Know Your Monster: 25
RODAN
By any name, Rodan is a survivor. Let me explain. The monster we in the United States call “Rodan” was originally christened “Radon” in his debut Japanese screen appearance in 1956. The name was a contraction 
of the dinosaur this beast most closely resembles — the Pterandon. The name also hinted at the word “radiation,” although radiation didn’t produce Rodan. Instead, he was said to be a prehistoric creature unearthed by miners. And just to confuse matters further, there were actually two Rodans in that original 1956 movie, both of whom died. But by the time Rodan resurfaced as one of Godzilla’s Kaiju cronies, the pair had miraculously morphed into one lone survivor. Got that? Good!
Harking back to his discovery by miners, Rodan is often associated with erupting volcanoes and volcanic lairs. Being nurtured around magma has its advantages. Rodan not only seems impervious to Godzilla’s atomic breath, but also shrugs off King Ghidorah’s gravity beams. Sometimes, he’s depicted as being as big as Godzilla, although usually he’s smaller, though no less durable or deadly.
Rodan’s lightning-fast speed and enormous wingspan allow him to swoop down, like a bird of prey, on hapless victims. In that sense, he mirrors the monster Gyaos, although Rodan is more birdlike and has less in common with the bat. Rodan doesn’t even have to make contact to be effective. Flying at supersonic speeds, hugging the horizon, he can generate hurricane-force gales and building-shattering sonic booms. In the heat of battle, he will peck at enemies with his beak or rip them with his talons.
Here’s the trailer for the English-dubbed version of Sora No Daikaiaju Radon, as the original Japanese film was titled.
Flash forward nearly a half-century later, to the film Godzilla: Final Wars, commemorating Godzilla’s 50th anniversary in 2004. Here, Rodan teams with Anguirus and King Caesar to fight the Big G.
Tomorrow we won’t have a featured monster but instead will introduce a pair of monster’s sidekicks, the Shobijin, the miniature fairies who summon Mothra.
