‘Godzilla Rivals: Vs. Spacegodzilla’ Review: We’re Going Supernova!

“You think your world is safe? It is an illusion. A comforting lie told to protect you. Enjoy these final moments of peace. For I have returned to have my vengeance.”

–Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek Into Darkness 

It’s universally agreed on in the community that SpaceGodzilla is one of Godzilla’s most iconic villains of all time. Appearing over 30 years ago in his sole movie debut, he is an evil clone of our iconic hero, born when Godzilla’s cells fell into the depths of a black hole and birthed out a white hole before crystallizing. His single goal: to kill his progenitor and rule the Earth.

While only appearing in one movie like so many, his popularity only grew over time with video games, novels, TV shows, and of course, comics. Not only was he an evil clone of Godzilla, but he had a new set of powers ranging from energy bolts, levitation, telekinesis, geokinesis, and a heightened intelligence to name a few. He attacked Godzilla in psychological warfare by kidnapping Junior, not to mention part of the Junior Trilogy that’s now considered the crowning achievement of the Heisei Era, and let’s face it, had a freaking epic roar even if it was recycled. Love him or hate him, SpaceGodzilla has earned his space in Godzilla’s rogues gallery. 

It’s no wonder that he, like many of Toho’s roster, would be featured in some of the best comics in recent memory.

For those who have been living under Methuselah’s rock, Godzilla Rivals was a 15 issue anthology series from IDW Publishing, featuring all of our favorite kaiju battling each other in new and original one shot stories. These stories ranged from the classic showdowns between our hero and his rogues, such as King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, Battra and for one anniversary issue, with Gigan, but then you had fights that didn’t involve Godzilla at all. For example, for his anniversary, Jet Jaguar got to fight Megalon in a rematch over 50 years in the making. And then you had the fights that you didn’t think were too cool or interesting at a first glance but, if executed properly, weren’t half bad, such as Mothra vs. M.O.G.U.E.R.A. or Biollante vs. Destoroyah. But then you have what I considered one of the highlights of the comic run, that being Godzilla Rivals: Vs. SpaceGodzilla.

Vs. SpaceGodzilla was released on August 30th, 2023 and was the ninth issue of the series overall. It was met with critical praise from both fans and critics. But, did you know it was almost not meant to be?

Matt Frank, acclaimed kaiju artist for IDW’s comics from the covers to his time on Rulers of Earth, who also created his own doujinshi Gamera: The Last Hope and Redman: Kaiju Hunter, as well as his work alongside Jeremy Robinson for his beloved Nemesis Saga, had approached IDW to do some comics for the then new Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. While they had their allotted number of cover artists (a big missed opportunity there), they were open about working with Frank on some new comic pitches for Rivals. Of the monsters he inquired about, SpaceGodzilla was the only one that had no plans already in development. He quickly jumped on the chance to make the one shot, pitching it as “SpaceGodzilla on an alien planet” and with the working title of “The Terror of SpaceGodzilla,” which sounds awesome.

I personally remember being so hyped for the comic’s release, feeling like this is one of the better Godzilla comics I’ve read. This is partially due to my own respect for Matt Frank’s work. I love his style, he knows his stuff, and pays respect to the characters we grew to love. I find it interesting how when it comes to Godzilla, the fanbase is generational. I for one learned to love Godzilla from my dearest friend who learned from his father and now passed it onto his kids and grandkids. To me, it makes the franchise that more endearing.I may never have kids, but if I did, I’d be showing them this stuff too so a new generation can grow up loving Godzilla.

But does The Terror of SpaceGodzilla hold up? Let’s journey across the universe and find out!

To start off, we don’t really have any human characters unlike the previous books. Instead we open to a translation of an alien tablet in the year 2197; who they are or how they got the tablet is never revealed. Probably Weyland-Yutani trying to find more alien stuff to use as weapons or something. The tablet is a religious text revering a monster called the Crystal King and the Quartz that powers the very planet’s economy. The planet in question is the world of Pellucidia, where the two races, the snake-like upper class of the Ophiogans and the insectoid Laitians, live in severe social inequality. This inequality of theirs is believed to be a byproduct of their religion, believing it’s the will of the Quartz. 

Right off the bat, I love the designs for the Ophiogans. They were loosely inspired by the Cardassians from Star Trek Deep Space Nine, but less humanoid and more scaley. I specifically like how the cobra hood looks on them without looking goofy, and honestly, it feels like it could be a redesign for the Cardassians. The Laitians are more standardized cockroach looking people, with larvae that remind me of Mothra’s larva form in King of the Monsters 2019, though I do like how considerably smaller they are next to their upper class counterparts. 

And it should be noted by now that the aliens themselves don’t speak English (or at least they aren’t translated) other than what’s on the tablet. This was done deliberately. Matt Frank is not a fan of third-person omniscient narration, followed by a logical realization that the aliens wouldn’t be speaking English in the first place if no one was there to translate. Which, honestly you can’t fault his reasoning. While some have criticized this choice, I think it actually makes the book better by using a more visual storytelling device. I like to imagine the Ophiogans are all just saying “hiss” whenever they talk, like you can make an entire monologue and the only word they’ll say is “hiss”.

Anyway, this peace is interrupted when a mining crew discovers an asteroid (which from a certain angle looks like a turd but that’s just me) brimming with quartz crystals. They send a drone down to start digging into the surface only to find something sleeping in the core. Born from the cells of Godzilla that were sent into a black hole, birthed out by a white hole and crystallized, he dreams of his rival, symbolizing in the art as him landing to Earth before being driven away by his progenitor. And as the rock breaks free in this gorgeous two page spread, Space Godzilla breaks free from his prison and crashes down to Pellucidia, rising from his crate and sensing the energy of the Quartz, the text saying that it’ll restore his power.

Live broadcasts of SpaceGodzilla’s landing are seen by thousands;, the Ophiogans deploy their military forces to try to halt the kaiju’s march to the city. Once again illustrated by a massive and beautiful two spread of the Arch Priest guy and the military commander.  

While the sneople do have the typical military hardware at their disposal, like hovercraft and tanks, they also have these weird snake robots that shoot sonic blasts at SpaceGodzilla that remind me of those centipede tanks from the Clone Wars’ Umbara Arc. But with SpaceGodzilla’s telekinesis, the military commander realizes their first line of defense is pretty much in ruins and orders the deployment of their secret weapon. Meanwhile, the Death Corona continues his march to the city where the civilians, both Ophiogans and Laitians, watch the live broadcasts of the military’s failed attempt at stopping the Crystal King, the religious text saying how the Quartz calls to him and says together “he will bring love to the heathens among us”. Typical cultists, even love is used as material for a doomsday prophecy. Overhead, a large starship attacks SpaceGodzilla only to be shot down by his Corona Beam. As the ship falls it launches its secret weapon the commander was talking about. And of course it’s a giant monster, why wouldn’t it be? 

This is Singura, and oh my god, look at this thing! This is what you get when you crossbreed a cobra and a cockroach while including little bits of Gigan with the sawblades in its pinchers: a long hooded head with an exoskeleton armor, that rounded face insects have, and disjointed arms.This is what would come to mind if you mixed serpentine and insectoid together, it’s pretty cool. Also trivia note: Singura’s roar is a combination of Gazort’s from Ultraman Tiga and Rodan and was first revealed in the trailer for the comic. It was that advertised,none of the other comics in the run got that kind of attention. Also, apparently during his design for Singura, he used a lot of Orga’s concept and realized he had drawn Vertigo from Primal Rage by mistake but later reworked it, and yeah, I can see that. 

The two fight, with Singura actually able to stand toe to toe with SpaceGodzilla. At one point he grabs him by the tail and flings him into a mountain, only to be shot with a hail of Corona Beams, knocking him back. However, the fight takes a sideways turn when a cultist kills the military commander and starts shooting the command center controlling Singura due to him believing in the prophecy of the Crystal King. Singura’s controls are short circuited and all of a sudden he pulls out his trap card in a black hole coming out of his chest. SpaceGodzilla tries to shoot a Corona Beam but fails as he is slowly pulled in. However, he sees the black hole is generated by these crystals on Singura’s chest  and, well, crystals are kind of in SpaceGodzilla’s repertoire of skills. Using his Geokinesis,SpaceG gets close enough to the black hole to manipulate the crystals on the chest and crushes them, causing the black hole to destabilize and suck Singura in. 

With his kaiju opponent basically wiped from existence, SpaceGodzilla has no more opposition for his advance to the city and to the Quartz. The population is in the throes of chaos as they try to flee with everything they have. And of course there’s that one guy with a “the end is nigh” sign, it’s just standard practice for the apocalypse.

By the way, I’ve neglected to mention this subplot involving this Laitian parent who joins this resistance movement to blow up the Quartz, but the Arch Priest, who is this awesome looking albino Ophiogans, tries to stop them. I didn’t mention it because it doesn’t really matter to the grand scheme. While it does give a little context to the civilian side of things, this is more or less a SpaceGodzilla- focused story rather than in most Godzilla movies we’d focus on the human characters. But in this case there are no characters saved for SpaceGodzilla, most of them don’t even have names to go on. So it’s sorta easier just to skim over but I’ll talk more about them in a minute. Anyway, the fight between the resistance and the Arch Priest is interrupted by our favorite Crystal King, taking the Crystal Quartz and killing the priest in the ensuing destruction of the temple. SpaceGodzilla squeezes the Quartz, breaking it open to reveal a baby kaiju that looks like a toad and a thorny devil.

What, where and how this creature came to be is never revealed (Matt Frank has suggested that the baby is Krystalak’s kid from Godzilla Unleashed), but SpaceGodzilla isn’t exactly a nurturing soul, committing infanticide and absorbing its immense energy. The result causes SpaceGodzilla to turn into his more powerful flying form, sprouting crystals across the city and causing a volcanic eruption.. The surviving Pellucidians board a handful of starships and escape their presumably destroyed planet. And so our comic ends with SpaceGodzilla leaving the planet, flying away with the intent of a well deserved rematch. 

This is the perfect example of visual storytelling. While we didn’t have a major cast or a complicated story, the art makes up for it. Frank’s style is just so eye-catching and detailed that you don’t mind it had little story. The stuff with the Laitian parent could have been something (if we knew what they were saying) if you really wanted to, but frankly in this case it works best without dialog. I also like how it’s not told by some omniscient narration like in most comics, the way Frank hates. This was meant to be something of a discovery by the people of 2197, suggesting that either whoever went to Pellucidia found their ruined civilization and the survivors managed to colonize somewhere nice, or the most likely case, they had died out at this point in time.

The original kaiju, Singura, looks great. This is a kaiju design we don’t normally get in tokusatsu. Normally a creature like this would be more or less a puppet, not so much a supposed guy in a suit. Not only that, but he was able to go toe-to-toe with one of the strongest Godzilla kaiju in the franchise. That’s gotta count for something. 

My only real complaint about the comic is the weird baby thing in the quartz. Seriously, what was that little thing? You could have just kept it as a super powerfully charged crystal but they made it an egg.  I love the look Space Godzilla gives before he kills it, like even he’s confused by the twist. Which, hey, for what it’s worth, it was a decent surprise.

Godzilla Rivals: Vs. SpaceGodzilla is a fantastic entry of the Rivals run and honestly stands on its own two feet. Even though Godzilla isn’t in it, it does a fantastic job at being an original take on a fantastic story.

Here’s to the future of Godzilla comics.

See you Space Cowboy.