Godzilla: Rage Across Time is a 2016 Godzilla comic book miniseries from IDW Publishing. It is an Anthology Comic where a pair of archaeologists are investigating the origins of kaiju, and discover evidence placing Godzilla and other kaiju in different historical periods, centuries and millennia before they should have existed.
The first issue involves Godzilla being unleashed by the Japanese onto Kublai Khan's Megalon and Gigan-backed invasion fleet; the second issue involves Godzilla in Ancient Greece, fighting Zeus and the Greek pantheon; the third issue involves Mothra battling Megaguirus in Medieval England at the time of the Black Death; the fourth issue involves the armies of Hannibal running afoul of Godzilla while crossing the Alps; and the fifth and final issue places Godzilla and other kaiju in the age of dinosaurs.
IDW would produce another period story in 2023, titled Godzilla Here There Be Dragons, placing Godzilla and his friends in The Golden Age of Piracy with Sir Francis Drake running aground on Monster Island.
Trope examples include:
- Alternate History: The series' premise is Godzilla and the other Toho Kaiju popping up across history, long before most of them should have even existed. It's unclear if it's meant to be set in the same continuity as Kingdom of the Monsters, or if it's set in its own continuity like Godzilla in Hell.
- Ancient Astronauts: Issue 5 reveals that Xilians brought ancient humans to Earth at the time of the dinosaurs as colonists/tenants to prepare the planet for Xilian use in the distant future. Too bad Godzilla foiled it.
- Arrogant God vs. Raging Monster: Godzilla appears in ancient Greece and has already decimated Poseidon, Ares, the Hydra and almost the entire pantheon. The fact that the gods are weakened by a lack of prayer doesn't help. Only the arrogant Zeus remains to take down the Kaiju. Zeus barely wins by channeling all his power in one lightning strike, but this leaves him depowered and brought down to human level. However, Godzilla isn't dead yet...
- Been There, Shaped History: The kaiju are present for, and often the cause of, numerous major historical events — Godzilla causes both the Vesuvian eruption that ended Pompeii and the destruction of the Mongol fleet that tried to conquer Japan, for instance.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Kublai Khan's efforts to invade Japan were aided by the Nebulans giving his armies control of Gigan and Megalon.
- Cool Versus Awesome: Godzilla vs. the Olympians!!
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: Mothra's role in the third issue plays on the Christian symbolism of the character.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Hannibal uses a mound of improvised explosives to bury Godzilla beneath a massive rockslide, incidentally opening up a pass in the Alps that will let him besiege Rome. However, Godzilla is only briefly knocked out, and it’s implied the fall of Rome is due as much to Godzilla’s following rampage as it is due to Hannibal.
- Divine Conflict: The "God" part of Godzilla's name isn't just for show, as he's been worshipped as a deity. In the second issue, he wipes out the Olympians of Ancient Greece. There's a reason why his name means "God Incarnate".
- Draconic Abomination: This version of Godzilla is an entity that predates nuclear weaponry and takes the "god" part of his name literally. He curb-stomps the Yamata no Orochi and Lernaean Hydra, and wipes out the Greek Pantheon with little effort. Even being vaporized by Zeus isn't enough to permanently kill him, and he reconstitutes himself to burst through Mt. Vesuvius.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Suda and Akio might have upgraded to this after taking care of the Mongul leader's control relic, routing the army and Gigan and Megalon fleeing.
- Gas Leak Cover Up: After the Mongol fleet was destroyed by Godzilla, the Shogun came up with the story of a typhoon to cover up his involvement.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: The Greek gods rely on their worshippers for power, as Zeus discovers to his detriment.
- Godzilla Threshold: In the first issue, Aiko and Suda both recognize how dangerous and uncontrollable Godzilla is, but they also realize that there's no chance of stopping the Mongol horde (which is supported by Gigan and Megalon) without him.
- Götterdämmerung: Godzilla decimates the Olympian gods, with Zeus — depowered after centuries of not being worshipped — being the sole survivor... until Godzilla bursts out of Vesuvius and buries Pompeii.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Zeus manages to put down Godzilla, but expends what little energy he had remaining and ends up the powerless sole survivor of the Greek Pantheon. After an unknown amount of time in anonymity, and realizing his fellow gods were right about his hubris, he vows to become a god more worthy of reverence by mortals. Unfortunately, it's at this moment that Godzilla finishes reconstituting within the remains of Olympus, which have become Mt. Vesuvius in the meantime. His remains are found in the present day, flash fossilized in his horror.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Megaguirus serves as an embodiment of Pestilence and Famine in the midst of the Plague.
- Kill the God: Godzilla kills Poseidon and Ares, reduces Mount Olympus to rubble killing the Hydra, and kills a depowered Zeus by setting off the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii.
- Orochi: Appears in the first issue, initially summoned to defeat the Mongols but then easily defeated by an awakened Godzilla.
- Our Hydras Are Different: The Lernaean Hydra is summoned by Zeus to fight Godzilla, and is killed by having its heads blasted off and being buried beneath Mount Olympus.
- Physical God:
- Retconning his origin in Kingdom of Monsters, Godzilla is presented not as being a product of radiation, but an unknown and utterly ancient entity capable of effortlessly slaying gods.
- The Olympians of Ancient Greece show up in Issue 2.
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: Issue 5 shows that the Cretaceous was unpleasant for dinosaurs with the constant battling kaiju, worsened by the arrival of Keizer Ghidorah and a Xillian invasion fleet. Subverted in that it takes place 136 million years ago, prior to the K-Pg Extinction Event
- Rage Against the Heavens: Godzilla's battle against the Olympians, called in by the prayers of the helpless Greeks
- Raptor Attack: Subverted by Issue 5 in that the Velociraptors are portrayed as, for once, feathered and small.
- Samus Is a Girl: An in and out of universe application, Suda himself is surprised the ninja he was fighting, Akio, was a woman due to a mask.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Unsurprisingly, between being free of mind control and Godzilla being very strong Gigan and Megalon fly off.
- Shout-Out: One of the cover variants for the first issue is an homage to "The Great Wave off Kanegawa".
- Teeth Clenched Team Work: The human characters for the first issue, samurai Suda and ninja Akio, are enemies from rival clans that have to team up for an important mission.
- Time Abyss: The series' version of Godzilla has been around millennia longer than mankind — let alone the nuclear weapons that supposedly gave him his powers — has.
- Worf Had the Flu: It's strongly implied that the reason the Greek Pantheon went down so easily against Godzilla was because they had stopped trying to appeal towards the mortals (whose prayers their powers depended upon) and grown weak.
