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|- !Mechagodzilla|magnetism]], precognition, fireballs, an electric bite, superhuman speed, eyebeams and even flight.

Throughout the various stories he's featured in, Godzilla has fought many opponents, such as the JSDF, recurring enemies like King Ghidorah, Gigan and Mechagodzilla, and one-shot characters like Megalon, Biollante and Megaguirus. He is also shown to have allies, such as Mothra, Rodan and Anguirus (though these characters were initially portrayed as Godzilla's rivals,) and children, such as Minilla. He's even fought against fictional characters from other franchises in crossover media, such as King Kong and the Fantastic Four.

Movie appearances

Television and printed media

{{Main|Godzilla (comics, including the space monsters King Ghidorah and Gigan.

Godzilla made his American series debut in the 1978 Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning show Godzilla. In this series, Godzilla had a cousin, Godzooky. In addition to his trademark atomic breath, which simply changed to fire, he was given heat shittvision similar to the DC Comics hero Superman. Godzilla could be summoned by sea-explorers on the USS Calico with a signaling device or by the cry of Godzooky. The series ran until 1981.

A second series, based on TriStar Godzilla, aired on Fox Kids. The series featured the surviving baby Godzilla from the end of the film, which quickly grows to full size. Similar to the original animated series, Godzilla travels around the world with a special anti-monster team called HEAT, including scientist Nick Tatopoulos. Throughout the show the creators intended Godzilla's powers and abilities to reflect those of the Toho version, such as giving him atomic flame breath, which was noticeably absent in the film.

In Japan, Godzilla (along with a plethora of other Toho kaiju) appeared in Godzilla Island, which utilized Bandai action figures to portray the monsters in action. The show ran from 1997 to 1998.

Godzilla has been featured in comic books, most often in American publications. Marvel Comics published the character in their lucrative universe in the late 1970s, Dark Horse Comics sporadically in the 1980s and 1990s, and most recently IDW Publishing in several miniseries and series of miniseries. Japanese manga in Godzilla's home country have also been published, sometimes adaptations of feature films.

Between 1996 and 1998 Random House published four books by Marc Cerasini featuring Godzilla and other kaiju of the Toho franchise: Godzilla Returns, Godzilla 2000 (unrelated to the film of the same name), Godzilla at World's End, and Godzilla vs. the Robot Monsters. The release of a fifth book, Godzilla and the Lost Continent was canceled when Random House's license for Godzilla expired.

On September 23, 2004 Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters by William M. Tsutsui was released by Palgrave Macmillan. The book was released to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Godzilla and looks into some of the ways Godzilla has become a simple part of everyday life for fans.

In 2010, IDW Publishing announced that they gained the rights for the license to Godzilla, and released a new series titled Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters in March 2011. Eric Powell and Tracy Marsh co-wrote Kingdom of Monsters, but were replaced with Jason Ciaramella at issue 9. Phil Hester supplied the art, but was replaced with Victor Dos Santos at issue 5. Artist Matt Frank also supplied variant covers for each issue, each focused on a specific monster. Other covers were drawn by Eric Powell, Jeff Zornow, Alex Ross, and David Messina.

The first issue was released in March 2011 and focused on introducing Godzilla, who destroys Japan, and the Japanese Prime Minister even orders for nuclear weapons to be dropped on him, causing his trademark atomic ray. The first issue sold out within its first day, ranking 16th for the month. The series went on for 12 issues, the last being released in February. The series was widely criticized by fans for being unfaithful to the series, as well as having misleading covers, poor art, and too many plot threads to keep track of.

DW began publishing a new series, simply titled "Godzilla" in May 2012, written by Duane Swierczynski and with art by Simon Gane. The current 13-issue ongoing acts as a "soft reboot" of the previous Kingdom of Monsters, showcasing a monster ravaged world where humanity must struggle to survive.

IDW has also released five issue mini-series outside of the main continuity. Godzilla: Gangsters & Goliaths focuses on a disgraced cop trying to rid Tokyo of a gang lord with the help of Mothra and her twin fairies. The anthology Godzilla Legends was done by different writers and artists, with each issue featuring a specific character from Godzilla's vast history. Godzilla: Half Century War chronicles a soldier's fifty year battle against Godzilla and his reluctant acceptance of the monster.

The recently announced Godzilla: Rulers of Earth continues the story began with Kingdom of the Monsters and the simply titled Godzilla.

Cultural impact

Godzilla is one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese popular culture worldwide and remains an important facet of Japanese films, embodying the kaiju subset of the tokusatsu genre. He has been considered a filmographic metaphor for the United States, as well as an allegory of nuclear weapons in general. The earlier Godzilla films, especially the original, portrayed Godzilla as a frightening, nuclear monster. Godzilla represented the fears that many Japanese held about the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the possibility of recurrence.

As the series progressed, so did Godzilla, changing into a less destructive and more heroic character as the films became geared towards children. Since then, the character has fallen somewhere in the middle, sometimes portrayed as a protector of the world from external threats and other times as a bringer of destruction. Godzilla remains one of the greatest fictional heroes in the history of film, and is also the second of only three fictional characters to have won the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award, which was awarded in 1996.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society christened a vessel Gojira. Its purpose is to target and harass Japanese whalers in defence of whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The Gojira was renamed MV Brigitte Bardot in May 2011 after complaints of copyright infringement by the owners of the "Gojira" copyright.

Gojira is the name of a French death metal band, formerly known as Godzilla.

References

1. CR Godzilla Pachinko cutscene
2. Godzilla Island. Tohokingdom.com. Retrieved on 2011-11-04.
3. http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2011/2011-03.html
4. http://www.comics.org/series/65846/
5. Sharp, Jasper (2011). Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema. Scarecrow Press. p. 67. ISBN 9780810857957.
6. West, Mark (2008). The Japanification of Children's Popular Culture: From Godzilla to Miyazaki. Scarecrow Press. p. vii. ISBN 9780810851214.
7. The Monster That Morphed Into a Metaphor, By Terrence Rafferty, May 2, 2004, NYTimes
8. "Godzilla Wins The MTV Lifetime Achievement Award In 1996 – Godzilla video". Fanpop. 1954-11-03. Retrieved 2010-04-13.

External links

• Official Website of Toho (Japanese)
• Template:IMDb character

• Godzilla characters
• Toho Monsters
• Anthropomorphic martial artists
• Fictional characters introduced in 1954
• Film characters
• Fictional mutants
• Fictional characters with accelerated healing
• Fictional characters with superhuman strength
• Science fiction film characters
• King Kong characters