Review by Ian Keogh

Kingdom of Monsters concerns a sudden appearance of a number of giant monsters around the Earth, and the consequent massive death toll and devastation, which becomes exponentially worse when they clash. The end of Volume 2 finally made sense of Sgt Steven Brooks being followed for so long when he and the young girl he’s protecting chanced across the disabled US government experiment Mechagodzilla.

The opening chapter of this conclusion shows he’s managed to reactivate it, and his first encounter with a monster sees him emerge victorious, which gives some hope with Godzilla still stomping across the USA. The USA isn’t the only country suffering, and we’ve also been following two creepy mute twin sisters convinced their destiny is to be queens of France, and awaiting the full flourishing of Mothra.

A switch to new writer Jason Ciaramella means the funny sidelines disappear from this final instalment of Kingdom of Monsters, but as it’s the end run, that’s not a deal breaker. He plots the action for maximum effect, and has a couple of neat twists in store ensuring things don’t come to an end before the pages run out when it seems as if that’s going to happen.

In Volume 2 artist Victor Santos was far stronger on the monster battling sequences than he was on the remainder, which makes it convenient that this volume is almost exclusively monster battling. He draws giant, lumpy monsters surrounded by devastation and there’s a great primal energy when he has them battering each other. This reaches its peak on a world shattering penultimate chapter, but a skim around the destruction is also notable.

Anyone who’s followed the series over two previous volumes isn’t going to be disappointed by the finale. Of course, it’s not the end of Godzilla, and he and his fellow monsters have been seen in many IDW graphic novels since. In 2019 Kingdom of Monsters was gathered into a single collection.