Warning: spoilers for King in Black #2!
Marvel's King in Black is sweeping the Marvel Universe, and no-one is safe - not even skyscraper-sized monsters. Now that Knull has hit the Earth and Venom and Captain America's plan has failed, his army of symbiotes and Grendel dragons are spreading across the planet, becoming a deadly problem for every hero in Marvel's roster in a range of battles that will be chronicled in King in Black: Planet of the Symbiotes from a huge stable of creators including Marc Bernardin, Geoffrey Thorne, Jan Bazaldua, and Kyle Hotz.
One battle fans should begin looking forward to is the clash between the King in Black's army and the American Kaiju - a huge, hulking monster who is Marvel's version of Godzilla (that is, when they're not actually just publishing the King of Monsters' adventures.) First appearing in Avengers Vol. 6 #0, America Kaiju was originally Todd Ziller - an American soldier who took a concoction of Pym Particles, Spider-Man villain the Lizard's formula, and even the gamma radiation that created the Hulk.
The American Kaiju was first unleashed against AIM which - at the time - had been bought out by New Avenger Roberto da Costa, aka Sunspot, and was harboring the Hulk's ally Rick Jones. A monstrous "hero" who retains a deep sense of patriotism - chanting "YUUU! ESSSS! AAAAAYY!" as he works and bearing a huge American flag tattoo across his chest - the American Kaiju is the perfect creature to go up against the King in Black's army in an awesome royal rumble full of spectacle - which is exactly what the issue summary and Tony Moore's brain-melting cover from Marvel Comics promise:
IN THIS CORNER: A DRAGON MADE OF PARASITIC SLIME, SENT FROM OUTER SPACE TO CONSUME ANY AND ALL LIFE ON EARTH WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE! IN THAT CORNER: A BOMBASTIC BEHEMOTH PACKING A HUNDRED THOUSAND TONS OF ALL-AMERICAN MUSCLE — YOU KNOW HIM, YOU LOVE HIM… AMERICAN KAIJU! YUUU! EESSS! AAAAAYY!
King in Black has been a dark event full of failure and loss so far, so it'll be enjoyable to dive into a series that keeps all the symbiote fangs and slime while deliberately injecting some of the fun and pageantry of Marvel's more extravagant characters into Knull's war on all that is. While the America Kaiju doesn't have Godzilla's nuclear breath, his association with the US military does generally mean that there's some heavy artillery on his side, rather than working against him, which is likely to mean fireworks when the huge monster faces off against Knull's dragons.
Despite being a major threat to the New Avengers in his debut and starring in an adventure alongside Deadpool in U.S.Avengers #4, the American Kaiju hasn't gotten much attention since his inception, so fans will be happy to see him back, especially since this time he gets to play the role of the hero. King in Black: Planet of the Symbiotes #1 is out now, detailing the grossest possible symbiote monster and Knull's visit to Ravencroft (Marvel's new version of Arkham Asylum), with the American Kaiju vs. symbiote dragon swarm slobberknocker and the return of Hobie Brown as the Prowler in issue 2, available February 17.