Rodan's History
Rodan is a pterosaur-like kaiju that has been a friend and foe of Godzilla.
An earthquake struck Moscow as a school group visited the Vernadsky State Geological Museum. In the chaos, a student named Mikhail stole a crystalline rock recovered from the site of the Tunguska event in 1908. Outside, countless dead birds fell from the sky. When Mikhail returned home to his room full of exotic pets, he planned to break the stone open, believing there to be diamonds inside. Instead it crumbled to reveal an egg, which hatched into a pterosaur. Mikhail hid him inside of his closet and left for hockey practice, while promising to bring back his neighbors' cat for him to eat. By the time he returned, the pterosaur had eaten all of his pets, growing dramatically in the process, and quickly ate Mikhail as well. The monster flew off, sparing the cat.
At a meeting of the United Nations, Professor Kenji Ando dubbed the pterosaur "Rodan", after Pteranodon. Growing even larger, Rodan continue to terrorize Russia, killing a researcher claiming to have discovered where he, Godzilla, Anguirus, and Battra had come from. As Rodan flew toward Battra in Paris, he passed over Germany, where the army attacked him with a poisonous gas via rocket barrage. Rodan shrugged off the gas and unleashed it on the soldiers below with a single flap of his wings. He arrived in Paris to find Battra cocooned and targeted the insect's masters, the psychic twins Minette and Mallory. Battra emerged just in time and chased off Rodan with his prism beams, but the pterosaur countered, shredding his left wing. With a powerful psychic command, the twins brought the battle to an end, with Rodan now under their control as well. As a newspaper reporting on Godzilla's rampage blew past them, they set their sights on the King of the Monsters.
They found Godzilla in the ruins of Washington, D.C., unconscious after his battle with Mechagodzilla and King Ghidorah. He soon revived, but ignored their commands, causing them to theorize that he was too low on energy. Rodan and Battra then carried Godzilla to a nuclear power plant and dropped him onto it, with Battra blowing it up with his prism beams. Believing that Godzilla was now under their control, Minette and Mallory approached him, only for him to knock them off Battra with his atomic breath. The King of the Monsters quickly defeated Rodan, catching his beak in midair and slamming him into the ground before delivering a flying stomp. Godzilla and Battra then locked beams, causing an explosion that left both half-buried under rubble. Rodan was last seen leaving the area. As humanity began to rebuild, Rodan recovered and left for parts unknown.
Rodan would reappear battling Titanosaurus in Tokyo. Though Titanosaurus was captured after the battle, Rodan escaped. With the arrival of the extraterrestrial kaiju, Rodan and Anguirus teamed up to battle Gigan in Hong Kong. After Gigan's defeat, Rodan appeared in New York and plays an integral role in helping Godzilla defeat Keizer Ghidorah.
Rodan would next appear suddenly attacking Varan and fighting him in a military base. Rodan kept to the air, but the spikes on Varan's back shredded Rodan's wing, forcing him to retreat. Rodan was later seen in a flashback explaining the natural order of monsters, sleeping in a hillside cave. He was also seen on the mural in Infant Island's cave among other flying kaiju. Rodan was later transferred to the Monster Islands, his wing healed, and lived in peace there until the Trilopods attacked. Rodan fell, had his DNA copied by a Trilopod, and was taken to the Trilopod hive along with the other residents of the islands. Much later, King Caesar rampaged through the Trilopod hive, freeing the imprisoned Earth monsters, and Rodan flew to Los Angeles to assist Godzilla in battle. Rodan managed to kill the Anguirus-Trilopod, and fought against Magita, though he was easily swatted aside by the massive Trilopod. After the battle, Rodan, along with the other kaiju, followed Godzilla out to sea.
In Godzilla: Oblivion, several small Rodans lived in an extra-dimensional version of Earth. One of them rose up from a pile of rubble and killed a soldier with his heat beam. He was then confronted by Kiryu, who easily overwhelmed the Rodan until more of his kind showed up and gained the upper hand. Two Rodans were then seen fighting two Mothra larvae when the human team decided to head back to their own dimension.
A larger Rodan appeared later alongside Anguirus, Biollante, Zilla, King Caesar and Mothra as they crossed through an interdimensional portal while Mecha-King Ghidorah was fighting Godzilla. In the following issue, where the monsters were also joined by Hedorah, Rodan first turned his attention towards Godzilla and attacked him from behind while Mothra attacked him from the front. Later, after Mecha-King Ghidorah was defeated by Godzilla, all of the monsters were left behind as the humans left the Earth as it became covered by tiny robotic cells that served as interdimensional doorways.
