Titanosaurus, the Giant Sea Horse Dinosaur

The 70's were a very colorful era for Godzilla. It was in those years that we got a monster made of smog, a cyborg chicken from space, and a giant beetle from Atlan---Seatopia. We even got a mechanical Godzilla. The films had a more light and energetic tone than its predecessors. That was mainly thanks to director Jun Fukuda. It wasn't until Ishiro Honda came back to direct the final film in the Showa era, Terror of Mechagodzilla that the films became dark again. Now in that time we were getting all those crazy (and awesome) monster concepts, but this film saw a more simple monster in the form of Titanosaurus. He didn't have a buzzsaw, two extra heads, smoked smog from a smokestack, or had drills for hands, he was just a simple amphibious dinosaur. He didn't even have a beam! This guy was the most simple monster creation since Baragon. What's interesting and a change of pace is that he's not evil, it's the aliens who control him that make him violent. Nothing we haven't seen before, but it makes his end all the more tragic.

I don't remember my first impressions of Titanosaurus, was way too young. It wasn't until I saw the film again a few years ago that he became one of my personal favorite monsters. From such a peaceful dinosaur, you wouldn't expect a really aggressive fighter. But that changed when he got controlled by the Aliens from the Third Planet of the Black Hole. All of a sudden he was turned into a vicious fighter. In the final battle against Godzilla, it was Titanosaurus who really got into it. Mechagodzilla was the calm one while Titanosaurus was the wild one. He is also what I consider to be an underrated monster in an underrated film. He really got into the fights, and is a lot stronger than he looks. His kick to Godzilla sent the big G flying! Unlike most, if not all the monsters, Titanosaurus had a specific weakness, a vulnerability to supersonic sounds. (Now you know where they got the weakness idea for Venom and his symbiote pals.) It's ironic how Godzilla was accepted by the humans, to the point where he's giving them the okay to shoot the supersonic waves while he was holding Titanosaurus. Ah, I do miss the heroic days. The sad part was that after the control was broken, Titanosaurus just wanted to high-tail out of there, but Godzilla shot his atomic radiation, which eventually sent the seahorse over the edge into the water, presumably dead.

Sadly he hasn't appeared in any films since, aside from a brief flashback in Final Wars. I always found that disappointing, this guy has an unlimited amount of potential. You can tweak him to fit any storyline. In fact, he wouldn't be that bad of a choice for Godzilla's opponent in Legendary Studios' upcoming film. Though his elephant dying-like roar may annoy some people, I think it's pretty cool, definitely one of the more unique ones. In recent times, he's appeared in the game Godzilla Unleashed. (The Wii version, PS2 players didn't get him, which was pretty lame.) They put him in the mutant faction, which I gotta say was a mistake. He's described 'peaceful' in the film, not 'chaotic' as all the mutant faction is. The ironic part is that they gave him a supersonic blast for his beam attack. So basically he's shooting his weakness. Then in a sorta kinda not really sequel to Terror, he appeared in Godzilla Legends #3. He was 'summoned' by this boy Tristan, then was captured by the Simians. It's another tragic story as you see him tied down into a pool of water. He doesn't want to be used as an instrument of evil, but he really has no choice. See, Godzilla is a lot deeper than you think, you just have to really get into the franchise to see that.

Titanosaurus will tackle Rodan in what will be the fight of the decade in next month's GODZILLA #3. So we have that and most likely more appearances of him in future comics to look forward to. Titanosaurus is one of those monsters that appeared in only one film but deserves more. He's simple, but it's effective. He fights great, isn't a coward like a certain cyborg, and c'mon, he's just a cool monster.