Review by Frank Plowright
End of the Reign begins a new connected universe of Godzilla stories identified as “The Kei-Sei” era on the cover. Don’t know what that means? It’s helpfully labelled as ‘Big Lizard Juice’ soon into the story, or more scientifically, the power that awakened Godzilla and other kaiju and is used by them, with humanity now tapping the source. The twist Tim Seeley introduces is Jacen Braid, a teenager able to withstand the power of Godzilla and punch him back, therefore a valuable addition to the G-Force team of superheroes tasked with responding to kaiju attacks.
Seeley treats the opening chapter as if superhero drama, laying out the personalities of the superheroes, what they can do via a training session, establishing a seeming traitor in the support team and then sending them on a mission against a secondary kaiju. The viewpoint is always that of G-Force, and Seeley professionally involves readers in their concerns. That’s how End of the Reign continues, with the focus on the defence activities of G-Force, but with Seeley dropping in all kinds of information about how other nations deal with kaiju. There are plenty of good ideas along the way, such as the Japanese approach distilling down to something similar to acupuncture.
Nikola Ciżmešija’s art isn’t the traditional energy and power-based approach taken on Godzilla comics, but that’s there if needed. He’s a meticulous artist with a delicate thin line excellent at defining people and detail, and there’s considerable unexpected subtlety to the art at times. Look closely. Over the final chapters it’s action nearly all the way, and while pin-up pages are present, Ciżmešija manages to squash so much into smaller panels without ever overcrowding them.
Seeley’s good ideas about Godzilla and their world keep coming, and so do the connections, making it apparent a considerable amount of groundwork has been laid to create them, probably for some larger later purpose. Yacumama are key. They’re self-adapting forms of artificially created kaiju able to be used as weapons against the original creatures, but is this a good thing?
After the introductions there’s very little sitting around talking here, as Seeley propels the story like a rocket, and drops one hell of a bombshell near the end when it seems Jacen is going to be the force needed to keep America safe from kaiju. If this is the direction IDW is taking with Godzilla from now on it’s exciting and worth jumping on board.
