Godzilla Vs. Kong will see two of the world’s most famous monsters clash in a battle for the ages, but they won’t be the only ones to make an appearance. A new creation named Camazotz will also feature (alongside, possibly, Mechagodzilla), and will debut in a prequel comic.
The reveal came via Kaiju News Outlet from WonderCon@Home, the major panels of the convention going virtual after the in-person one was cancelled because you know why. Here are a few images of the nightmarish monstrosity from official production art and images from the comic itself.
“Embodiment of nightmares” is what he’s being described as and that’s certainly apt, as this creature looks utterly terrifying, the most fear-inducing aspects of nature’s fauna blended into a chimera of dream-stalking terror. In one of the images, you can even see a number of smaller creatures engaging fighter jets, giving the humans something they can realistically fight while the eponymous gargantuan creatures duke it out, similar to the Skullcrawlers in Kong: Skull Island, which have been confirmed to be returning alongside the new, serpentine Nozuki.
While he looks like Man-Bat in a ‘roid rage, he actually has a precedent in pre-existing legend. Camazotz is a creature originating in Mayan mythology, a half-man, half-bat monster god arising from the association of bats with the night, death, and sacrifice. The tacit implication is likely that this Titan and the entity worshipped by the Mesoamerican culture are one and the same.
He’s been appropriated by pop culture before as well, used as the name of an extinct species of werebat in the World of Darkness RPG setting, and in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower was name-checked as one of the twelve guardians of the Beam that supported the titular monolith, who took the form of a giant bat.
There was no mention of exactly how Camazotz will fit into Godzilla Vs. Kong or how big a part to play he’ll have, but his broken horn might be the result of a previous bout with one of the famous monsters and he’s now out for payback. Either way, his being deemed worthy of appearing in a prequel comic suggests enough consideration that his appearance won’t be as throwaway as many of the Titans featured in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and will be around long enough to strike fear into the hearts of the puny humans standing against him.