It’s an especially good time to be a Godzilla fan. Over the last few years, both Godzilla Minus One and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire have played in theaters, with the former being met with critical acclaim and winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and the latter making over $571 million worldwide, resulting in another movie starring these Titans being greenlit. The Godzilla franchise has also been thriving in the comics, realm, and 2024 notably delivered the crossover miniseries between DC Comics and Legendary’s MonsterVerse franchise titled Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong, which has a sequel on the way. Now it’s Marvel’s turn to cross over with the Toho property in the pages of a comic book series, and I’m already hooked by how Galactus and the Silver Surfer will be involved.
As revealed by THR, 2025 will bring Godzilla vs. Marvel, a series of six one-shot stories that Ryan North is writing and John Romita Jr. is illustrating. This will be the first time Marvel has left its stamp on the Godzilla property since the series Godzilla, King of the Monsters ran from 1977 to 1979 as part of the main Marvel continuity. The stories in this new series will be set across different time periods, with the first issue, which comes out in March, titled Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four.
Here’s what has me jazzed about this particular story: Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing and Human Torch will clash with King Ghidorah, the three-headed alien who’s been around since 1964 and served as the main antagonist of 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the third MonsterVerse movie. This version of Ghidorah has been infused with the Power Cosmic by Galactus so the creature can be his new herald, i.e. find planets for the entity to devour. Fortunately, the Fantastic Four won’t need to deal with this threat alone, as Godzilla and Silver Surfer, one of Galactus’ former heralds, will team up to save Earth from the enhanced Ghidorah.
To quote Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen in Justice League, “Stop right there, I’m in!” I’m down for a normal Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah fight whenever, but to hear that these two will be respectively allied with Galactus and Silver Surfer, plus having the Fantastic Four thrown into the mix, just gave me way more incentive to check out this debut issue of Godzilla vs. Marvel. I also won’t be surprised if the Silver Surfer lends Godzilla his own Power Cosmic so that monstrous reptilian is on more equal footing with its arch-nemesis.
None of the titles for the other five Godzilla vs. Marvel one-shots have been announced yet, though the promotional artwork shared by THR showed Godzilla fighting Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Storm, Wolverine, Black Panther and She-Hulk. As for why now was a good time for Marvel to bring Godzilla back into its fold, Sven Larsen, Marvel’s vice president of licensing and publishing, spent years talking with Toho about doing a comic book crossover. Marvel editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski explained:
We approached them initially for our reprints, but a while after those conversations, it was clear that both of our teams were excited to do more together. These crossovers started coming together over that time, in direct collaboration with Toho, and we felt the perfect time for them was for Godzilla’s 70th anniversary next year. We’ve been thrilled to work with them on these, and we hope this will be a sign for more exciting projects to come.
Again, Godzilla vs. Marvel will kick off in March, so head to your local comic book store or use your preferred comic digital platform to keep track of the series. If you’re in the mood for watching content from these franchise, use your Disney+ subscription to make your way through the Marvel movies in order, or break out your Max subscription to watch the MonsterVerse movies.
