Godzilla: Awakening

Godzilla: Awakening is a graphic novel by Legendary Comics and is the comic prequal to Godzilla (2014 film).

Plot
In 1980 Tokyo, Ishiro Serizawa meets with his father who asked him to come urgently. Serizawa's father begins telling him about his old job, the one he had kept secret from his son for a long time. He begins talking about the bombing of Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945, when he found his son in the wreakage of the city. After finding him, he sees Shinomura in the air, who flies away, with Godzilla in the water observing. Serizawa left off Ishiro with his grandparents for his safety and continued working in the Japanese Navy. One year later, he and the other sailors are sent to help an American vessel that sent a call from an island. After finding one of the men, the sailors find the wrecked ship and are attacked by Shinomura. They go inside the ship to find and rescue the men inside, but Shinomura throws the ship at the sea, sinking it. No one but Serizawa and the one American they rescued, named Shaw, survives. Shaw, impressed with Serizawa surviving, offers Serizawa go work for the U.S. government, which Serizawa accepts as Godzilla looks on at the Shinomura flying away.

Later, Serizawa becomes the first Japanese-American military unit since Japan's surrender in World War II: Monarch. General MacArthur explains that the job of Monarch is to kill the Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms (or M.U.T.O.'s). Shinomura attacks places all around the world each year, starting with Russia in 1946, Western Australia in 1947, Moansta Island in 1948, New Zealand in 1949, Yap in 1950, and Guam in 1950. Every time Shinomura attacked, people reported both it and a giant crocodile-like creature which chased the Shinomura away. Serizawa believes that the monster, which one of Guam's people calls "Gojira," a combination of the Japanese words for gorilla and whale, actually exists, while the rest of his team doesn't. Serizawa gets some people to go in the ocean and to find Gojira using the first nuclear submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus, but after weeks of searching, Gojira isn't found.

Three years later in 1953, Serizawa is playing with his son Ishiro, as Shaw comes and tells Ishiro he has to take his father for "shipping company business." At Monarch headquarters, Serizawa meets with Doctor Zamalek, who shows him and others a giant cell discovered in the Philippines from the Shinomura. Doctor Zamalek then exposes it to a beam that makes the cell grow, but it is set on fire and is thought to be dead. Serizawa comes up with the name shi no mure for the super-organism, and Zamalek claims that they don't understand why it hasn't taken over the world yet, which Serizawa answers to with Gojira. Serizawa points to depictions of Gojira throughout history and believes he is from a time when the Earth was ten times more radioactive than today. 250 million years ago, a Shinomura landed near Gojira and gets blasted by his atomic breath and sent down a cliff just as a meteor hits the Earth, diminishing atmospheric radioactivity forever, and forcing large creatures that fed on radiation like Gojira down closer to the Earth's core. Shinomura and Gojira were awakened with the bombing of Hiroshima. Every time Shinomura attacked, Gojira drove it away. Serizawa wants to find Gojira and let him fight Shinomura, but no one believes else Gojira really exists.

Serizawa goes back with his son who put an injured sea star in his fish tank. Ishiro explains to his father that sea stars can regenerate, even an entire body if they need to, just as the "dead" Shinomura cell at Monarch HQ regenerates. Ishiro and Serizawa hear a sound but Serizawa tells Ishiro it's probably just the wind as Shinomura flies past the window. Monarch headquarters has been destroyed. Serizawa is back there with Shaw, who believed the Shinomura was dead, but Serizawa explained that even with microscopic remains, it can regenerate. Serizawa asks to find Gojira, which Shaw allows but lets him know that he will be alone looking for Gojira. Serizawa says goodbye to his son and goes out to live in the ocean on a ship, looking for Godzilla.

A year later, in March of 1954, both Shinomura combine into one on Monsta Island as Godzilla rises from the ocean and engages it in battle. A boy sees them and tells Papa Brava, who tells Serizawa, who in turn alerts Shaw and Monarch. Godzilla and Shinomura's battle continues, setting a section of the island on fire as Serizawa gets to the island. Godzilla separates the two Shinomura with his atomic breath and kills one with another blast of his atomic breath. As the Navy ships arrive, the other Shinomura escapes, and then Godzilla follows, having been seen by Monarch, who now can confirm Godzilla's exsitence.

The next day, the dead body of the Shinomura is found and shown to Serizawa, who says he saw one fly away. Days later, the military decide to bomb Gojira in Bikini Atoll. Serizawa insists on letting Godzilla kill the Shinomura and let him return to the ocean, but they say it's too risky. Just then, General MacArthur arrives on a helicopter and gives them permission to nuke the M.U.T.O. Serizawa stops MacArthur, saying he has some concerns, and MacArthur says that he knows if he does that he's thought of the bombing of Hiroshima every day since 1945, but he also spent those years working to build a modern world which he'd kill to protect. At Bikini Atoll, Serizawa convinces the natives to leave. Then, the nuclear bomb "test" is conducted, killing the Shinomura and possibly Godzilla, but Serizawa assures Ishiro that he's still alive as he finishes. A year passes, and Serizawa dies and is buried in the Yanaka Cemetery. After the burial is over, Ishiro is approached by Shaw, and Ishiro, knowing the truth, tells Shaw that he's ready to join Monarch, but Shaw claims that he's not sure "anyone's ready for what's coming."

Monster Appearances
Godzilla

Shinomura

Trivia

 * Yvel Guichet, who also worked on Pacific Rim: Tales From Year Zero, worked on Godzilla: Awakening.