Godzilla has battled many foes in its time, from Kong to Mechagodzilla to Mothra, and more (including the Avengers last year). Now the King of the Monsters is set to take on an entire country!
Godzilla vs. America is a four-issue limited series from IDW which sees the big lizard bring the pain to four different cities across the United States. In the first issue that means stomping its feet on Chicago in three brand new stories from Tim Seeley, Mike Costa and Ryan Browne, and Ezra Claytan Daniels.
Newsarama caught up with Chicagoans Seeley, Costa, and Browne to find out more about the new comic and how it feels to set the iconic beast loose in their home town...
Newsarama: First off, what does Godzilla mean to each of you and how does it feel to be creating a Godzilla comic?
Tim Seeley: I grew up on Godzilla movies in the '80s. They were some of the first easy-to-find VHS videos. When I moved out on my own (and was totally broke) I used my first video store membership to rent and watch all the movies I hadn't seen. So, I think, Godzilla is a comfort character for me. No matter what mood I'm in, I can watch one of the films... any of the films.
Mike Costa & Ryan Browne: Well, Godzilla's a cultural icon, probably next to Dracula and Frankenstien as the most recognizable monsters of all time. Grant Morrison talked in an interview once about how the legacy of Superman is like a vast cave painting, and they were just proud to smudge their little thumbprint on it, and that's exactly how we feel. Our tiny contribution to the great Cultural Record.
Could you each tease your stories in this special Chicago-themed issue?
Seeley: A college student, trying to talk herself into asking out a guy she likes, is on the Chicago L, waiting for a sign to act. Unfortunately that sign is an attack by Godzilla.
Costa & Browne: Like the first – and all the best – Godzilla stories, our story isn't actually about Godzilla. Godzilla exists as a terrible consequence of human arrogance and hubris. We're just focusing on a specifically Chicago-centric form of hubris. Which is not in short supply in that wonderful city. Especially around their sports teams.
Everyone probably has an idea of what they think a Godzilla story should be, but this comic proves that there's lots of room for different tones and genres within that. What makes this character such a flexible storytelling tool?
Seeley: Well, Godzilla isn't a character per se. It's a force of nature with a cool face. All the best Godzilla stories are about people stuck in Godzilla's way, and how they deal with inevitability and catastrophe. I took inspiration from Godzilla '54 and Minus One – plus a little touch of '80s rom-com.
Costa & Browne: Godzilla has always been such an elastic character. He's been a wrathful judgement on human civilization. He's been a defender of that very same civilization. He's been a big mindless Roland Emmerich egg-laying lizard, and he's been a compassionate friend to children. But monsters are elastic. That's why we invent them – they can be whatever the moment needs them to be. And if the post-war Japanese people need him to personify and exorcise their anxieties about atomic weapons, or if Roland Emmerich needs him to step on Siskel and Ebert because they panned his movies, Godzilla is there for them, just like he's there for all of us.
This issue is all about Chicago. How does this change of location (from the traditional Japanese setting) impact your stories?
Seeley: Chicago is my home, and it's a very distinct place. It's very much built around public transit (which has its problems, sure, especially of late), but which connects a lot of different people poor people, rich people, different races...everyone has to get downtown here. So, setting the story on this beloved institution made it really easy to make it feel distinctly Chicago.
Costa & Browne: We set out to tell a story about Chicago that involves Godzilla, rather than just plunk Godzilla down in a new town and have him destroy some famous midwestern buildings instead of Tokyo Tower. Chicagoans can decide how we did! But I think they will be pleased.
If Godzilla really did attack Chicago, how do you think the locals would respond?
Seeley: Chicago is a city that's used to being a target. Right-wing media tries to make people think it's a crime-ridden cesspool, and we're often glossed over by the coastal elites types. So, that makes us defensive of our town. We love it, because you hate us. If Godzilla showed up, Chicagoans would pick up beer bottles and snow shovels and fight that lizard!
Costa & Browne: Chicago's roots are midwestern industrial. Meat-packing and manufacturing. It's also one of the greatest food cities in the US. So all of that combines into a town that is proudly more blue-collar, and proudly more unhealthy, than the sexier coastal cities. It's also a town of extremely aggressive sports fans. Which means that, should Godzilla attack, he would be met by significant solidarity in the civilian resistance, more of whom would be felled by diabetes and high blood pressure than Godzilla himself. Chicago goes down swinging.
What, in your opinion, is the enduring appeal of Godzilla more than 70 years after it was first created?
Seeley: Godzilla represents our fear that sooner or later, nature is going to get fed up with us and wipe us off the map. That's what made Godilla popular during the Cold War's nuclear saber-rattling, and responsible for its recent surge in popularity as climate change burns cities to the ground. Also – Godzilla looks really cool and beats up other cool looking monsters.
Costa & Browne: For all our high-falutin dramaturgy about the existential societal mirror of Godzilla, none of that would be of much interest without the core, irresistible premise that Tomoyuki Tanaka and Ishiro Honda created and Toho perfected: Giant monster smash city. What a perfect idea. I think seeing a story where a giant monster smashes a city is up there on the hierarchy of needs with food, shelter and security. It's simply one of the things that makes us human.
Godzilla Vs America: Chicago is published on February 26 by IDW.
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