Deep Dive DC: Wes Looks at Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #3

Welcome back to this epic crossover. Last time, Godzilla appeared in Metropolis and Superman faced the beast in a one on one battle while the rest of the Justice League was preoccupied with other giant monsters appearing around the world. Despite eventually getting some assistance from Hawkgirl and Captain Marvel, The King of the Monsters managed to defeat The Man of Steel as young Billy Batson looked on in horror.

We open today’s comic with The Flash, b-lining it for Iron Heights prison, currently under attack by some giant spider Cthulhu creature. And if that weren’t bad enough, once Flash gets there, he’s ambushed by a small army of his own rogues gallery who have escaped their cells in the chaos. Personally I think they should be more concerned about running from the GIANT SPIDER, but then, if these guys were smart they probably wouldn’t be locked in the slammer to begin with. Things somehow get even worse than they already are when the bad guys realize that the prison is coated in a thick, toxic fog (likely the doing of the giant monster) that’s interfering with Flash’s speed, so the rogues take the opportunity to wail on Barry while he’s weakened. Fortunately, Supergirl and Green Lantern l arrive to save Barry and deal with the big monster. However, more bad news is piled onto this shit sandwich as Kara says she can no longer hear Superman’s heartbeat. Kara needs to attend to her cousin, meaning Hal and Barry are on their own with the giant Lovecraftian arachnid.

Back in Metropolis, Godzilla roars over the fallen Kryptonian as Billy Batson and Hawkgirl look on in horror. Fortunately, help has arrived in the form of the gigantic superhero Atom Smasher. Atom Smasher is no Superman, but at least now Godzilla has someone his an opponent his own size to fight while the others can get Superman somewhere safe. Unfortunately, size is the only thing the big guy has on the King of the Monsters as Godzilla starts wrecking his shit something fierce, even giving him a particularly nasty chomp on the shoulder for his trouble. Billy, feeling responsible for Superman and now Atom Smasher being taken out, stares down the monster, transforms back into Captain Marvel and charges at Godzilla. At the same time, Supergirl arrives and a full powered punch from the both of them is finally enough to take Godzilla off his feet, though he’s unlikely to stay down for long. While Captain Marvel leads Godzilla away from the City, Supergirl instructs Hawkgirl to take Superman to the fortress and wait for her while she flies off to help Flash and Green Lantern with the giant Cthulhu Spider.

Speaking of, the combination of the escaped super villains and the giant spider has our heroes barely holding things together over in Central City. To make matters worse, the Legion of Doom arrives just in time for Captain Cold to see Flash beating up his sister, who happens to be one of the escaped criminals, prompting the founder of the Rogues to put The Flash on ice while he’s distracted.

On Themyscira, the army of the Amazons, led by Wonder Woman and Donna Troy, are doing a decent job repelling the giant wooly mammoth. However, just as it looks like our heroes are winning… the monster just… leaves. Well, that was weird. What’s even weirder is that Wonder Woman seems to think that something is calling the creature.

Back in Central City, Flash has managed to escape his icy prison and helps Green Lantern and Supergirl finish off the Cthulhu Spider, but the inmates all managed to get away.

Meanwhile, on the mysterious island that didn’t exist before all these giant monsters started popping up, Green Arrow is up to his eyeballs in giant monsters and currently running for his life. Among the monsters is Kong who seems to be dominating the others. Fortunately, before the monster can notice Green Arrow, Supergirl arrives and starts mixing it up with big ape.

Later, Captain Marvel, who I guess managed to shake Godzilla, arrives in Gotham to inform everyone that Superman may be dead, something Batman refuses to believe until he has a chance to see the body. And so our comic ends with Lex Luthor digging up a large mechanical device in the desert, smiling to himself.

So, this issue was still pretty good, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel like a step backward compared to last time. Mind you, the epic clash between Superman and Godzilla is a tough act to follow, but even ignoring that, the pacing in this issue just felt off, especially when compared to the first two issues which had excellent pacing. This time around, we kept jumping from scene to scene with little time to catch our breath and characters jump from location to location so much that it’s hard to keep track of who’s fighting what monster at any given time. To cite an especially egregious example, we see Captain Marvel fighting Godzilla, leading the Monster out of Metropolis, then a few pages later suddenly he’s in Gotham, begging the question, where the fuck is Godzilla? Maybe we’re meant to assume he was called away like the giant mammoth, but it would have been nice to have explicitly established that, otherwise, as far as we know, Godzilla is heading straight for Gotham and that’s not good for anyone. Speaking of wondering where the hell certain characters are, we haven’t seen Grodd or Toyman, both of whom were set up to play a significant role in this story, since issue one, leading me to wonder what’s taking them so long to show up. Don’t get me wrong, the superhero vs. giant monster action has been a treat, but we still have a story to tell here, let’s get the led out here people. Anyway, while this issue was definitely a little weaker than the previous two, this crossover as a whole is still a net positive so far. Let’s hope they can keep that up.