‘Godzilla’ (Kai-Sei) Issue #4 Review

We’re four issues deep into the main ongoing Godzilla “Kai-Sei” run by IDW.  Time sure flies, but it really has been nearly four months since the big launch of issue 1 back in July. Kaiju United has been following along, but the reviews for anything but Deadzone have been with other individuals on staff (we each chose a book when the main three were announced). I was curious to take on issue 4, as I’ve been reading along casually, but never really sitting down and drafting some full on thoughts about the main run with the name GODZILLA attached to it.

So far, my thoughts with the book are pretty much summed up with “pretty good.” It’s been fun, but it hasn’t hooked me yet, despite some pretty solid writing from Tim Seeley and some stylish, epic art by Nikola Čižmešija. Since the arc concludes with issue 6, I thought it might be high time for me to review one of these books before the climactic final battle and the “death” of Godzilla in the sixth issue, to really see if the book can rise above just being “pretty good, but not incredible,” in my opinion.

Happy to say things kick up a notch here. In this issue, Čižmešija lets loose, even more so than in issue 3, showing his true prowess and skill in drawing gorgeous panels, creepy monsters, and finally, a pretty spectacular Godzilla battle that isn’t just a single page. Some of the best Godzilla panels in the run’s history thus far are in this issue. Even when in the quieter moments, such as G-FORCE exploring a cave, or swimming underwater, Nikola Čižmešija is locked in. This is his best work of the ongoing run so far, no doubt. The entire world looks interesting and when combined with Tim Seeley’s writing, especially with a certain new ally that these characters meet – it feels incredibly fleshed out. I just wish readers, especially kaiju fans that are in it more for the big monsters, would get to see his takes on these creatures beyond Anguirus and the leeches; it’s clear he’s got a pretty solid eye for blending his own style with the classic Toho silhouettes, but it’s here in issue 4 where it really gets to shine.

I’m admittedly a little hard to please when it comes to characters being quippy (Seeley’s bombastic writing on the upcoming TMNT x Godzilla is perfectly in line with how those characters behave and it suits the overall story), but here, it feels like a blend of anime and MCU that hasn’t really clicked with me quite yet. I’m not really into anime in general, so that might be a bit of a nitpick on my own end, because the rest is well-paced and the dialogue itself is organic when the characters aren’t bantering with each other. Jacen’s haunting flashbacks lean into the supernatural, with an ominous calling urging to reach the other side where his deceased relatives lie. That’s one of the more intriguing things that I took from this book: What IS Kai-Sei? Was it an energy force showing Jacen what it wanted him to see? Was Jacen having a NDE? Who knows? That’s the exciting part! After all, it is an energy that binds this entire universe and every living thing, right? That’s some really great storytelling and in my view, is what pulls this book from being “just another Godzilla action story with military force.”

I would be remiss to not bring up our menacing, shadowy antagonist in this review. In a pretty clever reveal, readers are introduced to the site in the Nevada desert that apparently created Godzilla, and the owner of the new house… Lament. The exchange with the Captain of G-FORCE is brilliant – that entire sequence was what I wanted out of this book – and the monologue is eerie, otherworldly, and beyond our comprehension. The way he speaks to the Captain with such intelligence and a disturbingly polite tone is fantastic, and I will always remember the “I have been many things” line as one of the high points of this run. More of that creature would do wonders for this book and give it some intensity without veering into the complete insanity and repulsiveness of Deadzone’s body horror.

These new books were designed to show Godzilla built specifically for comics, and unfortunately, I’m still waiting to see that with this ongoing run. This is a story that can be a movie: everything is cinematic looking, each panel can be a frame, but there’s nothing crazy enough for me to say “Yeah, this can only happen in a comic book.” G-FORCE is very Godzilla: Final Wars, but even that movie does something a little more exciting with the idea of some of them being mutants with “Kaiser” energy. Each Kai-Sei book has a solid, foundational quality that I admire for its sheer consistency, there’s just something about this ongoing book that makes it require a desperately needed adrenaline shot. Thankfully, I think this issue was a pretty good way to do that, and it sets things up for the climactic two issues that close up this first arc pretty well. Godzilla is good, but I want this book to be great. I’m hoping soon that the main, premiere book of this new “Kai-Sei” era can really hit its stride and be the strongest amongst the three titles. We’re seeing glimpses of it here, and that’s an optimistic sign for things to come.