Gamera: The Guardian Of The Universe #1 "The Shadow of Evil - Gyaos!" - Dark Horse Comics

​Gamera: The Guardian Of The Universe #1
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
​August, 1996
​Cover Artists: Mitsuaki Hashimoto

​"The Shadow of Evil - Gyaos!"
Writers: Dave Chipps
Pencilers: Mozart Couto
Inkers: Mike Sellers
Colourists: Art Knight
Letterers: Clem Robins
Editors: Randy Stradley

Appearing in "The Shadow of Evil - Gyaos!"
​Featured Characters:
Gamera
Gyaos
Viras
Lizard mutant
Spiked mutant
Supporting Characters:
Lutz
Asagi Kusanagi
Mayumi Nagamine
Gusano
Greta Karbone
Locations:
Guanajota Harbor, Mexico

Synopsis for ​"The Shadow of Evil - Gyaos!"
​One year after the battle between Gamera and Super Gyaos, in Guanajota Harbor in Mexico, island tour pilot Lutz attempts to attach a fake head to his dog to get extra cash in a new "freak show" attraction he is adding to his business. He is then approached by Asagi Kusanagi, who had come to see the monster, but in recompense for the monster attraction falling through he offers to give her a seaplane ride instead. During the flight, Kusanagi reveals that she is in Mexico with her friend Mayumi Nagamine, who had been summoned by Patty Smith to a private island, and Asagi had not been allowed to accompany her. After arriving on Smith's island, Nagamine, Smith, and her bodyguard Gusano begin their search for the Emerald-Crested Dapplinger, a bird thought to be long extinct that she claimed to have sighted, and the reason that ornithologist Nagamine was summoned to the island. While peering through her binoculars, sees the distant sillouette of Gyaos, the notion of whose return she dismisses before coming across its droppings. Because of Super Gyaos having been killed and had its remains sealed in Tokyo laboratories, she deduces that the Gyaos of Mexico must be another member of the Gyaos species. As she explains Gyaos' origins to Smith, Gyaos rises from the water out of their view and devours a fisherman.

While flying with Lutz, in answer to his query about her curiosity for monsters, Asagi explains her connection to Gamera, which Lutz politely listens to while not believing a word of it. After her story concludes, the Magatama amulet around Asagi's neck begins to glow, and she insists that Gamera is calling her. As Gyaos descends on the city of Guanajota, Smith reveals to Nagamine that they had genetically engineered Gyaos, who had escaped its jar, alongside three other monsters, and that she is not Patty Smith, but biologist Greta Karbone, who, with the help of Gusano had obtained a sample of Super Gyaos' DNA and crafted their own Supermonsters with it. She then invites Nagamine to join her and help her to control them. After noticing a fire on the shore, Lutz feels turbulence before Gamera flies by his rickety seaplane. Through his disbelief, Lutz becomes concerned, when after Gamera receives a blow from Gyaos, that wounds instantaneously appear on Asagi's face. Instead of flying toward the fight as she requests, Lutz lands the plane and kicks Asagi out, fearing that she was attracting the monsters, and so she tries her best to run against the crowd toward Gamera.

Original Solicitation
"When giant monsters threaten to destroy your family, when natural disasters endanger your home, there's one big turtle who's watching your back! He's Gamera, the guardian of the universe, and he's returned to save Mexico from the awesome power of the bio-engineered bird-monster known as Gyaos! There's a battle of the behemoths brewing south of the border, and the repercussions are gonna be felt across North and South America!

Trivia
The issue concludes with a brief description of the Showa Gamera series, along with a synopsis of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, which had not yet been released in the United States.

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