Marvel Reprinting Classic Godzilla Comics in New Omnibus

Godzilla will rise once more in the Marvel Universe. Toho recently celebrated Godzilla's 69th anniversary on Godzilla Day, when the company announced the Godzilla Minus One film, opening in the United States in December. Marvel Comics is getting in on the King of the Monsters' birthday celebration with the announcement that it will publish Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus in collaboration with Toho International, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Japanese Godzilla studio Toho. The omnibus collects Godzilla's classic Marvel Comics series. Launched in 1977, Marvel's ongoing Godzilla comic proved a hit for the publisher as it saw Godzilla stomping through the Marvel Comics universe. Now all 24 issues of the long out-of-print series will be available again in one massive volume that will hit store shelves in 2024.

Marvel Godzilla comic came as a collaboration between two of the company's top talents during the 1970s. Writer Doug Moench was hot from his run writing Master of Kung Fu and co-creating Moon Knight. Herb Trimpe had become a fan-favorite for his character-defining work on Incredible Hulk and Iron Man. Together, they crafted a series that brought Godzilla to a whole new segment of fans. Here's Marvel's description of the stories included within the new omnibus:

"Godzilla rises from the depths in the United States — and the Marvel Universe! See the towering scourge of Tokyo march across America and battle some of the best and brightest the House of Ideas had to offer, including the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the Champions, Nick Fury and the mechanized monster fighter, Red Ronin! Godzilla goes west, travels through time to battle Devil Dinosaur, and hosts one of Spider-Man's most gratuitous guest-shots ever — but when Godzilla is shrunk down to miniature size, the terrible titan proves it can still be a tiny terror! Plus: Aliens, mutants, mad scientists and epic kaiju clashes with Godzilla's fellow towering titans — including Batragon and Yetrigar!"

Junggeun Yoon created the brand new main cover art for Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years, seen above. The omnibus will ship to comic shops with two Direct Market Exclusive Variant Covers. Each features one of Trimpe's original Godzilla covers and can be seen below.

Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years is the latest omnibus to celebrate Marvel's history of publishing well-loved licensed comic books. Marvel recently reached an agreement with Hasbro to print omnibus editions of their classic Rom and Micronauts comics, which have out of print for decades. After regaining the Conan comics license, the publisher released a line of omnibus editions reprinting comics from the character's original Marvel Comics era. Those volumes are unlikely to be reprinted now that Marvel has lost the license again. With the Planet of the Apes franchise now belonging to Disney, Marvel regained the license to print Planet of the Apes comics, including and omnibus of its original Planet of the Apes comic book stories from the 1970s. Marvel regained the Star Wars license when Disney purchased Lucasfilm and released three omnibus hardcovers collecting its original 107-issue Star Wars ongoing series as well as several other stories published during the original trilogy era.

• GODZILLA: THE ORIGINAL MARVEL YEARS OMNIBUS HC
• Written by DOUG MOENCH
• Art by HERB TRIMPE & TOM SUTTON
• Cover by JUNGGEUN YOON
• Direct Market Exclusive First Issue Variant Cover by HERB TRIMPE
• Direct Market Exclusive War of the Giants Variant Cover by HERB TRIMPE
• On Sale October 2024