Gigantic

Gigantic (Comic Book) Review by Bobby LePire. Edited by Courtney McAllister.

The influence the kaiju boom had since the 1954 release of the original “Godzilla”, was a true phenomenon. Going on to inspire not just movies and TV shows, but artwork, books, toys, games (both board and video), and comics. But within all that fun, let’s not forget that the original movie was in fact a pointed political piece, in which its agenda happened to be a giant fire breathing lizard. So, what happens when a modern comic book writer reapplies the politics to his newest creation? Let’s find out.

The comic’s story was created and written by Rick Remender, who also wrote the dialogue. The story takes quite a few interesting turns, a few of which I am about to spoil, so you have been warned…

… and here we go! Gigantic is the biggest star in the galaxy- fighting in the Arena, gladiator style, for the Universal Broadcasting Company- but he hates his life, so he wants to come back home to Earth. He manages to escape, but accidentally lands in a populated area- downtown San Francisco- when he is attacked by UBC headhunters, and the USA armed forces. This forces him to reach critical mass, and his excess energy explodes, causing hundreds of thousands of innocents to die.

He eventually reaches home, a remote cabin in Southern California, where his brother, Scott, still lives. Scott does not believe this is his long presumed dead brother Kane, but does come around to the idea. Scott learns that Kane accidentally killed Jill, Scott’s daughter/ Kane’s niece in the explosion. This leads Scott to attempt to murder Kane, while he is sleeping. Meanwhile, UBC sends in one of their lesser fighters, Iconoclast, to fight Gigantic on Earth. He lands in Moscow, and a similar defeat as San Francisco happens to the Russian forces. Eventually, we learn that Earth was built as a TV channel, and its ratings have been lagging lately. So, UBC plans to cancel it, aka destroy the Earth. Gigantic can’t let them do that, so he comes to Earth to stop them.

There are a few more twists and turns in the plot, of which I will not spoil here, but they are clever, and do change the entire perspective of the first three issues. The story is fine, and fairly engaging.

However, the dialogue proves to be a bit problematic. The dialogue is either just having the characters say what they are feeling, or exposition, exposition, and more exposition. I get that to a certain extent, but once Gigantic starts explicitly laying down the theme- violence as mass entertainment in media should make us all sick, and we are all complicit for partaking in it- the heavy handiness gets almost too much to bare. It’s like Remender doesn’t trust his readers to figure out why Gigantic wanted to escape, and why he wants to free Earth, etc. Plus, this comic is selling itself on the giant monster vs. giant monster fights, so it seems a bit hypocritical. I mean, if you promised us giant monster fights, you damn well better deliver; unless you are a meth addled plodder who has little understanding of the storytelling process. *cough* Gareth Edwards *cough*

In an interview just before issue two was released, Remender stated that the politics and all were “... more subtle at first”, but when he made them “overt, the story opened up to” him, and he could have a lot of fun with that being out in the open. I see his point, but given the breakneck speed of all five issues, and how easy a connection it is to make, it is more burdensome and annoying than meta or funny. If the issues were longer, then maybe some sly statement would have come to the forefront, but that is just not the case.

The artwork, by Eric Nguyen, and colored by Matthew Wilson, is exquisite. The character designs are varied, and easy to distinguish. Gigantic’s suit is predominantly silver, with splashes of orange, which has an Ultraman meets the Iron Giant look, and is pretty sleek and cool. The glowing reactor core in the middle of his chest, which gets brighter the closer to critical mass he reaches, is a simple but visually engaging way of showing that off.

Iconoclast is a hulking, reptilian-esque, alien behemoth. Instead of hair, he has three spikes, and has long vine-like spiky things coming out of his back. He sports various shades of green, making him the most obviously inspired by the King of the Monsters. The weight of both characters is illustrated well, giving gravity to the mayhem going on.

The humans look good, and don’t look like the same face, slightly redone, drawn over and over again. The aliens all look quite distinctive, with the head of the UBC looking especially interesting. Blue orb eyes, long, triangular red face, with a white border going across his head (not hair, but used for the same effect), with long pointy limbs- it is a fairly original design, not easy in this day and age.

Each issue had a mock kaiju poster in the back, and those are a real treat. While sticking to the 1950s and ‘60s era, design-wise, it is neat to see how they represented this modern take there.

Despite the dialogue issues, and all the exposition, I still think this mini-series is a blast. The action is more or less nonstop, and seeing how they play into and then subvert the kaiju formula is fun. The artwork is great, with some cool designs. Check it out, if you can.