The Dawn of a New Cold War

Rocks vs. Chips When monsters square off, they are quick to showcase their asymmetrical superpowers. Take Godzilla, for instance. Thanks to U.S. atomic testing in the Pacific, the dinosaur-like sea creature has explosive, radioactive breath that can destroy everything in its path. His archenemy Rodan, meanwhile, is a pterodactyl-like bird that can fly at supersonic speeds, a skill useful in avoiding atomic bad breath. Since the 1960s, the two giant monsters have duked it out across a series of Japanese films, causing much mayhem in the process. Originally the product of Cold War fears of nuclear peril, these archetypal monsters…