Godzilla vs. America: Godzilla Vs. Chicago // Review
Fangoolie had parachuted-in to Soldier Field during what COULD have been the game-winning field goal. The Bears lost the NFC Championship because of him. He had hoped to be some kind of hero. Having done what he had done, he became quite the opposite. Now he has a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the city in Godzilla vs. America: Godzilla Vs. Chicago. It’s a one-shot action horror comedy written by Mike Costa with art by Ryan Browne. Color comes to Godzilla’s visit courtesy of Ryan Browne and Kevin Knipstein It’s a fun, silly, little extended joke that works on a few levels.
Fangoolie is working for a company that has a large complex under Millennium Park. That’s where they keep Mechagodzilla. He’s got a simple plan: attack Soldier Field with the giant robot and then arrive just in time to save the day with a self-destruct mechanism. His plans get cut short as Godzilla shows-up in Lake Michigan. The freshwater Godzilla attack just might turn the monster into a hero as Fangoolie finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. There will be a battle. There will be collateral damage. Anything could happen.
Costa modulates a sci-fi horror comedy quite well. The script focusses on Fangoolie more closely than the title character. As a result, Godzilla doesn’t get much of a chacne to do a whole lot of sightseeing before the big conflict. So it ends up feeling like a bit of a disappointment and a missed opportunity to get the most famous kaiju in the world in the third largest city in the U.S. The extended one-shot joke is not without its charm, though. Costa is really dedicated to the joke and he does a good job of selling it even if it’s not terribly funny.
Browne delivers the action to the page quite well. There’s a grand sense of perspective between Godzilla and Chicago. The art embraces the silliness of Costa’s script without compromising the classic images and profiles of Godzilla and Mechagodzilla. It would have been nice to see them have an opportunity to be framed a bit closer the the classic image of hte Chicago skyline, but it’s a fun journey nonetheless. The silliness of the story makes it to the page in an atmospheric visual space thanks in part to the color that Browne and Knipstein conjure to the page.
The format of a Godzilla story could easily be placed i just about any major metropolitan city in the world. Each city is going to have its own personality. A Chicago-based story seems to be more or less at home with a sketch comedy feel. Chicago is well-known for improv and sketch comedy, so it kind of makes sense. Like any other major metropolitan city, there’s a lot more to it than just that. The light comedy feel of the script seems to be a really easy choice, though. It would have been nice to see Costa and company take the one-shot from a slgihtly different direction.
