anyway, it was great news for a kid who loved both monsters and superheroes to read that Marvel Comics was going to produce make a Godzilla comic, and he would be interacting with their heroes. sadly, there was only one Hulk vs Godzilla drawing and that was a gag panel.
incidentally, Herb Trimpe stated that one of the art requests he gets a lot is Godzilla vs the Hulk. I wanted to see Godzilla vs Ultimo more, but that didn't happen either, alas.
we did get to see Godzilla take on the Thing and Devil Dinosaur, and a lot of other monsters, and some rustlers, and even Las Vegas. I enjoyed every issue and was pretty sad when it ended, not due to poor sales, but due to the licensing fees Toho wanted. once a month for two years I was in a heaven where monsters met superheroes, and it was great.
I'm always interested that the comic has a worse reputation among GODZILLA fans than MARVEL fans. This probably means something, but I don't pretend to know what it is.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yes, GODZILLA was fun. I think they did their best, and it was more entertaining than much of the other American licensed Godzilla merchandise. People need to take a chill pill, because it's really not bad. I mean, Hercules toppling Godzilla? Talk about awesome!
My main quibble is that Doug Moench created names for Japanese characters that were ALMOST accurate, but not actually accurate. I'd have hoped he could have managed slightly better.
yeah, even I recognized that as a kid. didn't care that much then, but now it's pretty obvious.
ReplyDeleteIt probably shouldn't bother me as much as it does that there is a male scientist named "Yuriko" in GODZILLA and a female pilot named "Genji" in SHOGUN WARRIORS. But it does bother me, doggone it. Of course, I realize that researching such stuff in the late 70s was no easy task, but he was SO CLOSE. Ah well.
ReplyDeleteYou did know they published a fill-in story for this title later with details changed to protect the innocent, right? (I have not read it myself, so don't hate me for making you want things!)
in Iron Man? I have heard of it, but never read it. they could have just changed it to one of their own creations from the 60s, there were plenty of them.
ReplyDeleteI liked Marvel's Godzilla comic-it seemed that Marvel was on a winning streak with licensed properties in 1977(that year brought us their ''STAR WARS'' ongoing as well as the first KISS comic!)
ReplyDeleteThat story in ''IRON MAN'' featuring Dr.Demonicus imprisoning a creature he identified as ''my old enemy'' also featured Hawkeye&Mockingbird(another reason I likes it heheh...)
Well, there *IS* the Iron Man thing you and Danny mentioned. But I was referring to this:
ReplyDeleteMarvel Spotlight #5 (March 1980)
This is supposedly a fill-in issue of Godzilla that got altered into a non-Godzilla story. As I said, I haven't read it; heck, I thought it was in Marvel PREMIERE rather than this second series of Spotlight. As noted in the index, there is a reprint floating out there, and I don't think it costs very much (I doubt the original costs that much either).
oh yeah, THAT story. makes so much more sense as a Godzilla story, but I really enjoyed it back then, even in the altered form.
ReplyDelete