Monster of the Week: Battra

There's a dark side to every character. Someone or something that if you let yourself be consumed with dark emotions, you turn into it. Spider-Man has his Venom, Batman has his Joker, Godzilla has his SpaceGodzilla, and finally Mothra has her Battra. Battra is one of the coolest looking monsters in all of existence. If that horned look doesn't scream "I'm going to kill you seven times over," I don't know what does. Battra has a rather interesting, unexplored origin. Apparently, as hard as it is to picture, 12,000 years ago the earth was in complete harmony. The Cosmos with their guardian Mothra kept everything happy. Then we came along and disturbed the balance. Did you know that the earth has feelings like us? We pretty much completely angered her to a crisp. To retaliate, she decided to make her own monster, the 'Black Mothra' Battra. See, Battra is an earth defender, his goal in in life is to destroy anything that harms the earth.....and guess who the main culprits are? Battra was going to kill all the humans for endangering mother nature. This put him and Mothra at odds. These two are mortal enemies, they share a bond like no other. After a great battle, Mothra eventually defeated Battra and sealed him in the depths of the ocean. 12,000 years later, a meteorite struck, and guess who it awoke besides Godzilla? That's where the events of Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth take place.

Battra is a monster of honor...but he won't hesitate to act cool. Right when he's crawling out from his icy prison, he's roaring (Rodan is so cool that Battra borrowed some of his roar) like a true boss, letting whoever's listening know that he's back. You see, Battra was destined to be awakened in the year 1999 to stop a meteorite from colliding with earth. But thanks to unfortunate events, he was back. Battra is a deadly serious opponent, he doesn't take joy in fighting, he just does what needs to be done. When he's in the water heading for land, he didn't bother destroying the helicopters shooting at thim, they weren't worth it. Battra, like Baragon, can burrow underground. Battra may be ultra serious....but he's also one of the more brutal opponents. As he's getting through town, the little tanks were attacking him. He originally wasn't going to bother, but as they kept on and on, he just turned around and blasted them to smithereens. See, Battra wasn't there to destroy the humans this time around, he was heading through the city to sea, where he sensed Mothra. But it wasn't really Mothra that he was after, he was after the bigger threat, Godzilla.

Battra is a monster that will always go after the bigger threat, in that way he and Godzilla are similar. When Battra arrived on the scene, he slapped Mothra Larva to the side, or rather picked her up with his horn and threw her away. Godzilla is a beam spammer here, only that's a problem for him here....Batrra Larva is apparently impervious to it. Ater Godzilla unleashes his beam, Battra showed some of his. Eventually the battle took to the ocean. These two don't know the meaning of the term 'back down.' See, Battra is not a coward like Gigan and will keep going no matter what. Godzilla eventually grabbed hold of Battra and repeatedly slammed him into the ground, which then in turn opened up a crater that let into a volcano. Both monsters fell into it, and were presumed dead. (Yeah right,)

Now here's the deal, Battra Larva is one of the most durable monsters ever. He survived being in a volcano for awhile. At that time Mothra had transformed into her lovely Imago form. Battra had apparently been separated with Godzilla in the volcano, they both appeared at different areas. While Battra could of course sense G, his main priority was Mothra, cause he sensed that she had transformed into the form he despised. Now here's the cool part, Battra doesn't need all that emotional mumbo jumbo and time it takes to transform, he just does it by will. Now he really looked like a goth/emo Mothra. Now he had one mission: exact revenge on Mothra, his mortal foe. The two eventually met at Yokahama for an epic showdo-slaughter. Battra easily defeated Mothra. She was down on the ground with Battra blasting her to death, when Godzilla arrived. Now here's the interesting part....Battra is weaker in Imago form. While he was impervious to Godzilla's atomic blast, here it's fatal. He managed to bury G under some building rubble, but was soon after blasted. That's when he was defeated, until Mothra came to his aid. You see, while Battra hates Mothra, they share a connection, brother and sister as you would. Mothra had special dialogue with him, probably explaining to him they that they should unite against the bigger threat. At this time she was giving Battra some of her energy. Sadly Godzilla was back in action at this time, and had blasted her. She was now down and was about to be crushed by a Ferris wheel, but at the last few seconds, Battra caught it. With a roar of saying they're partners, he dropped the Ferris wheel on a surprised Godzilla. As stated before, Battra is an honorable monster, no double crossing. Basically he could be your worst enemy or your best partner. While G was on the ground, Mothra had told Battra her plan of transporting G back to the ocean. Battra, a monster of immediate action, quickly latched onto G. This it where it gets messy, as Godzila fiercely bites at Battra, which caused his yellow blood to spew out. But that didn't stop him. By this time Mothra had grabbed Godzilla. Now the two moths were flying while holding the King of Monsters. With his blood pouring, Battra still kept going....until Godzilla had enough of the predicament and blasted Battra point blank. That was it for the black moth, as his red eyes went dead. Mothra let them go, and they plunged into the sea. That was the end for our black moth friend.

Battra would sadly never see the light of day again in future films. He had served his purpose for that one story. Still, there's no denying that this neo-Mothra is one awesome monster. Even though it's unexplored, he still has one of the more interesting backstories. Battra is not evil, he is an earth defender, but a human hater. He's the most deadly serious of all Godzilla's opponents. In Larva form, he proved to all people that just cause you're a larva, it doesn't mean you're weak. In Imago form, he was....less impressive. Still, Battra has a sense of honor, he doesn't give up, even when he's bleeding to death. He could be your greatest enemy, or your greatest ally. Either way, Battra proved to be one of the greatest monsters from the Heisei era.