Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone #1 is a comic book from IDW Publishing. An exclusive black-and-white edition of the issue was made available for purchase at the 2025 San Diego Comic-Con International, held July 24–27. The retail version was published on August 6 of the same year.[1] Pages 8–12 of the comic were also previewed in the Free Comic Book Day one-shot Godzilla: The New Heroes.
Description
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Inside the new IDW Godzilla universe, there exists a mystery larger than any other... what is the Deadzone? Inhabitants of this new world know the Deadzone to be a walled-off portion of the Pacific Northwest, sequestered after the most disastrous Godzilla attack the country has ever faced. The government would have its citizens believe that nothing is still alive inside the Deadzone... but do you believe that?
There are stories of a man. Or rather... a half kaiju, half man... who travels freely throughout the Deadzone. Some say he can even kill a kaiju. Some say... he's not the only of his kind.[1]
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Plot
Seattle, Washington: A red-haired man stares fondly at a photo of a woman at his office desk before the ground shutters and Godzilla's enormous eye fills the window. The arrival of Godzilla and other kaiju in the Pacific Northwest many years ago reduced the region of the United States to ruins, officially uninhabitable but still dotted with survivors. At a ramshackle cantina, a bar patron recounts to the bartender how he survived an encounter with Godzilla while looting a 7-Eleven. The conversation drifts to persistent rumors of a "monster man", a G-Mutant said to lash out at his enemies with a tail. The other bar patron reveals himself to be that very mutant, the Wanderer, dryly stating that his tail is mostly for balance. Leaving, he finds the tires of his car stolen, though a burned photo of a woman—the same photo held by the man in the office just before Godzilla's arrival—is still in its hiding place within the sun visor.
The Wanderer enters the domain of an armored, long-limbed kaiju which he was hired to kill; when the beast appears, he just smiles and extends his fingernails into claws. Shortly thereafter, the other bar patron, thoroughly drunk, leaves the cantina and is terrified by the sight of the Wanderer riding down the street on the kaiju's back. He travels through a market and a burning wasteland, then trades his steed for equipment with a masked group dressed like vampires. Traversing into Zone One, a lifeless desert, he encounters a group of fleeing mutants who warn him that a kaiju is chasing them. He ignores them and continues onward, only to be knocked off his feet by the clash between two kaiju: one slender and bipedal, the other horned and quadrupedal with tentacles flowing from its back. The biped hits the quadruped with a jagged chunk of stone, shattering its horn. The quadruped charges and strangles the biped with its tentacles while the Wanderer leaps onto the leg of the later. To the Wanderer's display, the quadruped flings him and the biped away, seemingly killing the kaiju. As he catches his breath, a portion of its chest suddenly explodes. He removes his hat and hood to investigate, stunned to find a young girl inside. He descends into the shallow pit of gore to carry her out as she regains consciousness. Understanding dawns on his face as he asks if she was controlling the kaiju.
This is a list of references for Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone issue 1. 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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Cover A by Pablo Tunica
Cover B by Rod Ries
Cover C by Pablo Tunica
Cover D (blank sketch cover)
RI 1:25 Cover by Caspar Wijngaard
Collector's Paradise–exclusive connecting Kai-Sei Era variant by Patrick Horvath
East Coast Comics–exclusive variant by Franck Uzan
East Coast Comics–exclusive Japanese variant by Franck Uzan
SDCC 2025–exclusive black-and-white variant
