Big G prepares to crush the 616 across decades.
18th December 2024
Article by Paul Dunne
So, after showing the Justice League and The Legion of Doom and King Kong just whose boss, Godzilla is going up against the Marvel Universe in a six-issue series that drops March 2025!
Marvel revealed the news via THR recently: The King of The Kaiju’s will take on The Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, X-Men and in the first issue, The Fantastic Four. Godzilla made his debut around a decade before Marvel’s greatest heroes, with Toho’s first movie making its bow in 1954.
This is the first time in almost fifty years that he’s featured in a Marvel book after the publisher’s King of The Monsters series, which ran from 1974-1979 and was set in the main Marvel U. We’ve got the facsimile edition of that first series’ first issue in our Facsimile Editions Shop, by the way!
Since then, Godzilla has bounced around publishers, most notably at IDW, who have done some wild stuff, including the recent Godzilla: Skate of Die (which we also have in our Indies Shop)!
This changes in 2025 when Godzilla arrives at Marvel!
The series will feature Godzilla in different time periods, starting with his classic nemesis King Ghidorah, chosen by Galactus to be the Devourer of Worlds’ new herald, showing up in the sixties Marvel Universe, loaded with cosmic power and batling The Fantastic Four, whilst Godzilla teams with The Silver Surfer!
Writer of the current hit FF series Ryan North is handling scripting duties for this one-shot, with art from John Romita Jr. This will kick off a series of fun, exciting one-shots featuring the aforementioned characters in periods that exemplified their time in the Marvel Universe. Other incredible Marvel creators will take over with each successive one-shot, including Jason Aaron, Fabian Nicieza, Joe Kelly, Gerry Duggan, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Aaron Kuder and many more.
The news was first teased on 10th December by Marvel Editor Mark Paniccia, who wrote on his socials: “BIG news coming from MARVEL COMICS within the next day. When I say big you’ll know what I meant!”
The project has been in the works for a while, according to Marvel VP of licensing and publishing Sven Larsen. Marvel’s EIC C.B. Beluski said of the project: “We [Toho] initially for our reprints, but a while after those conversations, it was clear that both of our teams were excited to do more together. These crossovers started coming together over that time, in direct collaboration with Toho, and we felt the perfect time for them was for Godzilla’s 70th anniversary next year. We’ve been thrilled to work with them on these, and we hope this will be a sign for more exciting projects to come.”
Dan Buckley, President of Marvel Comics & Franchises, has loved the chance to bring Godzilla back to Marvel: “For us, kaiju—and specifically Godzilla—are important parts of Marvel’s comic history, so we knew we wanted to explore something with their teams. We’ve always been fans of Godzilla, but with the steady rise in Godzilla’s popularity over the years, it’s part of our current cultural zeitgeist and a perfect example of the fun that the comics industry can bring. We’re focused on the storytelling first and foremost, but fun opportunities for crossovers like this give both of our fans an entertaining escape that they won’t want to miss.”
Godzilla’s popularity has exploded again in the last decade, from Gareth Edward’s Movie to Netflix’s Shin Godzilla, to Godzilla Minus One, all the way up to the Legendary-produced Apple TV series, Monarch. No matter what we throw at him, Godzilla rules. We’ll find out how he fares against the heroes of the Marvel Universe in March 2025!
