Godzilla vs. Hulk #1:Round 2 – The Rumble In The Desert

Godzilla vs. Hulk #1 steps back into the 70s continuity for the second encounter between Godzilla and friends and the Marvel Universe heroes. This encounter finds the Incredible Hulk, ever so briefly, teaming up with the King of the Kaiju, to face a threat created by Dr. Demonicus, from the Marvel Comics Godzilla series from 1977 – 1979.

Duggan does a great job of setting the scene of Thunderbolt Ross as a Monster Hunter, having killed Fin Fang Foom and supposedly the Hulk, and subjugation other Godzilla regulars like Kumonga to do his bidding and aid his war on the monsters. The creative team pulls heavily and deftly on many of the Godzilla tropes and characters, and makes their appearances in the story feel organic, not forced and just for show. Godzilla and Hedorah feel like valid threats although the resolution to how the story resolves itself feels similar to how the Fantastic Four/Godzilla issues was solved and at times feels exposition heavy but doesn’t get to bogged down. It was a nice touch to show that Hulk, and subsequently Banner, is not invincible and does suffer some damage following the climactic encounter with Godzilla before the two “team up” to solve the larger threat of Hedorah.

It was also a nice touch that Duggan’s final panel of the issue issue leaves an open-ended finish and not a hard “the story is over.”

The artwork and color by Blee has the feel of the time period in which the story is paying homage to and the style of Hulk looks like the 70s version of the character.