What’s Inside:

Hero Zero, an invincible, super-powered being with theability to change size, is actually a teenage boy named David. As teenage boys
are wont to do, David is goofing off, and goofing off with his powers, no less.
Unknowingly, however, he awakens the King of the Monsters, Godzilla. 

David, his
father, and his best friend are all attending the San Diego Comic Con. Godzilla
appears, and it turns out he has followed David to shore. David becomes Hero Zero and battles Godzilla. Untrained and
clumsy, he realizes that he is causing more damage than the monster, and an
unfortunate miscalculation on his part leads to his friend’s death by falling
rubble. David lashes out at Godzilla, but realizes that the King of the
Monsters may be impossible to kill. 

So, he settles for the route that many of
Godzilla’s opponents have settled for over the decades and simply returns the
monster to the sea.

Writer: Michael Eury

Artist: Tatsuya Ishida

Colorist: Pamela Rambo

Publisher: Dark Horse

Why I Kept This
Issue:

Okay, I won’t lie, I know jack dick about Hero Zero, and I’ve
never really bothered to look him up. But for a character that I know nothing
about, this issue was actually very entertaining when I was a kid. Now,
Godzilla on the other hand…yeah, I think we all know I’m a Godzilla nut.

In one issue, I got a lot. I got a sense of who David is, an
untested and cocky and inexperienced hero ala Peter Parker, and by the end of
the issue I saw the character learn a valuable lesson at a tragic cost. It was
pretty intense, yo.

And OMG it has a cover by Arthur Adams, THE greatest
Godzilla artist of all time! At least in comics, anyway.

I think the thing that fascinates me most about this issue
is…holy shit, just LOOK at the portrayal of SAN DIEGO COMIC CON
back in ’95! 

Seriously, I know they are comic panels, but it’s so strange to
think that at one point, San Diego Comic Con looked just like other comic cons.
It was this tiny little thing for geeks before Hollywood hijacked it.

Attached Memory:

I remember reading this issue during rehearsals for a school
play. I forget the name of the play, but I was in middle school(ish) at the
time. It was a comedy play about a dysfunctional police department, which
featured a hatcheck girl, a lunatic, a bunch of bumbling cops, and a mouse. I played
the part of the trigger-happy and incendiary police chief with a short temper
and had to aggressively scream all of my lines in an irate growl. I had also
designed the poster for the play.

Now, this all sounds well and good, except that open night
was humiliating. I had never really done a play before, never had to recite
lines in front of an actual audience. All through rehearsals, I had done just fine.
Then opening night came, and I forgot my lines during the first act. It was so
painfully awkward, all of us standing up there turning red, my fellow players
with little idea how to proceed without my line. I finally heard the prompter
from backstage, and spouted the line, allowing the play to continue, but Jesus
it felt like forever.

Then in the second act, my cap gun misfired as I tried to
shoot a mouse. Rather than just play along, I stopped and examined the gun
irritably to try to figure out why the fuck the caps weren’t popping. It was my
favorite moment of the whole play, and it was ruined, and I realized soon how
very stupid I looked.

I have a lot of negative theater experience. Not sure why I
gave it so many tries during school before I realized that it was not for me.

Condition of My Copy: Invincible.

Favorite Ad: Man, look at that list; Neil Gaiman, Stan The Man, Harvey Pekar, even my new acquaintence Jeff Smith. And not a headlining actor to be seen.