Godzilla Color Special #1 - Dark Horse Comics

​Godzilla Color Special #1
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
​August, 1992
​Cover Artists: Arthur Adams 

Writers: Arthur Adams, Randy Stradley
Pencilers: Arthur Adams
Colourists: Rachelle Menashe
Letterers: Lois Buhalis
Editors: Randy Stradley

Appearing in this issue
Featured Characters:
Godzilla
Gekido-jin
Shrew-Manoid's Monsters (mentioned)
Supporting Characters:
Doctor Kazushi Kagaku
Doctor Reiko Kagaku
Kino (Tadihisa Kinoshita)
​Také Fukuda
Kogenta
Ookii'Mune
G-Force
Vehicles:
V.T.O.L. (Vertical Takeoff and Landing craft)
Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser

Synopsis for this issue
As part of a rescue mission, The G-Force team arrives on the remote island of Kiryoku-shima, whose people have rejected modern technology since World War II, to warn of Godzilla's impending arrival. A former G-Force member named Kogenta, who has been living on the island to research its people, greets them before they head to the meeting hall with their news. Rather than evacuate, the residents side with the priestess Ookii'Mune, who insists that the local god Gekido-jinwill protect them. As they argue, Godzilla destroys the U.S. Navy forces meant to supervise the evacuation.
Ookii'Mune gathers the islanders at the shrine of Gekido-jin while G-Force retrieves a dart gun from their craft as Godzilla walks onto the island. Ookii'Mune explains that while it is typically forbidden for non-islanders like Kogenta and G-Force to see the shrine, the state of emergency necessitates an exception before revealing that the statue is possessed by an Oni. Gekido-jin had lived on Kiryoku-Shima before the first humans had come from mainland Japan to settle it, and were constantly attacked by the spirit, which grew stronger with every defeat, until a monk sacrificed himself to Gekido-Jin to battle the Oni inside. While the spirits within Gekido-Jin are fighting the statue cannot move. Ookii'Mune then voices her intent to release the Monk's spirit by taking his place and allowing the Oni to have control of Gekido-Jin long enough for it to ward off Godzilla before taking up the eternal battle to keep the statue dormant.

Before Kazushi Kagaku, the leader of G-Force can object, Godzilla made his way into the clearing. G-Force quickly prepares their biopsy dart that they fire into Godzilla's foot in hopes of obtaining some skin cells or nerve endings. However, as they prepare their weapon Ookii'Mune sneaks to the statue to begin the ritual, but is knocked unconscious by flying rocks that had been kicked up by Godzilla. With G-Force distracted by Ookii'Mune's injury, Kogenta offers himself to Gekido-jin before both he and the statue are flattened by Godzilla. Godzilla then blasts the surrounding cliff face with his Atomic Breath before Gekido-jin emerges from the rubble and strikes Godzilla with his hammer. Godzilla then destroys Gekido-jin, who begins to reform his body to be larger, but never gets a chance to attack again due to Godzilla's destroying him before he can fully re-form his body. G-Force then devises a plan to give Gekido-jin more time by using the biopsy dart, which is still in Godzilla's foot, and using Ookii'Mune's staff as a lightning rod, they channel electricity from the overhead storm to electrocute Godzilla.

Gekido-jin then slams his hammer into Godzilla's face before slowly backing toward an ocean-facing cliff. Godzilla then charges Gekido-jin and tackles him off the cliff, and destroys him for the final time with his Atomic Breath. G-Force and Ookii'Mune pay their respects to Kogenta, who resumes control of Gekido-jin and reforms on the ocean floor, acknowledging that the battle is over because he got Godzilla off the island before taking up the ancient Monk's position and resuming battle with the Oni.

Note
This comic was re-released as the Dark Horse Classics: Godzilla Color Special in April, 1998. It was also released as the ​Godzilla Especial Color (December 1998) by Norma Editorial in Spanish.

Trivia

• One of the panels from this comic, showing Godzilla rising up from the ocean, was used for the cover of the script of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.
• This comic introduced the name G-Force a year before it was used for a United Nations organization in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.
• Dark Horse's G-Force is patterned after Marvel's Fantastic Four, with the team consisting of two married scientists, one of their closest friends, and the female scientist's younger brother.
• The Shrew-Manoid who Kazushi references is a character from the Monkeyman and O'Brien series created by Godzilla Color Special artist Art Adams. He himself is based on one of the Fantastic Four's villains, the Mole Man.
• The cruiser split in two by Godzilla is named the USS Robert E. Howard, after the pulp fiction author who created Conan the Barbarian.
• Gekido-jin's name roughly translates into "furious man."