3 out of 5

Various writer / artist interpretations of Godzilla… in Hell.

Which really amounts to different variations on “you can’t win, G-man,” until – spoiler – I think he becomes the king of Hell in the final issue.  I dunno; a lot of this is oddly figurative and I have no idea if there’s a precedent for it in Godzilla continuity.  I also had no idea – and thankfully one reviewer at AiPT backed me up on this misconception – that James Stokoe wouldn’t be involved past this first issue, and that’s possibly the reason I kept buying the series.  I do maintain that James’ entry is the best – he’s already shown his skill at wordless madness in Orc Stain passages (wordlessness obviously working well for a book about a giant lizard that only Skree-onks), and in that book, Wonton Soup and on his various covers, we’ve seen example after example of how he can interpret incredibly surreal worlds into understandable captures of action.  (This knack for properly effecting the strengths of his medium is what sets him far above his peers who work in a similarly ultra-detailed style, some of whom appear in this series.)

So while a couple of these issues struggle with depicting scope effectively, Stokoe seems to effortlessly knock it out of the park, setting a pretty high bar for what follows.

And it’s the dudes who do their own thing who end up delivering equally exciting issues, like Bob Eggleton’s biblical themed painterly gorgeousity in issue 2, and the darkly humorous horror of Dave Wachter’s conclusion.  Inbetween, Buster Moody illustrates Ulises Farinas and Erick Freitas depiction of ‘Zilla as the contested agent of both heaven and hell – the weakest issue of the bunch, falling back as it does on dialogue, contrasting with the other mostly silent issues – and Ibrahim Moustafa illustrates Brandon Seifert’s take on lizardy hell being never-ending battles with other monsters.  Issues 3 and 4, though with their own compelling artistic styles, just aren’t as visually impressive as the others, and end up highlighting the limitations of the story (and the essential similarity between all of the issues).  Really, then, it comes down to whether or not the art in any given issue sells you; for me #1 and 2 do, with Wachter’s painting not as strong as Eggleton but his story a worthwhile spin on par with Stokoe’s visual verve.