Writers: Ethan Parker & Griffin Sheridan
Artist: Pablo Tunica
Letterer & Design: Nathan Widick
Editor: Jake Williams
Cover Artists: Pablo Tunica & Juan Gedeon
Publisher: IDW
Price: $4.99
Release Date: September 17, 2025
Some dubbed them demons. Others proclaimed them gods. Whatever people called them, the kaiju rose from the oceans to wreak destruction upon the land. The United States declares the Pacific Northwest uninhabitable. But as people scrounge amid the Deadzone, they find a way to survive.
While searching wrecked stores for cigarettes and drinking alcohol in ramshackle bars, survivors draw strength by sharing their encounters with the kaiju. Lacking cellphones and social media, people trade in urban legends. One concerns a man with a kaiju tail. Who is he? And what allows him to walk into the kaiju-held zones where others fear to tread? Let’s scrounge a Slurpee from a trashed 7-11, leap into Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone #2, and see!
Story
With his thick skin, claws, and determination, the Wanderer subdues beasts that defy guns, rockets, and bombs. Like a mutant Mad Max, people hire this mercenary to protect their towns or tame the smaller kaiju. Some see him as a fulfillment of prophecy, a savior of the ruined lands, come to deliver them from their kaiju oppressors.
When the Wanderer encounters two kaiju fighting, he discovers two Human children controlling them. In Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone #2, he learns who oversees the children's efforts. Instead of fearing the kaiju, these people believe the monsters are ushering in the next stage of Human evolution.
Ethan Parker & Griffin Sheridan’s story shows how tough times reshape Human society. People living in fear often break the social contract, such as by hoarding food and severing relationships. In this otherworldly tale, the kaiju DNA is spreading mutations across the Human population. A visionary leader urges people to welcome this transformation of their world. Some embrace the leader's teachings. Others wonder if hardship and suffering have driven her crazy.
Art
As Norman stares at a bottle on the floor, his wife forms a fetal position on the couch. Their dirty, trash-filled living room boasts cracks in the walls and broken windows. Laundry dries on a line before exposed pipes. Covered in dirt and blemishes, his wife keeps her back to him as she tells him it’s over. When Norman steps outside, the door slams behind him in Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone #2. In an instant, the rich greens, blues, and purples fade to light blue and black.
Streaks of green fall as Norman smokes on the front porch of this fragile yet retrofitted home. More streaks of green, brown, and yellow form a reflective appearance in the wet street. A stranger approaches and hands Norman a red parchment. The dark red image and lettering suggest a flyer written and drawn in blood.
As Pablo Tunica fills Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone #2 with fanciful characters, eye-catching settings, and imaginative mutants and kaiju, characters speak black uppercase letters into edgy, cloudy, and spiky dialogue balloons. The letters grow bold for intonation, swell for raised voices, and rarely shrink. Squiggly lines connect each speaker’s dialogue within and across panels. Nathan Widick paints the black uppercase narration on orange boards with rough-hewn edges. Sound effects start small, but increase in frequency, size, and Kai-Sei energy when a mistreated character grows enraged, and a startling metamorphosis occurs. Thanks to IDW for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
While everyone else struggles to survive, one man makes the wasteland his own. The narrator claims this powerhouse mutant has no memory of the time he was Human. Yet even as he transforms into a beastly rage, the Wanderer protects children from harm and cherishes a tattered photo in Godzilla: Escape The Deadzone #2.
Rating 9.7/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
