Subject: Kumonga a.k.a. Spiga or Spiega
Documentation: Son of Godzilla (1967), Destroy All Monsters (1968), and Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
History: In 1955 Japanese archeologist Dr. Matsumiya and his young daughter Riko set out on an expedition to Solgel Island, a remote uninhibited island in the Pacific. During his study on Solgel Dr. Matsumiya discovered multiple fossils of prehistoric animals, some of which have been linked to the kaiju of modern day. Matsumiya's findings have been critical in kaijuological studies and supplied much of what we know today about the history of these modern monsters.
One night Matsumiya's camp was attacked by 25 foot tall creatures resembling praying mantises. The radio equipment was smashed and Matsumiya and his daughter fled into the jungle. They found refuge in a cave and later salvaged whatever they could from their camp, moving it all into the cave. Stranded with no way to contact the outside world, Matsumiya continued with his study of the island while raising his daughter, Riko.
The Matsumiyas soon discovered another creature living on the island in which the giant mantises paled in comparison. An enormous spider which he and his daughter named KUMONGA. The colossal spider dwarfed the praying mantises in sheer size and even prayed upon the mantises for sustenance. They father/daughter duo continued their survey and research of Solgel until suddenly in 1960 Dr. Matsumiya passed away, leaving his daughter alone to survive on an island of monsters.
Seven years later another team of scientists and technicians arrived at Solgel Island to conduct a secret weather control experiment for the United Nations. A Japanese team led by Dr. Kusumi, the goal of the mission was the manipulation of weather patterns and barometric pressure. A key element in the experiment was the elevation and detonation of a radioactive isotope at a specific altitude. During the team's first field test radio interference caused their equipment to malfunction resulting in the isotope being detonated at the wrong elevation. A tropical maelstrom engulfed the island pouring down rain with temperatures rising nearly 200 degrees.
Inadvertently Dr. Kusumi replicated weather conditions last seen on the Earth at the dawn of time. The extreme heat, moisture, and radioactivity created a compressed hyper-evolutionary environment for the creatures on the island. After the storm passed, Dr. Kusumi and the others emerged from their barracks to discover the 25 foot tall praying mantises, now named KAMACURAS, had grown tenfold, nearly the size of Godzilla himself.
Shortly thereafter, the team encountered Riko Matsumiya, now a beautiful young woman. Riko had survived the maelstrom and the previous seven years in a hidden cave on the island. There she provided Dr. Kusumi with all her father's notes and research on the island including the information on Kumonga, the hideous gargantuan spider. Like Riko, Kumonga managed to escape any harm that may have befallen it from the storm by burrowing underground. Riko revealed to the team the rocky pit in which the kaiju lay buried beneath.
Later a young kaiju (seemingly an infant of Godzilla's species) and a Kamacuras engaged in a battle near Kumonga's lair. Kumonga rose from its slumber and climbed out of the pit. Riko and another member of the team watched as the horrible arachnid pulled itself up out of the earth. Kumonga tried to ensnare the two humans in its web. They escaped but the spider followed them to Riko's cave where it attacked the entire team. Unable to obtain any of Dr. Kusumi's team, the kaiju instead covered the exterior of the cave in webbing and retreated elsewhere, happening upon the Kamacuras and infant Godzilla.
Quickly the giant spider bound both the little Godzilla and the Kamacuras in its web, dealing the giant mantis a fatal blow with its stinger. Kumonga was a moment away from stinging the infant Godzilla when the adult Godzilla himself happened upon the kaiju. The two titanic creatures engaged in battle, Godzilla first with his radioactive breath, Kumonga attacking with its webbing. Meanwhile Dr. Kusumi and his team opted for one more attempt at the experiment in hopes of lowering the temperature of the island and freezing all the kaiju present.
While Godzilla fought Kumonga, the team rushed to complete preparations. They successfully completed the experiment, detonating the isotope at the proper altitude. Immediately the temperature began to drop. Snow fell from the sky as Kumonga and Godzilla battled. Kumonga's paralyzing webbing and a stinger to Godzilla's eye nearly had the king of the monsters down for the count. Much of the poison in Kumonga's sting oozed out of Godzilla's eye wound and the king kaiju was able to mount a counterattack. Godzilla battered the arachnid over and over and the cold temperatures slowed the spider's movements. With the help of the little kaiju, Godzilla was able to defeat Kumonga.
At that time a United Nations submarine surfaced off the shores of Solgel and rescued Dr. Kusumi and his team and Riko Matsumiya. Riko's father's notes were presented to the world and contributed immensely to the burgeoning field of kaijuology. A posthumous Nobel Prize was awarded, one in which Riko Matsumiya graciously accepted on behalf of her father. Riko soon became a kaijuologist herself and a year later helped head another expedition to Solgel. There they discovered the spider monster yet alive and still healing from its battle with Godzilla.
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| Interior artwork for the book Godzilla Invades America by Bob Eggleton |
ATTACK ON KILAAK
While Kumonga was healing, essentially in self-induced stasis, Riko helped head the United Nations operation to capture and transport the eight-legged kaiju to a new location upon the Ogasawara Islands. This was the first move in what would prove to be a thirty year project of tracking and relocating kaiju across the world. Kumonga was the first resident of what would eventually be called Monsterland and later Monster Island.
In the year 1999 the Earth was attacked by the alien invaders known as the Kilaaks. All the monsters were freed and loosed upon the world. The Kilaaks controlled the beasts through their advanced technology. Earth's forces eventually severed the Kilaaks control over the monsters. Kumonga and the other earth monsters rose to defend the planet against the Kilaaks. At the base of Mount Fuji in the Aokigahara Forest, Kumonga and the other kaiju battled against the Kilaak controlled King Ghidorah. Kumonga covered the three-headed space monster in its paralyzing webbing. Earth's kaiju triumphed and returned to Ogasawara. There the giant spider has remained ever since.
KUMONGA'S BIOLOGY
Gigas-Trigonotarbida Araneae, Kumonga exhibits countless traits inherent to all common modern day Araneae yet also features traits similar with the extinct order Trigonotarbida. Believed to be the ancestor of modern spiders, some kaijuologists theorize Kumonga to be one of the original species of Arachnid to exist on Earth, the progenitor spider species from which all spiders have evolved. No spider in existence today has the combination of traits that Kumonga does making the kaiju a true glimpse into the past.
The kaiju arachnid has eight primary legs and two more smaller legs on both sides of its face. It possesses two small mandibular appendages on both sides of its mouth and eight eyes laid out in an array of four per facial hemisphere. It has black and yellow coloring and a nigh impenetrable exoskeleton, the thickest areas at the ends of each leg. The kaiju also uses these thick pointed ends of its legs as another means of attack. Among the largest kaiju on record, the colossal spider with all eight legs spread wide to the ground covers a larger circumference than any other kaiju with Biollante and Dogora being the only exceptions. With legs together and stiff, the spider stands as tall as Godzilla.
Kumonga possesses the ability to spit silk webbing, a trait found in the scytodidae family of arachnids. The webbing spewed from Kumonga exits as a liquid, quickly congealing into a sticky silk like substance. As it exits, the wedding is coated in a paralytic poison produced in the venom glands housed in Kumonga's chelicerae. The webbing anesthetizing its prey in addition to binding the body, allowing the mammoth spider ample time to approach its prey and deliver a lethal dose of poison. Kumonga's webbing is extremely durable. Fire or extreme heat sources are the only known means of escape from the webbing.
Perhaps Kumonga's most deadly attribute is its stinger. Hidden within its chelicerae (the various pieces of its mouth) large venom glands secrete a gargantuan dose of poison through the stinger. The exact amount of venom injected from one sting has yet to be approximated but the amount is enough to kill an adult sized kaiju. The speed at which the venom is delivered is instantaneous, a staggering thought given the amount of liquid transferring from one beast to another.
And lastly, Kumonga has the strength of limbs to leap great distances, similar to the modern day Salticidae family of spiders. Primarily an antagonistic kaiju, Kumonga however has helped defend the Earth from invaders, if only to cover the world in its deadly webbing and consume all life at a later date. Despite having assisted Earth's defender kaiju, Kumonga, given the chance, would kill any and all life to cross its path.
Review: No matter your opinion of the kaiju itself, Kumonga is a tremendous achievement in terms of puppetry and design. The number of technicians and puppeteers required to bring this kaiju to life must've been as many as Kumonga's legs if not more. And to synchronize all of the puppeteers movements with one another in a convincing and lifelike way is astounding. It's also worthy to note that no other appearance of Kumonga's has contained the intricacy of performance as in Son of Godzilla. Maybe that's because it was such a grueling task and painstakingly long rehearsal that they never had time to repeat it for another movie.
If you're like me and spiders both fascinate you and simultaneously make your skin crawl, Kumonga is one of the most effectively realized kaiju in Toho's roster in both regards. And well photographed too. The close-ups and tight camerawork on Kumonga help mask most significant flaws the kaiju puppet may have had. The close shots also make the kaiju that more sinister and frightening. To be under that close of scrutiny also required the puppet to be all the more detailed and finely crafted. Many monster movies (particularly American monster films) often keep the creatures in the dark or at a distance as to hide the flaws in the design. Not here. Kumonga is shown in broad daylight and in your face.
When you take a step back though Kumonga is merely a spider. The design of the kaiju isn't that imaginative. It's a big spider. The arachnid kaiju doesn't make my top favorites nor is it a kaiju I look forward to seeing again on the big screen. Kumonga just doesn't capture my imagination quite like Anguirus, Varan, or Baragon. Shelob and the spiders of Mirkwood in the Middle Earth films were fantastic but pale in comparison to the Balrog or Smaug. This doesn't take away the fact that Kumonga was extremely well done, one of the best realizations of a kaiju in any Godzilla film, Showa, Heisei, or Millenium.
While not a favorite kaiju of mine personally, I have loads of respect for how well done Kumonga was and the incredible effort by Toho's special effects staff to bring it to life. The only event even more impressive in my opinion is the final battle in Destroy All Monsters. And taking into account all the other giant arachnids in cinema, Shelob, the Black Scorpion (1957), Tarantula (1955) and various others, Kumonga is my personal favorite among those.
In addition to Kumonga's film appearances, the kaiju spider has also been featured in multiple Godzilla comic books from IDW, most notably GODZILLA: LEGENDS #5 and periodically appearing in IDW's book GODZILLA and GODZILLA: RULERS OF EARTH. Kumonga was also featured in the Random House books GODZILLA INVADES AMERICA, GODZILLA: JOURNEY TO MONSTER ISLAND, and GODZILLA VS THE SPACE MONSTER, all by author Scott Ciencin with artwork by Bob Eggleton.
Threat Level: 4 out of 10
Localized Destruction
Destroyer of Earth
