Godzilla Legends is a solid entry into IDW's Godzilla brand of comics, but doesn't stand out as something special like the ongoing or Gangsters and Goliaths. At it's core it really is just a shameless cash in on the franchise. This particular issue focuses on Anguirus and paints the picture of him as an underdog in the monster battling world. The problem is that this book relies on the humans to tell us a story and make us care when really we're all just here to see some monsters beat the hell out of each other and destroy whatever city they're standing in. The book opens with an attack from Destoroyah on a military facility. The humans inside decide to use a reluctant scientists "G-Signaler" to summon either Godzilla or the nearest monster to take on Destoroyah. At first it seems that the signal is broken, but then Anguirus shows up to no ones relief. It seems that Anguirus doesn't have the best track record when it comes to beating other monsters, in fact he's never beaten another monster and Destoroyah is way out of his league. Never the less Anguirus is as stubborn as he is stupid and begins battling with Destoroyah. Sure enough though, he begins getting his ass kicked.
There is a lot of... stupidness that you have to accept in the giant-monster genre. Things like, what are the monsters doing when they're not attacking cities, why are they always attacking cities, why do they all breath under water and many other stupid things that you just have to accept in order to enjoy monsters beating the hell out of each other. The problem with this book is that it draws your attention to these facts and not only doesn't answer them, but doesn't even try to. The creative team of Matt Frank and Jeff Prezenkowski clearly understand the Godzilla movie formula, but that doesn't mean that the formula should have been used.
They understand that the humans drive the story and explain the world and the rational behind the monsters rampage. I may be alone in saying this, but I always hate the human aspect of the Godzilla movies. Here's the reality of it. Monster shows up pissed off at the humans and kicks the shit out of their city. The movie was successful so they did it again and added more monsters. That too was successful so they continued to have the King of Monsters Godzilla beat the crap out of more monsters! When you try to add a story to marketing you'll fail every time. Frank and Prezenkowski spend almost the entire issue with the humans and the annoying scientist that they're giving credit to for summoning Godzilla. I couldn't care less.
If you're a Godzilla fan then go ahead and buy this issue. It has great art and few panels of monster fights are definitely worth the price of admission and let's be honest; you're going to buy it any ways. Personally though I was hoping for it to be more entertaining then it was. I think that the ongoing really nailed what a Godzilla comic should be and that this book fell really short of that mark. In the end the cover should have probably said, "Featuring A Whinny Scientist" rather than Anguirus.
Score: 2/5