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Superhero Smash Season IV—Audio Issue #60: Godzilla

Original Air Date

  • June 10th, 2026

Part 1 Begins

Super Show ID 1: Superhero Smash (0:30)

  • Good morning. You’ve waited all week, and here it finally is: Another great episode of Superhero Smash on WIUP FM 90.1!
    • Featuring “The Best in Superhero Music and Comic Book Lore”
    • Superhero Smash is a musical force for good!
  • I’m your host, Dr. Gian Pagnucci, but you can call me The New Professor X
  • All summer long, I’ll be playing great music about superheroes as well as music that is featured in superhero movies and shows
  • I’ll also be talking about comic book history and heroism
  • And I’ll have plenty of great guest stars this summer, too
  • But no matter what cool stuff I discuss, you don’t have to worry because this is a NO SPOILERS show
  • Contact me, the new Professor X, via email: SuperheroSmash3000@gmail.com
  • I love to hear from the Legion of Superhero Smash Listeners!

Issue Theme

  • The Consequences of Our Actions

Monster Spotlight: Godzilla! (1:00)

  • I know I said I was going to continue the dark night heroes theme I’ve been on the past few weeks with  Batman, Jessica Jones, Harry Dresden, and Spider-Man Noir, but longtime Superhero Smash Studio Engineer Loughlin Pagnucci has just returned from Japan for one episode only
  • So, in honor of the Legion of Superhero Smash Fans over in Japan, today’s episode will feature that sometimes hero, sometimes terror, Japan’s very own mega star, and I do mean MEGA: Godzilla

The Superhero Smash Back Issue Bin! (0:30)

Here comes Godzilla! (1:00)

  • Godzilla has also been featured in a lot of comic books, and I’ll be talking about those later in today’s show
  • Now, is Godzilla a superhero? Not exactly, but he has fought a lot of superheroes
  • And he is big, powerful, and super cool
  • That seems more than reason enough to have give him his very own show
  • I’ll be talking about Godzilla’s origin in a moment
  • But it’s tied to man’s foolish tampering with the atom
  • When we created the atom bomb, we unleashed awful death and destruction on the world by our hubris
  • And, when those bombs fell, we unleashed something else even more powerful than man
  • Beware what rises from atom bomb’s radioactive fallout

Heroic Opening Song for Godzilla (3:07)

  • “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons

The World That Created Godzilla (5:00)

  • Picture it: Japan, late 1940s–early ’50s—still smoking, still rebuilding. Not just its cities, but Japan’s identity itself, after the devastating end of World War II
  • The shadow over everything? The atomic bomb. Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren’t history—they were still living memory, still fear, still trauma walking the streets.
  • And just when things seemed to be calming down. Boom: Nuclear fear strikes again.
    • A Japanese fishing boat called The Lucky Dragon #5 gets hit with radioactive fallout in 1954, reminding everyone: This nightmare isn’t over. The Japanese crew suffered radiation sickness after exposure to fallout from an American nuclear test on Bikini atoll
  • At the same time, across the globe Cold War tensions were crackling like supervillain lightning
    • The U.S. and Soviet Union were standing toe-to-toe, and the whole world felt like it was one button press away from annihilation
  • Japan did regain its independence, but that was complicated
    • The U.S. occupation ended in 1952, but American military baseed remain, like a lingering force field no one asked for
  • Inside the country there were protests, unrest, and a fight over the future
    • Japanese citizens debated rearmament, democracy, and whether peace could survive in a nuclear age
  • Meanwhile, the nation was rebuilding at super speed: Industry was rising and cities were growing, but beneath it all, the scars were still raw
  • Science became both hero and villain: The same force that promised progress also threatened total destruction
  • The Korean War later reminded everyone that war wasn’t gone, and Japan was close to that action, tied into that global conflict whether it wanted to be or not
  • And from this charged world, something rose from the ocean
    • A creature born of radiation, fear, guilt, and unstoppable forces: Godzilla, the living embodiment of the atomic age
  • When the first Godzilla movie premiered in 1954 from Japan, it wasn’t just a monster movie. It was warning. It was a memory. And it was a roar of a world that knew exactly what real destruction looked like

Heroic Instrumental Theme Song (2:11)

  • “Main Title” from Godzilla (Original Soundtrack)
  • Godzilla, King of the Monsters! - Wikipedia

Part 1 Ends (@13 minutes)

Part 2 Begins (@13 minutes)

Super Show ID 2: Superhero Smash (0:30)

The Origin of Godzilla (5:00)

  • So, today… the earth trembles…the skies burn…and a titan rises. Not a villain, not a hero, but something bigger. This is Superhero Smash and today we unleash Godzilla.

🌊 ISSUE #1: The World That Woke a Monster

  • Long before heroes wore capes…
  • Long before villains hatched their plots…
  • There was something older than civilization itself—
  • A creature born in the age of dinosaurs…
    A survivor of extinction…
    A force of nature sleeping beneath the ocean floor.
  • For millions of years… it slept.
  • Until humanity did the one thing you should never do:
  • It pushed science too far.

☢️ ISSUE #2: The Atomic Mistake

  • The 1950s.
  • Cold War tensions rising. Nuclear weapons testing lighting up the sky.
  • Out in the Pacific Ocean—far from cities, but never far from consequences—
    Hydrogen bombs detonate.
  • Shockwaves ripple through the deep.
  • Radiation floods ancient waters.
  • And something down in the deep…
  • Wakes up.

🧬 ISSUE #3: From Creature to Kaiju Titan

  • He wasn’t always the King of the Monsters.
  • Once he was just a prehistoric marine reptile: a creature perfectly designed for a brutal, ancient Earth
  • But radiation didn’t just wake him.
  • It changed him.
  • It mutated him—
  • Twisting flesh into armor
  • Turning cells into reactors
  • Building a living engine of atomic energy
  • The creature grew.
  • And grew
  • And grew
  • Until he became something impossible
  • A skyscraper-sized titan…
    A walking nuclear weapon…
    A creature fueled by the same force that created him.

🌊🔥 ISSUE #4: The Rise

  • At first, it’s just whispers:
  • Ships vanish.
  • There blinding flashes at sea.
  • Survivors speak of heat, of light, of something alive beneath the waves
  • Then, he surfaces.
  • On a quiet island, under stormlight, the legend gets a name:
    • Godzilla

🏙️ ISSUE #5: The Rampage

  • This first origin story is dark
  • The world learns the power of Godzilla the hard way.
  • Godzilla doesn’t come as a hero.
  • He comes as judgment.
  • He stomps through cities, crushing buildings like paper panels, smashing trains like small toys, and reigning down fire everywhere
  • In fact, his breath isn’t just the fire of a dragon. It is something far worse: Atomic energy, weaponized, alive, spewing destruction across the skyline
  • Nothing can stop him.
  • Not tanks. Not missiles. Not the combined might of human technology.
  • Because with Godzilla, humanity is fighting its own creation.

Godzilla Song 1 (3:31)

  • “Godzilla” by Eminem and Featuring Juice WRLD

PSA: Visit the IUP Kathleen Jones White Writing Center (1:00)

  • If you’re fighting monsters or just trying to slay writer’s block…
  • Just head to the IUP Kathleen Jones White Writing Center
    • The Writing Center is open all summer long, and the Writing Center tutors will help IUP students with any writing challenge, no matter how dark and forboding
    • You can get help from the Writing Center remotely this summer, via Zoom, where you can talk directly with a tutor, or asynchronously, where a tutor will give you comments on your paper
  • Let me cue that Writing Center Theme Song!

Writing Center Theme Song (0:30)

  • “I Love the Writing Center” by Dr. Weinstein

Superhero Smash Super Shout-out: To Dr. Dan Weinstein (0:10)

  • And let me also give a Superhero Smash Super Shout-out to Dr. Dan Weinstein, the Director of the Writing Center and LLW Associate Professor
    • Dr. Weinstein isn’t a giant green monster, but you wouldn’t want to make him angry!

Part 2 Ends (@25 minutes)

Part 3 Begins (@25 minutes)

Super Show ID 3: Superhero Smash (0:30)

The Superhero Smash Comic Book Vault: First Appearance of Godzilla (5:00)

  • The Comic Book Vault Sound Effect (0:12)
    • First Worldwide Appearance: The King of the Monsters debuted in a Japanese manga titled Science Adventure Picture Story: Godzilla (published by Shueisha in 1954)
    • First US Comic Book (Unnamed): In America, Godzilla first showed up on a movie poster shown in a theater in Life with Archie #41 (September 1965), where he is seen battling Mothra
    • First US Comic Book (Named/Featured): His first officially licensed American comic appearance was a 4-page promotional giveaway for Godzilla vs. Megalon distributed at theaters in the summer of 1976 by Cinema Shares
    • First Ongoing US Comic: Marvel Comics launched the very first ongoing American series, Godzilla, King of the Monsters #1, in August 1977
      • Item #64687394 Front Cover: Godzilla #1 VF 8.0
      • Marvel Writer: Doug Moench
      • Marvel Artist: Herb Trimpe
      • The series lasted for 24 issues and took Godzilla across the United States to fight various Marvel heroes like the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the Champions.
    • Value: I paid 30 cents to buy that Marvel Godzilla comic when it first came out!
    • Value on eBay today: $50 (CGC graded 7.5 on a 10-point scale)
      • Life with Archie #41 is going for $199 on eBay

Godzilla Song 2 (2:35)

  • “Godzilla Main Title” by Bear McCreary from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Godzilla: King of the Monsters released in 2019

Godzilla Song 3 (2:35)

  • “Radioactive” by The Firm

Call me, Zilla! (2:00)

  • When the first Godzilla movie was released, the Japanese word for the monster was “Gojira”
  • “Gojira” is a made-up word, but it was built from real Japanese words:
    • gorira (ゴリラ) = gorilla
    • kujira (クジラ) = whale
  • Combined → gojira (ゴジラ)
  • So the idea was:
    • gorilla-like strength + whale-like size/ocean origin
  • It doesn’t translate as a normal dictionary word
  • It’s more like a creative mashup name
  • “Godzilla” is an Anglicized (English-adapted) spelling of “Gojira”
    • The sound was adjusted to fit English pronunciation and branding
    • Over time, it became a proper name in English, like “Frankenstein” or “King Kong”
  • Godzilla, Mothra, and other giant destructive monsters are known as kaiju (怪獣)
    • “Kaiju” literally means “strange beast” in Japanese

Super Romantic Interlude: Godzilla’s Girlfriend? (1:00)

  • As Legion of Superhero Smash Listeners know, I always have a super romantic interlude during the show
  • So now you’ll probably be saying, “What? Does Godzilla have a girlfriend? That can’t be!”
  • Well, thankfully, no
    • Godzilla is pretty much a confirmed bachelor
    • I mean, isn’t that what you sort of expect out of a destructive force of nature?
  • That being said, there have been a few partners for Godzilla
    • One was Mothra
      • Mothra is sometimes an ally to Godzilla, but sometimes an enemy
      • In the newer Monster-Verse movies, Godzilla and Mothra have a sort of King/Queen partnership, but it’s more symbolic than romantic
    • Godzilla does have a kind of girlfriend named Bijira/Gojirin in some manga and games, but not in the main films
      • As I mentioned, Godzilla’s Japanese name is Gojira, so Gojirin certainly works for the name of a female Godzilla
    • In the 1998 animated series, Godzilla briefly has a mate, but that’s a separate continuity from the films
      • That monster’s name is Komodithrax
  • But all in all, you probably won’t find Godzilla out on a date at the movies on Friday night, though a Godzilla movie is a great thing to take a date to!

Godzilla Song 4 (2:09)

  • “Godzilla” by Kesha

Part 3 Ends (@40 minutes)

Part 4 Begins (@40 minutes)

Super Show ID 5: Superhero Smash (0:30)

Superhero Smash Super Shout-out: To Loughlin Pagnucci, home from Kyoto, Japan (2:00)

  • As I mentioned, longtime Studio Engineer and IUP alum Loughlin Pagnucci is back from his second trip to Japan
    • Loughlin took part in  an international program run by the Michigan State University Law School
    • Let me mention that IUP students can also study abroad, in China, Spain, France, and other countries
  • The last time Loughlin traveled to Japan, he came face to face with that fire-breathing kaiju, Godzilla, himself
  • Since we’ve got Loughlin here today, let’s find out what it is like to visit Japan and if he had any more sightings of the famous monster

Superhero Smash Guest Star: Loughlin Pagnucci Interview (5:00)

  • Spotting Godzilla in Japan

Long Lost Hero: Godzooky (2:00)

As Legion of Superhero Smash Listeners know, I often like to talk about a long lost hero on the show.

  • In this case, though, the word “hero” might be a bit of a stretch
  • In 1978 Hanna-Barbera launched a Saturday-morning animated series called The Godzilla Power Hour
    • Hanna-Barbera wanted to make Godzilla less scary and more kid friendly, so the creators added what they felt was a cute sidekick to the show
    • The sidekick was named Godzooky
    • Goodzooky was basically Godzilla’s nephew (or young relative–the creators  never specifically said)
      • Godzooky was a small, kid-friendly version of Godzilla
      • He added some comic relief to the Saturday-morning cartoon (in those days, Saturday was the only day of the week when kids could watch cartoons)
      • Godzooky was a juvenile monster related to Godzilla who was found and rescued by a group of scientists on the ship Calico
      • After he was found, he started to hang out with the humans and could even call Godzilla if things got too dangerous
      • Godzooky had tiny wings and could breath smoke rings
    • And, for the record, even as a little kid, I thought Godzooky was super lame!!!
      • Although today I find him somewhat hilarious!
    • Actually, if you’re Godzooky, I’d say it’s pretty hard to get any respect,
    • He might be green like Godzilla, but he’s not tall or powerful
    • I’d say it’s just tough being green…
    • The tale of Godzilla and Godzooky

Godzilla Song 5 (2:22)

  • “Bein’ Green” by Kermit the Frog
  • Like a mountain

Part 4 Ends (@50 minutes)

Part 5 Begins (@50 minutes)

Super Show ID 5: Superhero Smash (0:30)

Super Good Deed for the Week: Be a Protector, Not a Destroyer! (4:00)

  • Superhero stories are about doing good
  • And in that spirit, I have been trying to make Superhero Smash be a musical force for good
  • Godzilla may be the King of the Monsters, but at his best, he’s not just a force of destruction, he’s a force of balance. In many stories, Godzilla turns from destroyer to reluctant guardian, stepping in to protect the world when something worse shows up.
  • This week’s challenge is to channel that same kind of world-protecting energy.

The Superhero Smash Move

For this week’s Superhero Smash Move, try the following:

  • Find one place in your world that needs protecting and step up. It could be your campus, your neighborhood, or even just one person having a rough day. Pick something small but meaningful: Clean up a shared space, check in on someone who seems overwhelmed, or stand up for someone who’s being overlooked.
  • The key is this: Power isn’t just about what you can knock down, it’s about what you choose to defend.

Super Examples

If you aren’t sure what to do, here are a few powerful possibilities:

  • Maybe as a student, you have noticed trash piling up around a study area. Quietly clean the space up before others arrive. No announcement, no credit, just restoring order like a silent guardian rising from the ocean.
  • If you’re at a store, return a shopping cart from the parking lot that was left loose or rolling toward other cars. That’s a small, almost invisible act, but it helps prevent damage and makes things better for everyone.
  • If you have an elderly neighbor, during this stretch of hot weather, maybe just stop by and say hello and see if they they have everything they need. Not dramatic, not flashy, but powerful in exactly the way that matters.

That’s this week’s Superhero Smash Move: Be like Godzilla at his best–Not  the monster who destroys the city, but the one who shows up when the world needs defending most. Super good deed!

Super Show ID 6: Superhero Smash To Be Continued Next Issue! (2:00)

  • Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel: King Kong!
    • If you are enjoying today’s show, you can catch more Superhero Smash on Thursday mornings at 11:00 a.m. all summer long on WIUP FM 90.1
    • I know some Legion of Superhero Smash Listeners are excited to hear the Moon Knight episode
    • But I had so much fun talking about Godzilla this week, I sort of have to talk about King Kong next week, right?
    • So tune in next Thursday at 11:00 a.m. to hear all about America’s own mighty monster!
  • Listen to Superhero Smash on WIUP FM 90.1
  • Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
  • And remember, while Superhero Smash is about the exploits of amazing individuals,
    • “You don’t need superpowers to be a hero. The only thing it takes to be a hero is the courage to do what’s right when someone needs your help.”–Gian Pagnucci

Heroic End Credits Song for Godzilla (3:41)

  • Of course, there’s only one way to finish today’s Godzilla show…
  • With that all time classic:
  • “Godzilla” by Blue Oyster Cult

Part 4 Ends (@60 minutes)

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