Jai is a criminal, but he has something bigger in mind. The casino heist he has planned is just the first step to something epic. He's going to use Godzilla to defeat Godzilla.

Godzilla Heist is written by Van Jensen and illustrated by Kelsey Ramsay. Published by IDW (January 13, 2026).

Erica Friedman
Rating:

This book begins with an absolutely ridiculous and fun premise. Jai lures Godzilla to Manila to use the monster's power to commit a grand heist; he's going to steal a casino's winnings, millions of dollars. Living the high life, Jai relaxes for just a moment, until he is kidnapped by a secret elite force who needs him to help them capture the very thing he has spent a lifetime chasing.

Like IDW's Mothra: Queen of the Monsters, Godzilla Heist has a backstory that sets Jai on an unexpected path of revenge. This time, however, Jai has foreseen all the angles and has planned for the unexpected. The story uses Godzilla as a weapon, and also positions Godzilla as an entity that Jai has spent a life studying…not for the reasons you might expect. It's hard to say more as the plot will twist back on itself as Jai seeks to right wrongs, but at a high collateral cost. This is a fast-paced action thriller, with Godzilla, unlike the slower morality plays we're used to in monster movies.

Art is very comic-booky, which is so interesting for me, as I have largely left the western comics world for manga and indie work. It was a step back in time to have narrative boxes once again tell me where and when we are. The art goes for the big view; small details aren't as important as the big action, but it's easy to follow.

There are no good guys here. Jai is a scheming jerk, and the rest of the characters are untrustworthy and often violent, but that works in what is very clearly positioned as a heist story.

If I have a single complaint, it's the narrative font. You can see from the image that the capital ‘M’ and ‘N’ render oddly. Reading this digitally, which I don't recommend, they kept looking like the letter ‘K’. Get this book in paper to fully appreciate both art and lettering. Definitely a fun ride and a whole new way to think about Godzilla.

Bolts
Rating:

The Godzilla extended universe has always tried to include humans as the backbone for its story. A lot of the times this can yield to stories that properly highlight how humanity needs to work in tandem with Godzilla in order to persevere, while other times the humans can act as a distraction from what a lot of people are really here to see, giant monsters beating the hell out of everything. Godzilla HEIST feels interesting because the first half of this book is genuinely a unique take on the Godzilla formula, while the second half does devolve into an atypical Godzilla story.

Godzilla HEIST focuses on a human who actually manipulates Godzilla's rampage for the sake of pulling off heists. After all, you don't really need to come up with a complicated infiltration plan out of Mission Impossible if you can just manipulate Godzilla to destroy the area where the bank is. Right away, this book got me interested in our main character, Jai, what his story was, and how his relationship with Godzilla was going to develop. I genuinely could've read a series of heists involving how Godzilla gets manipulated for the sake of filling this guy's wallet, especially since there's always going to be a level of unpredictability with Godzilla. But that setup gets dropped as the book transitions into a more straightforward and arguably more boring story.

Instead of focusing on multiple cases, the book really only focuses on one. There are other thieves that definitely are not nearly as interesting as our main lead, and it ends up building to a confrontation that I don't think felt as earned as the story wanted it to feel. It was genuinely baffling that Godzilla HEIST got progressively less interesting as it went on because it had so much going for it in its opening chapters. Not only in the premise, but the art direction was genuinely interesting, going for a more muddy and scratchy art style. Everything has this grungy look to it, which originally helped it stand out, but as the story went on, that style became more and more of an eyesore. It genuinely felt like I was reading through mud at certain points.

Overall, Godzilla HEIST just felt like massive wasted potential. It really is sad when you end up leaving a story thinking that it's far less interesting than when you first started it. The emotions don't feel nearly as earned, and the art style gradually started grating on me as it went on. While there were some flashy fights in the end, there was no emotion left to resonate with me. Unless you're a diehard Godzilla fan, I don't think you're missing much by skipping this one.