Godzilla (character)

Godzilla (Japanese: ゴジラ Hepburn: Gojira) (/ɡɒdˈzɪlə/; [ɡoꜜdʑiɾa] (About this soundlisten)) is a monster originating from a series of Japanese films of the same name. The character first appeared in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produced by Toho, three Hollywood films and numerous video games, novels, comic books and television shows. It is dubbed the King of the Monsters, a phrase first used in Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, the Americanized version of the original film.

Origin of Character
Godzilla is depicted as an enormous, destructive, prehistoric sea monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation. With the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for nuclear weapons. As the film series expanded, some stories took on less serious undertones, portraying Godzilla as an antihero, or a lesser threat who defends humanity. With the end of the Cold War, several post-1984 Godzilla films shifted the character's portrayal to themes including Japan's forgetfulness over its imperial past, natural disasters and the human condition.

Godzilla has been featured alongside many supporting characters. It has faced human opponents such as the JSDF, or other monsters, including King Ghidorah, Gigan and Mechagodzilla. Godzilla sometimes has allies, such as Rodan, Mothra and Anguirus, and offspring, such as Minilla and Godzilla Junior. Godzilla has also fought characters from other franchises in crossover media, such as the RKO Pictures/Universal Studios movie monster King Kong and the Marvel Comics characters S.H.I.E.L.D., the Fantastic Four and the Avengers.

Powers and Abilities

 * Nuclear Breath - Godzilla's signature ability is to fire a focused, superheated beam of concentrated radioactive plasma from his mouth. The radiation is contained within glands inside his dorsal spines, as they glow before he releases the heat ray. It can set fires to anything it hits and also kill even some of the strongest of monsters with a single shot. Godzilla's atomic breath has varied in strength, appearance, and color but is usually portrayed as a thick, neon-blue beam.
 * Spiral Atomic Ray - A more powerful variation of Godzilla's atomic breath, the red spiral heat ray can only be fired when Godzilla is under extreme stress or has absorbed a considerable amount of power. It is a red beam that is wrapped in a yellow electrical spiral and has the power to completely destroy the most powerful enemies, like Super-Mechagodzilla 2, SpaceGodzilla, Destoroyah, and Keizer Ghidorah.
 * Nuclear Pulse - Godzilla can release a powerful shockwave of nuclear energy from his entire body, which is useful when he is restrained or in close combat with a foe.
 * Energy Absorption - Godzilla has a remarkable capacity for absorbing various energy. Godzilla naturally feeds on radiation, but can also draw power from plasma or electricity. Godzilla was also able to absorb the life force of Rodan and be completely revitalized enough to destroy Super-Mechagodzilla 2. Godzilla also once displayed the ability to absorb enemy attacks and project the energy back at the source using his atomic breath, which he did to defeat King Ghidorah in GMK.
 * Superhuman Durability - Godzilla's hide is nearly indestructible and is not damaged at all by conventional weapons, allowing him to withstand heavy gunfire, tank shells, rockets, missiles, and even blows from other monsters with impressive resistance. Godzilla can survive being completely submerged in magma and in ground zero of meteorite impacts. Very few of Godzilla's opponents can pierce Godzilla's skin and draw blood. Only Gigan and Mechagodzilla were able to consistently do so. Godzilla has taken on two miniature black holes before and survived both with no visible damage. Godzilla also survived a direct hit from an energy beam at absolute zero.
 * Regenerative Healing Factor - Godzilla is immortal, he can regenerate extremely quickly, if injured, from practically any wound, including being completely disintegrated or blown to smithereens. Godzilla's regeneration is due to a substance in his cells known as Organizer G1, which has proven to be highly mutagenic to other creatures, such as Biollante and Orga.
 * Immense Superhuman Strength - Godzilla possesses extremely incredible physical strength, allowing him to knock down skyscrapers and lift and throw opponents several times his size with ease. Godzilla also has knowledge in martial arts such as judo and kick boxing.
 * Superhuman Stamina - Godzilla possesses an utterly insane level of stamina, allowing him to physically exert himself for several hours without getting tired or winded.
 * Tail - Godzilla uses his powerful tail as a bludgeoning weapon against enemies. Godzilla's tail is incredibly strong, even being able to support his entire weight and allow him to slide on it. Godzilla's tail has also been shown to be prehensile, curling around limbs of opposing monsters.
 * Teeth and Claws - Like any predator, Godzilla will sink his sharp teeth and claws into an enemy's flesh when in close combat.
 * Dorsal Spines - Godzilla can use his sharp dorsal spines on his back to cut into an enemy or slice off an enemy's limb.
 * Amphibiousness - Godzilla has an amphibious lifestyle, spending half of his life in water and the other on land. Godzilla can breathe underwater, he sleeps in the ocean depths for as long as he wants. Being a carnivore, Godzilla feasts on the mammalian meat of whales. Godzilla has even fought opponents in water.
 * Flight - By firing his atomic breath directly at the ground, Godzilla can use his atomic ray as jet propulsion to actually propel himself into the air and take flight.
 * Intelligence - While humans often assume Godzilla is a wild brutish animal, Godzilla has demonstrated intelligence on par with, if not exceeding, human intelligence. Godzilla is able to fully communicate with other giant monsters by speaking a language of roars and grunts that only giant monsters understand. Godzilla employs strategy in battle against more powerful foes and has found and exploited scientific weaknesses in his opponents that even humans were not aware of. Examples would be when Godzilla destroyed SpaceGodzilla's power source in the Fukuoka Tower and when he allowed himself to be eaten by Orga so he could reach its core and destroy it so Orga could not regenerate.
 * Psychic Abilities - Godzilla is said to be the most powerful psychic in the world and is able to sense danger or the exact location where he needs to be at any time. Godzilla is able to telepathically communicate with Godzilla Junior and can locate him wherever he is.

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 * Godzilla appears in Godzilla: New Age of Monsters. He occasionally defends Japan from alien invasions and other monsters while unintentionally getting help from a team of superheroes as well as some alley monsters.
 * Godzilla appears in a shared universe called the GodzillaVerse.

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 * Godzilla appears in Comic Con Incorporated. He is a roomer who spends most of his time in the pool. He is given the ability to shift size (which he duplicates from Ms. Marvel) so that he can fit in the hotel.

Trivia

 * Godzilla is Japan's first kaiju.
 * The Godzilla franchise is the longest running film franchise in the entire world.