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Writer Steve Niles and Boom! Studios brings us their take on the classic kaiju genre with the new hardcover, Giant Monster.
A somewhat tongue-in-cheek homage to the great and Godzilla and Gamera movies of yore, Giant Monster had many of the elements that made those movies so much fun back in their heyday in the 1950's and 1960's: mad scientists, a space mission gone awry, a giant robot and, of course, the titular Giant Monster in the form of an astronaut who falls prey to a space parasite that mutates him into a huge, skeletal monster. Unlike those Japanese classics, Giant Monster also has a sharp sense of humor as well as an impressive amount of blood and gore. In fact, one of the images that is repeated through out the book is a very realistically depicted human being who has been crushed under the monster's foot. People must get stepped on left and right in kaiju movies but you never really are shown the results. Thank you, Giant Monster, for going there and making me throw up a little in my mouth.
All in all, it's a fun read that perhaps lacks a really iconic monster design. The monster in question is basically a giant gory skeleton which raises all kinds of weird questions, but if I can accept giant earth-defending butterflies and a big turtle that has jets coming out of its legs I guess I can suspend my disbelief a little bit. Unfortunately, the story ends rather abruptly and unsatisfying, but Giant Monster is definitely worth checking out.
Patrick Garone
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