IDW’s 2025 Godzilla Comic Plans Detailed, Including Brand New Universe (Exclusive)

We’re less than two weeks into 2025, but the King of the Monsters is about to have a banner year. Not only will other publishers be doing stories with Godzilla, but IDW Publishing, who have held the Godzilla comics license for over 10 years, will continue to move Toho’s kaiju and all his friends (and enemies) into exciting and unique new places. In February alone IDW will publish the new mini-series Godzilla: Heist as well as kick off its new anthology Godzilla vs America, with March bringing another new series that fans will no doubt be eager to read, Mothra: Queen of the Monsters. Those three however are just the beginning for what IDW has planned in 2025.

“I want to do stories that haven’t been done, and couldn’t be done anywhere else,” Godzilla line editor Jake Williams told ComicBook in an exclusive interview. “When it comes to soliciting pitches for the new universe, I was super specific about the directions I wanted to go in. But in general, I’m just looking for excitement. I’m searching for that gut feeling you get when you read the right pitch, and you instantly want to run off and tell your coworkers about it. If a pitch doesn’t make me feel that way, it’s not worth pursuing.”

To Williams’ credit, one of those pitches that was an easy one to immediately greenlight was Godzilla: Heist. Written by Van Jensen (The Flash) and art by Kelsey Ramsay (Doctor Who: The Fifteenth Doctor), the series follows a protagonist that gleefully summons Godzilla to be the perfect distraction for a daring robbery. Of course, with technology like that, getting caught with stolen goods may be the least of his problems.

“Godzilla: Heist is one of those perfect pitches that you don’t have to think twice about,” Williams said. “I remember bringing it to an internal pitch meeting on Van Jensen’s behalf, and after explaining the premise I ended my pitch with ‘I mean, come on.’ It didn’t take any more convincing than that.”

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One week after readers can grab Godzilla: Heist #1, IDW will release the first issue of the Godzilla vs America series with Godzilla vs Chicago. This will be the first of five issues that will be released under the banner in 2025, with the “vs Chicago” issue featuring stories by Tim Seeley, Mike Costa, Ryan Browne, Caroline Cash, and Ezra Claytan Daniels. For Wiliams and his fellow editor on the book, Nic Nino, Godzilla vs America was about showcasing parts of America that fans have never seen Godzilla venture toward. The pair then gave themselves another rule that would narrow down the list even more, finding comic creators from or living in those cities.

“It’s not like there’s some database online with the address of everyone who works in comics, so that part took a lot of googling. It also eliminated some of the smaller cities that may not have 8 available professional comic book creators.”

Readers that find themselves hoping for more should know that the potentially for another round of Godzilla vs America could be in the cards, provided the book itself is a hit. Williams added, “If people are digging it, then we’ll definitely keep doing more! Honestly, that goes for everything we make. I love an ongoing series. I love long running stories. Buy the books and we’ll make more!”

Godzilla has not only been the mainstay of most of IDW’s kaiju stories, but his name has also been the one at the front of every title. That changes in March with Mothra: Queen of the Monsters, a new series from Sophie Campbell and Matt Frank. Williams said the decision to make Mothra the first kaiju other than Godzilla to carry their own comic came down to Campbell and Frank having a pitch for the character.

“If we have an angle, I’d be down to give other kaiju the spotlight, but I think Mothra was the natural first choice for a lot of reasons,” Williams said. “On a commercial level, she’s a fan favorite. From a story perspective, her unique lore and moral alignment make her a really fun kaiju to explore. While stories about some of the other kaiju might look a lot like classic Godzilla stories with a different kaiju swapped in to destroy the city, Mothra stories naturally take a different direction.”

Godzilla fans will keep eating in 2025 though and IDW will pull back the curtain in a big way on this year’s Free Comic Book Day. On May 3, readers will be able to pick up Godzilla: The New Heroes Free Comic Book Day 2025, which will not only introduce new kaiju and new characters, but kick off a brand new Godzilla universe for the line. Williams confirmed that this new universe “absolutely” means fans should expect a new ongoing title as well as connected comics set in the same timeline.

“We’ve created a new world to explore, and we’re going to use the various series to show every angle of it,” Williams added. “This take is going to let us do different stories, in different genres, that will feel standalone, but also serve as a smaller part of the larger narrative.  But, just to assuage any concerns–in the same way Marvel or DC has a core continuity and out-of-continuity stories, we won’t stop publishing off-the-wall books like Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre.”

Godzilla fans are no doubt well aware that both Marvel and DC have been using the King of the Monsters within their publishing lines, but the difference there is that they’re bringing Godzilla into what they’re already doing. IDW on the other hand is charting courses that those two companies cannot.

“While those are sure to be fun comics, we’re building a universe that Godzilla can call its own,” Williams said. “A stomping ground designed specifically for the King of the Monsters, that we can tell stories in for years to come.”

Readers should also expect something horrific when the new Godzilla from this line is revealed, as Williams confirms the version of the character on the cover for the Free Comic Book Day issue (seen above) is NOT the Godzilla from this new universe.

“We have to get covers in incredibly early for FCBD, and we weren’t quite ready to show-off our new design–so I had Oliver Ono cook up that incredible cover featuring his take on a more classic Godzilla,” Williams said. “As far as the new design, what I can say is that Nikola Čižmešija (with an assist from Pablo Tunica) cooked up a take on Godzilla that is absolutely TERRIFYING. This is the biggest swing IDW has taken with a Godzilla design yet, and we think it’s going to really carve out a unique spot for us in the Godzilla canon.”