Godzilla has a long and fruitful comics history—including at Marvel, with his legendary ‘70s series from Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe. He’s gone to hell, battled ferocious beasts, he’s teamed up with fellow heroes. He has, occasionally, been allowed to stomp the bejesus out of Superman. But it’s that last one that makes Marvel’s latest team up with the King kind of a bummer.
This week Marvel announced that across September and into October, it will publish 21 Godzilla-themed variant covers from an array of superstar artists, depicting everyone from the X-Men, to the Avengers, multiple Spider-heroes, and more working with and against the almighty kaiju. Well, mostly against, but at least Cyclops and Venom seem to get the picture that Godzilla is cool, moments of mass destruction aside. Here’s the full list of issues and artists for the variant covers:
On Sale 9/4
DAREDEVIL #13 Godzilla Variant Cover by Nick Bradshaw
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #1 Godzilla Variant Cover by Leinil Francis Yu
FANTASTIC FOUR #25 Godzilla Variant Cover by Greg Land
IMMORTAL THOR #15 Godzilla Variant Cover by Jonas Scharf
MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #24 Godzilla Variant Cover by Romy Jones
SCARLET WITCH #4 Godzilla Variant Cover by Mitsuhiro Arita
SPIDER-BOY #11 Godzilla Variant Cover by Lee Garbett
On Sale 9/11
CAPTAIN AMERICA #13 Godzilla Variant Cover by Phil Noto
SPIDER-GWEN: THE GHOST-SPIDER #5 Godzilla Variant Cover by InHyuk Lee
VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #9 Godzilla Variant Cover by Taurin Clarke
On Sale 9/18
AVENGERS #18 Godzilla Variant Cover by Ario Anindito
DAZZLER #1 Godzilla Variant Cover by Elizabeth Torque
DEADPOOL #6 Godzilla Variant Cover by Paco Medina
INCREDIBLE HULK #17 Godzilla Variant Cover by Andrei Bressan
VENOM #37 Godzilla Variant Cover by Dave Wachter
X-MEN #4 Godzilla Variant Cover by Chris Samnee
On Sale 9/25
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #58 Godzilla Variant Cover by Leo Romero
AVENGERS ANNUAL #1 Godzilla Variant Cover by Pete Woods
PHOENIX #3 Godzilla Variant Cover by Rickie Yagawa
UNCANNY X-MEN #2 Godzilla Variant Cover by David Baldeon
On Sale 10/16
WOLVERINE #2 Godzilla Variant Cover by Roge Antonio
It’s a fun idea, and the covers are great! But honestly, coming so soon after DC capped off its huge Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong series, it’s hard not to feel like Marvel got the short shrift here in terms of Godzilla collabos. And you’re the guys celebrating your history with Godzilla this year!
Maybe this is just a predecessor to a more fully-fledged Marvel/Godzilla comic crossover. After all, the King of all Kaiju can’t look like he’s playing the field by immediately bouncing from one major comics publisher to the next. It’d be improper! But it would be a lot more fun to see an extended take on the idea of Godzilla fighting with or against Marvel’s mightiest instead of just getting a lot of very cool covers. How does Godzilla feel about Mutantkind in a post-Krakoa world? Does he think Spider-Man is a threat or menace? Inquiring minds want to know!
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