Godzilla has been conquering the entertainment world on multiple fronts for years at this point. The King of The Monsters is preparing to return to the silver screen both in Japan and North America with Godzilla Minus One’s sequel in the East and Godzilla x Kong: Supernova in the West. While the screen is jam-packed with kaiju stories for the future, the comics are exploring wild territory all its own. The lizard king is continuing to fight against Marvel’s finest in the recent crossover, but IDW has taken the chance to fundamentally change the backstory for one beloved Godzilla villain.
In the recent comic book, Godzilla: Here There Be Aliens #2, the villainous Hedorah returns. First appearing in 1971’s Godzilla Vs. Hedorah, the creepy smog monster not only fought the lizard king, but was also more than willing to eradicate scores of humans in its path of destruction. In this recent IDW comic, readers are given more of a breakdown of the beast’s origin, landing on Earth long before the modern era. In fact, not only did Hedorah land on Earth long ago, his race did as well and is touted as the inspiration for H.G. Wells’ War of The Worlds. Luckily, the second issue breaks down quite a bit about Hedorah’s origin story.
Hedorah Vs. The Xiliens
In watching the Xilien threat once again arrive on Earth, the United States government finds itself at a loss as to what to do. Luckily, they do have the past to look to to give them ideas as to how to defeat Hedorah and its race. One doctor breaks down the stor of the Xilien’s initial arrival on earth in the late 1800s and how it inspired the work of H.G. Wells.
“This has happened before, you see. But you’d know it better as the War of The Worlds. In 1897, Surrey, England, experienced a Xilien invasion, not unlike the one we are experiencing now. It was the invasion that inspirated H.G. Wells to write his famous novel, but Wells didn’t include everything that happened. He failed to mention the involvement of Hedorah. Hedorah, the one we’ve come to know, the one know to history as Grendel, is a defective Xilien probe who has historically taken humanity’s side and rebelled against its alien creators.”
While Hedorah is front and center in this new IDW comic book, the same can’t be said for Legendary’s MonsterVerse. The Smog Monster has yet to appear to fight against Godzilla, Kong, or any of the giant beasts that have populated the successful cinematic universe. Hopefully, with 2027’s Supernova, Hedorah will make its MonsterVerse debut and kaiju fans will be able to see another new take on one of the scariest opponents to Godzilla that has ever been created.
Want to see what other changes are made to the kaiju world moving forward? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on all things Godzilla and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
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