Godzilla has found his way to outer space in several films, but Starship Godzilla #1 doesn’t feature the titular monster and instead is a Cowboy Bebop-type saga of a crew of scrappers in the titular ship, which bears a resemblance to Mechagodzilla. Chris Gooch and Oliver Ono‘s first installment is heavy on the action beginning at an intergalactic auction where protagonists Captain Rohan, Ayan, and their “person in the chair” Ilsa are snagging kaiju eggs to sell for a tidy profit. These various exciting sequences set up the crew’s dynamic without being dragged down by exposition. There’s also a cute cat named Ralphy involved that could give Jonesy or Ein a run for their money.

Ono’s line art and colors continues the anarchic feel of the Kai-Sei era while bringing a unique sci-fi flair out of bande desinees or manga/anime like the aforementioned Cowboy Bebop, Space Battleship Yamamoto, and Captain Harlock. I love his adorable, yet creepy creature design, and how he makes the color palette explode on the page, especially during one of the many chase scenes. However, Oliver Ono also does some killer splash pages like the initial reveal of Starship Godzilla establishing Rohan and company as a well-heeled group although Gooch’s script keeps most character backstory and information close to its chest. There’s enough information to run through the original plot and keep the action going, but plenty of mystery for this ongoing series to unlock.

Starship Godzilla #1 transports monster stories to another galaxy as Chris Gooch and Oliver Ono craft an interstellar black market to offset what’s going on the ground in this new era of GodzillaI like the unique personalities they craft for this book’s lead characters as they understand that a good sci-fi story lives and dies by the chemistry of its crew. As well as having fast-paced action, Starship Godzilla also shows the reactions of various individuals to the kaiju phenomenon from profit to keeping them as pets or even killing ’em all. With its combination of the kaiju and space opera genres, Starship Godzilla might be my favorite launch title of the Kai-Sei era and its physical distance from other events in this universe make it fairly standalone too if you’ve ever read a comic or watched a movie, TV show, or anime with a spaceship or giant monster in it.

Starship Godzilla #1 arrives in comic shops on October 1.

Story: Chris Gooch Art: Oliver Ono Letters: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Story: 8.0 Art: 8.6 Overall: 8.3 Recommendation: Buy

IDW Publishing provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review