Even as someone who is, at best, a casual appreciator of Godzilla (I saw the 1954 original years ago and 2023’s Godzilla Minus One more recently and rank both highly), it’s hard not to tell that the “King of the Monsters” is having a moment in pop culture. Toho released two back-to-back critically acclaimed Godzilla reinventions within the past decade while, at the same time, Legendary Pictures has built a shared cinematic universe in Hollywood around Godzilla and Kong. That influx of interest has also come to comics, the most high-profile of which see Godzilla crossing paths with heroes from other properties, including the Power Rangers and the Justice League. Simultaneously, IDW Publishing has released a string of mostly well-received Godzilla comics focused on Godzilla and his pantheon of fellow kaiju. Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons even received awards attention in the form of two nominations from the 2024 Eisner Awards. Now IDW Publishing has brought back most of that series’ creative team—writer Frank Tieri, artist Inaki Miranda, and colorist Eva de la Cruz—for a sequel.
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The follow-up series is dubbed Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons II – Sons of Giants, a mouthful of a title that gets its secondary subtitle from the secret cabal of kaiju worshippers introduced in the first series’ framing story. The groups’ prominent place in the title (“Sons of Giants” dwarfs “Here There Be Dragons II” in the logo on the issue’s cover) is indicative of the series’ shift in focus, bearing no apparent direct tie to the tale of Francis Drake’s trip to Monster Island that was the main thrust of the first Here There Be Dragons, and instead focusing on the shadowy cult.
As such, Here There Be Dragons II jumps a few centuries into the future. The main story takes place in 1804, when a journalist approaches Vice President Aaron Burr, hinting that he knows the real reason for Burr’s ill-fated duel with Alexander Hamilton and that it had less to do with Hamilton besmirching Burr’s good name and more to do with a coin stamped with Godzilla’s likeness found on Hamilton’s body. This plot barely gets underway as the issue splits time between that conversation and two flashbacks, one to a story of Godzilla in feudal Japan and another to the monster’s activities in Ancient Rome.
One might think that these flashbacks distract from the main story. On the contrary, they’re the issue’s highlights. Miranda and de la Cruz get the most room to show their versatility in these scenes, mimicking the style of traditional Japanese artwork in the first story and going as big as possible in the latter to convey Godzilla’s scale relative to the Roman army. Readers may even find themselves wishing these vignettes had been expanded to full-issue tales, with the story of the vengeful samurai being particularly poignant.
But the reporter’s investigation is squeezed because of the flashbacks’ inclusions. The issue barely gets past his first meeting with Burr, and what follows after is of questionable logic. How is it that this reporter is canny enough to discover the existence of a secret monster-worshipping society but not careful enough to think twice about blindly following a man he already believes killed a peer to protect the group’s secrets to a second location? Or foolish enough to think it safe to let his guard down around this person, even for a minute? In a story like this, there’s always the chance that a twist is waiting to explain it all, but taken at face value (as we have little choice but to do with this issue alone), it’s confounding.
It’s hard to get invested in the conspiracy angle at this point because, thus far, readers don’t know much about what the Sons of Giants are up to. Yes, they are uncomfortably comfortable with killing people to keep their existence shrouded in mystery but beyond that, we only know that they like to dress up in silly kaiju-themed hats and robes and tell monster stories, making them hardly the worst bunch of nerds ever encountered (aside from all the murder). While Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons II – Sons of Giants #1 may not hook readers on its central mystery by the time the issue ends, the gorgeous historical vignettes are enough for even casual kaiju lovers to consider returning for a second look.
Published by IDW Publishing
On June 26, 2024
Written by Frank Tieri
Art by Inaki Miranda
Colors by Eva de la Cruz
Letters by Steve Wands
Cover by Inaki Miranda
