The iconicGodzillacharacter is getting a monstrous makeover, asIDW Publishing inaugurates a new era of Godzilla. Of course, with every new era must come a new design, so that the relaunched version can separate itself from past iterations of the character. With that in mind, a unique design for Godzilla is just one step intoexpanding the Godzilla universe.
As revealed by AIPT Comics,Godzilla is getting three new comic book series in 2025, all of which will feature new designs for the famous Kaiju.Tim Seeley and Nikola Čižmešija will be writingGodzilla#1, coming in July 2025;Godzilla: Escape the Deadzone#1arrives in August from Ethan Parker, Griffin Sheridan, and Pablo Tunica; finally, Chris Gooch and Oliver Ono’sStarship Godzilla#1 is coming October 2025.
As fans can see, Godzilla sports a design more dangerous than ever before, which is fitting considering Tim Seeley’s plans for the new reboot.
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At IGN Fan Fest 2025, writer Tim Seeley spoke about his role in this new trilogy ofGodzillacomic books, which he confirms willtake place in a shared universe. He admitted taking inspiration from the originalGodzillamovies, in which each movie seems to take place in the same continuity. In that regard,the trilogy of series will take place in its own continuity,rather than the previously established canon ofGodzilla. This canon takes place in 1954, when Godzilla is awakened by a “Kai-Sei,” which wakes other monsters and anoints him as King of the Monsters.
The solicit forGodzilla#1 provides the following context:
Kicking off the new connected universe in July is the first GODZILLA ongoing series in a decade from New York Times bestselling writer Tim Seeley (GODZILLA VS. AMERICA: CHICAGO, Grayson) and amazing artist Nikola Čižmešija (TMNT: BLACK, WHITE & GREEN, Batman and Robin). In 1954, an experiment with a mysterious energy source called Kai-Sei awakened Godzilla and other terrifying kaiju. For decades, humanity has endured an onslaught of monster attacks. While Japan views these unstoppable rampages like natural disasters, the United States’ G-Force is attempting to fight these seemingly immortal titans. Now, they’ve found a boy who wields the power of Godzilla. Will he save the world… or bring about its doom?
Featuring a wild new take on GODZILLA’s universe, this upcoming ongoing series will surprise readers with a fearsome new Godzilla design, new characters with powers, and plenty of kaiju twists and turns along the way.
Seeley pointed out to IGN that Kai-Sei is a"made-up"and"completely false term,“which the creative team introduced to explain a Kaiju energy, which humans try and fundamentally fail to master. In Seeley’s own words:“America tried to contain this energy, and then, promptly, being sort of dumb and militant, blew ourselves up.“Notably, IDW’s rebootedGodzillacanon attempts to focus on how humans themselves were impacted by 80 years worth of in-universe Godzilla attacks. Seeley expressed wanting to combine Japanese sentai with American superhero stories into traditionalGodzillastorytelling.
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Tim Seeley also mentioned that while past iterations of Godzilla would glow blue, orin some cases, pink, this new canonical version of Godzilla will glow green. When asked about the new design of Godzilla, Seeley had this to say:
That was designed by Nikola, our series artist. A big part of what we wanted to play up was, visually, to have you immediately know it’s Godzilla. So, of course, we’ve got the scar texture skin, and the big shards coming out of the back. The broken glass out of the back and everything, but we really wanted him to sort of even be even more dangerous and impersonal and just a giant weapon. So he’s got these sort of haunting eyes that are pupiless so he’s not cute [laughs]. But we’re also playing up this Kai-Sei energy, which comes from the Earth itself, so [his glow is] green.
Seeley seemingly confirmed that the new form that Godzilla takes on for the series is more than just an aesthetic choice, but a creative one, considering how this new Kai-Sei force is meant to affect Godzilla, physically, after awakening him.
IDW’s creative team are depriving Godzilla of anything that makes him remotely approachable in favor of his most terrifying design yet.
It also seems evident that Seeley is very aware of past iterations of the character and that seems to have played a part in its design. Namely, he joked that he didn’t want Godzilla to look cute, seemingly referring to how the classic movies of old featured a man in a cutesy costume rather than a CGI beast. Instead, Seeley and his collaborates wanted something closer to a beast. To that end, IDW’s creative team are deprivingGodzillaof anything that makes him remotely approachable in favor of his most terrifying design yet.
