Marvel Comics has announced Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus, which promises to be the definitive collection of the publisher’s original Godzilla series.
On its official website, Marvel revealed that it has entered a new collaboration with Toho, thus allowing it to reprint its classic Godzilla stories. Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus is due for release in October 2024 — just in time for the legendary kaiju’s 70th birthday next November. The hardcover omnibus edition collects all 24 issues of Doug Moench, Herb Trimpe, and Tom Sutton’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters — which originally ran from 1977 to 1979.
The standard version of Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus features all-new cover art by Junggeun Yoon. The book will also ship with two Direct Market Exclusive Variant Covers, which feature classic artwork by Trimpe. Check those covers out below:
“Godzilla rises from the depths in the United States — and the Marvel Universe! See the towering scourge of Tokyo march across America and battle some of the best and brightest the House of Ideas had to offer, including the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the Champions, Nick Fury and the mechanized monster fighter, Red Ronin!” the omnibus’ official synopsis reads.
“Godzilla goes west, travels through time to battle Devil Dinosaur, and hosts one of Spider-Man‘s most gratuitous guest-shots ever — but when Godzilla is shrunk down to miniature size, the terrible titan proves it can still be a tiny terror!” it continues. “Plus: Aliens, mutants, mad scientists and epic kaiju clashes with Godzilla’s fellow towering titans — including Batragon and Yetrigar!”
Godzilla’s comic book history
Godzilla has appeared in Japanese comics since his big-screen debut in 1954. The first Godzilla comic to be published in the United States was only four pages long, and was released to promote the U.S. premiere of Godzilla vs. Megalon in 1976. With King of the Monsters in 1977, however, Marvel became the first publisher to put out a full-length Godzilla comic in the States.
In the years since Marvel’s series ended, a number of other U.S. publishers picked up the Godzilla license — including Dark Horse Comics in the 1980s and IDW Publishing in the 2010s. Most recently, Legendary Entertainment has published its own Godzilla graphic novels as tie-ins for its MonsterVerse films.
On that note, the King of the Monsters is certainly keeping busy in live-action as well. On the Toho side of things, the feature film Godzilla Minus One recently hit the big screen in Japan ahead of its U.S. debut later this year. This month also sees the premiere of Legendary’s MonsterVerse series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on Apple TV+. Legendary and Warner Bros. Pictures’ next big-screen MonsterVerse entry, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, follows suit in April 2024.
Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus goes on sale in October 2024 from Marvel Comics.
