Kaiju Revamp - Godzilla 1954

Excerpt from the files of reporter Steve Martin:

Godzilla, thats what we Americans will call it as there is no appropriate term for the leviathan in the English language. The Japanese named it Gojira after some dragon of legend. But having the word God in its name seems fitting for surely this beast is the king of all monsters. Nothing could be more fearsome in all of history than this behemoth that man in his unbridled arrogance and quest for power has birthed. The ancient past has collided with the atomic age to produce a child of both worlds more terrible than anything either era could have ever conceived of. We can only pray that the terrible weapon created by Dr. Daisuke Serizawa will prevail, if not may God in heaven have mercy on us all.

Ok this is not a hoax (this time), its what youve all been waiting for...my Godzilla, or at least my Godzilla 1954. Why specifically 1954? Because Im going to do at least one more Godzilla but I wanted to tackle the orginial idea first. My take on Godzilla was inspired by watching the documentary on my Anniversary Edition Gojira dvd of the making of the suit. Many of you might note Godzilla has a very unusual scale pattern, hard, rough and spike like. Very little in the animal kingdom resembles it. This pattern (dubbed the aligator Godzilla of the 3 designs submitted) was reflective of the idea that Godzilla was mutated and suffering extreme pain. I instantly latched on to that idea!

Godzilla is dying, Godzilla is burning, Godzilla knows only pain...but Godzilla cannot die. My Godzilla is a form of amphibious dinosaur mutated heavily by an atomic test, sounds familiar so far right? Well my Godzilla's body wasnt born to process radiation. Godzilla physiology adapted imperfectly to its new biological process. Godzilla is burning up from the inside out! His body has mutated horribly as it tries to cope with the radiation. His spine is largely fused as large dorsal plate grew from the spinal processes to help vent the nuclear energies in his body. His skin is constantly burning away and rapidly regenerating stronger and stronger scale formations to combat this. Radiation poisoning has made him blind and his mismatched feet give him an awkwardly lumbering gate. He can vent radiation as gas or when enraged by something like power lines a sort of controlled explosion that looks and acts like a heat beam. Godzilla is highly radioactive and produces vast amounts of heat. He burns whatever he walks upon, melting the streets into slaggy footprints, and those in combat with him risk contamination at all times. Many projectiles explode before they can actually reach his resilient hide or even his open wounds. Godzilla is a walking fallout and explosion in one horrific bundle.

A few extra notes. The mutation aspect was inspired by the excellent monster design of the Gwoemul from The Host. Carefully observing Godzilla's traits in Gojira decided many other features to explain the monster's slow gait and stance and motivations. Then I applied the effects both real and assumed of radiation poisoning and having nuclear fission for a heart in a body that was never meant to handle such. Lastly the green glow instead of the traditional blue is because I always liked the soft green glow of those old iridium clocks from my childhood. Its a good color for radiation.

So there you have it, my blind, enraged, mutated, atomic monster love letter to the greatest of all kaiju ever!