Mothra: Queen of the Monsters (2025)

IDW Mothra: Queen of the Monsters #1 • #2 • #3 • #4 • #5

Mothra: Queen of the Monsters is a five-issue comic book miniseries from IDW Publishing. Written by Sophie Campbell and co-illustrated by Campbell and Matt Frank, the series follows a pair of twins who set out to prevent an apocalyptic future where Mothra is killed by traveling back in time to locate an ancient Mothra egg, which hatches into the original character Mothra Gemini. The series is IDW's first comic centered around a Mothra or any other Toho kaiju besides Godzilla, as well as the first eponymous Mothra solo project since the 1998 film Rebirth of Mothra 3. The series ran from March 5 to August 20, 2025. IDW published a trade paperback collecting the series, titled Godzilla Legends – Mothra: Queen of the Monsters, on January 27, 2026.

Issues

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  Issue #1
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  Issue #2
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  Issue #3
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  Issue #4
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  Issue #5

Trade paperbacks

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  Godzilla Legends – Mothra: Queen of the Monsters

Major appearances

Monsters Mothra Gemini (larva and imago) Antra Megaguirus Omegaguirus Mothra (imago) MechaMothra Primitive Mothra (larva) Giant ant drones Meganulon Meganula Miniguirus Desghidorah Keizer Ghidorah King Ghidorah Anguirus Gorosaurus Maguma Titanosaurus Gabara Manda Baragon Varan Rodan Baby Rodan Characters Emi Mira

Weapons, vehicles, and races Shobijin Handmaidens of Antra Prehistoric Shobijin

Development

The series was first announced on October 18, 2024, alongside the Godzilla miniseries Godzilla: Heist and Godzilla vs. America, at the 2024 New York Comic Con. That same day, the official Godzilla website posted further details about the series, including a first look at the covers of the first issue and additional concept art of the new characters Mothra Gemini and Antra.

In an interview, author Sophie Campbell revealed that the series began life as a pitch for another Godzilla comic series before being revamped to focus instead on Mothra, as Campbell felt there was more "unexplored territory" with that character, who had never headlined a solo comic series before. Familiar enemies of Mothra such as Battra or King Ghidorah were also considered, though the creative team ultimately opted for an original kaiju, creating Antra. Editor Jake Williams requested that artist Matt Frank color the pages by hand rather than digitally, as he did for his comic in Godzilla: 70th Anniversary. Matt Frank stated in an interview with the official Godzilla website that he was glad to have taken this approach, as it presented "the next big challenge in my artistic career, looking to try something new or an approach I haven't fully explored."

In another interview, Campbell also confirmed that all of the dinosaurs featured in the series were actually prehistoric versions of Toho kaiju.

Gallery

Concept art

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  Mothra Gemini concept art by Sophie Campbell
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  Mothra Gemini concept art by Matt Frank
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  Antra concept art by Matt Frank
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  Emi and Mira character sheet by Sophie Campbell
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Panel art

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  Handrawn panel art by Matt Frank
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Miscellaneous

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  Unused alternate logo design
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  Connecting Heroes & Fantasies back cover (Mothra Gemini morphology) art by Matt Frank

Videos

Comic trailer Trade paperback trailer

Trivia

• The concepts of an elder Mothra dying and being succeeded by a new imago, and the defeat of a villainous kaiju requiring travel to prehistoric times recall Rebirth of Mothra and Rebirth of Mothra 3, respectively.
  • The first issue's description includes the phrase, "Mira might hold the key to the rebirth of Mothra," as a nod to the Rebirth trilogy. Moreover, Mothra Gemini's zodiac-based name references Mothra Leo.
• This is the first piece of media to include "Queen of the Monsters" in its title, although the nearly-identical "Mothra: The Queen of Monsters" was used as the title for Rebirth of Mothra on its Japanese VHS and LaserDisc releases.
• Emi may have been named after singer/actress Emi Ito, who portrayed one of the Shobijin in the original Mothra film and two Godzilla films, alongside her twin sister Yumi.
• "Mira" is the name of Mothra's priestess in GODZILLA: Monster Apocalypse, a novel prequel to GODZILLA: Planet of the Monsters. Emi's body markings are also reminiscent of the Houtua introduced in that film.
  • The Shobijin possessing antennae in this series is also a trait shared with the Houtua, though the Houtua's antennae are fluffier and lay flat against their heads.
• Mothra: Queen of the Monsters marks the first American comic appearances of Godzillasaurus, Primitive Mothra, MechaMothra, and Desghidorah, as well as the first corporeal American comic appearance of Maguma.
• While the synopses for the first two issues state that Emi and Mira must go back to the Jurassic Period to retrieve a Mothra egg, the synopsis from the third issue states they returned from the Cretaceous Period, and text in the first issue calls the time period they arrive in an unspecified "Prehistoric Era".

References

This is a list of references for Mothra: Queen of the Monsters. 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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