Just in time for the big greeting card holiday, Zoe Tunnell, Sebastian Piriz, and Rebecca Nalty give readers a sweet, gay kaiju treat in the form of Godzilla Valentine’s Day Special. This one-shot chronicles a growing slow-burn romance between an unemployed burnout-turned-monster chaser named Piper Simmons and Lieutenant Tam Sauveterre, an officer in the Earth Defense Force, a self-explanatory peacekeeping force. It’s set against a tapestry of deep-cut monster fights, a variety of locations, and interrogates the relationship that the world has to the existence of Godzilla and the various upheavals he and his buddies cause through two different perspectives. But it’s also very cute and flirty.
Within the first two pages of Godzilla Valentine’s Special, Tunnell and Piriz grabbed my attention as a reader. I’ve definitely worked some dead end jobs and pondered, “What if Godzilla showed up?”, and this comic gave me my wish. Piriz uses contained square and rectangle before opening up to Godzilla’s side profile and finally giving a poster-worthy double page spread of Godzilla taking out an office building with explosions, sound effects, and helicopters all around. His take on the King of Monsters swallows up the page and is more like a natural landmark than an action figure-type figure. Piper has almost a spiritual experience, and of course, she ends up chasing monsters after her work lays her off in a “restructuring move” after the collapse of their building.
Initially, Piper is a typical thrill seeker posting about monsters on social media and being reckless. Her meet cute with Tam involves being almost hit by debris in Singapore, and Nalty’s jarring color palette and aggressive effects lettering from Johanna Nattalie drive the sequence home. However, she ends up having a full arc throughout the course of Godzilla Valentine’s Day Special and turns her theories about how EDF’s militarism and radiation leaks around have led to the rise of the kaiju into praxis as she ends up doing EDF’s job better than them and eventually and unexpectedly earns Tam’s respect. Mutual respect is what leads to their romantic relationship, and there’s nice bookends of Piper saving Tam after they saved her towards the beginning of the comic.
There’s definitely flirting (Tam’s job offer), glances, and physical touch, but Godzilla Valentine’s Special is chock-full of the social commentary that is why his stories are so compelling for me. The big action climax of the comic is a fight between Godzilla and the EDF constructed MechaGodzilla, who Godzilla sees as a predator. Piper lectures Tam on how using military ways of fighting Godzilla just leads to more war and destruction instead of figuring out ways to adapt to his and other monsters’ presence in the ecosystem. I mean, how many times in the films have you seen Godzilla save Earth from bigger, badder monsters. Piper’s ideas about dealing with Godzilla could be a metaphor for anything from climate change to any number of ongoing wars, crises, and genocides as she goes for smarter, more ethical solutions instead of just throwing money and weapons at a problem like the United States government and its corporate cronies. However, the personal angle between her and Tam keeps the comic approachable and not preachy. The relationship between Tam and Piper is relatable for anyone who has had a strong attraction to someone that they had ideological differences with, in say, a leftist versus liberal way.
Godzilla Valentine’s Special is a beautiful story about two people finding each other in the middle of years of turmoil that happen to involve giant monsters. Zoe Tunnell gives lovely arcs to both Tam and Piper, and her dialogue is full of emotion while Sebastian Piriz and Rebecca Nalty make sparks fly with the big monster battles as well plenty of close-ups of our protagonists coming to terms with their feelings. This is a must-read for fans of kaiju stories, queer romances, or both like yours truly!
Story: Zoe Tunnell Art: Sebastian Piriz
Colors: Rebecca Nalty Letters: Johanna Nattalie
Story: 8.9 Art: 8.4 Overall: 8.7 Recommendation: Buy
IDW Publishing provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: Kindle
