Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has learned how to make the Monsterverse’s Titans truly seem real. Let’s face it; as thrilling as Godzilla and the Monsterverse’s other kaiju may be, they have almost seemed so much more larger than life. The best Godzilla adaptations always ground the action in the real world to give a true sense of spectacle, but the grandeur and scale of the Titans actually works against them in a way.
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The problem, of course, is that the human imagination simply can’t ground creatures that are quite this massive. You’re talking monsters so large they dwarf the tallest skyscraper, so destructive they can level entire cities. The stories are arresting in the style of apocalypse movies, in that we’re blown away by the idea human beings are comparatively insignificant, dwarfed by cosmic forces so much greater than we are. But it’s hard to give them the human emotion they need for the tales to feel real.
The Monsterverse’s New Spinoff Has Fixed the Greatest Titan Problem
That’s where Monarch: Legacy of Monsters comes in. The tales are still spectacular – Season 2 has literally introduced a new Godzilla rival – but the focus lies on a handful of human beings who’ve entered the world of monsters. Each episode is skillfully divided between members of Monarch and a small group of civilians who’ve gotten caught up in it all, and the reactions of the latter group serve to ground the entire story. In Season 2, episode 3, for example, the heroes scatter across the world… and their grief and trauma helps make the Titans seem so much more like the forces of nature they’re supposed to be.
Monarch‘s cast features characters who are, quite simply, out of their depth. The highlight is Cate Randa, who looked Godzilla in the eye during the creature’s rampage in San Francisco, and has gone on to encounter more Titans than most people on Earth. She has absolutely no idea what she’s doing, and her mind is still reeling at the spectacle of everything she’s seen. It doesn’t help that she’s just escaped from the Axis Mundi, meaning she’s experienced time dilation and found herself living in a world that’s moved on two years while she was gone.
Making matters worse, Cate is the one who was responsible for unleashing Titan X – the new Godzilla rival featured in Season 2. Her reaction is so very human, as she reels with guilt and fear that she is personally to blame for anything Titan X does from this point on. In episode 3, she heads to the still-unstable part of San Francisco devastated by Godzilla, and she’s clearly imagining other parts of the world suffering the same because of her. The emotional stakes are incredibly high, and they make an epic-scale adventure seem real. It’s smart writing, and it shows what Monarch can add to the Monsterverse – something real, grounded, and yet even more fantastical.
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Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
