Ultramega by James Harren, Volume 1

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Sadistic Choice: Odis is made to choose between letting all of Avalon go hungry when the Kaiju Klan threaten to steal the yearly supply drop or giving up Noah in exchange for the food. He reluctantly chooses the latter, to his own shame. Purple Is Powerful: Jason and later Noah have purple Ultramega forms, and purple is generally a predominant color where Ultramegas are concerned. Flower" was the only single released from the album. Its music video, directed by Mark Miremont, aired regularly on MTV's 120 Minutes, helping to call attention to the early Seattle grunge scene. As funny as it is awe-inspiring and epic, Kaiju is a comic with real heart — a book about second chances and trying to become the person you’ve always wanted to be, even after endless failure, even if it feels like it’s too late. The kaiju designs are equal parts cool and creepy, and the action spectacle of kaiju clashes are gorgeous. Beyond all that, the actual texture of systems and world-building around the Kaiju-presence and mankind’s response is an immersive treat. Where else would you get Kaiju-intenstine clean-up, but also detailed breakdowns of Anti-Kaiju weaponry? Cain and Abel: Noah and the Kaiju Prince/King are half-brothers, though neither knows til after a newly-empowered Noah has killed the latter.

Gadgeteer Genius: Ultramega Green, Stephen Meier, who managed to grow up into a millionaire inventor despite having to fight Kaiju on occasion. Beth is also similarly skilled. It’s hard not to love the try-hard underdog monster hero, and Kaiju No. 8 is another great example. — RB Ultramega faked out the reader with a simple, quippy hook: Three Average Joes are endowed as an Ultramega, tokusatsu-style battlers in a war against a plague that has infected every human on the globe with the possibility of sudden transformation into kaiju. Then, at the end of the first issue, every single one of them died horribly and the book jumped a decade forward into a post-kaiju-apocalypse coming-of-age story.Pacific Rim? Puny. Godzilla? A guppy. Readers beware: no series launch in 2021 could possibly be bigger than Ultramega. Literally. In All of the Marvels, which would be one of the best comics of 2021 if it were not a prose book, author Douglas Wolk points out that at its start, monsters were as core to the Marvel Comics universe as crimefighting or romance. Since 2018, Al Ewing and numerous artists have been reminding us that they still are. Kaiju: They also double as The Virus as they mutate not only the bodies of their hosts but their minds as well. Sub Pop Records. "Soundgarden - Ultramega OK (Expanded Reissue)" (review). Sub Pop Mega Mart. Retrieved June 7, 2017.

After the Kaiju King murders the first three Ultramegas, the public turns to using giant robots to battle Kaiju. Johnston, Maura (March 20, 2017). "Soundgarden - Ultramega OK" (review). Pitchfork. Retrieved June 7, 2017. Fantastic Racism: People even suspected of being infected by or potential carriers for the Kaiju virus are cast out of the cities and left to live on their own aside from occasional government supply drops. Offing the Offspring: Ern's young son was sleeping near him when he became an Ultramega… and saw that said son was infested with the Kaiju virus. Ern is still traumatized from what happened next. Bigger creature means more blood. So the corpses of the building-sized Ultramegas spill enough blood to flood streets.Cruel and Unusual Death: Mariah is submerged in the literal flood of blood gushing out from Jason's decapitated body. And then it coagulates, trapping her inside of it to suffocate. Across the cosmos, superhuman giants battle the Kaiju, their eternal foes who mutate the innocent populations of countless worlds into humongous bloodthirsty monsters. Jason refusing to kill his pregnant first wife Lilith despite her having been infected by the Kaiju virus. This allows her and their baby to become the Kaiju Queen and Kaiju Prince/King years down the line. Harren has built a truly fascinating world built around the often-ignored consequences of the Kaiju. Readers are given an unflinching view of a city trapped in a constant state of upheaval. Large-scale destruction is a constant possibility and giants' blood floods the streets. Kaiju cults emerge and hordes of potentially infected people are forced out of the city. Ultramega focuses on the impacts of the monsters just as much as it does the monsters themselves, whose mysterious origins take the story into outer space to establish a fascinating mythology. Between all of the action and world-building, Harren still finds time to develop an intriguing cast of characters. Noah is particularly compelling, as his almost archetypal hot-headedness is balanced out by his trauma.

No Endor Holocaust: Repeatedly averted. The Ultramegas are all too aware of the Collateral Damage their battles with Kaiju can do, and when they're unable to get Kaiju clear of civilians before engaging, lots of people die in the crossfire. Villain Forgot to Level Grind: The Kaiju King is about as strong as he was when he killed Earth's first three Ultramegas, but a number of factors give the much weaker and less experienced Noah the edge his predecessors didn't. Firstly, they're fighting in the ruins of the old city which is filled with either Kaiju or their mostly willing slaves, so he doesn't have to worry much about collateral damage. And perhaps most importantly, he's unaware that he and the villain are half-brothers, so he isn't rendered off-balance by the familial connection he has with his opponent like how it was with their father. And on top of all of that, Kaiju King is now very out of shape from years of inaction. Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Red Gara's betrayal of his fellow humans to the Kaiju is "rewarded" by being thrown into their Gladiator Games to die alongside their human prisoners the very instant he gets injured and ceases to be immediately useful. Image/Skybound Entertainment will supersize fan frenzy this March with new series ULTRAMEGA by heavyweight James Harren (RUMBLE, BPRD) and featuring the talents of multiple Eisner award winning colorist Dave Stewart. Pacific Rim? Puny. Godzilla? A guppy. Readers beware: no series launch in 2021 could possibly be bigger than ULTRAMEGA. Literally.

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Ungrateful Bastard: The Kaiju have little appreciation for the humans under their thrall despite their loyal service, treating them as expendable cannon fodder at best and punching bags at worst. Gorn: The comic pulls no punches on depicting just how brutal fights between Ultras and Kaiju would really be. Popoff, Martin (November 1, 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p.333. ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5.