[a] While the initial cycle of Godzilla films had ended following the commercial failure of 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla, dubbed versions remained popular attractions on American television, particularly with younger viewers.

[3] To meet the challenge of adapting the scale of the character in films to the comic book medium, Moench planned to humanize Godzilla by adding a supporting cast.

[2] To this end, and inspired by the role of children in the films, Moench devised the character of Rob Takiguchi (named after a high school friend of the writer's) to befriend Godzilla.

were established as Godzilla's primary adversaries numerous other Marvel characters made guest appearances, including the Fantastic Four, the Champions, Devil Dinosaur and the Avengers.

[3] The Champions, whose book was struggling for sales, were included as a personal favor to the much-loved Goodwin, while Moench felt the character was a good fit for facing off against the Fantastic Four.

[4] During the run, toy company Mattel acquired the licence to produce merchandise based on the character as part of their Shogun Warriors line, which also featured many of the Japanese super robots which had inspired the design of Red Ronin.

Despite Marvel holding the rights to both properties simultaneously they never crossed over, however - though Trimpe created promotional art for Mattel featuring Godzilla and Rodan alongside Daimos, Great Mazinger, Raydeen and Gaiking.

Wary of the impact it would have on the series' profitability and unwilling to sink a larger amount of money into a property they didn't own, Marvel withdrew from negotiations and Godzilla, King of the Monsters was cancelled after 24 issues.

[3] A planned fill-in issue of the title by Marv Wolfman and Steve Ditko launching their Dragon Lord character was subsequently modified so Godzilla was replaced by separate monster called Wani and the story was published in Marvel Spotlight (vol.

[9] Having been awakened and mutated by a nuclear explosion, Godzilla first appears by bursting out of an iceberg near Alaska and was soon confronted by S.H.I.E.L.D., who unsuccessfully attempted to restrain the monster with Stark Industries technology.

[26] Rob attempts to disguise the now four-foot tall Godzilla through the city's streets in a hat and trenchcoat without success as the monster grows to seven feet and fights Dugan and Jones at the docks.

He also noted that the mass property destruction without any sign of civilian casualties was "super-brawl syndrome taken to the extreme" due to the requirements of the young target audience and the Comics Code Authority.

[8] Moench was later interviewed about writing the series for fanzine G-Fan Magazine, and discovered Godzilla fandom was evenly split between those who "loved" the Marvel version and those who felt it trivialized the character.