Fresh off the heels of an Oscar win, will the King of Monsters be able to hold its ground against the Justice League and King Kong? Will we find out in this issue? Let’s see.
Not so King Kong
The situation is bleak.
Superman is incapacitated.
Monsters are everywhere.
Our heroes must formulate a plan to stop them, as well as Lex Luthor’s Mecha-Godzilla. What’s the best way to defeat a giant robot?
That’s right, a giant Batbot.
This issue seems like it would deliver on the titular fight we’ve all been waiting for.
It doesn’t. That being said, the Justice League do fight Kong, but has not fought Kong and Godzilla simultaneously as of yet. I read Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong to see all of them fight. How are we 6 out of 7 issues in without a giant free-for-all? Not to mention, the books are quite quick reads, they don’t feel like they have many pages and are quite light on the dialogue. I wanted the series to be longer, but instead, it’s in this weird in-between state where it’s not short enough to just be a giant fight, but it’s not long enough to go into as much detail as I would like. I’m less concerned about what will happen next, but how they’ll manage to wrap up the story in just one more issue.
I’m not going to act like I expect a particularly layered story from this. Anyone who is picking up this title is doing so to see a giant monster fight a giant ape and a group of superheroes. It is much more akin story-wise to the American Godzilla and Kong films, rather than something in the vein of Godzilla Minus One. I am not a big fan of the recent GvK films, and I think that can be seen in how I feel about this issue.
The book seems to suffer from the same drawbacks as the films. When watching them I often find myself not caring for the human characters in the story, and would just rather see the big monsters fight. The same happens in this story, with the unfortunate drawback being that the human characters are the Justice League. Much like a lot of other more recent JL stories, I’m wondering why one of the most interesting teams in comics feels so boring and slow. We should WANT to see them, not want them to go away.
The main draw of this story– as opposed to just a Godzilla vs Kong book– is the ability to see the monsters interact with our favourite DC characters. In theory, seeing Batman fight King Kong is awesome. In practice, it ends up feeling rather bland and uninteresting, and I often find myself wishing that the Justice League weren’t in it.
The story is very formulaic. Superman might not be dead? Absolute shocker. Gorilla Grodd has somehow hypnotised Kong? Colour me surprised. Granted, Buccellato does somewhat take advantage of the fact that this is non-canon by doing a few things that did catch me off guard. I’m not completely sure if I liked these choices or if they elicited the intended response, but I will give credit where credit is due and admit that they did surprise me.
Truth, Justice and the Kaiju Way
I enjoy the art a bit more than I enjoy the story. It’s not saying much, but Duce and Derenick’s art does not bother me as much as it does some people. I have heard it said that others think that the monsters look traced, but I didn’t pick up on that. I do however have an issue, and that is with the colours. When I was reading through, I had a sense that something was wrong visually but I couldn’t tell what it was. I then saw Wally West. He was wearing his yellow and red Kid Flash costume, something he was not wearing before.
While continuity errors do irk me, they’re not something I will pay too much attention to. This miscolour did make me want to have a look at some of the black and white pages. Looking some up, I found that I preferred them in some instances. For me, in an event of this supposed magnitude, I want the colours to really pop while in the book, they seem a bit flat.
This is a minor nitpick however, the art is overall solid and I will admit, seeing Batman’s mech glistening in the sun did get me a little bit excited.
I just don’t know if it’s enough for me to like this book. I don’t actively dislike the art sure, but when it’s paired with a story like this, I need some absolutely stunning pictures to make it feel worth it. I’ve got nothing against stories that don’t do anything new. If done well, they can be some of my favourite reads. Hell, most of my comfort books are relatively generic. But the tropes and formulas they use are done so well I can’t help but love them. JL vs. G vs. K just doesn’t do anything well enough to not at least try to do something different.
Recommended If…
- Big Ape fighting Big Robot sounds appealing.
- You like Godzilla. I certainly do.
- Reading tires you out and you just want to look at pictures of things fighting.
Overall:
I am afraid that this review will give the impression that I hate this book. I don’t, though I’m not exactly its biggest fan either. While I said I didn’t expect much in the way of writing for this story, I would’ve liked to have been proven wrong. It’s gone exactly where I thought it was and the only thing I’m left wondering is how they’re going to manage to wrap everything up in one issue.
Score: 6/10
DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review.
