Godzilla's Inferno
The fifth Godzilla miniseries by IDW Publishing, Godzilla in Hell is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, with the King of the Monsters plummeting down into the bowels of the Earth and finding himself at the Gates of Hell, proceeding to smash his way through every level and every demon standing in his way, trying to discover just how he ended up getting condemned.
Godzilla in Hell is written and drawn by multiple artists. James Stokoe writes and draws #1, Bob Eggleton handles #2, Buster Moody and Ulises Farinas are on #3, Ibrahim Moustafa and Brandon Seifert do #4, and Dave Wachter brings it to a close in #5.
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The demon who appears on the front cover of issue #1 is named 'Bazaelzeshun'. This is never mentioned in the comic, because the demon himself never appears!
- Angels, Devils and Squid: even though some of the devils and even angels look downright Lovecraftian, Godzilla is the "squid" and is just generally destructive taking no sides in the conflict between Heaven and Hell.
- Art Shift: To be expected with different artists doing each issue.
- Blasphemous Boast: A non-verbal one. Godzilla trounces Heaven and Hell so thoroughly that the demons and angels that survive his rampage start worshiping him, though of course Godzilla only responds to their prayers by eating the ones who fly too close to his mouth.
- Blasphemous Praise: As mentioned above, Godzilla manages to unintentionally get some angels (and demons) to worship him, despite the angels knowing for a fact that God exists.
- Body Horror: The shapeshifter Godzilla fights in the first issue.
- The Capital of Brazil Is Buenos Aires: Rio de Janeiro is featured in Issue 3's flashback specifically for "Christ the Redeemer" to be the victim of Monumental Damage.
- Circles of Hell: Each issue has Godzilla traveling deeper and deeper
- Crucified Hero Shot: When Godzilla allows himself to be devoured by the hellbats in Issue 5.
- Derelict Graveyard: An ice covered one is the battlefield against Demon Anguirus.
- Determinator: Godzilla really couldn't care less that he is literally in Hell and keeps trudging along, undeterred by every challenge or temptation.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Godzilla does this to the Gate Guardian in the final episode. The Gate Guardian may well be Yog-Sothoth or Cthulhu himself!
- Eat Me: The demon in the first issue is killed by Godzilla in the same manner as Orga in Godzilla 2000.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The end result of the clash between Godzilla and Space Godzilla that sent Godzilla into the afterlife in the first place, as shown in issue 3.
- Eldritch Abomination:
- The book's interpretation of the Purgatory Mountain from the Divine Comedy is composed of kaiju parts.
- One guards the way out of hell in Issue 5, and is very possibly the Yog-Sothoth. That's presuming the Gate Guardian and a similar beast—a mountain covered in eyes, associated with Heaven—aren't the Devil and God themselves.
- Godzilla himself becomes one at the end of Issue 5, assimilating thousands of demonic bats to reassemble his devoured body.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: In addition to the Derelict Graveyard above, there is the place where Spacegodzilla was trapped in before fighting Godzilla. Appropriate, considering that place is represented in the Divine Comedy as the place that holds Satan.
- Establishing Character Moment: Godzilla falls into hell and is confronted with colossal stone block spelling "Abandon All hope ye who enter here." His response? Blow it the hell up.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: The default look of Hell, littered with destroyed buildings.
- Forever War: Issue 4 has Godzilla trapped inside a walled and destroyed city. He has to battle King Ghidorah and Destroyah who always regenerate upon being defeated, and when Godzilla is killed he comes back to life immediately next to his old corpse.
- Hell Gate: Godzilla plummets down through one of these. Upon encountering the "Abandon hope all ye who enter here" sign, he destroys it with his atomic breath.
- Homage: One of the variant covers for the first issue is a tribute to EC Comics.
- Irony: A quotation of the Buddha over Godzilla conquering himself and returning to life (maybe?) to presumably continue his lifelong tendencies toward rampage.
- The Legions of Hell: Including King Ghidorah, Destroyah and devilish versions of Godzilla's traditional allies.
- Not Afraid of Hell: Godzilla certainly isn't.
- Nuclear Mutant: One of the first things Godzilla encounters in Hell is a nuclear power plant facility that has some kind of tentacled, many-eyed horror resting in one of the cooling towers that lashes out at Godzilla when he gets too close.
- Our Angels Are Different: Third issue features the heavenly host flying on Mothra wings.
- Physical God: As if Godzilla's Meaningful Name (God Incarnate) and he's being worshiped isn't enough...
- Rage Against the Heavens: When Godzilla first enters the afterlife, God and his angels want him to serve Him and the cause of peace. His refusal is what sends him into the pits, but he won't submit to the armies of hell either.
- Recycled In Space: The Divine Comedy WITH GODZILLA.
- Sealed Evil in a Duel: In issue #4, Godzilla is trapped in a walled city eternally fighting Destroyah and King Ghidorah. Whenever any of them die, they immediately respawn and the wall around the city stands up against Godzilla has to offer. Godzilla still manages to break out.
- Silence Is Golden: There aren't any human characters and Godzilla doesn't talk so...
- The only exceptions are captioned narration in issue 2 and 5, as Godzilla achieves enlightenment and breaks out of Hell and angels and demons pleading with Godzilla in issue 3.
- To Hell and Back: With kaiju!
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: In Issue 5, The swarm of hellbats that eat Godzilla soon start making his roar and basically hivemind to reform Godzilla out of bats and his bones and destroy the creature guarding the top of the mountain with atomic breath coming from every bat.
