Oh, no! There goes Chicago! Godzilla finally gets to the Midwest in new comic book
As if Chicago didn't have enough problems.
Here comes Godzilla, as in Gojira, the Big G, Tokyo's Own.
'Da King of da Monsters has come to da Windy City!' a shocked CTA train operator gulps in 'Godzilla vs. Chicago,' the first issue of a limited 'Godzilla vs. America' series by IDW, the publisher of the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,' 'Star Trek' and 'Goosebumps' comics.
Unfortunately, Blue Line service is interrupted.
Also impacted by a giant radioactive lizard tramping through Illinois: Soldier Field, the Bears, Michigan Avenue, Interstate 94, Navy Pier, Millennium Park, Garfield Park Conservatory, Cottage Grove, hot dog stands, the mansions of Lake Forest and most CTA service to Logan Square. On the bright side, a searchlight rental business in Bridgeport seems to do pretty well. And in one of four Chicago-centric stories in the issue — definitely the funniest — a Chicago woman makes herself larger than Godzilla, wraps herself in a Chicago flag, then picks up Godzilla and drops him on another shore of Lake Michigan.
'Screw Indiana,' she says.
If you're wondering: Yes, this is the first time Godzilla has attacked Chicago. He rose from the depths in 1954 and took on Tokyo, then later New York City ('Destroy All Monsters,' 1968), San Francisco and Honolulu ('Godzilla,' 2014), Cairo ('Godzilla, King of the Monsters,' 2019), Osaka, Hong Kong. It's only taken him 70 years to find the Midwest.
'Godzilla vs. Chicago,' which arrives in comic book stores on Feb. 26, makes the most of his visit. Nicolas Niño, associate editor at Los Angeles-based IDW, said that when the publisher — among the largest comics publishers not named Marvel or DC — was deciding locations for 'Godzilla vs. America,' one consideration was practical: They wanted each issue written and drawn by writers and artists of those cities, 'and Chicago has a great scene we wanted to tap.'
That decision lends the comic more local flavor and credibility than the usual cliches coming out of drive-by film and TV producers in Chicago. There are nods to aldermen, Svengoolie, Lori Lightfoot, Cubs nemesis Steve Bartman, Dave Matthews' tour bus and Naperville residents who say they're from Chicago. Jake Williams, IDW's editor for Godzilla comics — this year alone, the publisher has six different G-series — is a Peoria native who once pictured 'Chicago as a magical place in the distance I got to visit every now and then.' He took Second City classes, he got lost in neighborhoods. In Wicker Park, he ran into a comic book creator named Caroline Cash, whose work would later become known in the Chicago Reader and the New Yorker. When he was putting together a talent roster for 'Godzilla vs. Chicago,' he asked her to do one of the stories.
She came up with a woman who downs an energy drink, grows enormous and takes on Godzilla: 'Soon it's gonna destroy the city! Not just the Loop but also parts of the city I like!'
'It's about time he attacked Chicago,' Cash said. 'Originally I wanted Godzilla as a Bridezilla coming out of Lake Michigan, but we went with a giant woman, which is also fine — the setting in my comics is so much of a character, and since I write gag comics, and Chicago has been the setting for so much of my work, Godzilla became another chance to write more Chicago jokes.'
Writer Mike Costa and artist Ryan Browne contribute a story in which a disruptive Bears fan tries to make amends by fighting Godzilla while inside of a robotic MechaGodzilla suit hidden beneath Millennium Park. Ezra Claytan Daniels — who started his career creating trial illustrations for local courts, including for the Rod Blagojevich trial — plays off South Side-North Side animosity, inserting Godzilla into a tale about corrupt politicians and developers from the North Shore.
And finally, Portage Park's Tim Seeley, whose popular series 'Hack/Slash,' 'Revival' and 'Local Man' have made him a leading creator of contemporary horror comics, switches gears with a romantic comedy that happens to costar the CTA and Godzilla.
'All of my pitches for this were super Chicago-specific,' he said. 'So much so that one story I came up with was about Godzilla stepping on a parking spot right after this guy had shoveled it out. The guy is so angry he tracks Godzilla across Chicago, to kill him with his shovel. I thought for sure that was going to be the one that made it into the book.'
After Chicago, Godzilla heads to Los Angeles for the second issue, then Boston for the third. Maybe Godzilla will face the wrath of a Chicago dibs owner someday: Seeley's next big project will be IDW's main Godzilla series, set in an America rebuilding after this cross-country stomping. On Feb. 28, his Chicago-centric Godzilla work will also be shown as part of a Chicago/Godzilla art show at Howling Pages comic book shop in Portage Park, alongside local takes from other area artists.
'What I can't answer is the inherent problem of how Godzilla gets to Chicago. He swims everywhere, yet just comes out of Lake Michigan? Maybe we don't need to know how.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Elle
2 hours ago
- Elle
That 'Ginny & Georgia' Season 3 Finale, Explained
Spoilers below. In a recent interview with Netflix's Tudum, Ginny & Georgia creator broke down the plot of season 3 finale as follows: 'Ginny gets pregnant, Georgia fakes a pregnancy, and then Georgia really gets pregnant, and we don't know who the dad is. And when you say these things out loud, you're like, "What in the world is this show?!"' It's a good question. The Netflix dramedy is trying to do a lot—arguably, too much. Murder, pregnancy, sex, first love, self-harm, eating disorders, disability, depression, divorce, alcohol, abuse, abortion, cancer, endometriosis, embezzlement, race, queerness, questionable local politics, estranged family & Georgia wants to tackle them all. FIND OUT MORE ON ELLE COLLECTIVE Particularly in the season three finale, so much happens that it's difficult to track what's essential plot and what's set dressing to up the drama. Sometimes there's so much going on that it feels like nothing is actually happening; nothing sticks. It's hard to know how much fans will remember of the season three storyline by the time season four rolls around, likely sometime in 2027. Still, to the credit of Ginny & Georgia's cast and crew, they've created a series that sucks you in—that compels attention in an era when such a resource is in increasingly fragmented supply. Netflix values a show that knows how to addict its viewers, and to be honest, so do the viewers themselves. The finale episode repeatedly underscores how its titular protagonists' fates are intertwined, ironic, and—perhaps—inevitable. For all its absurdity, that premise is fun to explore. Is Ginny (Antonia Gentry) destined to become Georgia (Brianne Howey)? Do all daughters eventually morph into their mothers? Now that she's blackmailed a neighbor to lie on the witness stand, does that mean Ginny's only one bad day away from murdering someone herself? And what about her little brother, Austin (Diesel La Torraca)? As we see in episode 10, 'Monsters,' Ginny convinced the sweet young Austin to wrongfully accuse his own father of murder in order to save their mother from prison. 'It's us against the world, right?' Ginny asks Austin. That's a line directly out of her mother's playbook. Still, Georgia always seems so surprised (and distraught) when her actions have repercussions, especially when those repercussions impact her children, and especially when her children start to act as she would. Even after a jury declares her innocent in the season three finale's opening scenes, Georgia takes her sweet time recognising the impact of the trial on her kids. When she at last reunites with them at home, Georgia apologises to Austin for the 'brave thing' he 'had to do.' (He really didn't 'have to do' anything, but sure.) As he walks back into the house, he okay. And, frankly, neither does Ginny. Ginny's father, Zion (Nathan Mitchell) finds Georgia's newfound freedom 'convenient,' because he's not an idiot. He knows Georgia killed Tom Fuller last season, and he suspects Austin's father, Gil (Aaron Ashmore), had nothing to do with it. (Even if Gil is still an abusive, awful person.) Alone with Ginny, Zion wonders why Austin never mentioned seeing Gil kill Tom. Ginny suggests the omission was due to trauma. 'Yeah, to witness a parent kill someone, that kind of thing will stay with him forever,' Zion replies, giving his daughter a pointed look. She does not take the bait. Zion has always been patient with Georgia, believing that she acts in the best interest of their daughter despite her questionable approach. But, by the end of season three, his faith in her is shaken, and he wants a more active role in parenting Ginny. He tells Georgia that he's going to petition for joint custody, and, in fact, Ginny wants him to do so. 'He's my dad, Mum,' Ginny pleads with Georgia when the latter finds out. 'Please don't make this about you.' She's shocked when her mother agrees to the arrangement. Emotional maturity! What a concept! Together, mother and daughter proceed to flop into bed and recap the events of the entire season, including but not limited to: Georgia's arrest at her wedding to Paul (Scott Porter); Ginny's poem about her mother being a 'monster' going viral; Georgia faking her pregnancy; Paul leaving; Ginny getting pregnant and having an abortion; Georgia running away; and Cynthia lying on the witness stand. Georgia no longer has the prospect of prison looming over her head—and she's even agreed to go to therapy, wow!—but her neighbours still see her as the newly venerated 'Mayoress Murderess,' which means she no longer has any chance of eking out a normal existence in Wellsbury. And, well, neither does Paul. The town has turned on him thanks to his support of the big-business-touting Proposition 38, plus the fact that he divorced Georgia in her (supposed) time of need. A few drinks deep at the Blue Farm Café, a troubled, frustrated Paul reveals to Joe (Raymond Ablack) that he and Georgia slept together pre-divorce, even amidst their conflicts. Joe by this, to say the least. Which is fair! He and Georgia also slept together recently. But, uh, more on that later. Eventually, Paul is recalled as mayor and Wellsbury rejects Prop 38. Paul lays the blame for these political failures at Georgia's feet. When she goes to his office to return her ring and apologise for lying about the pregnancy, he insists she's made him into something ugly, ethically warped, and (as we saw earlier this season) potentially violent. Georgia isn't having any of it. 'I didn't make you anything that wasn't in there already,' she insists. Meanwhile, Ginny must deal with an interpersonal reckoning of her own. She wants to believe her mother's changed, that Tom was Georgia's last murder victim. But Ginny isn't sure she believes Georgia can change, and even if she can, Ginny has already changed herself. She's now wrapped up in her mother's crimes, implicated in them in a real and irrevocable way. Austin, too. When Georgia eventually learns Ginny blackmailed Cynthia (Sabrina Grdevich) in order to implicate Gil, she's furious. 'That's not on you, to do things like that,' she demands, adding later, 'I do hard things so you don't have to.' 'It's what got you out,' Ginny replies, almost nonchalant. 'It's what you would've done.' Georgia does not like this answer. Concludes Ginny, 'I did what I had to. Prove that I did the right make me regret setting you free.' Finally, she drops this zinger: 'We carry the weight, too. We always have.' She's referring, of course, to herself and Austin. Georgia's crimes have always impacted her kids, regardless of whether she wanted or intended them to do so. That's parenting for you! As she attempts to ground herself after so much emotional turmoil, Ginny leans on Marcus (Felix Mallard), but he doesn't have much grounding to offer. He has a serious drinking problem, deepened by his depression, and even if he still loves Ginny—as he insists he does, moments before they embrace—love alone won't be enough to pull him out of such a deep hole. His twin sister, Maxine (Sara Waisglass), seems to understand this fact, and she begs for their parents to send Marcus to rehab. But their mother, Ellen (Jennifer Robertson), doesn't want him to fall behind his friends in school, thus 'making it worse.' It might already be too late for that. Marcus has failed his sophomore year. Later, after Ginny performs her latest poem for the school, he lies to her about why he was called to the principal's office. It isn't until later, when he's drunkenly stumbling around their friend's basement house party, that Ginny realises the seriousness of his that he's already covering it up. Max drags Marcus reluctantly home, where he gets into a shouting match with his parents before devolving into sobs, insisting on how much he hates himself. After the Bakers put their son to bed, Ginny climbs through his bedroom window to insist he's not a 'loser.' Marcus, still wasted, wants her to read him her 'Sunshine' poem—the one she says she wrote about him. But before she can do so, he wets the bed. Ellen then comes in with a glass of water and politely asks Ginny to leave. In tears, Ginny obeys. The next morning, we watch Ellen driving Marcus somewhere. (Given his pissed-off reaction, I think we can safely assume it's rehab.) Only after Ellen asks for silence does he realize Ginny has secretly tucked the 'Sunshine' poem in his bag. He reads it as they drive away from Wellsbury, and it reminds him he's still 'there, somewhere' deep inside himself. While Marcus heads to rehab, Ginny prepares herself to spend the summer in Korea with Zion. But what that means for Austin and Georgia remains to be seen. Georgia is clearly falling for Joe—or, anyway, she wants to, as evidenced by her finally confessing to the Blue Farm Café owner that she did, indeed, kill Tom. She tells Joe she feels safe with him, like she can be the 'real me,' which means she can be honest and upfront about the multiple (yes, multiple) murders. Joe accepts the 'Mayoress Murderess' for who she is, and they kiss. But Georgia insists they can't be together, at least for a while. She just got a divorce; her murder trial just wrapped up. She needs to get settled. She needs some stability for her kids. And though she doesn't see them out her front window, her mother and stepdad have apparently landed in Wellsbury, joyriding past the Millers' house in their truck. We can only imagine what drama that implies for season four. Oh, but the twists don't stop there, friends. Especially after last season's finale plot twist, Ginny & Georgia would never end season three on such a simple note. No, we instead must witness Georgia stroll through the kitchen guzzling milk from a carton. As Ginny watches, it hits her suddenly: 'Didn't you say you drink milk when you're pregnant?' she asks her mother. Sure enough, Georgia is having a baby. A real one, not a fake one! And who's the father? We can't yet know for sure. It's a classic soap-opera plot twist. But, hey, it works. Already, Ginny & Georgia season three has hit the No. 1 spot on the Netflix Top 10 list. The Miller girls might not have much experience with honesty, but when it comes to drama, they know exactly what they're doing. ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
10 Games That Ask You to Make Tough Choices
One of the things that make video games different from other media, is that you can often control what happens in the story. Sometimes the best games are ones that leave tough yet memorable choices with you. Sometimes that choice will haunt you for a long time, other times you'll hate the outcome so much, you'll play again just to have things happen differently. These ten games have some of the toughest choices of all. The entire Witcher series is known for the tough, morally-gray decisions protagonist Geralt of Rivia has to make in his adventures. The first game is renowned for how it distanced the consequences of your actions from when you made the decision, so that you'd only find out hours later that your decision had led to disaster. Too long ago to reload a save and make a different choice. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is undoubtedly the best of the series so far, especially if you include the two fabulous DLC add-ons, which are meaty campaigns in their own right. In the hundreds of hours you'll play through it all, you'll have to make choices about who lives, who dies, who is betrayed, and who to support. Often with the choice being between bad and worse. Rather than right or wrong. Mass Effect completely rewrote what a video game RPG can be when it first arrived on the Xbox 360. I remember seeing it for the first time at a friend's house and thinking it was like playing an episode of Star Trek—moral choices and all. The story spans three games, and some of the choices you make in one game carry over to the other titles. What's particularly hard in Mass Effect is that you grow quite attached to the various characters, and if you don't make the right choices, some of those friends won't make it to the end of the journey—picture above very related. In most games we mow down our enemies without sparing a thought for the morality of your actions, but Undertale is a different experience entirely. It lets you kill or spare "enemies" as you wish, and there are various choices to make throughout the game, but in the end almost everything you do holds moral weight, and the game totally judges you for it. Papers, Please is one of the most effective ways I have ever seen to help people understand how corruption spreads, how people will do reprehensible things if ordered to do it, and how it's hard to balance your own safety and happiness with those of others. You play a border agent of a fictional Eastern Bloc country with a government that keeps imposing more and more draconian rules. With branching endings, and a creeping, relentless sense of dread, this one will give you plenty to feel guilty about. Man, Disco Elysium is just one of the weirdest games I've ever played. I've yet to actually finish it, mind you, but so far it's clear that this strange post-modern, philosophical detective RPG is pretty much all about choice. Or the illusion of choice. Maybe it's about finding both your shoes and laying off the alcohol long enough to do your job. I have no idea, but it's a hell of a trip and you're in control of where this party is heading. Quantic Dream has a long history of making "games" that are really just interactive movies with quick-time events so that you have some modicum of interactivity, but there isn't really any actual gameplay. Don't let that scare you off though, because as interactive movie adventures, they tend to be pretty engrossing. Detroit: Become Human is without a doubt their best one yet. Not only is this title absolutely gorgeous, even on the dusty old PlayStation 4, the near-future world they've crafted with humanoid robots serving our every need is good enough to stand with the likes of Blade Runner. As for making hard choices, every Quantic Dream title is basically nothing but a series of hard choices, most of which lead you down a path you didn't want to go. I love it! This is my second-favorite Fire Emblem game next to Awakening, but while that 3DS title is pretty linear, Three Houses asks you to make a big choice at the end of the first part of the game that will send you down one of four paths. Here you can see my save files, where it took over 130 hours to complete all four routes. Not everyone has the patience to play through the same game four times as I did though, so if you're only going to make this choice once, the you're choosing which characters become your enemy in the second part of the game, and you may even have to end up harming them in some way. This is another series of adventure narrative "games" that actually focus entirely on choices and their consequences. In Life Is Strange your character can rewind time and make new decisions based on their knowledge of the future. Every choice you make has an effect. Sometimes the short-term effect seems positive, but the long-term ripples are not. In other cases, it seems no matter how much you try to change things, some futures are just inevitable. Bring the Kleenex for this one. Tabletop RPGs are all about freedom of choice, and the infinite ways those choices can affect things. Baldur's Gate 3 is probably the most comprehensive and extensive attempt at bringing the experience of a tabletop dungeon-crawl to video games, and it seems as if developer Larian has anticipated almost every single choice that players can make and how they interact. Some choices are funny or of little consequence, but there are so many choices you can make that utterly transform the game, or really cause pain and anguish for some characters. Often inadvertently. I strongly recommend that you don't save-scum for this one. In classic BioWare fashion, Origins puts you in a world full of warring factions, ethical dilemmas, and political landmines. Every origin story starts differently, but no matter your background, you're asked to make choices that alter the course of Ferelden's future. From letting an ally sacrifice themselves for the greater good to deciding who becomes king, the game ensures you can't please everyone—and living with the fallout is part of the appeal. If you feel that you don't get enough responsibility in real life, why not pick up one of these games and experience what it feels like to have someone's fate hanging in the balance, depending on what you choose to do next? Fun!
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
The White Lotus Star Sam Nivola Has His Say On 'Nepo Baby' Comments
The White Lotus star Sam Nivola has addressed critics who've called him a 'nepo baby' due to his family's ties to the entertainment industry. Earlier this year, Sam caused a major stir in the third season of The White Lotus, in which he played the youngest member of the Ratliff family, Lochlan. As part of Variety's Actors On Actors interview series, the actor recently sat down with Monsters star Cooper Koch, in which he admitted that he's 'constantly' being asked about nepotism in interviews because his mum and dad are also actors, Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola. 'My whole thing was that my parents really didn't want me to be an actor, which I totally get – I don't know if I'd want my kid to be an actor. It's a really mentally tough career to be in,' he explained. 'And even if I had no success, I would want to be doing it. But they really didn't want me to do it.' Sam went on to say that, initially, he wasn't interested in acting himself, until watching films in the Criterion Collection made him fall 'in love with cinema', and in turn, made him want to be an actor. Back in March, Sam's on-screen brother Patrick Schwarzenegger – who has also had to contend with accusations of nepotism due to the fact his parents are action star (and former governor of California) Arnold Schwarzenegger and journalist Maria Shriver – revealed that his co-star confided in him that he was worried about being hit with questions about his family in interviews. 'I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't even know who Sam was or who his family was until like six months into [filming],' Patrick admitted. 'He was, like, 'Oh, I hope they don't call me a nepo baby'. And I was, like, 'Why?'.' All three seasons of The White Lotus are available to stream on Now and Sky in the UK. 23 Behind-The-Scenes Facts You Probably Didn't Know About How The White Lotus Season 3 Was Made Arnold Schwarzenegger Has Plenty More To Say About Son Patrick's White Lotus Nude Scenes Walton Goggins And Aimee Lou Wood Are Not Happy This Scene Was Deleted From The White Lotus Finale
