Sometimes a crossover knows exactly what it is. Godzilla Conquers the Multiverse #1 is not interested in carefully explaining how every impossible piece fits together. It wants Doctor Doom commanding a mismatched collection of heroes and villains, Knull unleashing symbiote nightmares, Spider-Man cracking jokes while dodging monsters, and enough kaiju action to make subtlety run screaming from the room. Thankfully, that is also what makes this opening issue such an entertaining piece of comic-book chaos.
Writer Gerry Duggan, artist Javier Garrón and color artist David Curiel pick up with Knull having turned the King of the Monsters into part of a much larger multiversal disaster. Godzilla’s rampage has expanded beyond one Earth, the World Tree has been infected by a symbiote Godwyrm, and most conventional heroes have already been flattened. That leaves Doctor Doom to do what Doom does best: decide that only Doom is qualified to save everyone. He assembles his own “Avengers of Doom,” built from familiar Marvel characters, and begins jumping through realities in search of whatever strange allies and weapons might give them a fighting chance.
PROS:
The premise is gloriously ridiculous. Doom treats the multiverse like a hardware store, grabbing exactly the people and monsters he thinks he needs while refusing to explain the complete plan. His team includes the Punisher, Emma Frost, Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Kang, members of the Fantastic Four and, most importantly for this review, Spider-Man. The result feels less like a traditional superhero squad and more like the wildest group project ever assigned.
Spider-Man is not the central character, but Duggan uses him well. He brings some much-needed youthful energy to a team filled with dictators, killers, cosmic egos and people who consider cooperation a personal insult. His jokes help puncture Doom’s self-importance, while his speed, webs and powers make him useful during the increasingly absurd missions. There is something inherently fun about watching Spider-Man swing through battles involving alternate kaiju and futuristic war machines while behaving as though this is only the latest strange Tuesday in his life.
I also enjoyed that Spider-Man is allowed to look slightly overwhelmed without ever seeming useless. He may be surrounded by characters with bigger weapons and louder personalities, but he remains one of the group’s most adaptable members. When plans collapse—and they collapse often—he reacts quickly, saves who he can and keeps moving. That familiar Spider-Man quality survives even when the story around him has reached maximum cosmic nonsense.
Knull, meanwhile, is used more as the shadow hanging over the issue than its constant on-page presence. That is probably the right choice. His scheme involving Godzilla, the symbiote Godwyrm and a corrupted America Chavez gives the story a genuinely dangerous backbone beneath all the jokes. The closing pages reveal that Knull is building his own multiversal kill squad and intends to use America’s powers to hunt Doom across realities. It is a strong cliffhanger because Doom may be assembling weapons, but Knull is assembling hunters.
The artwork fully embraces the crossover’s oversized spirit. Garrón packs the pages with monsters, machinery, explosions and characters who should never logically share the same panel. Curiel’s bright colors keep the action readable even when the issue throws several kaiju, energy blasts and flying bodies at us at once. The best pages look like someone emptied an entire toy box onto the floor and somehow arranged the resulting mess into a coherent battle.
CONS:
The issue’s biggest weakness is also part of its charm: there is a lot happening, and not every character receives enough room to make a lasting impression. Some members of Doom’s team feel more like visual punch lines or useful tools than fully involved players. Godzilla himself can occasionally feel like the giant object everyone is planning around rather than the emotional center of the story. Readers hoping for a serious, majestic exploration of the King of the Monsters may find this too busy and playful.
CONCLUSION:
But this comic clearly wants to be a multiversal Saturday-morning spectacle, and on those terms it succeeds. It moves quickly, delivers ridiculous matchups and understands that putting Doom, Spider-Man, Knull and Godzilla in the same story should feel like an event. It is loud, crowded and proudly over-the-top—and I mean all three as compliments.
Godzilla Conquers the Multiverse #1 is a fun opening chapter that gives Spider-Man enough memorable moments to keep his fans engaged while setting Knull up as a suitably massive threat. I may not understand every piece of Doom’s plan yet, but watching him try to outscheme a symbiote god using kaiju, alternate heroes and pure arrogance is more than enough reason to come back.
FINAL RATING: 8/10
