Godzilla’s best team-ups before Godzilla x Kong

polygon.com:

If there is one thing better than a monster becoming a friend of humanity in order to wrassle with other, less-domesticated kaiju, it’s two or more monsters becoming friends of humanity in order to… well, you get it. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the fifth film in the MonsterVerse franchise and the follow-up to a movie that saw Godzilla and Kong fight and then hesitantly team up at the end, is poised to take advantage of this fine tradition. One trailer even showed Kong riding on Godzilla’s back! That’s cinema, baby.

To honor what might be humankind’s most valuable contribution to the arts, here’s a rundown of all of Godzilla’s previous tag-teams across 70 years of films. They range from forced pairings to wild and fantastical brotherhoods, and some are far more effective than others. Godzilla may have begun as an atomic metaphor and a warning about our own scientific hubris, but he always seems to inevitably loop around to being a 30-story-tall heavyweight champion of the world.

All of the movies below are available to stream onMax and Criterion Channel, or for free with ads on Tubi, Plex, and Pluto TV, with the exception of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (only on Pluto TV), Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (only on Pluto TV), Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (digital rental/purchase only), Godzilla: Final Wars (only on Pluto TV), and the show Zone Fighter (on the Internet Archive).

Prior to Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla was pretty firmly established as a heel. He loves nothing more than destroying major Japanese cities and kicking every other monster off his lawn. But as pro-wrestling logic dictates, a proper face turn often requires the introduction of a bigger, badder villain, and that one comes in the form of King Ghidorah, a world-conquering space dragon that necessitates Godzilla pal around with Rodan and Mothra in order to send him packing.

Godzilla isn’t exactly pleased with the arrangement, and he and Rodan duke it out before Mothra comes in to tell him