COMIC REVIEW: Godzilla X Kong: The Hunted

By Brandon T. McClure

The Monsterverse is no stranger to tie-in comics. It's a staple of Legendary Pictures to publish prequel graphic novels through their publishing arm Legendary Comics. So it should come as no surprise that they’ve done it again with Godzilla X Kong: The Hunted by Brian Buccellato, Dario Formisani, Drew Johnson, and Zid, a graphic novel that sets up the events of Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. Previous Monsterverse graphic novels have ranged from solid entries in the multimedia saga, to rather disappointing ones, and this one falls right in the middle.

The story follows Raymond Martin, notably named for Raymond Bur’s character Steve Martin from the 1954 original film, as he builds a large mech suit in order to hunt Titans in the Hollow Earth. He hates Titans and wants to level the playing field, much like Apex Cybernetics tried with MechaGodzilla. While he’s going through this, Godzilla is pursuing Skylla, who is attacking various nuclear power plants for some unknown reason. Skylla is upsetting the natural order, and most likely trying to make a play for the title of King of the Monsters, so Godzilla will not take that threat lying down. Elsewhere, Kong is surveying his new kingdom in the Hollow Earth, until his story links up with Raymond Martin towards the end

Prequel comics come with perceived limitations. They can’t do anything that alters the status quo and the ending has to set up the film. They exist as marketing for the “more important” medium of film. So it’s hard, as a comic book fan, to get overly excited and expect more from these comics. Writer Brian Buccellato delivers exactly what he was meant to. There are some really interesting aspects to the story but it’s pretty anticlimactic. Nowhere is this personified more than in the Godzilla segments. Just as Godzilla catches up with Skylla, the comic literally stops the story to say “To Be Continued In Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.” As a marketing tool, it’s fine, but as a standalone story, it’s lacking.

The most interesting part of the story is Raymond Martin, who would actually have made a good antagonist for a feature film. Martin is a wealthy man who’s turned into a big game hunter, and that’s meant literally. He was in San Francisco during the events of the 2014 film Godzilla and lost his entire family to that attack. This has given him a personal vendetta against Titans, but he’s not ready to go after the alphas just yet. It’s through him that we’re introduced to a new Monsterverse Titan called Spineprowler, who’s basically just a giant jaguar (not the first giant cat Titan that Zid has designed). It’s honestly a shame that he’s killed at the end because there’s some potential here, especially with that name.

The Monsterverse comics have come under fire due to tracing allegations. Some of the images from Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong were clearly traced from screenshots of the various Titans. You would hope that when translating the Titans to a comic book, the artist could take some artistic liberties with the designs. Godzilla: Awakening by Max & Greg Borenstein was able to allow their artist team of Eric Battle, Yvel Guichet, Alan Quah, and Lee Loughridge the ability to take these liberties due to there having been no film at the time. But there doesn’t seem to be any obvious tracing in this book.

Mostly, the art is pretty good in Godzilla X Kong: The Hunted. It’s very dynamic and the design of the Titan Hunter is interesting. Fans of the Skull Island: The Birth of Kong comic will no doubt recognize a familiar style as Zid has been the artist on many Monsterverse books. He’s not alone here, of course. The artist team consists of Zid as well as Dario Formisani and Drew Johnson. The three of them mix their styles well since there doesn’t seem to be a clear division of pages between them.

Those looking for an exciting entry in the Monsterverse might be disappointed, but that’s not to say that there is no value in this comic. Raymond Martin is a cool character and there is plenty of Titan action. The major issue is that it doesn’t operate as anything more than a marketing tool for Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. It doesn’t reach the heights of the best of them, but it doesn’t hit the lows of the worst of them. It’s a perfectly fine and fun entry in the franchise. If you’re already a fan, then you likely won’t regret picking this one up.

6.5/10

Godzilla X Kong: The Hunted is available at your local comic shop, bookstore, or here and the latest entry in the Monsterverse, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is in theaters every started March 29th.

The Energon Universe: Skybound's First Licensed Universe

(Image of Void Rivals Issue #1 varient by Jason Howard)

By Brandon T. McClure

Since 2005, IDW Publishing has been the home of Transformers. They’ve published hundreds of issues of the Hasbro property up until December 2022. Sadly, it was revealed that IDW would be losing the license to Transformers and GI. Joe. It’s unclear if the decision to not renew was on IDW’s side or Hasbro’s side, but nonetheless the decision was made and IDW would be losing one of their most significant publishing lines. This lead many to wonder where the popular IP would land next.

Speculation began almost instantly about who would want to pick up the license going forward. Marvel, who published the very first Transformers comics, had recently regained the rights to many properties they used to have, such as Star Wars, Micronaughts, and Rom The Space Knight. Because of this, some speculated that Marvel might be interested in regaining the rights to everything, including Transformers. However, it’s been an open secret for many years that Skybound’s owner and The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman has been wanting to write Transformers comics. But he owns a creator-owned company within Image Comics, so it seemed unlikely that he would be interested in writing or publishing a comic based on something he wouldn’t be able to own. Then Void Rivals came out. 

(Image of Void Rivals Issue #1 varient by Marz Jr)

Originally solicited as a new creator-owned book from Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici (Oblivion Song), Void Rivals follows two space pilots from warring factions named Darak and Solila. The two of them crash land on a dangerous planet and have to find a way to work together so they can escape. Readers were in for a shock when they picked up this new book to find the Transformer Jetfire making a cameo. Void Rivals was Robert Kirkman revealing to the world that Skybound is the new home of Transformers and G.I. Joe. Kirkman had apparently made a deal with Hasbro in 2021 and kept it under wraps until the launch of this new issue. 

Void Rivals is just the beginning. New Transformers and G.I. Joe titles will begin in October starting with Transformers written and drawn by Daniel Warren Johnson (Murder Falcon). Soon after, two four-issue mini-series will launch called Duke and Cobra Commander, both written by Joshua Williamson (Birthright, Dark Ride). Tom Reilly, and Jordie Bellaire will join Williamson on Duke, and Andrea Milana and Annalisa Leoni will join him on Cobra Commander. In November, Larry Hama will continue his run on G.I. Joe: Real American Hero, which he started with IDW, with issue #301. The book will pick up where his last issue left off and seems to be the only comic that is continuing and not an outright reboot. However, plot details on Transformers are scarce at this time. Together with Void Rivals, these titles will form the Energon Universe.

What is really interesting about this new Energon Universe is the inclusion of Void Rivals. Decades ago, when Marvel owned the rights to publish Godzilla comics, they had Godzilla go up against all sorts of Marvel heroes. Because of this, when the license went to Dark Horse and then IDW, these comics were unable to be reprinted due to all the Marvel characters on almost every page. It’s a pretty big gamble to have a creator-owned comic like Void Rivals include a Transformer that is owned by Hasbro. Should Skybound lose the rights to the characters, Void Rivals wouldn’t be able to be reprinted in the way that Invincible or The Walking Dead currently are. However, it’s important to note that the general public doesn’t know how long this deal will last. Thinking that far in the future in the comics industry doesn’t really make sense, but it would be interesting to know why Kirkman went about it in this way and not just write a Transformers comic himself.

This is also new territory for Image Comics and its subsidiary Skybound. Both are known as creator-owned publishing companies which means every comic published by them is owned by the creators. Even as Skybound has begun to expand into multi-media formats, the creator is still the owner of the IP. With Transformers and G.I. Joe, that will no longer be the case. Daniel Warren Johnson and Joshua Williamson are great comic creators, but they will have to play by the rules set down by Hasbro for the need to protect their IP’s image. This is something that IDW Publishing got adept at handling and Skybound will no doubt have to go through some growing pains. But hopefully, Hasbro allows them some room to do some interesting things. 

This new Energon Universe certainly has potential as some of the top creators in the industry are working on it. Kirkman also mentioned that older Transformers comics will begin to be republished soon which should make fans excited considering the later Transformers comics didn’t make it to the trade market. At the end of the day, it looks like Transformers and G.I. Joe are in good hands and fans can look forward to some interesting new comics. The Energon Universe has just begun.