Halloween Spooklight: Monsters Unleashed

Last year, we covered the initial MONSTERS UNLEASHED limited series which shined the spooklight on 11-year-old Kei Kawade, also known as Kid Kaiju. An Inhuman with the ability to summon monsters by drawing them, the hero community relied on him to help stop an invasion of interstellar monsters called the Leviathon Horde.

At the end of that giant monster-filled extravaganza, Kid Kaiju and his new team – Elsa Bloodstone and newly created monsters Aegis, Scragg, Slizzik, Mekara and Hi-Vo – got a nice set-up on a terraformed island called Mu thanks to Cullen Bunn and David Baldeon.

In the next MONSTERS UNLEASHED series, the team focused its efforts on stopping regular monsters as well as Leviathons that hadn't been taken care of in the limited series. While on a mission in the first issue, they came upon Mole Man controlling some of the Leviathons, though he  turned out to be working for the new Intelligencia, otherwise known as M.O.D.O.K. 2.0, Mr. Sinister, The Leader and The Mad Thinker.

However, Mole Man had plans of his own which revolved around kidnapping Kei and taking him down into his kingdom below the surface where he wanted the young man to use his powers to resurrect his dead monsters.

With one of their agents going rogue and taking their quarry off the game board, the Intelligencia tasked intergalactic monster hunter Lady Hellbender with getting him back which eventually worked.

The group tried telling Kei that they wanted to help him unleash his full potential, but then broke his pencil and strapped him into a machine that shocked him when he didn't do what he wanted. Going one step further, the Intelligencia sent Leviathons to his island home to threaten his parents.

After defeating the Intelligencia with help from Elsa and a repentant Mole Man, they all teleported back to Mu. Kid Kaiju's monster crew joined together in the form of Smasher, but then so did the Leviathons! After an incredible battle, things went back to normal for Kei, but not for long.

In the wake of that first arc, Kid Kaiju realized he'd been drawing monsters without even realizing, accidentally summoned an even more dangerous version of Fin Fang Foom, saved Elsa, fought giant bees, went to the moon, and even re-teamed with his pal Lunella Lafayette, star of MOON GIRL & DEVIL DINOSAUR! 

Fright Fact

Elsa Bloodstone's become a fan favorite character since her BLOODSTONE series in 2001. Between then and MONSTERS UNLEASHED, she's appeared in NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF H.A.T.E. – which also featured a take on Fin Fang Foom – as well as the Secret Wars Battleworld limited series MARVEL ZOMBIES from 2015. In the latter, Section Commander Elsa Bloodstone helped defend a barrier called the Shield from the ravenous zombie hordes. This one not only pit her against plenty of monsters, but dug into her history with her father Ulysses Bloodstone in a variety of ways that must be seen to be believed.