Lee Shaw
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“
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The smartest people on the planet have had 60 years to prepare for
G-Day. "Let 'em fight". That's the best they could come up with? What if Godzilla had lost?
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„
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— Lee Shaw ("The Way Out") |
Colonel Leland Lafayette "Lee" Shaw III is a character who first appeared in the 2014 Legendary Comics graphic novel Godzilla: Awakening and later starred in the 2023 television series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
A key figure in Monarch's history, Shaw helped expand the organization with Bill Randa and Keiko Randa in the 1950s, laying the groundwork for the vast international coalition it became. His years with Monarch resulted in numerous firsthand encounters with Titans, including Godzilla, as well as multiple personal tragedies.
Name
In Godzilla: Awakening, Shaw is only ever referred to by his surname. He introduces himself as Leland Lafayette Shaw III in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which he shortens to Lee Shaw.
Development
A character by the name of Shaw was introduced in the 2014 Monsterverse graphic novel Godzilla: Awakening. In 2023, it was announced that Kurt and Wyatt Russell would be playing a character named Lee Shaw in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, with Legendary's comics division confirming the character was the same one that appeared in Godzilla: Awakening.[3] Despite this, Shaw's history as depicted in the series became incompatible with that of his comic counterpart. For instance, the second episode showed that he did not learn about the Titans or join Monarch until 1952, while the comic established him as a founding member in 1946. Also notably, the comic depicts Shaw as an active Monarch agent in 1981, though in the timeline of the series, Lee Shaw would not escape Axis Mundi until 1982, at which point he was hospitalized and detained by Monarch.
History
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (TV 2023–2026) [episodes 1–14]
- Untitled young Lee Shaw series (TBA)
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
In 1952, in Manila, Lieutenant Lee Shaw reported to his superior officer, Puckett, following a fight with two fellow soldiers who were harassing a woman in a bar. The disappointed officer invoked Shaw's father, but he pointed out the man was a drunk. Shaw was assigned as the security escort for a Japanese scientist in the Philippines, being warned that a similar mission recently cost an escort his life. Assuming the scientist in question was male, Shaw met and flirted with Dr. Keiko Miura before she explained that she was the scientist in question. The two had a tense drive into the wilderness. Miura explained that she was investigating an unusual radioactive isotope detected in the area that appeared to have originated close by. Shaw continued to needle Miura, complimenting her fluent English and questioning how likely they were to find anything if the military only sent her to investigate. He attempted to excuse his unintentionally insensitive remarks by saying that she made a snap judgment about him too, but when pressed admitted that it was not the same, seeming to impress her. They then heard something nearby in the woods; Shaw drew his pistol and disappeared to investigate, leaving Miura alone. She soon found herself face-to-face with Bill Randa, camera in tow. Shaw, having crept around him, aimed the pistol at his head and demanded to know who he was. He described himself as a Navy veteran and cryptozoologist, and concluded from their equipment that their destination was the same as his: "the truth."
Bill explained to Miura and Shaw that he was hunting a dragon, reputed by locals to leave a trail of fire across the sky, which he believed was actually ionizing radiation. Miura asked Bill to join them, overruling Shaw and dismissing him as her escort. Later, while driving, Shaw noticed his Geiger counter clicking before observing a glowing trail in the sky, prompting him to turn around. Shaw subsequently discovered a destroyer sitting in the middle of the jungle, the USS Lawton, which was under attack by a giant creature. Shaw entered the vessel to help Miura free the pinned Bill as the monster continued its assault. During their escape, the monster knocked the ship over, with the trio barely escaping with their lives as it crashed down behind them. The creature, the Ion Dragon, then burst through the vessel and flew after them, missing them as they reached the tree line and hid in a small pit. Shaw was stunned to realize Bill was right as the awestruck scientists watched it land on the ship and bellow. "Departure"
By 1954, Shaw and Miura had joined Monarch with Bill, dedicating themselves to studying these monsters, dubbed Titans. They met with now-General Puckett at a hangar. The scientists were reluctant to meet with military officials, but Shaw reminded them that they needed to secure funding for more intensive studies. They showed Puckett a impression of an enormous reptilian footprint taken three weeks prior in Indonesia. Bill offered teleportation as an explanation for how the creature has evaded detection, but Shaw cut him off. They proposed to the shaken general that they could draw the creature into the open with 150 pounds of uranium. Puckett was taken aback, noting that the amount was equivalent to the two atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan. After absorbing his comparison, Miura explained that she believed the Titans fed on radiation. Shaw added that a creature of this size presented an inherent danger to global security. The general approved their request, though Shaw chided Bill afterwards for mentioning teleportation. Bill took offense, uninterested in watering down his theories when the Titans already defied known science to appease "a bunch of gun-toting Neanderthals." After Bill left, Miura reassured Shaw that he was the only reason the two scientists had been able to reach this point in their research, though she also believed their research had no purpose if they didn't share it.
Arriving at Bikini Atoll, Shaw, Miura, and Bill were shocked to see the military setting up a hydrogen bomb. Shaw offered to talk to the general, who threw his own words back at him: the monster presented a threat to global security. He added that the decision to kill the monster was made by generals of higher-rank than him. The soldiers at Bikini grew restless as the monster refused to show itself. Shaw worried about Monarch losing military funding, though Miura considered it preferable to watching them execute the creature. Just then, a piece of equipment shorted out and they heard a distant roar from the creature: Godzilla. Godzilla's dorsal plates cut through the waves as he approached the bomb. Shaw questioned why such a mammoth creature would need armored skin; Miura simply answered, "Us." At her urging, Shaw again attempted to call off the attack, but Puckett refused to wait to see what Godzilla would do. The Titan surfaced, staring at the bomb. Miura rushed towards an antenna to prevent the detonation signal from transmitting, but Shaw held her back as she tearfully screamed in Japanese. The thermonuclear blast enveloped Godzilla; all involved presumed him to be dead.
At the hangar where they showed Puckett Godzilla's footprint, Miura continued to fume over Shaw stopping her, but Bill pointed out that delaying the blast would only have ended her time with Monarch, and likely her life in the U.S. as well. Shaw entered with good news: figuring Monarch was doomed, he proposed to Puckett an ambitious plan to expand the organization, only to be told he didn't ask for enough. After raising the prospect of the next Titan appearing in a major city instead of the middle of nowhere, he has secured Monarch a blank check from the military. Bill wanted to go public, but Shaw worried they would be executed, invoking the Rosenbergs. Miura proposed that they withhold certain details from Puckett, believing that a lie and a secret were two different things. Shaw was reluctant, but agreed on the grounds that the information would also be kept secret from him. "Secrets and Lies"
In 1955, Miura and the recently-promoted Captain Shaw attended an American Defense Industry Federation ball; Miura was comfortable in her dress and at the thought of hours spent charming dismissive men who could have Monarch either shut down or brought under the military's purview on a whim, but Shaw reassured her that they only had to do this once a year to keep their funders pleased. An inebriated General Puckett praised Shaw's key role in Monarch to Lieutenant Hatch and General Coleman. Shaw quickly moved to introduce them to Miura; when Hatch asked if her name was Japanese, Puckett clarified that she was "one of the good ones", upsetting her. Shaw attempted to comfort her, dismissing them as typical of old-fashioned military men; she countered that the same men would probably try to kill or weaponize the next Titan they found. Shaw remained convinced that she would find a way to change their minds, because it is what she does. At his prompting, they headed to the dance floor, earning side glances from many of the attendees. Though Miura was aware of the onlookers, they grew increasingly more relaxed with each other. They later withdrew to the balcony after the song ended. Miura mused that Shaw could be a career military man like those below if he wanted to be. Shaw began listing off what such a life would entail, and it became increasingly clear that he was talking about their potential life together. The two then attempted to leave the party to go back to their room together, only for a bellhop to interrupt with an urgent message from Bill Randa. Despite Shaw's efforts to ignore him, Miura convinced him to be responsible before departing as Shaw reluctantly accepted the message.
Later, Miura and Shaw arrived at Monarch headquarters, where Bill showed them a recent isotopic signature recording in Japan that was suggestive of a Titan. At her hedging, Shaw asked exactly what it was, but Bill did not know. Miura and Bill prepared to leave for Japan, but Shaw was hesitant, as they had to present their budget proposal that Friday. Miura and Bill suggested that he handle the presentation himself, but Shaw did not want Miura to be in danger without him; at Bill's quizzical expression, he hastily included him in the statement too. Bill laid out their dilemma: they needed funding to hunt Titans, but needed to prove Titans besides the presumed-dead Godzilla existed to secure that funding, at which point Shaw reluctantly allowed them to depart. Miura and Bill traveled to Hateruma Island, meeting with a scientist, Suzuki, who developed a gamma radiation simulator that attracted the attention of a Titan. Bill called Shaw from Japan to report they found a Titan. Shaw quickly asked about Miura, but Bill ignored him, continuing to talk about their plans to drop a lure for the creature, though he wished Shaw was there with them. Shaw visited Puckett during a family cookout in full uniform, requesting to be sent to Japan. Puckett reacted coldly, asking Shaw to weigh the consequences to his career if he missed the presentation, but offered him the ability to run Monarch his own way if he remained Stateside.
While Bill and Miura waited for their lure to attract the Titan, Shaw unexpectedly arrived in a Jeep, having skipped the presentation. Less than pleased to see Shaw, Miura walked away to the docks. There, Shaw told Miura that he belonged with her, but she cut him off, saying that his job was to protect Monarch, not her. He responded that Monarch couldn't exist without her. Sitting on opposite sides of a bench, she told him they couldn't have a relationship and couldn't risk making decisions based on what they wanted instead of what Monarch needed, as it could cost them everything. Shaw stated that he didn't care as they finally kissed, but Miura broke away tearfully and told him that he did care. She then became aware that Suzuki's gamma radiation simulator had disappeared under the waves. The device suddenly shot out of the water towards them, with Shaw knocking Miura out of the way as it impacted against the shore. Godzilla then surfaced behind them, roaring, before swimming back towards open water. Shaw was awed to realize the hydrogen bomb failed to kill him, but Miura smiled.
Back in Washington, Shaw argued that Puckett should know about Godzilla's survival. Miura believed that the U.S. would just build more and more powerful weapons in response which could be turned against targets besides Godzilla if they couldn't find him again. Shaw didn't back down, reminding her that he wasn't supposed to join them in Japan and needed to give Puckett something to justify his absence. They arrived at headquarters to find Hatch already there, reviewing their field reports. He explained that Puckett has installed him as the new leader of Monarch and demanded a report on their trip by end of day. Miura asked Shaw was he had done before she and Bill stormed out, devastated at having lost control of their organization thanks to Shaw's actions. "Terrifying Miracles"
Hatch proved to be an antagonistic leader of Monarch, dismissive of the organization's purpose and openly opining that it was a waste of national resources. In one meeting with Shaw, Miura, and Bill, he asked where all the monsters they claimed to exist could possibly be hiding and suggested that they should be more concerned with subversive efforts by foreign agents to infiltrate the United States. He wondered aloud how Miura could have gotten a security clearance after what the FBI found during its background check, prompting Bill to lunge at him. Shaw managed to keep Bill from being fired over the incident, though he was exiled to a basement office. To counter the scathing report Hatch was sure to write about Monarch, Shaw proposed finding a monster for General Puckett as quickly as possible. Staring at the maps on Bill's walls, Shaw proposed that he go through his notes and synthesize them into a single clear document over the next three days. Days later, Shaw met with Puckett and brought him a folder with Bill's findings. Having already read Hatch's report, Puckett had been prepared to defund Monarch until Shaw quietly divulged that Godzilla was still alive, personally observed by himself during the Hateruma Island operation. Taken aback, Puckett accepted the folder and agreed to leave Bill and Miura in charge of Monarch's scientific direction. "Birthright"
In the ensuing years, Bill and Keiko Miura grew closer and eventually married, with Bill adopting her son, Hiroshi Randa. In 1959, Shaw rode through Kazakhstan with Bill and Keiko as they followed a radiation spike towards an abandoned power plant. Arriving at a forest surrounding the plant, they donned gas masks and discussed how this could prove their theory on "the network". While moving through the restricted area, they were confronted by a young hunter who pointed his rifle at them, causing Shaw to draw his own pistol. Keiko defused the situation by telling the boy they were scientists wanting to study the radiation, and that the game the boy caught was contaminated. The boy retorted that the radiation was a fairy tale and that his elders believed it was a conspiracy the government created to hide a hole they had burned into hell. Upon reaching the ruins of the power plant, Keiko found her Geiger counter detected no radiation, so the three removed their gas masks for the remainder of the journey.
At the plant, Keiko found that small radiation spikes were emitted but quickly faded away, as if the radiation was being absorbed by something. Shaw suggested it was being eaten like other Titans had done. They then set off a series of charges and were delighted to find chambers within the bedrock. As they celebrated, a minor earthquake hit the reactor, further confirming their find. Keiko, Bill, and Shaw ventured inside one of the buildings and found a pit with dozens of giant eggs at the bottom. They prepared to descend to take genetic samples of this new species despite Shaw's reservations, although he limited them to five minutes. The earth shook again after Keiko and Shaw reached the bottom of the pit. Keiko observed that the unhatched monsters were insect-like and theorized that they were drawn up from underground by the nuclear reactor. Tremors continued to rock the building as the eggs began hatching to Keiko and Shaw's horror. As they fled, the newborn creatures, Endoswarmers, rushed towards them. Bill tried to pull Keiko up while Shaw climbed his own rope. One of the Endoswarmers grabbed onto Keiko's leg, with countless more following as they piled onto each other. Shaw emptied his pistol into them and desperately tried to pull Keiko to safety, but Bill's grip slipped and the monsters dragged Keiko back into the pit. Keiko Randa was declared dead, leaving Shaw and Bill devastated. "Aftermath"
In 1962, Operation Hourglass, a mission that would allow Shaw and a team to enter and explore the mysterious world beneath their feet, was launched in Kansas. In Bill's trailer, Bill and Shaw said their goodbyes to Hiroshi. Shaw admitted to the young boy that he was about to do something dangerous, but it was for the good of the world, and he promised to be back soon. He loaned Hiroshi his lucky pocketknife to keep safe until he returned.
As they walked to the test site, Shaw told Bill he raised Hiroshi well and wished Keiko could be there to see it. They reflected fondly but sadly on her brilliance before reaching a capsule positioned over a portal to the Hollow Earth. Bill tried to talk Shaw out of joining the crew, but he responded that he wouldn't ask anyone to do something he wouldn't do himself. Shaw and the three other crew members posed for a photo before entering the capsule. He lingered to exchange salutes with Bill. Dr. Suzuki activated his gamma ray simulator to lure a Titan to the portal, as the portal was normally too unstable to enter unless a Titan passed through, which would temporarily stabilize it. Once a Titan had been drawn, the signal was cut to ensure the Titan would turn around, allowing the capsule to follow it. The capsule was launched and plummeted into the hole, though things immediately went wrong as the capsule began malfunctioning while the rift became unstable on the surface. Shaw desperately tried to contact Bill as the capsule began to implode, with a flying shard of glass killing one of his crewmates.
The capsule crash-landed in a forest in the underground realm where the team was unable to establish contact with the surface. While investigating their landing site and documenting their discoveries, the Titan they lured, the Ion Dragon, attacked the crew; though Shaw escaped with his life, another crewmate was killed in the attack. Yet another crew member was subsequently struck by lightning from the ground. After the Ion Dragon flew into another portal, Shaw was sucked in after it. When he came too, he found himself in a forest in Japan at the site of another previously-undiscovered rift.
Shaw later awoke in an isolation tent. Three people in hazmat suits entered and peppered him with questions; still weak, he only asked for Bill, though his request was not acknowledged, prompting him to start a hunger strike for the next week. At one point, one of the nurses offered him a Christmas cookie, but while her back was turned, Shaw took her hostage and marched through the facility, continuing to demand to see Bill. He paused when he passed a room with a television set showing the Space Shuttle lifting off, momentarily bewildered by the sight. A man in a suit then approached, telling him that Bill Randa was dead and that they were in a Monarch medical facility. Though Shaw believed he had only been in the Titans' realm for roughly a week, the man disclosed that 20 years had passed since Shaw disappeared during Operation Hourglass; it was now 1982. He held up Shaw's knife, revealing himself to be Hiroshi, now a Monarch agent in his own right, and welcomed Shaw home. Overwhelmed and anguished, Shaw collapsed against a wall.
Later, Hiroshi visited a recovering Shaw in his tent, who asked why Monarch was treating him like a prisoner. Hiroshi responded that they had to be sure he was not contagious or radioactive; they also wanted to know how he survived the past 20 years without aging. Shaw proceeded to recount what his experience in the Titans' realm before reassuring Hiroshi that Bill was right about everything, but Hiroshi scoffed, telling him that Bill "lost himself" after Operation Hourglass. He added that Monarch would be moving Shaw to a facsimile retirement home for observation and study. Shaw tried to convince Hiroshi to help him plan a return to Hollow Earth, but he refused, believing Shaw and his parents erred in disturbing Titans who otherwise seemed content to leave humanity alone. Shaw persisted, describing Monarch as Hiroshi's legacy, but he viewed it instead as "the madness that devoured my childhood," and if it wasn't madness, it was a choice, which may be worse.
Monarch ultimately moved Shaw to a retirement home, where he quickly sank into mindless routine in the ensuing decades. However, all of that changed in 2014, when he witnessed a news report of Godzilla battling the male MUTO in Honolulu. He promptly crumpled up the cup containing his pills. "Axis Mundi"
In 2015, Hiroshi's children, Cate and Kentaro Randa, began uncovering their father's secret past with Monarch in the wake of his apparent death, which is when they first learned about Shaw. Having been on the run from Monarch agents for uncovering Bill Randa's classified files, they sought help from Shaw. Alongside their friend May Olowe-Hewitt, the Randa kids entered Shaw's retirement home. Shaw brightened upon hearing that Kentaro was Hiroshi's son, though he never knew about Hiroshi's daughter, Cate. He ushered the group outside. After telling Shaw about the files they found, they asked if he knew why Hiroshi traveled to Alaska. Shaw questioned whether Hiroshi was really dead, but before he was able to elaborate, May noticed a hidden camera inside a tree. Shaw revealed that the "retirement home" was more of a Monarch-operated prison before showing them his ankle monitor. Before they could leave, he warned them that Monarch would continue pursuing them until they finally caught up - unless they journeyed with him to learn Hiroshi's true fate. He proceeded to cut off the ankle monitor with a hand pruner and gave them a minute to decide. "Departure"
As Monarch became aware of Shaw disabling his tracker, Shaw told the trio that their search for Hiroshi will begin in Alaska, the last place he was known to be alive. Though Cate wanted no part of the search, Kentaro agreed. May questioned Shaw's dedication to locating Hiroshi, to which Shaw explained that he considered Hiroshi more son than nephew. Shaw took the wheel of Kentaro's rental car, and after brief confusion over operating a modern vehicle and striking several obstructions in their escape attempt, Shaw crashed through the main gate to freedom. The quartet later boarded a cargo ship to South Korea. Along the way, Shaw expressed his belief that Bill's files contained something Hiroshi wanted to keep secret from Monarch and hoped to discover what that was before Monarch, with May disclosing that she digitized the files. He described the files as containing the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of him, Bill, and Keiko Randa before their organization became misguided, more focused on keeping secrets than hunting monsters. He confirmed that Hiroshi worked for Monarch, calling it the Randas' "family business", though Cate was upset by these revelations, believing Monarch should have done more to prevent G-Day.
After bribing the ship's captain, Shaw had Kentaro reluctantly dump Bill's files in the ocean to help them avoid any problems moving forward as they prepared to meet with a friend of Shaw's. In Pohang, Shaw so badly fumbled his interactions with security at customs that the party was led off by two armed guards. Shaw offered to bribe them, earning him a rifle to the stomach, but the same guard then locked his counterpart in their van, revealing himself to be Shaw's friend, Du-Ho. Du-Ho drove the party to an ancient plane he owned, which was to serve as their dubious chariot to Alaska.
Once their plane was in the air, Kentaro peppered Shaw with questions about Hiroshi. He shared that by the time Hiroshi joined Monarch, the job called for less field work and more number-crunching, and he last saw him almost 20 years prior. He had no knowledge of Hiroshi's two families, but added that like his mother Keiko, he always went after what he wanted and never lied to Shaw. While searching through Bill's files, May discovered a set of coordinates in Alaska while Cate recalled details of Hiroshi's ill-fated flight, giving them a destination. Upon reaching Alaska, the group encountered a storm as Shaw took the controls and directed Cate to assist. Following their rough but successful landing, they discovered the scattered remains of Hiroshi's plane and a frozen corpse that wasn't Hiroshi. Du-Ho located an abandoned tent where Cate and Kentaro recognized their father's handwriting on a map and his signature pencil shavings, revealing his survival, though his whereabouts remained unknown. After Du-Ho discovered claw marks on the plane, he attempted to warn Shaw and the others as he moved to start their plane. The mole-like Frost Vark suddenly burst out of the ground, swiped a wing off the plane, and killed Du-Ho by freezing the plane. "Secrets and Lies"
As the Frost Vark turned its attention towards the survivors, Kentaro noticed a flare gun and dove for it in spite of Shaw's protests. Kentaro fired it at the Titan and missed, but distracted it long enough for everyone to reach a nearby cave. Shaw and May reprimanded Kentaro for his reckless actions and Kentaro attempted to defend himself, but all three were silenced by the tremors created by the Frost Vark approaching the cave. The tremors caused the ice underneath May's feet to break, forcing Shaw and Cate to help her up but leaving her lying on the ground and barely holding back her screams from the freezing water. After the tremors subsided Shaw determined the Frost Vark had moved on, but immediately grabbed May's mouth when she used the opportunity to yell in pain to keep her from attracting the monster. Shaw declared they had to move quick to keep her from dying of hypothermia. As they moved on, Kentaro requested that May slow down, which Shaw agreed with so she could save energy to fight the hypothermia. Kentaro further pushed that May should dry her legs, but Shaw told him that they don't have the materials to build a fire and that the Frost Vark could still be in the area. Hearing this and realizing Shaw had no knowledge that could help them with the Titan, she angrily threw her bag into his hands and told him that maybe the documents could help them before yanking it out of his hands. Shaw told her to be careful with the documents before Cate defused the situation by questioning Shaw where they were heading with no supplies and night approaching. Shaw told her they were heading northwest towards the coast as they were more likely to encounter people there. Hearing this, Kentaro remembered that he had seen a spherical building from the plane, but no one else had seen it.
The group climbed a hill, but were unable to see any buildings. Cate spotted some lights in the distance, but Kentaro asserted that the building must be behind some other nearby hills and that the lights might be further away than said building. Seeing he wouldn't budge, Shaw agreed to split up and let Kentaro go on his own. After a snow storm blew in, Cate lamented that they shouldn't have let Kentaro leave them, but Shaw reassured her that he just needed to live until they made it to their destination. However, the group quickly found themselves in the valley the Frost Vark had attacked them in with the light just behind a hill within it, which Shaw blamed on the Frost Vark. Cate realized May wasn't going to make it if she wasn't warmed up, and refused to go on without doing so despite Shaw's protests about the nearby titan. The two started a fire and used Hiroshi's research tent as shelter. Shaw left for supplies, returning with snacks from Du-Ho's supplies and Hiroshi's research papers. Shaw asked Cate if she wanted to burn the papers to stoke the fire or keep them to learn as much as they could about her father, but Cate immediately told him to burn them. Shaw obliged, only for the Frost Vark to appear. Shaw and Cate helped May out of the tent as the Frost Vark burst out from underneath their fire and consumed it. Shaw realized that the Frost Vark fed on heat and used this information to concoct a plan. Shaw would create a bonfire with aviation fuel and Du-Ho's corpse, which would distract the monster long enough for them to run away.
Shaw poured aviation fuel over Du-Ho's corpse, assuring Cate that Du-Ho always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. Cate then heard a helicopter nearby seconds before the Frost Vark burst out of the ground right in front of Shaw. The Titan chased May and Cate as Shaw desperately attempted to light the fire. After May tripped, Shaw finally lit the fire, distracting the Frost Vark and throwing him backwards. The helicopter noticed the trio and landed, revealing Kentaro already inside before the others scrambled aboard. The helicopter took off and narrowly escaped the Frost Vark as it lunged towards them while Shaw noticed a glowing hole in the Earth as they flew away. During the trip, Shaw checked May's bag, only to discover that the Frost Vark destroyed the laptop by freezing it. When the helicopter landed, the group was met by Monarch agents Tim, Michelle Duvall, and a group of armed guards. "Parallels and Interiors"
Shaw and the others were detained in separate cells at Monarch's Alaskan command post. After the others were freed, Shaw was shown footage of his past, showing himself with Bill and Keiko. Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo eventually entered Shaw's cell and unlocked his handcuffs. The two argued over the state of Monarch, with Shaw declaring modern Monarch's specialty was doing nothing while the Randas and May had already accumulated more Titan experience than most of the organization's field agents. Verdugo suggested that the trio already revealed information to Monarch, but Shaw laughed the threat off, saying he made sure they didn't know much. She switched tactics, asking whether Hiroshi really intended for his kids to follow in his footsteps at Monarch; Shaw had the same question and planned to ask when he met Hiroshi again. Though Verdugo was unwilling to let him leave, he deduced that she had reached a dead end. Verdugo agreed with Shaw that Monarch treated him poorly after his years of service, although he countered that she did nothing to change his situation. Pressed to explain why he made his first escape attempt in decades, he answered that Monarch had 60 years to prepare for Titans appearing in a populated area, but had nothing to offer besides advice to "let them fight", questioning what would have happened if the MUTOs had defeated Godzilla. Following more threats from Verdugo, Shaw ultimately dismissed the interrogation as a waste of time that neither of them can afford and spoke directly to the agents watching him through a security camera, bluntly stating that the organization has been misguided for years. Later, two armed guards led Shaw out of his cell. "The Way Out"
Shaw was loaded into a van with a hood over his head. The van soon came to a sudden halt as Michelle Duvall boarded, announcing a change of plans to the guards before telling Shaw in French to drop down on her count. She knocked out both guards and cut him out of his restraints, only to demand how he knew so much about the impending Titan emergence than the entirety of Monarch. He explained that Monarch had been dismissing his warnings for years, just as it sidelined Bill and his son Hiroshi. Duvall revealed that she originally joined Monarch to prevent more Titan attacks like the one that took her sister's life years prior and that there were others in the organization who felt the same, telling Shaw they needed a leader. They left in her car and ventured to Alameda Point near San Francisco, surprising Cate, Kentaro, and May with their arrival. Shaw expressed his belief that the Titan event Hiroshi was trying to stop would be much worse than G-Day if it was allowed to transpire and thus needed to find him. Having uncovered a potential location for Hiroshi in Algeria, the trio reluctantly teamed up with Shaw and Duvall despite their reservations of the latter, even as Shaw vouched for her.
Shaw, Cate, May, Kentaro, and Duvall travelled to the Algerian Desert and met with sympathetic Monarch agents at an outpost. Cate and Shaw mutually acknowledged that they wouldn't have made it this far without each other, though Cate remained wary of their involvement with the "movement" Shaw was starting within Monarch and merely wanted to find Hiroshi. Shaw gave them the option to leave, but warned that the consequences of not catching up to Hiroshi and helping him could result in millions dead. The kids ultimately stuck with Shaw and ventured further into the desert to the point on their map. Kentaro then spotted Hiroshi in the distance with a truck with a device resembling the gamma radiation simulator they used to attract Godzilla in 1955. Shaw was initially just as overjoyed as the Randa kids to see that Hiroshi was alive and well, only to realize that Hiroshi was trying to tell them to run moments before fleeing in his truck, driving off in the opposite direction. Just as a Monarch helicopter closed in on the group, the ground beneath the group's feet gave way as Godzilla emerged from the Earth, sending them tumbling off a hill. After recovering, the lot found themselves face-to-face with Godzilla as he opened his eyes and rose to his feet, causing the Monarch helicopter to crash before stomping away.
In the aftermath, Shaw reported that no one survived the helicopter crash and urged the group to leave quickly so they can determine where Godzilla was headed before Monarch, taking the map from Cate. Cate believed stopping Godzilla was impossible, but Shaw explained that he was actually trying to help the Titan. He promised them all the answers they wanted, but Cate, May, and finally Kentaro decided to part ways with them to continue looking for Hiroshi. Shaw left them supplies to last until they reached civilization. "Terrifying Miracles"
Later, Shaw and Duvall stormed Monarch Outpost 88 in Fairbanks, Alaska, with armed guards, with Shaw introducing himself and declaring the base to be under his control. Though he told the staff they were free to leave, he implored them to join him in taking the Titan threat seriously and start acting on it. He ordered the base's full stockpile of explosives to be packed up. Shaw's forces subsequently planted the explosives around the Alaska rift as he observed in a helicopter. The detonations attracted the Frost Vark, though the following blasts caused the rift to become a vortex, sucking in the Titan before sealing up. Shaw's helicopter landed and he screamed in triumph, having successfully closed the rift. "Will the Real May Please Stand Up?"
Shaw then led his forces to Kazakhstan to the power plant where he lost Keiko Randa decades prior; despite Duvall's insistence that there were other, easier targets they could visit, Shaw remained resolute that they needed to close the rift there. Having since allied themselves with Monarch, Cate, Kentaro, and May learned more of Shaw's past and correctly deduced that he would be in Kazakhstan, prompting Verdugo to begrudgingly allow them to go with a team as the Randas were their best bet at talking Shaw down with him considering them family. The Monarch team infiltrated the power plant and discovered charges already in place around the rift, only to be surrounded by Shaw's forces and held at gunpoint until Shaw himself appeared, agreeing to speak to Cate alone. In private, Shaw revealed that he wanted to speak to Cate specifically as she had the rare privilege of looking into Godzilla's eyes, revealing that the monster was not a mindless destructive force, but acted with purpose. He added that there was indeed a world beneath their feet as he had been there, though Monarch didn't believe him. He struggled to describe it, but says it crystalized Godzilla's purpose: keeping the other Titans in their world and humanity in theirs. Cate then attempted to warn him of what they learned at Monarch, telling him that though he successfully closed one rift, dozens of others experienced significant gamma ray emission spikes that ran the risk of causing another G-Day. Shaw, however, did not heed these warnings, believing Monarch was merely cherry-picking whatever data allowed them to continue sitting idly by. He described what he was doing as driven by both belief and atonement.
Cate asked Shaw if destroying the portal would be what Keiko wanted. He believed that, even if doing so could not make up for losing her, it would be honoring her and Bill's work as he started the countdown for the charges. At the same time, an earthquake struck. In the chaos, May attempted to run to Cate, only to stumble and fall into the portal just before a massive Endopede emerged from it. The creature advanced on Cate, but rubble landed on its back, sending it plummeting back down while leaving Cate stuck near the portal. Shaw desperately attempted to rescue her, only for another tremor to strike, sending them both into the portal seconds before the charges denotated, sealing the portal. "Birthright"
Shaw regained consciousness in a forest surrounded by dazzling lights. He called for Cate, initially failing to notice May nearby as she picked herself up, though fortunately spotted her as electricity gathered on the ground around her. Shaw tackled her to safety just before a bolt of lightning shot up from the ground into the sky. He navigated her through the lightning field as they evaded bolt after bolt. Once they safely escaped the field, he explained that when a rift closed, it left a residual electrical charge, which he learned about on his last mission to the Titans' realm decades prior. May was stricken with guilt to realize that Cate fell into the portal while running back for her, worried she may not have survived, but Shaw reassured her that they fell in together and that they would find her. They explored the forest, calling for her as strange insects flew overhead, though Shaw warned that they had deceptively little time to find Cate, leaving May confused. He proceeded to recount his previous stint in this place to May, detailing how a week in this realm was the equivalent of 20 years on the surface, at which point she finally realized why he did not look his age. He shared that he didn't think of his experience as losing years, and believed it would be worth it if he could get her home before the same amount of time passed for her. "Axis Mundi"
When Shaw and May finally located Cate, Shaw was astonished to see that she was not alone, but joined by an unaged Keiko Randa, alive and well, though he quickly hid behind a tree before she saw him, hoping to ease her inevitable shock. He called out to her, and she initially failed to recognize his voice. He asked how long she believed she had been gone for, with Keiko saying it had only been 57 days and that it was still 1959. Shaw explained that he led a recon mission to this place in 1962, and though he thought he only spent a week there, he emerged to find 20 years had passed. He struggled to hold back tears as he told her 33 more years had passed since then. She quickly determined the cause—gravitational distortion warping space-time—before the weight of it overwhelmed her. Cate and May confirmed that Shaw was telling the truth, at which point he finally came into view to share an emotional reunion. She asked about Bill, forcing Shaw to admit he died long ago, leaving her devastated. Sorrowful, she asked about Hiroshi next, with Cate telling her he was fine before disclosing that she was in fact Keiko's granddaughter.
Keiko led Shaw, Cate, and May to her camp, where Shaw admired the beacon she recovered from his mission, which she had reconfigured to send out a signal to the surface world. Cate let her know that Monarch was still around in 2015 and that Hiroshi was part of it. Shaw asked Keiko if she could return the beacon to its original configuration, which would allow them to attract a Titan and return home. As the quartet carried the beacon up a hill, they soon stopped to rest, with Keiko sitting beside Shaw. He told her she looked exactly as he had been picturing her for decades, and she confessed that she had been talking to him and Bill in her head nonstop. She asked how Bill died; Lee explained that he never came back from an expedition to an island trying to prove Hollow Earth existed, and in doing so saved Monarch. She then asked him what the future was like. He told her that although technology had evolved and humanity landed on the moon, the world was fundamentally the same. Shaw, Keiko, Cate, and May soon continued moving the beacon, with Keiko revealing that she named this place Axis Mundi, believing it was an intermediary place between their world and the true realm of the Titans.
By nightfall, they reached Shaw's original landing site and the capsule he left behind in 1962, which he discovered to be in working order. As they prepared the beacon, attaching it to the capsule, Keiko voiced her intent to stay behind, feeling the world had left her behind until being convinced to join them by Cate. They entered the capsule and activated the beacon. Shaw explained to Cate how to see when a Titan was approaching on radar and instructed her to tell them once it carried them 3,000 feet into the air. They then witnessed the arrival of the nearby Ion Dragon, which presented a major complication as it was already inside Axis Mundi, leaving the rift impassible. It flew toward them, but passed overhead as Cate reported another creature coming through the rift. On the Ion Dragon's next pass, it struck the capsule with its tail, pulling wires apart and shutting off the gamma ray simulator. As the other Titan began leaving, losing interest now that the beacon had been severed, Shaw climbed out of the capsule as the others protested. He struggled to reconnect the cables as the Ion Dragon landed before him, briefly stalking him before he successfully reactivated the beacon. The Ion Dragon roared at him, only for Godzilla to roar back from the rift.
Godzilla entered Axis Mundi and battled the Ion Dragon. After a short bout, Godzilla ripped off the Ion Dragon's wing and hurled it into the rift, turning it into a vortex that began sucking nearby objects into it, including the capsule. Shaw ran after the capsule and managed to climb onto it before grabbing Keiko's hand just as they went airborne towards the rift. Realizing he was too heavy to pull up and risked endangering Keiko by preventing her from entering the capsule, he thanked her for everything. Despite Keiko's pleas, Shaw ultimately told her to live before releasing his grip as the capsule passed through the rift to the surface without him. "Beyond Logic"
Comics
- Godzilla: Awakening (2014)
- Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong 2 #1–6 (2025)
- Monarch: The Lost Adventures (2026)
Godzilla: Awakening
In 1946, Eiji Serizawa and his fellow sailors attempted to rescue an American vessel, but the ship was sunk by the monster Shinomura, leaving Serizawa and one American, Shaw, as the sole survivors of the incident. Shaw, impressed with Serizawa's survival, offered Serizawa a job in the U.S. government, which he accepted. In 1953, Shaw met with Serizawa's son, Ishiro, and requested the boy's father. Shaw brought Serizawa to Monarch's headquarters, where he was showed a Shinomura cell discovered in the Philippines. After they left, the Shinomura cell later regenerated and destroyed the facility, prompting Shaw and Serizawa's return to the site. Serizawa requested permission to search for Godzilla, who he believed could stop Shinomura, a request which Shaw permitted. In 1954, Shaw was informed that Godzilla and Shinomura had been spotted on Moansta Island. He later witnessed the Castle Bravo "test" that sought to kill both monsters.
In 1981, Shaw approached the now-grown Ishiro following Eiji Serizawa's funeral. Having learned the truth about his father's work, Ishiro declared that he was ready to join Monarch, but Shaw claimed that he wasn't sure anyone was ready for what was coming.
Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong 2
On Earth Prime, sometime after the Titan incursion into their world, Task Force X leader Amanda Waller summoned and met with detained members of the Suicide Squad, where she introduced them to Colonel Lee Shaw, the head of the Human Defense Corps. Shaw relayed his organization's commitment to eliminating government dependency on metahumans before he and Waller began detailing the development of a new defense system to better protect their world inspired by the Titans. Task Force X used a modified Boom Tube to travel to the universe that the Titans originated from in 2018, where Shaw and Waller oversaw an experiment that sought to "Titanize" King Shark, turning him into a giant monster. As they witnessed the arrival of Godzilla and the battle that ensued, Shaw expressed his desire to advance to "Phase Two" against Waller's orders, which he again reiterated after the test ended and King Shark reverted to his normal form while warning Waller that he did not take orders. After the Justice League arrived on Skull Island, Waller accused Shaw of being responsible for bringing them here through sabotage or incompetance, prompting Shaw to abruptly shoot her dead before appointing himself the new head of Task Force X.
Shaw began working closely with Lex Luthor, who advised Shaw that they needed to deal with the Justice League and Kong if they wanted to move to Phase Two. The two ventured to the island in a prototype HEAV, where they were briefly confronted by the Justice League until the Suicide Squad intervened, distracting the heroes and allowing Shaw and Luthor to continue onward to a rift that brought them into the Hollow Earth. There, Shaw and Luthor located the energy source they were searching for which they required to streamline the Titanizing project. During this time, Shaw noted that Task Force X had not checked in with him and mused detonating some of the explosive charges in their necks to get respect, though Luthor countered that they were likely defeated by the Justice League, with Luthor hoping that they would have their hands full with the emergence of Godzilla and the awakening of other Titans, including King Ghidorah and Rodan. Cheetah and Black Manta reconvened with Shaw and Luthor to update them on the situation on the surface and that they were needed, only for Luthor to reveal that he had yet to contain the energy source, infuriating Shaw, who assumed he had everything under control. Shaw was pacified, however, at Luthor's suggestion that they move to Phase Three, which involved Titanizing Cheetah with the new energy source, allowing her to remain Titanized unlike their previous test subjects.
Meanwhile, on the surface, the Justice League allied with Monarch agents Jae Jørgensen and Rick Stanton aboard the USS Argo, where the Monarch agents disclosed that the Lee Shaw who took control of Task Force X was not the one from their world, but rather, his Earth Prime counterpart, as parallel versions of certain individuals existed in both universes. In the Hollow Earth, Shaw again expressed his impatience at how long it was taking them to secure the energy source, telling Luthor that he was eager to return to their own reality. Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Kong soon located Shaw and Luthor, at which point they unleashed the Titanized Cheetah to distract them. Though initially pleased by Cheetah's performance against the Justice League and Kong, Shaw was dismayed when Cheetah retreated, drawn to the surface by King Ghidorah's alpha call. Shaw was further outraged by Black Manta's sarcastic remarks and launched into a tirade about how Task Force X's reliance on metahumans was a joke. After threatening to detonate the charges in the heads of his task force, Shaw was unceremoniously and brutally stabbed through the chest by Black Manta before he could make good on his threat, ending the brief reign of terror of the Lee Shaw from Earth Prime.
Trivia
- According to his army enlistment form seen in the third episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Shaw was born on August 3, 1924, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As of enlisting, he was 5 feet 11 inches tall, 145 pounds, single, self-employed, and resided with his mother in Tulsa.
- Shaw's debut in Godzilla: Awakening and appearance in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters marks the longest gap between two appearances of a Monsterverse character, at nine years. He is also the first character in the Monsterverse to initially appear in a graphic novel before making a live-action appearance.
- The Earth Prime version of Shaw from Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong 2 may have been modeled after his appearance in Godzilla: Awakening over his live-action appearances, sporting striking similarities to his 1953 look in the comic.
Notes
- ↑ Shaw entered Axis Mundi in 1962 and stayed there roughly a week,[2] but due to time dilation emerged 20 years later in 1982. He entered again in 2015 and exited in 2017, likely equating to a few days. Therefore, about 93 years have passed since his birth, despite his body having only aged 73 years.
References
This is a list of references for Lee Shaw. 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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