X-Men Monday #296 – Fabian Nicieza Talks ‘Godzilla vs. X-Men’

Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT!

Godzilla: King of the Monsters! The X-Men: Uncanny, Astonishing, Exceptional — you know the adjectives! Toss in Marvel Comics legend Fabian Nicieza and the question is: Can a single one-shot contain all these pop culture powerhouses?

Well, we’ll soon find out when Marvel releases Godzilla vs. X-Men #1 on May 14, 2025. Ahead of the one-shot’s release, writer Fabian Nicieza is here to let us know what we can expect from the X-Men’s latest crossover. Let’s see what he has to say.

AIPT: Welcome back to X-Men Monday, Fabian! So, there have been a lot of X-Men stories, and there have been a lot of Godzilla movies. I’m curious, when you’re given less than 30 pages to smash these franchises together in a single one-shot, what’s your approach for zeroing in on the perfect story?

Fabian Nicieza: It starts with deep, meaningful regret for having taken the assignment, which is followed by:

Traditional team-up structure — enemies then a team-up? Yes.What do the “franchises” have in common? Isolation, “othering,” misunderstood by people.How might this commonality present a threat to both? Well, the X-Men have fought giant robots and Godzilla has fought giant robots, so maybe…

Once I have that foundation, I decide how it needs to begin and how it needs to end and work out the complications/twists between the two.

Then I pray to Zeus for more pages. Zeus doesn’t answer my prayers. And I type.

And, I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years now and I’ve yet to write “the perfect story” but… there’s always the hope!

AIPT: Oh, you’re too hard on yourself, Fabian. So, what can readers expect from Godzilla vs. X-Men? The visuals from artist Emilio Laiso we’ve seen so far look fantastic!

Fabian: Emilio’s art is great. I tried to give him some big moments to draw and he nailed them.

As far as the story itself, I think, I hope, you can expect the story to be laced with the DNA of both franchises. It has Godzilla trying to protect itself and its kind from humans who can’t see beyond their fears and prejudices, and it has the X-Men agreeing to help stop Godzilla because they know that the monster is not what most people think it is.

Throw in a Japanese businessman with a grudge partnering with Trask Enterprises, along with the X-Men knowing they need to get tall, and you can expect some juicy twists.

AIPT: X-Fan Pame says both Godzilla vs. X-Men and your recent story in X-Force #300 are situated in the ‘90s era, and during this time, you were writing many series with multiple characters at the same time. So, Pame’s question is, to write both stories, did you reread some of your ‘90s stories to get the hang of the voices of all these characters again? Or, because you wrote them for so many years, do their voices just come naturally to you?

Fabian: I just wrote a Cable limited series a year ago, so that character never requires much work to get back into, though I needed to re-read some X-Force issues between #25-30 just because of where I was planning to place the story.

All these character’s voices are pretty much in my head and relatively easy to slide back into.

AIPT: Building off of Pame’s question… which X-character was the most fun to revisit in Godzilla vs. X-Men?

Fabian: I wish I had more space in the issue to do more with the individual characters, but that wasn’t really the case, so I didn’t have much time with them individually. But as long as I get a Gambit heist scene and some fun non-X Marvel crunchy continuity into the story, then it’s all good!

AIPT: X-Fan Phil Aitken wants to know what informs your approach to writing Godzilla in this one-shot.

Fabian: A childhood of watching Godzilla movies and some of the recent releases helped inform my thinking of the King of the Monsters, but Godzilla doesn’t have a “voice,” so it’s often defined by its actions and those of the humans who fear and hate it. 

The Godzilla of my youth was always someone you sympathized with for its loneliness and its choices to help even those who would hurt it against greater forces. The similarities there to the X-Men are obvious, and therefore, I hope, make for a compelling story.

AIPT: X-Fan Aleksey wonders if it was difficult to powerscale the X-Men to Godzilla’s level.

Fabian: Refer back to that non-X Marvel crunchy continuity comment for your answer! Meaning, you’ll see when you buy the book!

AIPT: X-Fan JoshT has multiple questions, so let’s wrap with these…

First, what’s your favorite Godzilla movie?

Fabian: Destroy All Monsters mostly because, you know, the “all monsters” part and also because of Minilla blowing smoke rings, which when you’re 8 years old in 1969 is super-cool.

AIPT: Next, who is your favorite Godzilla monster friend or foe?

Fabian: For when I watched the movies as a kid, probably Rodan.

AIPT: And JoshT’s final question — who’s had more resurrections? Jean Grey or Mothra?

Fabian: The real question is who has had the most cocooned resurrections, and Jean only had one, I think, so Mothra wins.

AIPT: Uh oh, did we just start a Jean Grey-Mothra rivalry? Not sure we’d survive that experience. But on that ominous note — Fabian, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday!

Remember, X-Fans, Godzilla vs. X-Men #1 goes on sale May 14, 2025. And, as this week’s X-Men Monday eXclusive, we’ve got the preview pages! In addition to the X-Men, these pages feature words from Fabian Nicieza, pencils and inks from Emilio Laiso, and letters from VC’s Clayton Cowles.

I don’t know about you, but reading Fabian’s writing and seeing Emilio’s layouts, those classic costumes and the colors… it’s like I’m back in 7th grade. Really looking forward to this one!

Until next time, X-Fans, stay exceptional!

 In this edition of X-Men Monday, writer Fabian Nicieza discusses his upcoming ‘Godzilla vs. X-Men’ one-shot.  Read More