1977: GODZILLA: THE MARVEL COMICS YEARS

Thursday, 9 February 2012

1977: GODZILLA: THE MARVEL COMICS YEARS

Between 1977 and '79, Marvel teamed with Japan's Toho to allow Godzilla to stomp all over the Marvel Earth.

As with other licensing deals of the period (SHOGUN WARRIORS, THE MICRONAUTS, ROM and even, briefly, THE TRANSFORMERS), these adventures were firmly planted in the mainstream Marvel universe. Godzilla was regularly pitched against S.H.I.E.L.D and various other Marvel heroes and villains joined the fray (THE CHAMPIONS, THE AVENGERS and THE FANTASTIC FOUR).

Marvel saw GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS as an entry-level title which could attract younger fans and introduce them to the wider delights of the Marvel Universe.

Sales were apparently healthy but Toho asked for a bigger wedge of cash when the license came up for renewal and, being a non-Marvel property, management declined to re-ink the deal, closing the book after 24 issues.

The Godzilla strip didn't make its Marvel UK debut until 1979, suitably replacing the departing (for his own weekly) INCREDIBLE HULK as resident green goliath in the just-revamped MARVEL COMIC (previously THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL).

Other than featuring the same character, the Marvel version was completely unrelated to the Hanna-Barbera produced GODZILLA animated series which debuted on 9 September 1978 on NBC (and later on BBC ONE in the UK), although presumably Marvel's title benefited from the extra media exposure.