I have a confession, I’ve never seen a Godzilla movie. Not even part of one. Yet, when I saw the cover of Godzilla Half Century War #1 I was drawn in. It turns out that this was a good comic for me to start with because even though it is a Godzilla comic the story is about Lieutnant Ota Murakami and his friend Kentaro, and how they deal with Godilla’s first attack on Tokyo in 1954. Before I get into the story I need to mention the artwork. Godzilla and the city are detailed and gritty while the human characters have a slight cartoon look to them. This works well for the story as it makes them stand out against all the destruction going on. Also, there are some large panels, and one full page panel, of Godzilla that really show him in detail. These do a great job showing how large he is compared to everything else.
Godzilla Half Century War #1 does a great job of setting up our leading characters and filling in the back story of their first encounter with Godzilla. We get to see their heroics as they try to protect the citizens of Tokyo despite facing the overwhelming force of Godzilla. There is a lot of action in this first encounter and while they survive it comes at a cost. The story then jumps ahead a few months and we see the creation of the Anti Megalosaurus Force with Ota and Kentaro being the only to crazy enough to join up.
I think I’m really going to enjoy the Godzilla Half Century War series as it focuses on Ota verses Godzilla over the course of Ota’s career. It is a different take on this style of story than what I was expecting. It should be fun to see how Ota changes through the next four issues and if that has any effect on Godzilla.
