The artwork of the Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters series looks like a pared down Mike Mignola sketch done in cartoonish styling. It vexes me. Being a longstanding G-Fan, I see some great monsters present such as Anguirus, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, and Godzilla. But they look like rejects from Riverdale High. Sigh.

Mechagodzilla is done up in the Super-Mechagodzilla mode from the Heisei series, yet it revolts and goes nuts on humanity like the Millenium version did. And King Ghidorah is a good guy like in Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidora: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.

G-Fans need to adapt to this modification on the films themes.

With that being said, I love the story. In issue #9 Steven continues to learn the controls of Mechagodzilla. Along with his sidekick, Allie, the duo takes on the least threatening of all the denizens of Monster Island: Anguirus. It’s more fun than it sounds and Allie isn’t as annoying as most kid sidekicks.

After being waylaid by paralyzing rockets (yeah, it’s shitty but I’m sure Toho won’t let them kill a named monster and testicle ripping rockets would be too-bad ass), Anguirus drops out of the picture.

The president orders the Detroit built Mechagodzilla back for repairs, but Steven has other plans. He wants to take on the Big G for what Thunder Thighs did to Steven’s hometown. Wait? Mechagodzilla was built in Detroit? I hope they got the extended warranty.

And the issue ends there.

Why is this so much fun? Godzilla: KOM gives American G-Fans what they always wanted: Godzilla on American soil. Like in Final Wars, the earth is decimated by monster attacks. That’s cool. And the comic answers the other great desire felt by many fans: How cool would it be to pilot Mechagodzilla? Uber-cool.

Also, as a reader of the 70's Marvel version, I’m glad that the big name monsters are here. In the Marvel version, only the rights for Godzilla were acquired. So he had to fight Shield and silly, nameless monsters. None of that here.

Artwork aside, the story moves. There’s a monster fight. There’s a threat felt throughout the book. And there’s a great cliffhanger leaving you burning to read the next ish. That’s worth my four Washingtons.

Score: 4/5

Writer: Jason Ciaramella Artist: Victor Santos Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $3.99