Godzilla

GODZILLA
<sub>Height: 116 ft (35m)
Length: 319 ft (97m)
Weight: 743 tons (674t)

Abilities and Characteristics:
Godzilla craves a constant supply of nuclear radiation and becomes incredibly aggressive while in search of it, destroying anything in his path until this hunger is satiated (although he never actively seeks out human targets). When sufficiently irradiated, Godzilla becomes significantly more docile, though he still poses a threat to unwitting humans and other monsters he considers enemies. Interestingly, in this relatively tamer state, he becomes stronger in terms of physical power and endurance. This odd dual nature makes Godzilla an ally or enemy to humans equally often.

Godzilla also possesses the ability to spew concentrated gamma radiation from his mouth. This is clearly reliant on the amount of nuclear radiation he has absorbed – the more irradiated he is, the longer and more powerful the attack. When his dorsal spines begin to glow, it means he is about to unleash a burst of this “atomic ray.” Doing this seems to be physically draining for Godzilla, so he generally only utilizes it as a last resort in battle.

Godzilla’s long, muscular tail and strong limbs make him a surprisingly adept swimmer.

Godzilla's Story: KING OF THE MONSTERS
Monster Island is an ancient island in the South Pacific that has been hidden away from mankind since the dawn of time. Despite the sizable area of the landmass, the razor-sharp reefs and cloak of perpetual cloud cover kept it shrouded from man’s eyes, maps and satellite images for hundreds of years. Meanwhile, the prehistoric denizens of the island had remained isolated from outside interference since the landmass split off from the Asian continent in the late Cretaceous. The general coordinates of Monster Island had long been referred to as “The Bermuda Triangle of the Pacific,” a supernatural area from which no ship or plane had ever returned. These occasional one-way interludes into the island’s domain had no effect on its inhabitants – that is, until 1954.

The cold war was in full swing and the United States, Soviet Union and other countries were developing their own arsenals of nuclear weapons for defense. It so happened that a Soviet transport ship carrying a half-dozen samples of plutonium to be used for research into nuclear devices attempted to navigate the treacherous shoals near Monster Island – and failed. The ship ran aground, torn apart by the jagged rocks on the island’s coast, and all six of the plutonium canisters were shredded, bathing the island in deadly radiation. Much of the island’s indigenous life died off within weeks. However, many creatures not only survived the onslaught, but seemed to thrive on it, despite the various levels of rapid mutation it caused – the most noticeable of which included a drastic growth in size.

A hundred years passed. In a few decades’ time, the once thirty-foot dinosaur descendants on Monster Island had become enormous, hundred-foot monsters. In that time, the latent radiation on the island had subsided, causing mutations to slow and the creatures’ physiology to stabilize. This, however, caused an instinctive drive to trigger in the irradiated creatures, giving them a thirst for more gamma radiation. The dominant and most voracious monster was a descendant of Monster Island’s original theropod population – a creature who would later be known as Godzilla. Years went by without any sign of salvation for the hungry monster until October 31, 2054.

A Japanese nuclear submarine was traveling through the South Pacific and unwittingly happened to pass within several dozen miles of Monster Island. Godzilla, with his finely honed sixth sense of detecting radioactive material, sensed the incredibly minute amount of radiation the nuclear sub gave off – nearly imperceptible to humans – and swam off Monster Island for the first time, slowly tailing the sub, hoping that it would lead him to a greater source of nuclear energy.

After several days of swimming, Godzilla could no longer contain his hunger, and he ripped apart the sub, absorbing the relatively tiny amount of radiation inside – but not before the vessel’s passengers sent out an SOS. Within hours, more Japanese Naval ships arrived at the scene, which was less than a hundred miles from the Japanese mainland. Godzilla, merely pestered by the mosquito-like artillery of the warships, destroyed them with ease and wisely decided to head in the direction the ships had arrived from. On November 3, 2054, he finally set foot in Tokyo, Japan, the sweet smell of nuclear radiation filling his nostrils.

Godzilla rampaged through Tokyo for hours, trying to identify the source of radiation rife in the air. The local Japanese military, with no preparation, retaliated (to little avail) until Godzilla reached the only recently-built Tokyo Nuclear Power Plant, the city’s primary power source. Military intelligence quickly hypothesized that Godzilla merely desired the nuclear energy within the plant, but also realized that if the monster were to successfully destroy the facility, Tokyo would be looking at a long-lasting, larger-than-Chernobyl-scale nuclear disaster. The monster had to be stopped as soon as possible. Luckily, the constant barrage of gunfire and explosives seemed to distract Godzilla from succeeding in his mission; too focused on first dealing with the military nuisance around him.

The military quickly ruled out using nuclear weapons against the monster, as not only would utilizing one destroy Tokyo but would likely make Godzilla even more powerful. It was decided to use an experimental super-weapon known as the Oxygen Destroyer, developed by theoretical physicist Dr. Daisuke Serizawa. This device functions by implosion rather than explosion – the device, when activated, immediately pulls all oxygen atoms within a ten-mile radius into itself, creating a super-hot, super-dense mini-singularity of oxygen that destroys the device in the process. By design, it instantly kills all living things within its radius by literally sucking the air out of their lungs (and blood, and living tissue… ), while leaving inorganic objects like buildings standing.

While Dr. Serizawa was incredibly reluctant to resort to the Oxygen Destroyer – revealing it to the world would be dangerous in many ways, and it had not been properly tested at the intended scale – Japan was left with no choice. The few remaining survivors in and around Tokyo, both civilian and military, were ordered to evacuate the area. The remaining military forces, which had successfully repelled Godzilla to the shore of Tokyo Bay, retreated, leaving the monster alone until the super-weapon could be activated remotely.

Shortly after midnight on November 4, the Oxygen Destroyer was activated, and went off without a hitch. Tokyo was left standing otherwise unscathed, its power plant damaged but safely operable, and the monster was gone. In the remaining weeks, amongst the mourning and recovery efforts, a search was conducted for Godzilla’s remains in Tokyo Bay. None were found. The Oxygen Destroyer was even more powerful than even Dr. Serizawa imagined, and had apparently vaporized the creature’s immense body entirely. There was nothing left to do but pray that the world would never witness such a horrible force of power unleashed again.</sub>

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Oh, hi. Did you make it all the way down here?

So this is the first of what may end up being a series of full-fledged redesigns. Every Godzilla fan on DA has seen ~GodzillaSamurai's fantastic Godzilla Neo series and plenty of others have given such a concept a shot of their own, and with an extra nudge from Godzilla Unleashed I've decided to join the fray. However, whereas Neo seems to be a kind of "Crisis on Infinite Earths"-ing of the Godzilla universe, I expect mine to be a little more "Ultimate" Godzilla, if that makes any sense (Wow, that was a nerdy reference. I don't even read comic books). Some of my designs will be more conservative than Matt's (like this one), while some will be far more drastic (I'm thinking every kaiju that's just a scaled-up arthropod). On the story side of things, I'm by no means a very big Godzilla fan - I've only seen a handful of his movies - so a lot of it will be totally new stuff, just using existing bits and pieces from the films willy-nilly. Also, the monsters won't be coming in order of their original debuts. Oh, and just to cover my ass, I'm not a historian or a chemist so please forgive any glaring errors on those fronts.

So yeah, this is Godzilla. His Heisei design (particularly the '89-'91 suit) is the one I've always been the most fond of, despite the gigantic thunderthighs he has. So, for my Godzilla design I decided to start with Heisei Godzilla and work in elements from more recent suits into his design. I've never been terribly fond of the colors or reptilian face of Godzilla 2000, but I loved the craggy spines and slightly more horizontal body layout, so I worked those elements into my own design. I made his colors a bit more vibrant and varied than the old charcoal gray, but not enough that he looked like a Constructicon.

As a general rule I'll be making the monsters smaller than they're normally depicted, even in the early films - they just seem more relatable and real if they can interact with humans, even if on a very small level. If they're big enough that they can crush a skyscraper under one toe, that aspect of the interaction between monsters and humans is totally lost.

Other than that I don't know what else to say, especially after spending so long on that story. Jesus. I hope you'll enjoy whether you're a kaiju fan or not, and I hope you'll stay tuned for what's to come.

Up next: Anguirus