‘Godzilla’ Issue #2 Review: Great Character Beats Shine Through Kaiju Action

Lament is coming! Eventually! After the final splash page of the first issue of IDW’s newest Godzilla series, fans were waiting with bated breath to see where this new take on the King of the Monsters would go. A sapient kaiju foe? A kid with the power to take on Godzilla head-to-head? There were a lot of interesting seeds planted in the first issue of the series, and now with Issue 2 hitting the stands, I’m just as excited as anyone to see what Tim Seeley has cooking as the story moves along.

Issue 2 picks up with Dr. Chiba rescuing Jacen from the nematode-like creatures we saw in the previous issue, and after dealing with them (temporarily), the story slows down a notch to give us a more introspective look at some of the characters, something the first issue simply didn’t have enough time to accomplish. The bond between Rumi and Jacen grows as Jacen vents about his vendetta against Godzilla (one not too dissimilar to Haruo’s plight in the Polygon trilogy of films), and the book starts to show us a little more of what the team gets up to while not in the midst of fighting for their lives. They have relationships, insecurities, and hobbies. And Jet Jaguar is there. But all of that is cut short as the team’s cargo ship is boarded by pirates, led by the brutal Captain Carroñero, the Great Vulture of the Atlantic, who appears to have armored himself in Godzilla’s scales, and as such seems to be at least semi-impervious to Jacen’s Kai-Sei abilities. 

Riviera unleashes the nematode creatures trapped in the cargo hold, which Carroñero dubs as “Yacumama.” As Lament looks on, through what I can only assume is a kind of psychic connection to the creatures, Jacen’s roommate back at base, Petithomme speaks with a mysterious benefactor, one who, in the previous issue, he’d promised to keep an eye on Jacen for. Not much more details are given between the two, but there seems to be an implication that Petithomme and his superior may not be human. As Godzilla closes in on G-Force, attracted by the Yacumama, Petithomme ruminates on who will emerge victorious between Jacen and Godzilla.

Issue 1 was already a pretty strong start for the Kai-Sei era of Godzilla, and this one has proved that it was anything but a fluke. We were introduced to the cast of characters last time, and now we’re actually starting to get to know them a bit more. The softer moments between Rumi and Jacen here prove that this book has a sense of humanity behind its monster-bashing premise. Some of the best Godzilla films have a strong element of character drama to ground the stories (Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, Godzilla Minus One for example), and with this series appearing to follow in those films’ footsteps makes the continuing story arc seem all the more promising.