From what I've read on the IDW forums, apparently IDW now has something like 20 additional kaiju added to their roster of licensed character. With the previous 13, that makes 33. I say "something like" because it didn't sound like an affirmative "yes we have exactly 33 monsters," it sounded more like "yeah, whatever, I guess, it's not like it's important."
:/
But 33 monsters is interesting because, throughout Godzilla's screen life there have been (give or take depending on what you count as a separate monster) 50 kaiju. Now, that's monsters that share the screen with Godzilla specifically, meaning I'm not counting Dogora, Matango, Dogora, Sanda, Dogora, Gaira, Dogora, Maguma, Dogora, or any other kaiju that didn't specifically co-star with Godzilla. It also excludes MOST of the Zone Fighter monsters, because Godzilla was only in 4 episodes.
So far, the only confirmed additions are Jet Jaguar, Sanda, and Gaira. So two of those are more correctly Frankenstein monsters, and this widens up the scope to include, potentially, any Toho kaiju.
Any Toho kaiju that requires you to license to use, and that they can legally license to another company. License. When I say "50," it's not a legal list, so there's some uncertain areas. But, overall, I think we are at a position where we can logically break down the total Toho stable and infer which creatures they have.
The real reason I'm doing this is because Prometheus looks really boring what with the "I'm really pretentious about monster movies but I want you to take my humanoid aliens seriously" nonsense and lack of it coming out fast enough (sure they ruined the space jockies, but there's going to be a NEW Giger-esque monster! It's gonna be so cool, trust me). Since Godzilla #1 came out (that is a fucking awful title, by the way, give it a subtitle, please) I've made the conscious decision to head back to the franchise that is still fun and awesome.
So, anyways, on to the list! :D
1. GODZILLA - duh. 1
2. ANGUIRUS - original 13. 2
3. KING KONG - hahaha, never going to happen.
4. OODAKO - A giant octopus, not a licensable character, despite being co-starring with Godzilla, King Kong, AND Frankenstein... sort of
5. MOTHRA - original 13. 3
6. RODAN - original 13. 4
7. KING GHIDORAH - original 13. 5
8. EBIRAH - Hard to say. Doesn't seem like it's worth the effort to me, though. However, after writing the rest of this list and realizing I miscounted somewhere, I realize I have one spot left that, after ambiguities had been disqualified, was basically a toss-up between Ebirah and Dagarlah, and I think I'll see an Ebirah comic before I see a Dagarlah one. 6/1 assumed
9. OOKONDORU - another monster that's not actually trademarked.
10. MINILLA - ...naaaaawwwww, they wouldn't license this thing.
11. KAMACURAS - They've got Kumonga, and these two have a knack for showing up to a party wearing the same dress. I'd like for, as I originally assumed, someone actually gave a damn about Kumonga for once in his life, but clearly that's not the direction IDW chose for the character, and their disregard for it's originality guarantees they're going to make a one-panel appearance in "Godzilla #whatever," and in the same panel no less. 7/2 assumed
12. KUMONGA - original 13, although everyone at IDW seems to hate him. 8/2 assumed
13. MANDA - DUH. It's fucking MANDA. You know she's in there somewhere. 9/3 assumed
14. GOROSAURUS - I want this SO bad. Most other showa monsters have reappered in some form during the Millennium series, but Gorosaurus got left out. He's really one of the most gorgeous looking kaiju I've ever seen, and has been criminally underused. I would say I think IDW will continue the trend, but looking at the list, it really seems like there's a good chance he's in. 10/4 assumed
15. BARAGON - Maybe a decade ago, this would be a toss-up. Haha, just kidding, Baragon is for Japan what Anguirus is for westerners. He's totes in, no worries. 11/5 assumed
16. VARAN - I can't understand this. Varan isn't actually "in" a Godzilla movie, but there is a shitty prop waved around for a combined total of 5 seconds throughout all of DAM. The original movie was absolutely gorgeous looking, but rather mediocre. I don't HATE Varan, I just find it impossible to have an opinion. He's very cool looking, sure, and he's incredibly fun to play as in Unleashed, but I guess what I'm not understanding is why anyone would be so motivated to care about him on the same level of Gorosaurus, Biollante, or even Bagan. And Varan fans really do get pretty crazy about him. I'm not knocking that at all and too each his own, but in the context of a list like this, I'm weighing the objective pointlessness of licensing the character with its bizarre and curiously motivated fanbase. I don't know if one of the dorks at IDW is in the Varan camp or not because I can't tell Varan fans apart from other people. They're like Asians to me. I... I guess? Really stumped here, don't know if the fanbase if enough to justify this, but it's the ONLY reason they would do it. Personally, if they get Varan I figure they have a mandate to make the character interesting for once. He has the potential for personality, so I'm sure you could do SOMETHING with this guy. 12/6 assumed
17. GABARA - Gabara is very one dimensional in his only appearance (I'm talking about Godzilla stuff, mind you, but it isn't like his Greenman appearance added any special context for him or anything), in that he is a dream personification of a bully that doesn't even exist in the analog world. A dream monster is an awesome idea, though. Also, he stands out among all the other Toho kaiju for having a wildly different design style than the others. He isn't the weirdest, he's just a traditional oni turned into a kaiju... and that's so far removed from all the other Toho things. I really want him to see some action, but I don't think there's room for such a one-hit wonder.
18. HEDORAH - original 13. 13/6 assumed
19. GIGAN - original 13 I'm told, but I've never seen him, so it might be a lie. 14/6 assumed
20. MEGALON - How do you have Jet Jaguar and NOT Megalon? Most recently appeared in Justirisers (under a different name, but I'm not blind) and has the somewhat dubious but never outright bad reputation of being the climax of the goofy 70's asthetic. Megalon feels so essential to some because he's proof that even in the worst of times, Godzilla is one entertaining mother funker. Megalon is in or I'm walkin'. Funky walkin', that is. 15/7 assumed
21. JET JAGUAR - confirmed. 16/7 assumed
22. ZONE FIGHTER - it can be safely assumed that the rights to Zone Fighter are... complicated, that said, even if they weren't, I can't see IDW giving any number of shits about any of the ZF kaiju. Not even Zandolla, which is a shame, because Zandolla is awesome.
23. WARGILGAR - ZOOOOONE...
24. SPYLER - DABURUUUUU...
25. ZANDOLLA - FAITOOOOOOOO!!!
26. JELLAR - Fun Fact: Not an original Garoga weapon, but a native inhabitant of Planet Jellarl. They added another "L" to the end of the name. This was a real monster Godzilla fought. Megalon wasn't the weirdest monster Godzilla ever fought, just the weirdest one most folks know about
27. KABUTOGIRAH - I can't help but thinking this name was supposed to be "Kabuto Killer," but some guy put the little quotation mark thingies in the wrong place and changed "Ki" to "Gi," and now the name is just nonsense.
28. JIKIRO - Is a recurring kaiju in the ZF series. Does that make it important? Not really. Cool powers but seriously stupid looking.
29. MOGURANDA - Like Jikiro, only just barely counts. There's a scene where some kaiju are getting zapped by a pokeball beam or something, and you never see Jikiro or Moguranda in the episode after that (some capsules were found by Zone et co), but it's still way more screen time that Varan ever had in a Godzilla movie.
30. SPIDEROS - I've seen this name as "Spider Uros." It's very silly, but I know why some folks interpret it that way. Obviously because of Toho Kingdom, but looking at the kana it reads, in romanji, "Supaidauros." Looked at from a point of view of directly interpreting kana into english it sure LOOKS like it's "Spider Uros," but if you just say the name out loud it's pretty obvious that's ridiculous. "-daur" has an "au" sound and one "r" sound, while "-der Ur" sounds retarded.
31. GAROBORG - Just another stupid ZF monster that isn't the three that are awesome.
32. MECHAGODZILLA - original 13. 17/7 assumed
33. KING CAESAR - Totally. Sure. Expect it. 18/8 assumed
34. TITANOSAURUS - original 13. 19/8 assumed
35. SHOKILAS - Toho Kingdom invented the name "Shockirus." There's no source for it, and the word never existed before one of the staff on that site came up with it. It's not the first time they've outright made shit up. Point is, it's Shokilas. Of course even if this required licensing, there's no reason to do it. Dark Horse created it's own version, and IDW already did the "climbing Godzilla" issue without Shokilas, and there's no other logical reason to ever use the overgrown sea louse.
36. BIOLLANTE - original 14. SHUSH. 20/8 assumed
37. GODZILLASAURUS - I count this as separate because, even thought Godzillasaurus:Godzilla is 1:1 SO FAR, Godzillasaurus describes an entire species of unmutated dinosaur. So all Godzillas must be Godzillasauruses, but not necessarily the other way around. Cuz of Prometheus, the idea of an "indirect prequel" where one might see a Godzillasaurus that ISN'T Godzilla, and never becomes such, suddenly doesn't sound quite as ridiculous, but hey, who would make that movie? As for whether IDW would use it... well, the thing is Godzillasaurus has to be licensed separately from Godzilla, and it's only useful for an origin story. But origin stories are just exactly the sort of thing a comic book would do. While I would like to think they would just say "we don't NEED that, what we NEED is Godzilla knocking an enormous Dogora out of orbit," it seems like with 33, they probably got Godzillasaurus in there somewhere.
38. MECHA-KING GHIDORAH - seems obvious enough. 21/9 assumed
39. BATTRA - original 13. 22/9 assumed
40. JUNIOR - This one is weird, because using this list means there is one Godzilla movie Godzilla doesn't actually appear in. For three films Junior is treated as a separate monster from Godzilla, until the end of GvsD where he BECOMES Godzilla. This is sort of a weird area similar to Godzillasaurus, but unlike Godzillasaurus, Junior has THREE separate licensed forms, Baby, Little, and Junior. If IDW chose to show a baby Godzilla, this presents a problem, because there are 3 or 4 different things to choose from. And three of them are really iffy because you're essentially buying the right to use Godzilla four times over, since Junior, as of the end of GvsD and GFW, IS Godzilla. It seems like a legal headache that could be avoided by simply not doing a story about a baby Godzilla, and I'm pretty sure that's what will happen.
41. SPACE GODZILLA - >:/ what a jackass. Yeah, he's in KoM #12, how appropriate for such a piece of trash. 23/9 assumed
42. MOGUERA - Sure, why not. Moguera seems to have a habit of popping up in places where people are indifferent to him. He is the fifth kaiju Toho cranked out, of the original six from the 1950's (is THAT why people like Varan? Because he's old?), and he seems to have a pretty solid seat at the Grand Council or whatever. 24/10 assumed
43. FAIRY MOTHRA - No room for this thing unless IDW wants to do something in the direction of the Mothra trilogy.
44. DESTROYAH - original 13. 25/11 assumed
45. ORGA - I feel sort of ambivalent about this guy, personally, and it's partly because the uniqueness of the monster that I really like about him in Godzilla 2000 was sort of immediately ignored in favor of just saying "the final stage of that particular aspect of this alien or aliens that are more mysterious than space jockies used to be when they were cool that attacks Godzilla but not when it starts trying to finish shapeshifting but in that sort of in-between stage where it does most of the fighting even though it's never really clear what this stage in it's life cycle is even supposed to be but whatever we need a new monster" and then just dumping him in the middle of the classic pantheon as this really poorly defined... thing. Obviously they have him, I'm just saying, you know, he's cool but on his own terms. He's not JUST an ugly grey hunchback, he's a... some sort of thing. 26/12 assumed
46. MEGANULON - Two trademarks, as the adult stage is its own thing in a legal context. If Megaguiras were to show up, Meganulon AND Meganula would need to be around to give it context, and Meganulon is the third/fourth monster off the Toho lot, so it's kind of a big deal. It won't directly fight other monsters and seems rather ancillary though. Hmmm...
47. MEGAGUIRAS - Well, one thing that could happen is if introduced in the KoM universe, all they have to do it suck the life out of thousands of normal dragonflies, and no one will care about the absence of Meganulon. Megaguiras, like Orga, seemed to have been forced down our throats in the aughts as being of the same stature of the more well known members of the pantheon, only with being related to Meganulon it seemed slightly less forced that Megaguiras saturated Godzilla merchandise for a while... slightly. I'm not really convinced she's needed, but I do think it will find a way to weasel its way in, with or without the Meganulons. 27/13 assumed
48. KAMOEBAS - eh. Would they ever use this monster out of context of the "Yog Trio?" It seems that, even after GMM, the association is too strong, and the character too obscure. If any of them appear, it will be Gezora.
49. ZILLA - pfffffHAHAHAHAHAHAHA good lord get real XD.
50. KAISER GHIDORAH - As much as I love the Kaiser, and as awesome as a comic book could make him out to be, I'm thinking that any role for this character can be filled by the original KG, seeing as how this KG is basically just the other KG but his equivalent for Heisei-powered Godzilla. If you're going to make world destroyer KG, they already have one, why splurge on two when you can talk Toho into doing other things... like Godzilla blasting Dogora out of the sky or fighting a giant Matango hive?
So that's 27 with 13 unconfirmed but assumed. Adding Sanda and Gaira makes it 29 and leaves room for four more Toho kaiju that haven't already co-starred with Godzilla in the films. My votes go to Dogora, Gezora, Death Ghidorah, and Bagan.
This is complicated by a couple things. For one, outside of the rigidly controlled Godzilla series, Toho doesn't really seem to be too concerned about trademarking certain things. Is Maguma a thing they have to specifically license? I don't think that would happen if it were, but still, do I need to count that? Or can IDW draw a giant walrus, not name it, and still come out on top? What about Matango? That monster belongs to William Hope Hodgson, but is in public domain, but also we're talking specifically about the film Matango. Is that a license-able Toho kaiju? Can't they just make a mushroom monster if they want too? The same motif appears in Yog-Sothery over and over and in truth, "Voice in the Night" is Yog-Sothery as well. And you don't need to license Yog-Sothoth from anyone. Lovecraft is dead (the racist bastard).
Bagan is totes a thing, but would they go there? My list suggests a position open for that very thing, but I don't know, this is just deduction. Maybe IDW picked up Gabara and Minilla and that dream is dead now. What about the post-showa non-Godzilla monsters? Mothra series characters are fair game, I would assume, but what about the Jupiter Ghosts? The Dragon from Princess from the Moon? Monsters from the Choseishin shows? Any of the Zilla cartoon enemies? Or, for that matter, Godzooky? What is and isn't fair game?
I have no clue. But, just to review, here is my guess as to the identity of the unknown 17 additional Toho kaiju IDW can now legally use (the bold is for emphasis, bitch):
BIOLLANTE, Ebirah, Kamacuras, Manda, Gorosaurus, Baragon, Varan, Megalon, King Caesar, Mecha-King Ghidorah, Moguera, Orga, Megaguiras, Dogora, Gezora, Death Ghidorah, and Bagan.
With such a large cast now, I can bet you two things: They won't ask for anything else monster-wise, and they won't bother trying to come up with a new monster. I think it would be cool to have competent artists design a new monster, but, eh, no big loss.
But seriously guys, when the fuck are you going to do Godzilla X Trypticon. You realize there is an obligation to do this, right? It ain't like Dark Horse, they had an excuse, xenomorphs are tiny little buggers, Trypticon is perfectly city-sized... despite a city being his alt-mode (hahaha scale in transformers is completely ridiculous).
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