Board Thread:General Discussions/@comment-25657117-20141110200654/@comment-25285745-20141111040941

And if Matt Frank, Chris Mowry, and Zilla's official copyright icon are to be believed, the 1998 creature and Zilla are the same in every way except name and Zilla is still just technically an incarnation of the 1998 creature. They may be legally separate characters, but so are Fire Rodan and Rodan, Super MechaGodzilla and MechaGodzilla, and Baby Godzilla, Little Godzilla, and Godzilla Junior.