The Follies of Men
Godzilla!
The late 1970s was a period of great experimentation in media, and even comics bore this out, though there weren’t many successes. Newsstand sales were in decline and the direct market had not yet settled in to save the industry. Undergrounds & independents were turning from their primary market of rebellious sexcapades more toward true alternative stories (the Star*Reach anthology, Sabre, Cerebus, ElfQuest, etc.), largely oriented to science fiction.
DC Comics brought us a plethora of new super-hero titles (such as Freedom Fighters, Firestorm, and Black Lightning), but also things like sword & sorcery, dystopian worlds, space opera (e.g., Starfire, Stalker, Star Hunters, Time Warp). Sadly, DC over-extended themselves and oh, so many books died in the great “DC Implosion.”[1]
Over at Marvel Comics we had a toy infusion with Micronauts and the Japanese multi-properties of Shogun Warriors, soft relaunches of some early ‘70’s horror (Man-Thing), and some very special licensing of cinematic properties: Logan’s Run, Star Wars, and Godzilla.
In the year of our kaiju 1977, Marvel introduced Godzilla to the Marvel Universe. Unlike Logan-5 and Luke Skywalker, the giant radioactive monster was placed firmly in situations with S.H.I.E.L.D. and even the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. (Fortunately, the X-Men relaunch was still new, so we were never subjected to “Is Godzilla a mutant?”)
I was 13 and eagerly awaited each issue over the next two years. I had, at the time, never seen a Godzilla film (this is pre-cable, people!) and in fact, Toho had stopped making them in 1975 (the new Gojira would be released in 1984, with the US version Godzilla 1985 again inserting Raymond Burr into the film, reprising his role as a not-so-wild-and-crazy-guy[2].)
The Americanized edit of this was my first Godzilla film. At last!
Godzilla has been one of the most popular characters in fiction, whether monster, hero, or goof. In 1978 Hanna-Barbera launched a cartoon series on American television.
Since the turn of the century, I have purchased and watched every Godzilla film. The Criterion set of all 15 of the original Shōwa-era films (1954-1975) is a thing of beauty. Of the 33 Japanese films, some are serious, some are action-oriented, some are cheesy, most are fun. The original Godzilla (Gojira) is quite serious and not a campy monster movie at all, despite the rubber suit and puppetry. Highly recommended is the Criterion Collection commentary track for the movie as it is highly informative not just for the filmmaking but for the detailed historical data in it. In fact, placing it in its historical context for the time and I’m sure Gojira (1954) was pretty scary.
Consider: Japan had two cities devastated by atomic bombs not even a decade prior and was coming out of nine years of occupation by the nation that dropped those bombs. Nuclear power and the possibility of a global nuclear war were on everyone’s minds; the Cold War wasn’t just of concern to the United States and Russia. Godzilla itself represents that nuclear threat.
Godzilla Minus One (2023) takes that cultural setting and recreates the horror of Godzilla by moving it to the immediate post-war period in Japan (1947). The country is still rebuilding from ruins, shortages abound, and people are trying to cope with life. Former kamikaze pilot Shikishima Kōichi is our main focus as he is also dealing with PTSD and survivor’s guilt – and what he and many others consider his cowardice (a suicide pilot returning alive?). He has lost his friends and his family in the war, and he survived what is apparently the first Godzilla attack in 1945.
Godzilla, older and larger and more destructive, returns to plague the island nation. The Cold War prevents the United States from helping (too close to Russian territory for them not to presume shenanigans), so Japan is on its own as the actually terrifying monster wreaks havoc.
[4]
The action and the effects are terrific, the music (particularly when Ifukube Akira’s original Godzilla themes are used) is spectacular, the creature is scary. However, the main focus of the film, which drives the action and the horror, is the human interaction throughout, particularly the various traumas endured by the characters from war, poverty, death, survival, and of course, a fucking gigantic monster.
For its opening weekend, Godzilla Minus One grossed over $11 million in the USA ($1.2 million on IMAX screens alone), breaking records for the highest-grossing Japanese-language release in this country. In the early IMAX screening I attended, the crowd was energetic and vocal in their appreciation of the film. This is highly recommended, and if you can see it in IMAX, do yourself a favor and see it on the biggest screen available!
[1] For details, see the excellent book Comic Book Implosion: An Oral History of DC Comics Circa 1978 by Keith Dallas and John Wells, TwoMorrows Publishing, 2018.
[2] “Steve Martin,” for those of you not in the know.
[3] Theme song from the cartoon. As much as Godzilla’s nephew Godzooky is hated, is it really any worse that Minilla, son of Godzilla? I think it’s much cuter. YMMV.
[4] “Godzilla” written by Donald Roeser (Buck Dharma), performed by Blue Oyster Cult, Columbia Records, 1977.