Exactly how powerful is the comics version of Godzilla?
So I've been reading a load of Godzilla comics, old and new, over the last few days because I got all nerd excited from seeing the trailer for the new film.
Basically it got me wondering exactly how powerful people think of Godzilla as he is portrayed in the comics?
Is he elite top tier, a peer to guys like Thor, Hulk, Superman or whoever, but just really, really big?
Is he less powerful than them, but just really, really big and so awkward to deal with?
Or is he more of a threat, more like a Kurse or maybe even a Mangog, untouchable by the conventional attacks of the top tier?
Or is it more like a middle-ground thing - he isn't necessarily above or even equal to elite top tiers overall, but he has certain outstanding attributes that make him a major threat? e.g. ridiculous durability
Thoughts please!
I'm going to follow this post with a quick scan-heavy recap of each iteration of comics Godzilla that you may or may not want to read/enjoy. There are three versions, with the latest (published by IDW) easily the most impressive.
The Marvel version of Godzilla I guess is the most obvious place to start a comparison. But, in my opinion, this was almost certainly the weakest average portrayal of Godzilla of the three companies who have handled him in western comics. He was nowhere near as unstoppable as other versions - for example, it was made quite explicit that a nuclear explosion would have killed him (more on this later).
When he was restored to full size and power, Reed basically said they had not the foggiest hope in hell of stopping him and got on the phone to Thor and the Avengers ASAP. http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums...zps8a94ac37.jpg
Whilst at that same massively, massively reduced power-levels he was shown as flat-out stronger than Devil Dinosaur in a direct test of strength. (I don't actually know if this is impressive or not as I have no idea what level DD is supposed to be at) http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums...zps5fa88dfa.jpg
The Dark Horse version is probably the hardest to assess as he doesn't really do much in the way of feats and only fights new characters so not much room for ABC comparisons.
The current comics Godzilla, published by IDW, seems to be the most powerful version of him we've seen - probably even including Final Wars movie Godzilla. It's also got some outstanding art so if you've ever enjoyed giant monsters punching each other in the face you'll probably enjoy some of these scans.
He's also an absolute monster (pardon the pun) in combat, he beats everyone. Sometimes everyone at the same time. Think how Final Wars Godzilla handled other monsters and you are basically there, maybe even dial it up another notch.
Is he a simple top tier (or in that ballpark), but just bigger and uglier? Or is he something more, a higher level threat than the conventional top tier requiring powerful teams of heroes to deal with? Or is he even something less than the conventional top tier?
It's only a few highlights. I've got a crap-load more scans uploaded, ready to post a comprehensive respect thread. Once I've written it all up I'll make a respect thread in that forum but for now I was more interested in how people viewed him on here, with a selection of highlights to remind/show people what he has done.
They are canon for the Marvel characters and for that version of Godzilla. There is no shared canon between the Marvel Universe version of Godzilla and any other version (i.e. Dark Horse, IDW or movie Godzillas).
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