Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre issue 3 (2025)
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Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre #3 is a comic book from IDW Publishing. It was published on January 22, 2025.[2]
Description
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Even in the face of the combined efforts of Jay Gatsby, Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne, and the Time Machinist, Godzilla’s global rampage shows no sign of slowing down. That leaves our gang with no choice but to enlist the help of the terrifyingly evil DRACULA.
It’s Godzilla versus vampires in the thrilling finale to Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre. Will our heroes (and villains) prevail? Will saving Daisy finally be enough to change Gatsby’s fate and uncross the stars for these lovers?[2]
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Plot
A group of archaeologists survey the destruction Godzilla has visited on Egypt's great landmarks. A mummy suddenly bursts out of the rubble, who they identify as the Pharoah Utma Utep, said to pursue anyone who disturbs his tomb "to death and beyond." He ignores them, causing them to realize his target is Godzilla. The monster makes landfall in Transylvania, encountering a pack of werewolves. At the same time, Count Dracula gives Daisy Buchanan a tour of his castle. She's impatient for him to bite her, but he prefers to savor the moment. At the mention of her becoming his bride, however, she seems to return to her senses, saying she's already married. He responds that she will pledge an oath to a different god this time.
Aboard L'Albatros, Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan ponder Godzilla's origins, with Gatsby sharing a legend that East Egg and West Egg were named after giant eggs discovered by Native Americans in ancient times. He orders the airship onward to Castle Dracula, explaining that he's following the tracking device secretly injected into Daisy and every other member of G-Force as part of their inoculations. Dr. Watson, mourning Sherlock Holmes, is suddenly visited by the detective, who reveals himself as a vampire. Gatsby and Tom hear their struggle and burst in, Gatsby swinging on a pipe hanging from the ceiling to deliver a kick to Holmes. The vampire vanishes, impatient to return to his master. Gatsby brings Watson to the sick bay, where she bandages her wounds. She shows him a "dossier of the weird" Holmes gave her which chronicles Dracula, Doctor Frankenstein, werewolves, and ancient Egyptian death rituals.
Struck by crossfire of the Greco-Turkish War, L'Albatros crash-lands in the Baltic Sea, switching to boat mode. As it advances onto land, the crew finds themselves surrounded by werewolves who not only keep pace with the machine. L'Albatros becomes stuck on a narrow hill, and while the crew opens fire on the werewolf horde with revolvers, the bullets have no effect on them. Watson consults Holmes's notes, which state their weakness is silver, but Gatsby opts to escape by motorcycle, with Watson, Tom, and other G-Force troops following. They reach a tavern where Baron von Frankenstein is waiting, having received Gatsby's call for assistance against Godzilla. He offers his great-grandfather's creation, Monstrum Üpsilon, who is held in a crate. With Frankenstein and his monster in tow, G-Force continues towards Castle Dracula, traveling parallel to Godzilla. When they pass the monster, he aims a blast of atomic breath at him, but they evade.
The gates of the castle resist the Maser's ray, but Frankenstein commands Üpsilon to smash through it. Armed with a stake and hammer, Gatsby scours the castle for Daisy, escaping from numerous vampires along the way. They embrace, and while he checks to see if she's become a vampire, he adds that she can make him one too. Tom, following close behind, furiously attacks Gatsby, and the men fail to notice Holmes's presence until he's diving towards them. He grabs both their faces in his talons, but is repulsed by the reappearance of the Time Machinist, noticeably aged and sporting a beard. He fires a freeze ray at Holmes, then arms G-Force with wrist-mounted stakes. Meanwhile, Dracula uses a flying machine to stare down Godzilla and tries to control his mind, but the monster bats the machine away. No sooner has Dracula leapt to the ground than Üpsilon attacks. Matching his strength, Dracula quickly seizes control of Üpsilon's mind, and as the creature holds back most of G-Force, does the same to the defiant Time Machinist. He hands a square-cube ring over to Dracula, which the vampire uses to make Utma Utep, who has just arrived to challenge Godzilla, the monster's equal in size. Mummy and kaiju wrestle as Dracula basks in this newfound power and Gatsby vows to stop him. He tells Daisy he loves her, which she's always wanted to hear, but isn't enough to break Dracula's control over her. Gatsby, Tom, and Watson desperately hold off Dracula's vampires as he grows a nearby werewolf and Üpsilon to add to Godzilla's woes. He tries to grow himself next, but the Time Machinist explains that someone else had to point it at the target. Dracula gives the ring to Daisy, and though able to voice her hatred of him, she nonetheless complies. As Godzilla contends with four monsters, Holmes advances on Gatsby. He apologetically drives his stake through Holmes's heart, Watson holding the detective as he vanishes.
Even outnumbered four to one, Godzilla still manages to overpower his opponents. As he strangles Dracula, the vampire commands Daisy to use the ring on him a second time. Though she can't stop herself from using the ring, Gatsby agrees to stand in its path. He grows into the Great Gatsby, holding back the werewolf with one arm while decking Dracula with the other. Godzilla grabs the vampire's cape, spins him around, and hurls him into space, where the rising sun disintegrates him. Godzilla and Gatsby then turn on each other as the rest of G-Force can only watch, Tom deriding Daisy for choosing the man-turned-monster. Godzilla charges his atomic breath, which Gatsby, upon seeing Daisy in the castle window, blocks with his body. Resisting the ray, he advances towards Godzilla, then shuts his mouth with the ray is still firing, triggering a massive explosion. Daisy fears Gatsby dead, but finds him in the ruins of the castle, returned to normal size. They fail to find the Time Machinist, though they hope he returned to the time stream, while Godzilla travels east, terrorizing Odessa and shrugging off fire from the Russian battleship Potemkin.
Gatsby and Daisy return to New York, but when he invites her to swim, she tells him she and Tom are moving out of East Egg; while she loves Gatsby, he doesn't have a place in her life. She leaves Gatsby to swim alone, staring at the sky.
Appearances
Monsters
Characters
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Weapons, vehicles, races, and organizationsLocations
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Gallery
Covers
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Cover A by Tom Scioli -
Cover B by Tom Scioli -
Cover RI (1:10) by J. Gonzo -
Cover RI (1:25) by Jim Mahfood -
Virgin MegaCon Variant by Art Adams
Scans
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From left to right: Monstrum Üpsilon, a werewolf, Utma Utep, and Godzilla -
Trivia
- Cover B is based on the cover of the 1901 edition of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, which marked the debut of its titular character.
- This was the first Godzilla comic book IDW Publishing released in 2025, and is therefore the first to bear the company's new logo, which it introduced that year.
- The photo of Dr. Frankenstein included in Sherlock Holmes' dossier resembles Count Orlok as portrayed by Max Schreck in 1922's Nosferatu.
- Monstrum Üpsilon is clearly based on Frankenstein's monster. He generally resembles Boris Karloff's portrayals of the character, with the ripping of his clothes upon turning giant giving him an additional resemblance to the version from Toho's Frankenstein vs. Baragon. His meeting of Godzilla brings to fruition a scrapped concept for the latter film, originally titled Frankenstein vs. Godzilla, in which Frankenstein's opponent would have been Godzilla instead of Baragon.
- Godzilla's attack on Odessa references the 1925 film Battleship Potemkin, including its famed Odessa Steps sequence.
- The concept of a giant werewolf fighting Godzilla was first used in the fan film Wolfman vs. Godzilla (shot in 1983), with the titular Wolfman.
- Though the previous issue introduced G-Force's laser weapon as the "M.A.S.E.R." (with periods), it is simply referred to in this issue as "the Maser".
Notes
- ↑ Also credited for production.
References
This is a list of references for Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre issue 3. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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