Ultraman just brought every Kaiju back into existence, not in an act of insanity or evil, but in an effort to in fact save lives. Kaiju are giant monstrous titans that were banished to another dimension which acts as their prison by an organization called the United Science Patrol, or USP. The presence of Kaiju on the Earth means the ensured destruction of the planet, making it hard to believe that freeing them could be anything but villainous. Rather than viewing the freedom of the Kaiju as an insidious act, Ultraman saw it as a necessary action taken to face a looming threat head-on and avoid a potentially greater disaster.
In The Rise of Ultraman #5 by Mat Groom and Kyle Higgins with art by Michael Cho and Francesco Manna, Ultraman kicks off the issue by battling a Godzilla look-a-like Kaiju which has just been freed from an inter-dimensional prison holding all of the known monsters. After defeating the beast, Ultraman realizes that the prison holding the Kaiju is only a temporary measure, with the portal between worlds threatening to give way. The gate holding the Kaiju in their prison and away from Earth doesn’t have much longer to hold back the immense power of the elder beasts. Ultraman and USP decide the best thing to do is open the gate themselves and select where each Kaiju would be released around the world, choosing unpopulated areas rather than large cities, and avoiding the explosion of the failed gate altogether.
Unleashing giant monsters upon the Earth sounds like the maniacal plan of some deranged supervillain, but when weighing the options in Ultraman’s case, it was their only shot at facing the main threat to the world head-on. While the gate holding the Kaiju in their cage seemed like the solution to Earth’s monstrous problem, it was actually a dangerous and potentially deadly temporary measure. If the gate were to break it would create a massive explosion that would kill millions of people, causing cataclysmic destruction before the Kaiju even step foot on Earth. Releasing the monsters deliberately avoids this potentially catastrophic explosion, and providing precise coordinates as to where the monsters will be released allows the heroes to battle each Kaiju one at a time rather than all at once.
While freeing the Kaiju was thought out, it is still a bold move on the part of the USP. While avoiding a deadly explosion is always good, unleashing Kaiju onto the world will inevitably cause thousands if not millions of casualties if not handled timely and without fail. The United Science Patrol’s plan was all or nothing and will require a swift and powerful solution to defeating the giant monsters before too much damage is done and innocent people lose their lives if Ultraman can hope to justify bringing back every Kaiju in existence.