After a lackluster first issue, Godzilla: Oblivion returns for its second installment. Is it good?
Godzilla: Oblivion #2 (IDW Publishing)
The Plot
- So I guess we’re skipping forward past King Ghidorah’s first two weeks in our dimension. Bummer.
- Wow. We’re skipping over quite a bit, actually.
- Talbert and Yamada argue like an old married couple–an old married couple that may have just destroyed the world.
- What Talbert considers a ‘bad idea’ sounds pretty awesome to me.
- What whaddaya know? Godzilla hates car alarms, too.
- Star Wars wants its favorite line back…but yeah, you probably should have a bad feeling about this.
Is It Good?
One of my favorite things about Fialkov’s writing is his ability to inject dashes of humor into dire situations. The humor definitely shows up in Godzilla: Oblivion, occasionally with laugh-out-loud results. Unfortunately, it’s not very well balanced. The dialogue swings back and forth from funny to serious in such a jarring manner that it becomes hard to enjoy the story.
Strangely, the art by Brian Churilla suffers from almost the exact same issue. His work exhibits both a cartoony and somber/deadly dynamic–and both are really, really good. A couple of his panels featuring Godzilla completely knock it out of the park. But the two aesthetics never seem to mesh, making the entire book feel uneven.
And then there are the missing story beats. While I appreciate Fialkov trying to make the narrative more efficient, it feels like we skip over a lot of transitional moments that would connect us more with the characters.
Add in the fact that this issue has our protagonists doing almost the exact same thing as last issue (with an obvious conclusion looming the whole way), and Godzilla: Oblivion continues to disappoint. Let’s hope that the big fight being set up for next issue turns things around.
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