on the lookout for some Toho Kaiju Easter eggs on a page! I’m really excited to see more of these characters and where they go. I’d definitely recommend this comic to Kaiju fans, especially Mothra fans and maybe if we support it, IDW will give us other Toho Kaiju-related comics without Godzilla! It’s a solid 7 out of 10 for where it starts, but I think the rest of the series will determine how good this book actually is.
