1.
Godzilla (franchise)
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The Godzilla franchise is a series of multi-media featuring the monster Godzilla, owned by Toho. It is recognized by Guinness World Records to be the longest continuously running movie franchise, the film franchise consists of 29 films produced by Toho. Kong to be released on May 29,2020, the first film, Godzilla, directed by Ishirō Honda, is an early and influential classic in the monster film genre and was initially released by Toho in 1954. Utilizing an hydrogen bomb incident to unleash the monster, the film tapped into political undertones, the original introduced an acclaimed music score by Akira Ifukube, which was reused in many of the later films. The original also introduced the work of Toho special effects master Eiji Tsuburaya who used miniatures and suitmation to convey the large scale of the monster, for its North American release, the film was reworked as an adaptation and released in 1956 as Godzilla, King of the Monsters. The film featured new footage with Raymond Burr edited together with the original Japanese footage, Toho was inspired to make the original Godzilla after the commercial success of the 1952 re-release of King Kong and the 1953 success of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. The success of the Godzilla series itself would go on to inspire Gorgo, Gamera, Yonggary, the popularity of the films has led to the introduction of the character in other media, such as television, music, literature, and video games. The tone and themes of the individual films vary widely, Godzillas role varies from purely a destructive force to an ally of humans, or a protector of Japanese values, or a hero to children. The name Godzilla is a romanization of the original Japanese name Gojira—which is a combination of two Japanese words, gorira, gorilla, and kujira, whale, the word alludes to the size, power and aquatic origin of Godzilla. As developed by Toho, the monster is an offshoot of the combination of radioactivity and ancient dinosaur-like creatures, indestructible, the Godzilla film series is broken into several eras reflecting a characteristic style and corresponding to the same eras used to classify all kaiju eiga in Japan. The first two refer to the Japanese emperor during production, the Shōwa era and the Heisei era. The third is called the Millennium era as the emperor is the same but these films are considered to have a different style, over the series history, the films have reflected the social and political climate in Japan. In the original film, Godzilla was an allegory for the effects of the bomb. The Heisei and Millennium series have continued this concept. The initial series of movies is named for the Shōwa period in Japan and this Shōwa timeline spanned from 1954, with Godzilla, to 1975, with Terror of Mechagodzilla. With the exceptions of Godzilla, Godzilla Raids Again, Mothra vs. Godzilla and Terror of Mechagodzilla, starting with Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla began evolving into a friendlier, more playful antihero, and as years went by, it evolved into an anthropomorphic superhero. Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster was also significant for introducing Godzillas archenemy, the films Son of Godzilla and All Monsters Attack were aimed at youthful audiences, featuring the appearance of Godzillas son, Minilla. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla was notable for introducing Godzillas robotic arch foe, haruo Nakajima mainly portrayed Godzilla since 1954 until his retirement in 1972
2.
Godzilla (1954 film)
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Godzilla is a 1954 Japanese kaiju film featuring Godzilla, produced and distributed by Toho. It is the first film in the Godzilla franchise and the first film in its Shōwa series, Nakajima would go on to portray the character until his retirement in 1972. In 1956, TransWorld Releasing Corporation and Embassy Pictures released Godzilla, a heavily re-edited Americanized version of the original film with additional footage featuring Raymond Burr. In 2004, Rialto Pictures gave the 1954 film a theatrical release in the United States to coincide with the franchises 50th anniversary. When the Japanese freighter Eiko-maru is destroyed near Odo Island, another ship – the Bingo-maru – is sent to investigate, a fishing boat from Odo is also destroyed, with one survivor. Fishing catches mysteriously drop to zero, blamed by an elder on the ancient sea creature known as Godzilla, reporters arrive on Odo Island to further investigate. A villager tells one of the reporters that something large is going crazy down there ruining the fishing and that evening, a ritual dance to appease Godzilla is held during which the reporter learns that the locals used to sacrifice young girls. That night, a storm strikes the island, destroying the reporters helicopter. Odo residents travel to Tokyo to demand disaster relief, the villagers and reporters evidence describes damage consistent with something large crushing the village. The government sends paleontologist Kyohei Yamane to lead an investigation to the island, where giant radioactive footprints and a trilobite are discovered. The village alarm bell is rung and Yamane and the rush to see the monster, retreating after seeing that it is a giant dinosaur, which then roars. Yamane presents his findings in Tokyo, estimating that Godzilla is 50 metres tall and is evolved from an ancient sea creature becoming a terrestrial animal and he concludes that Godzilla has been disturbed from its deep underwater natural habitat by underwater hydrogen bomb testing. Debate ensues about notifying the public about the danger of the monster, meanwhile,17 ships are lost at sea. Ten frigates are dispatched to attempt to kill the monster using depth charges, the mission disappoints Yamane who wants Godzilla to be studied. Godzilla survives the attack and appears off-shore, officials appeal to Yamane for ideas to kill the monster, but Yamane tells them that Godzilla is unkillable, having survived H-bomb testing, and must be studied. Yamanes daughter, Emiko, decides to break off her engagement to Yamanes colleague, Daisuke Serizawa, because of her love for Hideto Ogata. When a reporter arrives and asks to interview Serizawa, Emiko escorts the reporter to Serizawas lab, after Serizawa refuses to divulge his current work to the reporter, he gives Emiko a demonstration of his recent project on the condition she must keep it a secret. The demonstration horrifies her and she leaves without breaking off the engagement, shortly after she returns home, the sound of Godzillas footsteps approaching is heard
3.
Eiji Tsuburaya
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During his rise to post-war fame in the wake of Godzilla, many press accounts gave Tsuburayas birthdate as July 7, which falls on the high day of the star festival, Tanabata, a sign of good fortune. This is akin to an American saying that they were born on the Fourth of July, Tsuburaya described his childhood as filled with mixed emotions. He was the first son of Isamu and Sei Tsumuraya, with an extended family. His mother died when he was three and his father moved to China for the family business. Young Eiji was raised by his older uncle, Ichiro. In 1915, at the age of 14, he graduated the equivalent of High School, after the school was closed on account of the accidental death of its founder, Seitaro Tamai, in 1917, Tsuburaya attended trade school. While the Tsuburaya familys traditional religion was Nichiren Buddhism, Tsuburaya converted to Roman Catholicism in his later years, in 1919, his first job in the film industry was as an assistant cinematographer at the Nihon Katsudou Shashin Kabushiki-kaisha in Kyoto, which later became better known as Nikkatsu. After serving as a member of the staff to the military from 1921 to 1923. He was head cameraman on Hunchback of Enmeiin, and served as assistant cameraman on Teinosuke Kinugasas ground-breaking 1925 film and he joined Shochiku Kyoto Studios in 1926 and became full-time cameraman there in 1927. He began using and creating innovative filming techniques during this period, in the 1930 film Chohichiro Matsudaira, he created a film illusion by super-imposition. Thus began the work for which he would become known—special visual effects,1930 was also the year of his marriage to Masano Araki. Hajime, the first of their three sons, was born a year later, during the 1930s, he moved among a number of studios and became known for his meticulous work. It was during this period that he saw a film that would point towards his future career, after his international success with Godzilla in 1954, he said, When I worked for Nikkatsu Studios, King Kong came to Kyoto and I never forgot that movie. I thought to myself, I will someday make a movie like that. In 1938 he became head of Special Visual Techniques at Toho Tokyo Studios and he expanded his technique greatly during this period and earned several awards, but did not stay long at Toho. During the war years he directed a number of propaganda films and those include Kōdō Nippon, Kaigun Bakugeki-tai, The Burning Sky, Hawai Mare oki kaisen, Decisive Battle in the Skies and Kato hayabusa sento-tai. During the occupation of Japan following the war, Tsuburayas wartime association with such propaganda films proved a hindrance to his work for some time. He went freelance with his own company, Tsuburaya Visual Effects Research
4.
Haruo Nakajima
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Haruo Nakajima is a Japanese actor, best known for portraying Godzilla from the 1950s through the early 1970s. Haruo Nakajima was Godzilla for 12 movies straight, Nakajima was born in Yamagata, Japan. He is considered by many to be the best suit actor in the history of the franchise. At the time, Tohos visual effects director, Eiji Tsuburaya considered Nakajima completely invaluable, Nakajima was still employed by Toho for several years, and was transferred to a job at Tohos bowling alley, located on the studio lot. Starting in the late 1990s, Nakajima made a series of appearances in Chicago, New York City, New Jersey. He appeared at the Monsterpalooza convention in Burbank, California on April 8–10,2011 and his Japanese-language autobiography, 『怪獣人生 元祖ゴジラ俳優・中島春雄』, published by Yosensha, was released on July 17,2010. An Interview with Godzilla, Hauro Nakajima, Originally published in Kaiju Fan, biography of Haruo Nakajima in comic book format
5.
Godzilla Junior
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Godzilla Junior is a kaiju which first appeared in Tohos 1993 film Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. Okawara redesigned the new Baby Godzilla as more dinosaur-like than its predecessor, Baby Godzilla was portrayed by Hurricane Ryu, who wore a full-body suit with an animatronic mouth and eyes. The skin was made smoother than Godzillas in order to imply that Baby Godzilla had yet to be exposed to the mutagenic radiation that transformed its father. According to Godzilla suit actor Kenpachiro Satsuma, Godzilla Junior was not intended to be the son of Godzilla. Kawakita also intended to use the new design in a childrens spinoff TV special entitled Little Godzillas Underground Adventure and he was portrayed by Little Frankie, a professional midget wrestler. Godzilla Junior first appears in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II as an egg, presuming it to be a Pteranodon egg, a scientific team unearths it from Adona Island and ships it to Japan for study. The egg displays strange psychic properties, even imprinting itself upon the biologist Azusa Gojo, when Godzilla later appears, having sought out Baby through an unexplained psychic link, Baby leaves with Godzilla, later settling on Birth Island. By the time of Godzilla vs, Little Godzilla continues to grow and is renamed Godzilla Junior in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Junior quickly proves itself to be quite a capable fighter, successfully defeating Destoroyah, Junior is killed during its second battle against Destoroyah at Haneda Airport, where Godzilla and Destoroyah soon fight. After Godzilla melts down, Junior is revived and grows into a new adult Godzilla
6.
Japanese language
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Japanese is an East Asian language spoken by about 125 million speakers, primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. It is a member of the Japonic language family, whose relation to language groups, particularly to Korean. Little is known of the prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century recorded a few Japanese words, during the Heian period, Chinese had considerable influence on the vocabulary and phonology of Old Japanese. Late Middle Japanese saw changes in features that brought it closer to the modern language, the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region in the Early Modern Japanese period. Following the end in 1853 of Japans self-imposed isolation, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, English loanwords in particular have become frequent, and Japanese words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length. Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or make questions. Nouns have no number or gender, and there are no articles. Verbs are conjugated, primarily for tense and voice, but not person, Japanese equivalents of adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a system of honorifics with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener. Japanese has no relationship with Chinese, but it makes extensive use of Chinese characters, or kanji, in its writing system. Along with kanji, the Japanese writing system uses two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana. Latin script is used in a fashion, such as for imported acronyms. Very little is known about the Japanese of this period, Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language. Through the spread of Buddhism, the Chinese writing system was imported to Japan, the earliest texts found in Japan are written in Classical Chinese, but they may have been meant to be read as Japanese by the kanbun method. Some of these Chinese texts show the influences of Japanese grammar, in these hybrid texts, Chinese characters are also occasionally used phonetically to represent Japanese particles. The earliest text, the Kojiki, dates to the early 8th century, the end of Old Japanese coincides with the end of the Nara period in 794
7.
Hepburn romanization
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The system was originally proposed by the Romanization Club in 1885. The revised edition by Romaji-Hirome-kai in 1908 is called standard style romanization, Hepburn is based on English phonology and has competed with the alternative Nihon-shiki romanization, which was developed in Japan as a replacement of Japanese script. In 1930, a Special Romanization Study Commission was appointed to compare the two, the ordinance was temporarily overturned by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers during the Occupation of Japan, but was reissued in 1954. In 1972, a version of Hepburn was codified as ANSI standard Z39. 11-1972. It was proposed in 1989 as a draft for ISO3602, the ANSI Z39. 11-1972 standard was consequently deprecated on October 6,1994. As of 1978, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, in addition The Japan Times, the Japan Travel Bureau, and many other private organizations used Hepburn instead of Kunrei-shiki. The National Diet Library used Kunrei-shiki, although Hepburn is not a government standard, some government agencies mandate it. In many other areas where it de jure status, Hepburn remains the de facto standard. Signs and notices in city offices and police stations, at shrines, temples, English-language newspapers and media use the simplified form of Hepburn. Cities and prefectures use it in information for English-speaking residents and visitors, official tourism information put out by the government uses it, as do guidebooks, local and foreign, on Japan. Many students of Japanese as a foreign language learn Hepburn, there are many variants of Hepburn romanization. The two most common styles are, Traditional Hepburn, as defined in various editions of Hepburns dictionary and this variant is characterized by the rendering of syllabic n as m before the consonants b, m and p, e. g. Shimbashi for 新橋. Modified Hepburn, also known as Revised Hepburn, in which the rendering of syllabic n as m before certain consonants is no longer used, in Japan itself, there are some variants officially mandated for various uses, Railway Standard, which follows the Hyōjun-shiki Rōmaji. All JR railways and other major railways use this type for station names, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Standard, which follows the modified Hepburn style. This is used for road signs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Passport Standard, a permissive standard which explicitly allows the use of non-Hepburn romaji in personal names, notably for passports. In particular, rendering the syllabic n as m before b, m, p, details of these variants can be found below. The romanizations set out in the first and second versions of Hepburns dictionary are primarily of historical interest, supporters argue that Hepburn is not intended as a linguistic tool. The long vowels are indicated by macrons
8.
Tokusatsu
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Tokusatsu is any Japanese live-action film or television drama that features considerable use of special effects. Tokusatsu entertainment often deals with science fiction, fantasy or horror, some tokusatsu television programs combine several of these subgenres, for example the Ultraman and Super Sentai series. Tokusatsu is one of the most popular forms of Japanese entertainment, tokusatsu has origins in early Japanese theater, specifically in kabuki and in bunraku, which used some of the earliest forms of special effects, specifically puppetry. Modern tokusatsu, however, did not begin to take shape until the early 1950s, with the conceptual and creative birth of Godzilla, the special effects artist Eiji Tsuburaya and the director Ishirō Honda became the driving forces behind 1954s Godzilla. Godzilla forever changed the landscape of Japanese science fiction, fantasy, however, in 1957 Shintoho produced the first film serial featuring the superhero character Super Giant, signaling a shift in popularity that favored masked heroes over giant monsters. Along with the anime Astro Boy, the Super Giant serials had an effect on the world of tokusatsu. The following year, Moonlight Mask premiered, the first of numerous televised superhero dramas that would make up one of the most popular tokusatsu subgenres, suitmation in Japanese identifies the process in tokusatsu movies and television programs used to portray a monster using suit acting. The exact origin of the remains unknown. At the least, it was used to promote the Godzilla suit from The Return of Godzilla, the many productions of tokusatsu series have general themes common. Kaiju productions primarily feature monsters, or giant monsters, such series include Ultra Q, the Godzilla films, the Gamera series, the Daimajin series, and films such as Frankenstein Conquers the World, War of the Gargantuas, and The X from Outer Space. Kaijin productions primarily feature a supervillain as their central character and this category includes films such as The Secret of the Telegian, The Human Vapor, The H-Man, Half Human, and Tomei Ningen. Since about 1960, several long-running television series have combined other themes, Tsuburaya Productions has had the Ultra Series starting with Ultra Q and Ultraman in 1966. P Productions began their foray into tokusatsu in 1966 with the series Ambassador Magma and they also had involvement in the Lion-Maru series that concluded in November 2006. Toei Company has several series that fall under their Toei Superheroes category of programming, starting in 1961 with the single series, Moonlight Mask. Toei also produced several television series based on Ishinomoris works, including Android Kikaider and Kikaider 01, Robot Detective, Inazuman and Inazuman Flash. Toei was involved in the Spider-Man television series, which influenced their subsequent Super Sentai series, in 2003, TV Asahi began broadcasting the Super Sentai and Kamen Rider series in a one-hour block known as Super Hero Time. Toho, the creators of Godzilla, had their hands in creating the Chouseishin Series of programs from 2003 to 2006, Toeis tokusatsu productions were not limited to action-oriented superheroes and robots. Robocon, featuring friendly robot-suited actors, were successful, in 2006, Keita Amemiyas Garo, a mature late-night tokusatsu drama was released, starting a franchise composed of television series and films
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Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
10.
Toho
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Toho Co. Ltd. is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Other famous directors, including Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Masaki Kobayashi, Tohos most famous creation is Godzilla, who features in 29 of the companys films. Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, and Rodan are described as Tohos Big Five because of the numerous appearances in all three eras of the franchise, as well as spin-offs. Toho has also involved in the production of numerous anime titles. Its subdivisions are Toho-Towa Distribution, Toho Pictures Incorporated, Toho International Company Limited, Company Limited, and Toho Music Corporation & Toho Costume Company Limited. The company is the largest shareholder of Fuji Media Holdings Inc, Toho was created by the founder of Hankyu Railway, Ichizo Kobayashi, in 1932 as the Tokyo-Takarazuka Theater Company. It was known as the Toho Theatre from the late 1960s until the 1970s, Toho also had a theater in San Francisco and opened a theater in New York City in 1963. The Shintoho Company, which existed until 1964, was named New Toho because it broke off from the original company, the company has contributed to the production of some American films, including Sam Raimis 1998 film, A Simple Plan. Detective Conan, Captured in Her Eyes Pocket Monsters, Lord of the Unknown Tower – Entei Godzilla vs. Takao vs. Godzilla, Mothra, Mechagodzilla, doraemon, Nobitas Space Heroes Assassination Classroom Crayon Shin-chan, My Moving Story. Godman Warrior Of Love, Rainbowman Meteor Man Zone Ike, jenny Belle and Sebastian Igano Kabamaru Touch Kimagure Orange Road Godzilla Midori Days Psycho-Pass Yowamushi Pedal Akame ga Kill. Blood Blockade Battlefront My Hero Academia Three Leaves, Three Colors Little Witch Academia In more recent years and for a period, one of their first video game was the 1990 NES game titled Circus Caper. Later, they followed with a series of games based on Godzilla and it also published games such as Super Aleste. They even worked with Bandai on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, released in Japan in 1988, Tohos headquarters, the Toho Hibiya Building, are in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company moved into its current headquarters in April 2005, tohoScope Tomisaburo Wakayama Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men - The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda, Peter H. Brothers. Toho Studios Story, A History and Complete Filmography Stuart Galbraith IV Official website Official Tohos YouTube channel, Toho Pictures official website TOHO-TOWA Company, Limited official website TOWA PICTURES Company, Ltd. official website Toho at Anime News Networks encyclopedia
11.
Godzilla (comics)
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Godzilla has appeared in a range of comic books that have been published in Japan and the United States. In his native Japan, Godzilla has been featured in comic books since his inception in 1954. These comics for the most part were black and white publications known as manga, the vast majority of these comics were adaptations of the films. Every film from Godzilla up to Godzilla 2000 received a comic adaptation with the exception of King Kong vs. Godzilla, as well, all the films from Godzilla vs. Megaguirus through the Godzilla, Final Wars did not receive a comic book adaptation. For the most part there were anywhere from two to four different adaptations of each film, for example the first comic adaptation of Godzilla vs. Biollante was called Godzilla 1990, while the second adaptation of Godzilla vs. Mothra was called Godzilla vs. Mothra, Great Study. Many of the comics were published by Shogakukan Comics, Tentomushi comics. In the early 1990s, many of the original adaptations from the series of Godzilla films were compiled into two pocketbook-sized volumes and reprinted by Bamboo Books. In 1992, Bamboo would reprint Godzillas battles with King Ghidorah from earlier manga into a collection called Battle History of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. Most of the time these adaptations would deviate from the original films, outside of these adaptations many of the original Godzilla films also received Asahi Sonorama book and record sets. These illustrated comic-style book and record sets featured painted artwork within, outside of these adaptations, Godzilla was also featured in original stories as well. A sequel story to the film was published in 1955 called The Last Godzilla, while a sequel story to Godzilla Raids Again was published in 1958 called Godzilla 2. In 1979, the Japanese edition of Starlog featured a two part illustrated story written by Katsuhiro Otomo called A Space Godzilla, part one was featured in issue #4 while part 2 was featured in issue #6. In 1991 an anthology comic featuring different stories by different writers. This was followed in 1992 by The Godzilla Comic Strikes Back and these 2 comics featured varying styles of stories. The stories would range from typical Godzilla tales, to stories, to violent stories. This one-shot comic featured twenty-one Godzilla themed comic stories from the top manga artists. Through the years since 1976, there have been various Godzilla comics published by different comic book publishing companies and these range from promotional comics to comics published by large mainstream comic companies such as Marvel Comics. The first Godzilla comic published in the United States was actually a promotional comic
12.
Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
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Godzilla, King of the Monsters. is a 1956 Japanese-American kaiju film co-directed by Terry O. Morse and Ishirō Honda. This version introduced most audiences outside Japan to the character and labeled Godzilla as the King of the Monsters, in Japan, the film was released as Monster King Godzilla. The new footage featured Burr interacting with Japanese-American actors and look-alikes to make it seem like he was part of the original Japanese production, American reporter, Steve Martin, is brought to a hospital with dozens of maimed and wounded citizens. In flashback, Martin recalls stopping over in Tokyo, where a series of ship disasters catches his attention, Martin returns to the island with Dr. Yamane, who leads an investigation crew to Odo Island, where radioactive footprints and a Trilobite are discovered. An alarm rings and Martin, the villagers, and Dr. Yamanes crew head to a hill for safety, Dr. Yamane returns to Tokyo to present his findings and concludes that Godzilla was resurrected by repeated nuclear tests. Martin contacts his old friend, Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, for dinner, Emiko, Dr. Yamanes daughter, goes over to Serizawas to break off her arranged engagement to him, due to her love for Hideo Ogata, a salvage ship captain. However, Dr. Serizawa gives her a demonstration of his recent project which horrifies her and is sworn to secrecy while unable to break off the engagement, Godzilla surfaces from Tokyo Bay and attacks the city. The next morning, the JSDF arranges a modification of tall towers along the coast of Tokyo to use against Godzilla. Godzilla resurfaces that night and breaks through the electrical fences, Martin documents Godzillas rampage via tape recorder and is nearly killed during the attack. The flashback ends and Martin wakes up back in the hospital with Emiko, horrified by the destruction, Emiko reveals Dr. Serizawas Oxygen Destroyer to Martin and Ogata, which disintegrates oxygen atoms and the organisms die of a rotting asphyxiation. Emiko and Ogata go to Dr. Serizawa to convince him to use the Oxygen Destroyer, after watching a program displaying the nations current tragedy, Dr. Serizawa finally gives in to Emiko and Ogatas pleas. A navy ship takes Ogata and Dr. Serizawa to plant the device in Tokyo Bay, after finding Godzilla, Dr. Serizawa unloads the device and cuts off his air support, taking the secrets of the Oxygen Destroyer to his death. The mission proves to be a success but many mourn at the loss of Dr. Serizawa. Martin ends the film by saying, The menace was gone, but the whole world could wake up and live again. In 1955, Edmund Goldman discovered the original Japanese-language Godzilla screening at a cinema in Los Angeles, levine paid $100,000 for his share. The adaptation process consisted of filming numerous new scenes featuring Raymond Burr and others, the new scenes, written by Al C. Ward and directed by Terry O. Morse, were photographed by Guy Roe with careful attention to matching the visual tone of the Japanese film. This turned out to be easy to do, as Ishiro Hondas original story had already been told in a somewhat documentary form. A raging debate in Japans Diet over the U. S, the producers were still able to keep at least a hint of nuclear connotations, since atomic-mutation monster movies were becoming popular in the U. S. at that time
13.
Radioactive decay
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A material containing such unstable nuclei is considered radioactive. Certain highly excited short-lived nuclear states can decay through neutron emission, or more rarely, however, for a collection of atoms, the collections expected decay rate is characterized in terms of their measured decay constants or half-lives. This is the basis of radiometric dating, the half-lives of radioactive atoms have no known upper limit, spanning a time range of over 55 orders of magnitude, from nearly instantaneous to far longer than the age of the universe. A radioactive nucleus with spin can have no defined orientation. If there are multiple particles produced during a single decay, as in decay, their relative angular distribution. Such a parent process could be a previous decay, or a nuclear reaction, the decaying nucleus is called the parent radionuclide, and the process produces at least one daughter nuclide. Except for gamma decay or internal conversion from an excited state. When the number of changes, an atom of a different chemical element is created. The first decay processes to be discovered were alpha decay, beta decay, alpha decay occurs when the nucleus ejects an alpha particle. This is the most common process of emitting nucleons, but highly excited nuclei can eject single nucleons, or in the case of cluster decay, specific light nuclei of other elements. Beta decay occurs when the nucleus emits an electron or positron, the nucleus may capture an orbiting electron, causing a proton to convert into a neutron in a process called electron capture. All of these result in a well-defined nuclear transmutation. By contrast, there are radioactive decay processes that do not result in a nuclear transmutation, another type of radioactive decay results in products that vary, appearing as two or more fragments of the original nucleus with a range of possible masses. For a summary table showing the number of stable and radioactive nuclides in each category, there are 29 naturally occurring chemical elements on Earth that are radioactive. They are those that contain 34 radionuclides that date before the time of formation of the solar system, well-known examples are uranium and thorium, but also included are naturally occurring long-lived radioisotopes, such as potassium-40. Radioactivity was discovered in 1896 by the French scientist Henri Becquerel and these materials glow in the dark after exposure to light, and he suspected that the glow produced in cathode ray tubes by X-rays might be associated with phosphorescence. He wrapped a photographic plate in black paper and placed various phosphorescent salts on it, all results were negative until he used uranium salts. The uranium salts caused a blackening of the plate in spite of the plate being wrapped in black paper and these radiations were given the name Becquerel Rays
14.
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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The United States dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9,1945, respectively, during the final stage of World War II. The United States had dropped the bombs with the consent of the United Kingdom as outlined in the Quebec Agreement, the two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history. In the final year of the war, the Allies prepared for what was anticipated to be a costly invasion of the Japanese mainland. This was preceded by a U. S. conventional and firebombing campaign that destroyed 67 Japanese cities, the war in Europe had concluded when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8,1945, just after Hitler committed suicide. The Japanese, facing the fate, refused to accept the Allies demands for unconditional surrender. The Allies called for the surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945—the alternative being prompt. The Japanese response to this ultimatum was to ignore it, orders for atomic bombs to be used on four Japanese cities were issued on July 25. Three days later, on August 9, a plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, in both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizable military garrison. Japan announced its surrender to the Allies on August 15, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki, on September 2, the Japanese government signed the instrument of surrender, effectively ending World War II. The justification for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is still debated to this day, in 1945, the Pacific War between the Empire of Japan and the Allies entered its fourth year. The Japanese fought fiercely, ensuring that U. S. victory would come at an enormous cost, December 1944 saw American battle casualties hit an all-time monthly high of 88,000 as a result of the German Ardennes Offensive. In the Pacific, the Allies returned to the Philippines, recaptured Burma, offensives were undertaken to reduce the Japanese forces remaining in Bougainville, New Guinea and the Philippines. In April 1945, American forces landed on Okinawa, where fighting continued until June. Along the way, the ratio of Japanese to American casualties dropped from 5,1 in the Philippines to 2,1 on Okinawa, although some Japanese were taken prisoner, most fought until they were killed or committed suicide. Nearly 99% of the 21,000 defenders of Iwo Jima were killed, of the 117,000 Japanese troops defending Okinawa in April–June 1945, 94% were killed. American military leaders used these figures to estimate high casualties among American soldiers in the invasion of Japan. As the Allies advanced towards Japan, conditions became steadily worse for the Japanese people, Japans merchant fleet declined from 5,250,000 gross tons in 1941 to 1,560,000 tons in March 1945, and 557,000 tons in August 1945
15.
Nuclear weapon
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A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from small amounts of matter. The first test of a bomb released the same amount of energy as approximately 20,000 tons of TNT. The first thermonuclear bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 10 million tons of TNT, a thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1.2 million tons of TNT. A nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate a city by blast, fire. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of destruction, and their use. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in nuclear warfare, both times by the United States against Japan near the end of World War II, the bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 civilians and military personnel from acute injuries sustained from the explosions. The ethics of the bombings and their role in Japans surrender remain the subject of scholarly, since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for the purposes of testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them, israel is also believed to possess nuclear weapons, though in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not acknowledge having them. Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands are nuclear weapons sharing states, south Africa is the only country to have independently developed and then renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons. Modernisation of weapons continues to occur, all existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions. Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to as bombs or atom bombs. This has long noted as something of a misnomer, as their energy comes from the nucleus of the atom. The latter approach is considered more sophisticated than the former and only the approach can be used if the fissile material is plutonium. A major challenge in all nuclear weapon designs is to ensure that a significant fraction of the fuel is consumed before the weapon destroys itself. The amount of energy released by fission bombs can range from the equivalent of just under a ton to upwards of 500,000 tons of TNT, all fission reactions necessarily generate fission products, the radioactive remains of the atomic nuclei split by the fission reactions. Many fission products are highly radioactive or moderately radioactive. Fission products are the radioactive component of nuclear fallout
16.
Cold War
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The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
17.
Natural disaster
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An adverse event will not rise to the level of a disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable population. In a vulnerable area, however, such as Nepal during the 2015 earthquake, a landslide is described as an outward and downward slope movement of an abundance of slope-forming materials including rock, soil, artificial, or even a combination of these things. During World War I, an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 soldiers died as a result of avalanches during the campaign in the Alps at the Austrian-Italian front. Many of the avalanches were caused by artillery fire, an earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earths crust that creates seismic waves. At the Earths surface earthquakes manifest themselves by vibration, shaking, earthquakes are caused by slippage within geological faults. The underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the seismic focus, the point directly above the focus on the surface is called the epicenter. Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife and it is usually the secondary events that they trigger such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis and volcanoes. Many of these could possibly be avoided by better construction, safety systems, when natural erosion or human mining makes the ground too weak to support the structures built on it, the ground can collapse and produce a sinkhole. Volcanoes can cause destruction and consequent disaster in several ways. The effects include the eruption itself that may cause harm following the explosion of the volcano or falling rocks. Second, lava may be produced during the eruption of a volcano, third, volcanic ash generally meaning the cooled ash – may form a cloud, and settle thickly in nearby locations. When mixed with water forms a concrete-like material. In sufficient quantity ash may cause roofs to collapse under its weight, since the ash has the consistency of ground glass it causes abrasion damage to moving parts such as engines. It is believed that Pompeii was destroyed by a pyroclastic flow, a lahar is a volcanic mudflow or landslide. The 1953 Tangiwai disaster was caused by a lahar, as was the 1985 Armero tragedy in which the town of Armero was buried, a specific type of volcano is the supervolcano. It also killed three-quarters of all plant life in the northern hemisphere, the main danger from a supervolcano is the immense cloud of ash, which has a disastrous global effect on climate and temperature for many years. It is a violent, sudden and destructive change either in quality of water or in distribution or movement of water on land below the surface or in atmosphere. A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land, the EU Floods Directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land which is usually not covered by water
18.
Japan Self-Defense Forces
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In recent years they have been engaged in international peacekeeping operations including UN peacekeeping. Recent tensions, particularly with North Korea, have reignited the debate over the status of the JSDF, deprived of any military capability after 1945, Japan had only the U. S. occupation forces and a minor domestic police force on which to rely for security. These sentiments were intensified in 1950 as occupation troops began to be moved to the Korean War theater and this left Japan virtually defenseless and vulnerable, and very much aware of the need to enter into a mutual defense relationship with the United States to guarantee the nations external security. Accordingly, in mid-1952, the National Police Reserve was expanded to 110,000 men, the enabling legislation for this was the 1954 Self-Defense Forces Act. In 1976 Japan ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and reiterated its intention never to develop, use, on June 8,2006, the Cabinet of Japan endorsed a bill elevating the Defense Agency under the Cabinet Office to full-fledged cabinet-level Ministry of Defense. This was passed by the Diet in December 2006 and has enforced since January 9,2007, the trauma of the last war had produced strong pacifist sentiments among the nation. Later cabinets interpreted these provisions as not denying the nation the inherent right to self-defense and, with the encouragement of the United States, antimilitarist public opinion, however, remained a force to be reckoned with on any defense-related issue. This was said to include the renaming of the Japan Self-Defense Forces into that of an army for national defense. Ex-ministers of the LDP, Shigeru Ishiba and Gen Nakatani were identified as the movers behind the proposed large scale rearmament of Japan. They presented a reform of the rearmament that was approved. Shigeru Ishiba called the current restrictions imposed after the Second World War on the size of the Japanese armed forces as long out of date, of course, first of all Japanese weapons would be directed against North Korea, and then China. Japanese missile defense system is ramping up its power due to the increasing missile, either way the country will continue to spend billions of dollars on the military industry. According to Japanese political analysts and politicians, it is due to the situation on the Korean peninsula. These two factors are considered a threat by Japan, and therefore the country will actively rearm, the justification is that by not defending/supporting an ally, it would weaken alliances and endanger Japan. The Prime Minister is the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self Defense Forces, the chain of Operational Authority runs from the Chief of Staff, Joint Staff to the Commanders of the several Operational Commands. Each service branches Chiefs of Staff have administrative control over their own services, the security environment around Japan has become increasingly severe as represented by nuclear and missile development by North Korea. Transnational threats grounded on technological progress including international terrorism and cyber attacks are also increasing their significance, Japan, including its Self Defense Forces, has contributed to the maximum extent possible to the efforts to maintain and restore international peace and security, such as UN peacekeeping operations. On December 17,2013, National Security Strategy was adopted by Cabinet decision, NSS sets the basic orientation of diplomatic and defense policies related to national security
19.
King Ghidorah
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King Ghidorah is a kaiju film monster that first appeared in Tohos 1964 film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. Although Toho officially trademarks the character as King Ghidorah, the character was referred to as Ghidrah in English markets. The character is portrayed as an archenemy of Godzilla and Mothra. The initial idea for Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster came from Tomoyuki Tanaka, tanakas inspiration came from an illustration of the Lernaean Hydra in a book about Greek Mythology, and Orochi of Japanese folklore. Tanaka was enamored with the idea of Godzilla fighting a multi-headed serpent, but considered 7-8 heads to be excessive, the final version was an armless, three-headed dragon with large wings, two tails and of extraterrestrial origin. Screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa insisted that the Ghidorah suit be fabricated using light-weight silicon-based materials in order to grant the wearer greater mobility, the monster costume itself was built by Akira Watanabe, and worn by Shoichi Hirose, who also played King Kong in Tohos King Kong vs. Godzilla. Hirose walked hunched over inside the Ghidorah costume, holding a bar for balance, while puppeteers would control its heads, tails. The monsters heads were each fitted with remotely controlled motors, which were connected to operators via a wire extending from the suits backside, because of the suits weight, it frequently snapped the overhead wires supporting it. Special effects were added as the creature is capable emitting destructive, lightning-like gravity beams from its mouths, in order to emphasize Ghidorahs heroic role in the movie, his size was greatly reduced. He was portrayed by Akira Ohashi, who moved the creatures heads as hand puppets and his attempt to destroy Earth is thwarted by the combined efforts of Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra. Subsequent Shōwa era films would portray Ghidorah as the pawn of various alien races seeking to subjugate Earth, King Ghidorah also appears in the fifth and sixth episodes of the television series Zone Fighter, where it is revealed that he is a creation of the Garoga aliens. Sent out by the Garogas to kill Zone Fighter, King Ghidorah put up a fight against Zone. Before Zone could kill Ghidorah, the space dragon fled, as Zone Fighter shares continuity with the Showa era of Godzilla movies, after escaping from Zone Fighter, Ghidorah would next appear chronologically in Destroy All Monsters, set in 1999. Prior to doing so, they remove the dinosaur that would ultimately become Godzilla from the island, in 1992, the Earth Unionists unleash Ghidorah onto Japan, but he is defeated by a recreated Godzilla. In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Mecha-King Ghidorahs robotic middle head is salvaged by the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center, Ghidorah left Earth, only to return in modern times to feed on humans. Mothra fails to defeat the monster, so it travels back to the Cretaceous in order to kill Ghidorah retroactively, Mothra defeats the younger Ghidorah, but the monsters severed tail allows it to regenerate back into its adult form in modern times. Mothra finally kills the monster by transforming into Armor Mothra, in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah, Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Ghidorah is portrayed as having been one of the three Guardians of Yamato, originating 1,000 years before the events of the film. Initially an antagonist, Ghidorah was imprisoned in Mount Fuji, only to be reawakened in 2001 to halt Godzillas destruction of Tokyo and he is defeated, but then revived and empowered by his ally Mothra
20.
Gigan
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Gigan is a kaiju from Tohos Godzilla and Zone Fighter franchises who first appeared in Godzilla vs. Gigan. Gigan is a space monster sporting a buzzsaw weapon in its frontal abdominal region. Gigan is considered one of Godzillas most brutal and violent opponents, watchMojo. com listed Gigan as #4 on their Top 10 Godzilla Villains list, while Complex listed the character as #2 on its The 15 Most Badass Kaiju Monsters of All Time list. The character was first conceived by Kaoru Mabuchi in his script Godzilla vs. the Space Monsters - Earth Defense Order, the first Gigan suit was designed by suitmaker Noboyuki Yasamaru, and was worn by Kenpachiro Satsuma. In portraying Gigan, Satsuma deliberately emphasized the characters destructive personality, for Gigans appearance in Zone Fighter, Satsuma did not reprise the role. The beam was nevertheless included in some promotional stills and they are challenged and ultimately defeated by Godzilla and Anguirus. After receiving an arm at the hands of Jet Jaguar, Gigan flees to space, leaving Megalon to face Godzilla. Gigan then makes an appearance on Tohos television series Zone Fighter the same year. After his battle with Godzilla and Jet Jaguar, Gigan is captured in space by the Garoga army and sent back to Earth to prevent Godzilla from rescuing Zone Fighter, but he is soundly defeated by him. Left for dead, Godzilla leaves believing he is victorious, but Gigan revives shortly afterwards, in the final battle, Gigan is finally killed by Zone Fighter. After a 31-year absence he returned in Godzilla, Final Wars, in the film, Gigan once fought Mothra for the fate of the Earth and ultimately was defeated. Later, his body is discovered and revealed to be a weapon used by the Xiliens. Gigan then awakens and creates havoc and destruction in Japan, but is sent to destroy the Gotengo in hopes of not awakening Godzilla, Gigan does manage to bring down the Gotengo, however, and then faces off against Godzilla and fails. During the battle between Godzilla and Monster X at the end of the film, Mothra tries to assist Godzilla, the two engage in combat and, after briefly interrupting Godzilla and Monster Xs battle, Gigan seemingly kills Mothra by firing his optic laser into her scales. Gigan turns around to aid Monster X against Godzilla, but he is decapitated by his own razor disks, and finally defeated by Mothra. Gigan, as a cyborg, possesses a circular saw in his abdomen and razor-sharp hooked blades in place of hands, according to Zone Fighter, the tips of the hooks can also release an explosive charge on contact with an enemy. In addition, Godzilla Island and Final Wars also give Gigan an optically-mounted laser and he was also equipped with jetpacks and grappling hooks. The Pipeworks trilogy gave Gigan the ability to teleport, as well, Final Wars also introduced Gigans ability to shoot boomerang shurikens which were named Blooded Slicer in Godzilla, The Game
21.
Mechagodzilla
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Mechagodzilla is a mecha that first appeared in the 1974 film Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla as an extraterrestrial villain opposing Godzilla. In subsequent iterations, Mechagodzilla is depicted as a weapon designed to defend Japan from Godzilla. In all incarnations, Mechagodzilla appears as a robotic doppelgänger and arch-enemy of Godzilla, Mechagodzilla was conceived in 1974 as a more serious villain than its immediate two predecessors, Gigan and Megalon, whose films were considered creative disasters. According to Tomoyuki Tanaka, Mechagodzilla was inspired by both Mechani-Kong from the previous Toho film King Kong Escapes and the robot genre, which was popular at the time. Effects director Teruyoshi Nakano also felt that a monster was cheaper to construct than the mutated animals Godzilla had previously faced. As the resulting Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla proved to be a critical success than previous 1970s Godzilla films. The films original draft was going to have Mechagodzilla destroy Tokyo utterly, berserk would subsequently absorb more and more machinery, to the point of degenerating into a mass of metal and wires, though this concept was rejected early in pre-production. As Mechagodzilla was intended to be a defense weapon rather than an alien construct. It was portrayed by suit actor Wataru Fukuda, and consisted of separate elements which were worn like plate armor. The film was promoted through the childrens program Adventure Godzilla-land, which portrayed Godzilla and Mechagodzilla as rival news anchors reporting on the events of the upcoming movie, composer Akira Ifukube wrote a theme for Mechagodzilla incorporating a slow battle march with heavy percussion and pentatonic phrasing. Tezuka instructed his staff to research both cybernetics and DNA engineering in order to make the character scientifically plausible, upon being asked why the Mechagodzilla suit wasnt painted with military camouflage colors, Tezuka answered that Mechagodzilla doesnt need to hide. In the 2003 sequel Godzilla, Tokyo S. O. S, creature designer Shinichi Wakasa used the same mold to create a redesigned Mechagodzilla, which was meant to look more weathered than its predecessor. The robots back unit was reduced in size and flipped upside down, as the previous designs shoulder canons were considered uneven and unsophisticated-looking because of their rectangular shape, special effects director Eiichi Asada made them more pentagonal. As the character was supposed to rely more on its forearm cannons than in the film, Nishikawa made them larger. First appearing in an outer covering and masquerading as the real Godzilla, Mechagodzilla attacks Japan. Godzilla appears and destroys the pseudo-flesh disguise, forcing Mechagodzilla to reveal itself in full and their initial battle results in a tie, as Godzilla is severely wounded and Mechagodzilla is forced back into the Simians base for repair. Mechagodzilla is deployed again, but is overpowered through the efforts of Godzilla. Godzilla ultimately defeats Mechagodzilla by decapitating it and blowing its body apart, the Simians return and rebuild Mechagodzilla in Terror of Mechagodzilla
22.
Mothra
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Mothra is a kaijū that first appeared in Tohos 1961 film Mothra. Mothra has appeared in several Toho tokusatsu films, most often as a character in the Godzilla franchise. She is typically portrayed as a colossal sentient caterpillar or moth, unlike other Toho monsters, Mothra is a largely heroic character, having been variously portrayed as a protector of her own island culture, the Earth, and Japan. Though identified as a kind of moth, the design is more evocative of a peacock butterfly. The character is often depicted hatching offspring when approaching death, a nod to the Saṃsāra doctrine of numerous Indian religions, Mothra is one of Toho’s most popular monsters, and second only to Godzilla in its total number of film appearances. Mothra, which was the best-attended Toho film since King Kong vs. Godzilla, IGN listed Mothra as #3 on their Top 10 Japanese Movie Monsters list, while Complex listed the character as #7 on its The 15 Most Badass Kaiju Monsters of All Time list. The name Mothra is the suffixation of -ra to the English word moth, since the Japanese language does not have dental fricatives, it is approximated Mosura in Japanese. The “ra” suffix follows the precedent set by “Gojira”, which in turn is derived from kujira, in her 1961 debut, Mothras adult form consisted of a wire-operated mechanical puppet, while the larva was a suitmation puppet operated by six stuntmen crawling in single file. In Mothra vs. Godzilla three years later, the adult Mothra puppet was modified with radio-controlled legs, while the larvae were portrayed via a combination of motor-driven props and hand puppets. The larval Mothra featured in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster remained largely unchanged from its previous appearance, though the color of its eyes was changed from blue to red. The adult Mothra prop featured in Mothra vs. Godzilla was reused in Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, though previous heavy use had dulled its colors, frayed the fur on the head, and damaged the wings. During the early Heisei era of Godzilla films, which ignored the continuity established in pre-1984 movies, the screenplay was revised by Kazuki Ōmori after the release of Godzilla vs. With the success of Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Toho sought to continue the series newfound profitability by reintroducing familiar monsters rather than inventing new ones. Mothra was chosen as Godzillas next antagonist on account of the popularity with women. Special effects head Koichi Kawakita co-wrote a screenplay entitled Godzilla vs. Mothra, the Mothra puppets immobile, chicken-like feet, and the lack of undulation in the larva props movements were also commented on as being inferior to the effects seen in 1960s Mothra movies. Criticism was also leveled at Mothras altered origin story, which portrayed her as an extraterrestrial, the characters newfound popularity nevertheless prompted Toho to produce Rebirth of Mothra in 1996. For 2003s Godzilla, Tokyo S. O. S. special effects director Eiichi Asada sought to model Mothra directly on her appearance in the original 1961 film, Mothra is usually accompanied by tiny twin female fairies, which Shinichi Sekizawa termed Shobijin, meaning little beauties. The original draft for Mothra called for four fairies, though Sekizawa reduced the number to two, as twins were comparatively rare in Japan, thus adding to the characters mystique
23.
Rodan
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Rodan is a daikaiju monster which first appeared as the title character in Tohos 1956 film Rodan. Though the character started off in its own film, Rodan was later featured in the Godzilla franchise. IGN listed Rodan as #6 on their Top 10 Japanese Movie Monsters list, the Japanese name Radon is a contraction of Pteranodon. It was changed to Rodan for English-speaking markets in order to avoid confusion with the element radon, however, in Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II, the English version of the film used the original name Radon. Just as Godzilla was conceived as a symbol of an American nuclear threat, Rodan was portrayed via a combination of suitmation and wire-operated puppets for flight sequences. During suitmation sequences, Rodan was portrayed by Haruo Nakajima, who almost drowned when the holding the 150 lb suit above a water tank snapped. The modification of the face was deliberate, as Rodan was meant to be a slapstick character rather than the tragic villain seen in its film debut. A new suit was constructed for Invasion of Astro-Monster which more resembled the first, having more rounded wings. The sleek face was retained in Destroy All Monsters, though the wings, Rodan was revived in 1993s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, this time portrayed entirely via a wire-manipulated marionette and hand puppets. In 2014, Legendary Pictures announced that they have acquired the rights to King Ghidorah, Mothra, the sound would be remixed and reused for several other Toho monsters, including the second incarnation of King Ghidorah and Battra. Godzilla 2000 Godzilla at Worlds End Godzilla vs. the Robot Monsters Godzilla, Journey to Monster Island Godzilla vs. the Space Monster Godzilla Likes to Roar
24.
Anguirus
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Anguirus is a fictional character who first appeared in Tohos 1955 kaiju film Godzilla Raids Again. It is the monster to appear in Toho kaiju films. Anguirus appeared only a year after Godzilla, though being the first monster Godzilla ever fought, he has allied with Godzilla in several other films against more dangerous threats. WatchMojo. com listed Anguirus as #5 on their Top 10 Godzilla Villains list, the dinosaur Angilosaurus lived from 150-70 million years ago, and its remains were affected by the same hydrogen bombs that awoke Godzilla. In the English-dubbed version of Godzilla Raids Again, the name of the dinosaur is pronounced ANG-will-o-Saw-rus and they ruled the Earth at one time, according to the film, then disappeared suddenly. From an unnamed textbook in the movie, a scientist reads that these creatures may return from hibernation due to radioactive fallout, anguiras is said to have brains in several parts of its body, including the head, abdomen, and the chest. Anguirus was the first enemy that Godzilla ever faced, Godzilla and Anguirus battled in Osaka, and after a fierce struggle Godzilla won with a bite to the neck and incinerated Anguirus body by using its atomic breath. This costume was re-used throughout the remainder of the Showa series and it helped Godzilla repel the space monsters, Gigan and King Ghidorah, in 1972s Godzilla vs. Gigan. It and Godzilla then returned to Monster Island, which was disturbed by nuclear bomb tests in 1973s Godzilla vs. Megalon. Rodan, perched on a mountain above, toppled down on top of Anguirus, Anguirus tunneled its way to a snowy region, where it witnessed Mechagodzillas first emergence in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. It followed Mechagodzilla underground to Japan where it revealed itself to call upon the real Godzilla, however, Mechagodzilla was too powerful for Anguirus, and severely injured it, breaking its jaw in a bloody display. Anguirus was forced to retreat underground, although it managed to tip off humanity that its opponent was not the true Godzilla, Showa Anguirus was 60 meters tall and weighed 30,000 metric tons. After a 30-year absence, Anguirus made a return in the 2004 film, Godzilla and he appears in Shanghai, and tramples everything in its path, then engaged the flying UN battleship, Karyu. The Xiliens appeared suddenly and teleported Anguirus and the monsters away. They told the humans that they eliminated the monsters to save Earth, but this was discovered to be a ruse. In Shanghai, the Xiliens use their ships to attack the Karyu. While the Karyu was distracted, Anguirus jumped and curled himself into a ball, Karyu went spinning in the air before colliding into the Oriental Pearl Tower. Anguirus, King Caesar, and Rodan are pitted against Godzilla at Mt. Fuji and it successfully defeats all three monsters
25.
Crossover (fiction)
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A crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, unauthorized efforts by fans or common corporate ownership, Crossovers often occur in an official capacity in order for the intellectual property rights holders to reap the financial reward of combining two or more popular, established properties. In other cases, the crossover can serve to introduce a new derivative of an older one. They may also involve using characters that have passed into the domain with those concurrently under copyright protection. A crossover story may try to explain its own reason for the crossover, some crossovers are not explained at all. Others are absurd or simply impossible within the setting, and have to be ignored by the series respective continuities. Still others intentionally make the relations between two or more fictional universes confusing, as with The Simpsons and Futurama, where each show is fiction in the other. Crossovers of multiple characters owned by one company or published by one publisher, have used to set an established continuity. This is especially true of comic book publishers, as different characters in various Marvel, for example, in the Marvel Comics universe, Spider-Man has frequent dealings with another Marvel hero, Daredevil, just as in the DC Comics Universe, Batman and Superman often collaborate. In comic book terminology, these guest star roles are common enough that they are not considered crossovers, rather, a crossover in comic book terms only occurs when a story spans more than one title. This has led to events, in which major occurrences are shown as affecting most or all of the stories in the shared universe. This story dealt with Zatanna attempting to reconnect with her father, Zatara, and seeking the aid of Hawkman, Batman, Robin, The Atom, Green Lantern, the first major crossover event was spearheaded by the Marvel Editor-in-Chief at the time, Jim Shooter. As a way to further toy sales he devised the Secret Wars crossover which brought all the major Marvel heroes into a twelve issue mini-series to battle a common threat, after the threat was dealt with they all returned to their regular titles. This Secret Wars was hailed as both a critical and commercial success largely because the events of the crossover had lasting effects on the characters, Jim Shooter later perfected his crossover at Valiant Comics with the Unity event. Unity brought all the Valiant characters together to defeat Mothergod but was told within the existing Valiant Comics titles, readers were not obliged to buy all 18 chapters as the story was coherent when reading just one title, but far more layered when all were read. Like Secret Wars, the Unity crossover had lasting effects on the Valiant universe most notably the introduction of Turok, the birth of Magnus Robot Fighter and the death of a major Valiant hero. Dark Horse Comicss Aliens Versus Predator franchise was a success that continued into many games, the comic crossovers from Raj Comics are very famous in India, in which the super heroes meet to fight a common enemy. Many of these crossovers have occurred between Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva, in Kohram, all the heroes in Raj Universe meet to finish Haru, an extremely powerful enemy
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RKO Pictures
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RKO Pictures Inc. also known as RKO Radio Pictures and in its later years RKO Teleradio Pictures, was an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the companys sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum, RKO has long been celebrated for its series of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio, cary Grant was a mainstay for years. The work of producer Val Lewtons low-budget horror unit and RKOs many ventures into the now known as film noir have been acclaimed, largely after the fact, by film critics. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history, King Kong and Citizen Kane, RKO Pictures is also a member of Motion Picture Association of America. Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948, after years of turmoil and decline under his control, Hughes sold the troubled studio to General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was dissolved two years later. In 1981, broadcaster RKO General, the heir, revived it as a production subsidiary. In October 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer and its success prompted Hollywood to convert from silent to sound film production en masse. The Radio Corporation of America controlled an advanced optical sound-on-film system, RCA Photophone, the industrys two largest major studios, Paramount and Loews/MGM, with two other studios Universal and First National, were poised to contract with ERPI for sound conversion as well. Next on the agenda was securing a string of exhibition venues like those the leading Hollywood production companies owned, Kennedy began investigating the possibility of such a purchase. Around that time, the large Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit of theaters, built around the medium of live vaudeville, was attempting a transition to the movie business. In mid-1927, the operations of Pathé Exchange and Cecil B. De Milles Producers Distributing Corporation had united under KAOs control, early in 1928, KAO general manager John J. Murdock, who had assumed the presidency of Pathé, turned to Kennedy as an adviser in consolidating the studio with De Milles company, PDC. This was the relationship Sarnoff and Kennedy sought, on October 23,1928, RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company, with Sarnoff as chairman of the board. Kennedy, who withdrew from his positions in the merged companies, kept Pathé separate from RKO. RCA owned the governing stock interest in RKO,22 percent, in the early 1930s, the companys production and distribution arm, presided over by former FBO vice-president Joseph I
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Universal Pictures
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Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
28.
King Kong
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King Kong is a giant movie monster, resembling a giant ape, that has appeared in various media since 1933. The character first appeared in the 1933 film King Kong from RKO Pictures, a sequel quickly followed that same year with Son of Kong, featuring a Little Kong. In the 1960s, Toho produced King Kong vs. Godzilla, pitting a much larger Kong against Tohos own Godzilla, in 1976, Dino De Laurentiis produced a modern remake of the original film directed by John Guillermin. A sequel, King Kong Lives, followed a decade later featuring a Lady Kong, another remake of the original, this time set in 1933, was released in 2005 from filmmaker Peter Jackson. The most recent film, Kong, Skull Island, set in 1973, is part of Legendary Entertainments MonsterVerse, a crossover sequel, Godzilla vs. Kong, once again pitting the characters against one another, is currently planned for 2020. His role in the different narratives varies, ranging from a monster to a tragic antihero. The King Kong character was conceived and created by American filmmaker Merian C, an American film crew, led by Carl Denham, captures Kong and takes him to New York City to be exhibited as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Kong escapes and climbs the Empire State Building, only to fall from the skyscraper after being attacked by airplanes with guns, Merian C. Cooper became fascinated by gorillas at the age of 6. In 1899, he was given a book from his uncle called Explorations, the book, chronicled the adventures of Paul Du Chaillu in Africa and his various encounters with the natives and wildlife there. Decades later in his years, Cooper became involved in the motion picture industry. While filming The Four Feathers in Africa, he came into contact with a family of baboons and this gave him the idea to make a picture about primates. A year later when he got to RKO, Cooper wanted to film a terror gorilla picture, as the story was being fleshed out, Cooper decided to make his gorilla giant sized. Cooper stated that the idea of Kong fighting warplanes on top of a building came from him seeing a plane flying over the New York Insurance Building, then the tallest building in the world. He came up with the ending before the rest of the story as he stated, around this time, Cooper began to refer to his project as a Giant terror gorilla picture featuring A gigantic semi- humanoid gorilla pitted against modern civilization. This is a monster with the strength of a hundred men, but more terrifying is the head-a nightmare head with bloodshot eyes and jagged teeth set under a thick mat of hair, a face half-beast half-human. Willis OBrien created an oil painting depicting the giant gorilla menacing a jungle heroine and hunter for Cooper. However, when it time for OBrien and Marcel Delgado to sculpt the animation model, Cooper decided to back pedal on the half human look for the creature. OBrien on the hand, wanted him to be almost human-like to gain audience empathy
29.
American comic books
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An American comic book is a thin periodical, typically 32-pages, containing primarily comics content. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics and this was followed by a superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II. After the war, while superheroes were marginalized, the book industry rapidly expanded, and genres such as horror, crime. The 1950s saw a decline, due to a shift away from print media in the wake of television. The late 1950s and the 1960s saw a revival. Since the later 20th century, comic books have gained note as collectable items, Comic shops cater to fans, and particularly valuable issues have fetched in excess of a million dollars. Systems of grading comic books have emerged with plastic sleeves and cardboard backing available to maintain the condition of comic books, standard comics are 6.625 inches ×10.25 inches and about 32 pages long. While comics can be the work of a creator, the labour of making them is frequently divided between a number of specialists. There may be a writer and artist, or there may be separate artists for the characters. The process begins with the coming up with an idea or concept, then working it into a plot and story. After the art production, letters are placed on the page, the creative team, the writers and artists, may work with a comic book publisher for help with marketing, advertising, and other logistics. A distributor like Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest in the U. S. helps to distribute the product to retailers. Another part of the involved in successful comics is the interaction between the readers/fans and the creator. Fan art and letters to the editor were printed in the back of the book until the early 21st century. Comic specialty stores did help encourage several waves of independently-produced comics, the development of the modern American comic book happened in stages. The G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the U. S, the Yellow Kid in McFaddens Flats, in 1897. The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which also includes text by E. W. Townsend, measured 5×7 inches. The neologism comic book appears on the back cover, despite the publication of a series of related Hearst comics soon afterward, the first monthly proto-comic book, Embee Distributing Companys Comic Monthly, did not appear until 1922
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Marvel Comics
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Marvel Comics is the common name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwides parent company, Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvels modern incarnation dates from 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others. Most of Marvels fictional characters operate in a reality known as the Marvel Universe. Martin Goodman founded the later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Martin Goodman, a magazine publisher who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. The issue was a success, with it and a second printing the following month selling, combined. While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc, Timely had its own staff in place by the following year. It, too, proved a hit, with sales of one million. Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc. beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941, Goodman hired his wifes cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles, Goodmans business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55. As well, some covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12, were labeled A Marvel Magazine many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961. The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion and this globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications. Atlas also published a plethora of childrens and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlos Homer the Happy Ghost, Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Atlas did not achieve any hits and, according to Stan Lee, Atlas survived chiefly because it produced work quickly, cheaply. During this time, the Comic Code Authority made its debut in September 1954, Wertham published the book Seduction of the Innocent in order to force people to see that comics were impacting American youth. He believed violent comics were causing children to be reckless and were turning them into delinquents, in September 1954, comic book publishers got together to set up their own self-censorship organization—the Comics Magazine Association of America—in order to appease audiences
31.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
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S. H. I. E. L. D. is a fictional espionage, law-enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135, it deals with paranormal. The acronym originally stood for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division and it was changed in 1991 to Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. S. H. I. E. L. D. s introduction in the Strange Tales feature Nick Fury, Agent of S. H. I. E. L. D. Occurred during a trend for action series about secret international intelligence agencies with catchy acronyms, which Stan Lee stated in a 2014 interview, was the basis for him to create the organization. Colonel Fury was reimagined as an older character with an eyepatch. Fury series reappeared as agents of S. H. I. E. L. D, most notably Timothy Dum-Dum Dugan, Furys bowler hat–wearing aide-de-camp. Its most persistent enemy is Hydra, an organization founded by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Much was revealed over the years to fill in its labyrinthine organizational history, Stan Lee wrote each story, abetted by artist Kirbys co-plotting or full plotting, through Strange Tales #152, except for two issues, one scripted by Kirby himself and one by Dennis ONeil. Steranko quickly established the feature as one of historys most groundbreaking, innovative. Ron Goulart wrote, ven the dullest of readers could sense that something new was happening, … Which each passing issue Sterankos efforts became more and more innovative. Entire pages would be devoted to photocollages of drawings ignored panel boundaries, the first pages … became incredible production numbers similar in design to the San Francisco rock concert poster of the period. Larry Hama said Steranko combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages —, all this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension. The series won 1967 and 1968 Alley Awards, and was inducted in the year to the awards Hall of Fame. Steranko himself was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006, the 12-page feature ran through Strange Tales #168, after which it was spun off onto its own series of the same title, running 15 issues, followed by three all-reprint issues beginning a year later. Steranko wrote and drew issues #1–3 and #5, and drew the covers of #1–7, stories would not appear for nearly two decades after the first solo title. A six-issue miniseries, Nick Fury vs. S. H. I. E. L. D. was followed by Nick Fury, Agent of S. H. I. E. L. D
32.
Fantastic Four
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The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1, which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium. As the first superhero team title produced by Marvel Comics, it formed a cornerstone of the companys 1960s rise from a division of a publishing company to a pop culture conglomerate. Since their original 1961 introduction, the Fantastic Four have been portrayed as a dysfunctional, yet loving. Breaking convention with other comic book archetypes of the time, they would squabble, the Fantastic Four have been adapted into other media, including four animated series and four live-action films. According to Lee, writing in 1974, Martin mentioned that he had noticed one of the published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes, if the Justice League is selling, spoke he, why dont we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes. Determined to carve a career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books, Lee concluded that, For just this once. Lee said he created a synopsis for the first Fantastic Four story that he gave to penciller Jack Kirby, Kirby turned in his penciled art pages to Lee, who added dialogue and captions. Kirby claims he came up with the idea for the Fantastic Four in Marvels offices, Kirby also sought to establish, more credibly and on numerous occasions, that the visual elements of the strip were his conceptions. He regularly pointed to a team he had created for rival publisher DC Comics in the 1950s, F you notice the uniforms, theyre the same. I always give them a skintight uniform with a belt, the Challengers and the FF have a minimum of decoration. And of course, the Things skin is a kind of decoration, the chest insignia of a 4 within a circle, however, was designed by Lee. The characters wear no uniforms in the first two issues, given the conflicting statements, outside commentators have found it hard to identify with precise detail who created the Fantastic Four. Comics historian R. C. Harvey believes that the Fantastic Four was a furtherance of the work Kirby had been doing previously, but Harvey notes that the Marvel Method of collaboration allowed each man to claim credit, and that Lees dialogue added to the direction the team took. Wells argues that it was Lees contributions which set the framework within which Kirby worked, and this made Lee more responsible. Comics historian Mark Evanier, an assistant to Jack Kirby in the 1970s, says that the considered opinion of Lee and Kirbys contemporaries was that Fantastic Four was created by Stan. No further division of credit seemed appropriate, the release of The Fantastic Four #1 was an unexpected success
33.
Avengers (comics)
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The Avengers are a fictional team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1, created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, labeled Earths Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers originally consisted of Hank Pym, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the Wasp. The original Captain America was discovered, trapped in ice, a rotating roster became a hallmark, although one theme remained consistent, the Avengers fight the foes no single superhero can withstand. The team, famous for its battle cry of Avengers Assemble. has featured humans, mutants, inhumans, robots, aliens, supernatural beings, and even former villains. The team has appeared in a variety of media outside of comic books including a number of different animated television series. A second Avengers film titled Avengers, Age of Ultron was released on May 1,2015, the team debuted in The Avengers #1. Much like the Justice League, the Avengers were an assemblage of pre-existing superhero characters created by Lee, between 1996 and 2004, Marvel relaunched the primary Avengers title three times. In 1996, the Heroes Reborn line took place in an alternate universe, the Avengers vol.3 relaunched and ran for 84 issues from February 1998 to August 2004. In January 2005, a new version of the team appeared in the ongoing title The New Avengers, followed by The Mighty Avengers, Avengers, The Initiative, Avengers vol.4 debuted in July 2010 and ran until January 2013. Vol.5 was launched in February 2013, after Secret Wars, a new Avengers team debuted, dubbed the All-New, All-Different Avengers, starting with a Free Comic Book Day preview. After the group vanquished Loki, Ant-Man stated that the five worked well together and suggested they form a team, Captain America soon joined the team in issue #4, and he was given founding member status in the Hulks place. The Avengers went on to fight such as Baron Zemo, who formed the Masters of Evil, Kang the Conqueror, Wonder Man. The next milestone came when every member but Captain America resigned, Giant-Man, now calling himself Goliath, and the Wasp rejoined. Hercules became part of the team, while the Black Knight, Spider-Man was offered membership but did not join the group. The Black Panther joined after rescuing the team from the Grim Reaper, the X-Men #45 featured a crossover with The Avengers #53. This was followed by the introduction of the android the Vision, Pym assumed the new identity of Yellowjacket in issue #59, and married the Wasp the following month. The Avengers headquarters was in a New York City building called Avengers Mansion, the team encountered new characters such as Arkon in issue #75, and Red Wolf in #80. The Avengers briefly disband when Skrulls impersonating Captain America, Thor, the true founding Avengers, minus the Wasp, reformed the team in response after complaints from Jarvis
listen)) is a monster originating from a series of tokusatsu films of the same name from Japan. The character first appeared in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla and become a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in media including 29 films produced by Toho, three Hollywood films, and numerous video games, novels, comic books, television shows. It is often dubbed the "King of the Monsters", a phrase first used in Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, the Americanized version of the original film.
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