GODZILLA VS. X-MEN #1 – Getting to the Root of the Problem

Creative Team – Fabian Nicieza(writer). Emilio Laiso(artist). Federico Blee(color artist). VC’s Clayton Cowles(letterer). Tony Daniel & Marcelo Maiolo(cover artists).

Published by Marvel Comics

Check out Godzilla Vs. Spider-Man here!

This review was written by Nerd Initiative’s Matt and Megan!

The Story

In the Imabari Shipyards in Japan, Sunfire is trying to de-escalate an attack from the King of the Monsters, Godzilla. While Godzilla had been rather quiet in recent years, this has been his third attack in three weeks. Godzilla seems to have a pattern, as he’s attacking only Tsugunai Robotics manufacturing facilities. Despite Sunfire’s best efforts, it’s going to take even more than just himself to stop Godzilla.

The Commission of Superhuman Activities seeks assistance from Charles Xavier and his team of X-Men by paying the X-Mansion a visit. Val Cooper and Henry Gyrich make formal arrangements for the X-Men to start their adventure in stopping Godzilla from destroying anymore of Japan.

While the X-Men team is plenty strong and has their own powers that can be proven useful, how can they come close to matching a monster that’s the size of a football field? It looks like the team of mutants will need a pretty big trick up their sleeves to be able to pull this off. The X-Men head to Colorado to find that very trick, and it goes by the name of The Super-Adaptoid. With the help of some Pym Particles, the X-Men’s plan of taking down Godzilla looks to be taking off on a good start.

The Writing

Megan – Fabian Nicieza gave a full course meal in one comic when he wrote Godzilla Vs. X-Men #1. Nicieza really sets the tone immediately with Sunfire fighting against Godzilla, and that energy sticks around throughout the read. With the character dynamics and the problem at hand, it was an exciting read all around. While it had a great amount of action that always comes with the X-Men, there was a good amount of dialogue as well. I really appreciated how Nicieza was able to explain who the characters were and their powersets, making it easy for anyone to jump in and give this a read.

Matt – The simplest way to put into words how I felt about the story was that every page had me getting more and more hyped up. Showing how the X-Men and Godzilla are not that different after all was such a nice touch that Fabian added. The dilemma of humans trying to resist and battle what they do not understand is always a prevailing theme and one that hits just as hard as the action does in this issue.

The Art

Megan – The artists of the comic, Emilio Laiso, Federico Blee, and Clayton Cowles, showcased their talents and brought the exciting storyline to life. With Blee’s gorgeous use of contrasting colors matched with Laiso’s incredible amount of detail, we’re treated with artwork that’s simply stunning. There are quite a few fullpage panels that are absolute works of art thanks to the creative team. Godzilla Vs. X-Men #1 has the same feeling of an X-Men comic, but elevated with the energy of an exciting Kaiju story.

Matt – The action is just so next level from Emilio and Federico. Watching the combined powers of our heroes standing tall while Godzilla shoots atomic breath was something I never knew that I needed. It had me jumping with joy and cheering on every panel. There were callbacks to old-school style comics with the circle of X-Men heads around Xavier which was a nice touch as well. There are quite a few panels that I would need as a poster in a bad way.

Overall Grade: 9/10

Megan – 8.7/10

Matt – 9.3/10

It is hard to get me to cheer for an X-Men book as I am quite picky with this crew in particular for some reason but, this team got me hooked. I love the themes and underlying tones in the story and the action-packed battle and destruction in our fight sequences. This is everything you want and more from a Godzilla and X-Men crossover. Pick this up!!

Let us know in the comments below what you thought of Godzilla Vs. X-Men #1!