In 1945, America successfully created Fat Man, a device that would decisively end World War II in favor of the Allies—but in this universe, the Fat Man wasn’t an atom bomb. It was a Kaiju: a monstrous creature of unknown classification created by blasting KAI-235 crystals with atomic energy, thereby releasing the beast inside. Soon thereafter, the Kaiju arms race has spread across the globe with no heed for potential consequences.
Told in interview form, the plot unfolds as a mysterious, top-ranking intelligence agent reveals his experiences to reporter Mr. Keegan. As though the existence of Kaiju wasn’t wild enough, the story gets even weirder. Apparently, the president was visited by pixies, an alien intelligence that created the destructive monsters and then were nearly destroyed by them. Years ago, they decided to encase the Kaiju in KAI-235 and discard them on a barren planet to lie dormant forever. Except that once “barren planet” was Earth. The pixies reveal that there is great danger in reanimating the Kaiju: the fallout from destroying one of the monsters mutates all life around it. Soon enough, new mutated creatures begin to appear all over the planet—and we have no idea how to control them.
The present-day narrative is illustrated in a glossy painted style, but it does break its look for flashbacks: a 60’s psychedelic talk with Carl Sagan, a 70’s comic insert to depict an event from another researcher’s file, and case photos that show the different kinds of Kaiju. There are also files at the end of the book and mock advertisements from 50’s magazines to round out the historical timeline and world-building.
World War Kaiju is a fun story that will appeal to fans of the movies Godzilla and Pacific Rim. Though it is a bit wordy and many scenes seem very static—just an image of two men staring at each other and talking—it feels as though this introductory volume is setting the stage for future action to come. I, for one, look forward to the next installment.
World War Kaiju, Book One: The Cold War Years
by Josh Finey
Art by Patrick McEvoy
ISBN: 9780983923039
01 Publishing, 2011
