A post-apocalyptic future with the defeat of Mothra in Mothra: Queen of the Monsters #1, but there is always hope that sisters, Emi and Mira, can save her! Mothra is one of the unique Kaiju clashing against Godzilla in Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), before spinning out of her own movie, Mothra (1961). She was the only Kaiju to get a hit song “Song of Mothra” from the duo, The Peanuts. The Kaiju spun off to her own film trilogy that started with Rebirth of Mothra (1996). In Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001), she had feathery anntenae instead of the floppy anttennae which is the form that is in this comic. Mothra even made into the MonsterVerse with Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). The cover by interior artist, Matt Frank, has a large image of Mothra, a tiny version above her, and the faces of the two sisters turned away, with a circular silhouetted image of the two fairies.
The alternate cover is by Sophie Campbell, the writer of the issue. The first issue is by the creative teram of Sophie Campbell and Matt Frank. Campbell was the artist for IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and wrote the title until #150 (2024). She provides two pages of artwork in the comic. The art is by Matt Frank who wrote and was the artist for Godzilla Rivals vs. Spacegodzilla #0 (2023). It begins with a large image of a Kaiju battle while the narrator says she hates Mothra! A red ant Kaiju, shades of Them! (1954), slamming Mothra into a building, people are running from the battle and jets streak overhead. Terrific Kaiju chaos in one scene! The narrator, Mira, says Mothra “changed everything” for herself and her sister, Emi. We see them in red sweaters each held by their parents hands, nice perspective from the sisters’ pov. An exploison of dust and rubble knock her away.
A closeup of the new Kaiju, Antra, with Mothra. Then, Mira is stunned holding the hand of her father crushed under wreckage! This makes me think of lil’ Mako in Pacific Rim (2013) and gives the emotional cost of the Kaiju battles. The battle resolves to Mira, tiny, looking upwards at the fight among the ruins. Mothra is pinned by Antra and its spawn begins swarming her. Mira says she she heard Mothra was Queen of the Monsters. A closeup of the drone’s fangs and then Mira’s eyes. The Antra drones begin feeding on Mothra! Then, a fade to black. It is “fifteen years later”, a shelf of stone figures has Mothra, to the side is Godzilla. The figure is knocked over by Mira, a young adult now, with a slingshot. She wears a white t-shirt, gloves, and her hair is in a ponytail. At the edge of her room is part of a poster for Jem and the Holograms, the 80’s cartoon, Campbell was the artist for the IDW comic!
Mira leaves her home that is instead the skull of an Antra! She makes her way through the ruined city to find a can of goods at nearly empty shelves and escapes the Antra drones. She looks down at the dessicated remains of Mothra and blames her again. Mira is outside of her home with a campfire and approached by a figure with a backpack. Under the backpack flap are two glowing eyes and they have a conversation about telling everything to Mira. The cloaked figure approaches her and then pulls back the hood to reveal it is Emi! She hugs her sister and then tells her that she wants Mira to meet two beings. We see the glowing eyes of Mothra’s priestesses called Shobijin or the Cosmos in the film series. They have glowing eyes and the Mothra antennae, a new look for the fairies. Plus, their dialogue is in red word balloons, and I like the tangled points for them.
This moves to a flashback filled with light colors; blues and pinks. Emi explains that they rescued her from Mothra’s battle with Antra. They call her “One who sings” and trained her. Emi wears a red priestess outfit. They were weak with the death of Mothra, but Emi has helped them with a song to start a new cycle for Mothra! They explain that Antra was created by the Earth, but went berserk, the priestesses say like an attack on its own immune system. Then, we see the body of Mothra bleeding from her wounds. The priestesses say that Mothra usually leaves an egg behind at the end of her life, but not this time, which will end the Earth! This returns to the dreary post-apocalypse with Emi happy that she had a magical dream that her sister was alive. She has white tatoos on her face and body, an interesting way to separate the sisters.
They went to her because she has power like Emi and both of them can finish the song. Mira is not impressed and takes Emi away to speak in private. She has been surviving on her own. Emi says she thought Mira was dead and would have come after her even without Mothra. She says that things will get worse if Mira doesn’t help them. An Antra drone with a black-like coloration crawls above Emi! It starts to threaten them and Emi insists that they need the priestesses. Mira slips past the drone’s snapping jaws to find them. She collects the priestesses as the Antra drone crashes into the makeshift home. Mira sends a nail from her slingshot into the drone. She runs away, nice silhouette, as Mira pulls Emi away. They manage to hide from the Kaiju. Mira wonders what happen if she agrees and the priestesses say they will go back in time to find a Mothra egg. Emi is excited and wonders if they use the magic to save their parents, this is something like the Masters of the Universe (1987) film, Mira agrees to help.
Eli has brought similar “sacred priestess garments” for her sister who doesn’t want to walk around without pants! Emi draws a circle and symbols, the priestesess say they will begin the song and the sisters will repeat the lyrics. Candles are lit with the priesttesses next to Emi. Mira joins sitting in the other direction. We get another Sophie Campbell page with the song lyrics with the sisters singing in prayer, the priestesses with a graphic design of the moth, and a portal opening. The sisters in silhouette enter and then we get a stunning two page spread in the “prehistoric era”! Mira and Emi overlook the vista, here is greenry, red Rodan-like pterandon flying, a winding river, and a crater of a volcano. Below it are some pterosarus soaring over the forest, reddish brontosaur-like dinos like Titanosaurus, and a spiky Anguirus-like beastie. An incredible lost world! Is there a Godzillasaurus down there? Mothra: Queen of the Monsters #1 has Kaiju battles, a post-apocalyptic world, and now dinosaurs all in a story of two sisters!
Five Songs out of Five!
#MothraQueenOfTheMonsters, #SophieCampbell, #MattFrank, #Mira, #Emi, #Priestesses, #MothraGemini, #Antra
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