King of the Monsters #9

Godzilla #9
“The Fate of Las Vegas”
Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe

Plot Synopsis
While continuing his tour of the American west coast, Godzilla “accidentally” breaks down the Hoover dam, sending himself rushing towards Las Vegas. Things are looking a little rough for Nevada’s golden city…

Rolling Commentary
Page 1. Godzilla comes knock-knock-knocking on Nevada’s door?

Page 2. You know, if I was standing that close to Godzilla, I really don’t think I’d be trying to snap a picture of him. And so much for the Hoover Dam, I suppose.

Page 3. Jeez. Never, ever knock over the Hoover Dam, I guess.

Page 5. Kids, take note: Never get addicted to gambling.

Page 6. Stealing federal property. Billions of dollars worth of property damage. Quite possibly hundreds of lives lost in collateral damage in San Diego and San Diego harbor. And all Dr. Takiguchi does is “sternly forgive” the little bastard!?! That child needs to be locked up in a military prison until this whole thing is over, for christ’s sake!

Page 7. Godzilla’s going to save the poor gambler from his life of throwing his money away?

Page 8. See, now you got to ask, what possessed you to try and kill something that huge with a single bullet from a tiny pistol in the first place? Dumb, dumb, dumb…

Page 11. This gambler dude needs to stop talking to the voices in his head.

Page 13. Wow. We just officially upped the death toll from “hundreds” to “thousands”, didn’t we? Still, that’s a great page. I wonder where some of this original art is, these days...

Page 14. Dude. Winslow really just needs to put a gun in his mouth and end it, doesn’t he?

Page 15. Would the telephone really still be working at this point, what with the giant monster and 200 foot tidal waves?

Page 17. Crazy mutherfucker, isn’t he?

Post Mortem
Okay, for the purposes of ease and clarity, I’m going to break this issue into two parts, the Godzilla part and the human-interest part.

Okay, the Godzilla part was okay, although nowhere near as spectacularly fun as the last three issues. It was interesting to have Godzilla affected by something bigger and more powerful than himself (i.e. nature, which the rushing dam waters clearly represent). Since Godzilla has many times been compared symbolically to America (the analogy looses something here with Godzilla in America. But it really does make sense historically in Japan.), in a sense you could argue that symbolically America is still defenseless against nature, something New Orleans would probably agree with. Still, if that wasn’t what Moench was going for, the issue doesn’t serve any real point. It’s mostly just filler, after the more plot-heavy issues before it. It isn’t really even “Godzilla destroying Las Vegas”. Most of the actual destruction is caused by the floodwaters, which, while Godzilla caused, were accidental in nature.

That being said, the waters of the Colorado River toppling Godzilla and flash-flooding Las Vegas was a really cool scene. If not particularly realistic (I don’t think the Hoover Dam is really quite that close to Las Vegas…). So that was some really nice stuff.

Now, as for the anti-gambling lesson, I have this to say: Wow. I’m sorry, but I don't care. I just do not care. I suppose Moench can “teach a lesson” about gambling if he wants- he is the writer, it is his personal prerogative. But that doesn’t mean I’ll care. This gambler guy isn’t a character we’ve ever met before, and I don’t get the impression that we’ll meet him again. So I simply don’t care, his story doesn’t really interest me. He’s just some guy with emotional problems and a gambling addition, which, in the grand scheme of the rampant destruction and flooding of Las Vegas and the loss of life that ensues, seems pretty unimportant. And he doesn’t even learn his lesson at the end, undermining the entire point of the supposed “moral tale”. It may show that “gambling is bad” but the supposed protagonist doesn’t learn this and thus goes off to continue his life of uselessness and depression. It’s not a very happy ending, and you know what? I still don’t care about him and his problems. Oy.

It’s interesting how if I have problems with an issue, I’ll discuss them at length, but if I think something is upper awesome, I’ll just say “That was cool!” and leave it at that. So Mr. Moench, if at some point you ever read this, realize that every time I don’t spend much time talking about an issue, it means I really enjoyed it. This one? Meh. The “life-lesson” is just a bit off-putting, I suppose.