Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Dave Wachter
Release Date: 19th November 2014

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The Godzilla Cataclysm mini-series is nearing its conclusion in this, its fourth issue out of five. Will it continue the pacing set by the last issue, and expose what arrogance of man drove Godzilla to anger, or will it return to the aimless feeling of a wasted setting from the first few issues?

The first few pages return the excellent, mono-chromatic (in this case, blood red) flashback sequences from the first issue. Also returning is the type of narration concerning weapons and man’s arrogance against natural forces that all Godzilla fans have come to expect from the more introspective entries in the canon.

We also see more of the actual action of the Cataclysm in this opening segment, leading to a fight involving more kaiju than the entire last half of Pacific Rim. Seeing just how destructive the Cataclysm helps to humanise our narrator, who has been overly harsh on himself, and his role in angering Godzilla so far.

The main fight of the issue, between Godzilla and often-ally Mothra, is not only grand in its scale and weighty in its action, but it also brings unique lighting and atmosphere to a world which has drowned in dirt browns since the first issue. It’s amazing what purple lightning can do for highlighting the best of Dave Wachter’s more realistic take on the Godzilla world (as compared to the more cartoony style of IDW stablemate Godzilla: Rulers of Earth).

We are finally given confirmation as to how man tried to not only control Godzila, but the rest of the kaiju, to make them docile. This obviously backfired, and sent them all berserk. Seeing as how the focus has been on controlling Godzilla, I’m a little disappointed to see that this was a kaiju-wide project, and not something special relating to the King of Monsters. This also exposes questions about whether the titular ‘Cataclysm’ is referring to the unprecedented kaiju events before the mind-control project, or the ensuing devastation. The events we can see appear to show that such a project would be justified, but most characters seem to believe they caused the following devastation.

The pseudo-spiritual examination of guilt and the deification or demonification of kaiju is continuing as the issue builds towards its cliffhanger, but with the issue showing us the destruction wrought before the mind-control experiment and then its insistence that this was the wrong thing to do, it is hard to become involved in the debate when the only other course was to allow the kaiju to destroy the world with no human intervention. Hopefully in its final chapter, Godzilla Cataclysm will allow our narrator to let go of his guilt, and deliver some meaningful insight into his world destroyed by unbelievable titans.

Rating: 3/5.

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The Writer of this piece was: Andrew Stevens
You can follow Andrew on Twitter

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