Monarch

"Beyond logic lies truth."

- Quotation found on Monarch identification card

Monarch is a secret scientific organization created by that first appeared in the 2014 Godzilla film, Godzilla, and was a pivotal organization in the 2017 film, Kong: Skull Island.

Formation
Monarch was formed in secrecy in 1946 as a joint coalition between several governments in order to hunt and study massive unidentified terrestrial organisms. The first such creature Monarch studied was Shinomura, a deadly hive-minded radioactive creature composed of many smaller composite lifeforms.

One of Monarch's operatives, Serizawa, also was intrigued by eyewitness accounts of a "giant lizard that walked like a man" that seemed to be chasing Shinomura throughout the islands. Serizawa called this creature "Gojira," after Pacific Island legends describing him. In 1954, Monarch cooperated with the United States military to lure Godzilla and Shinomura to Bikini Atoll, where both were thought to be killed by the Castle Bravo nuclear bomb "test."

Decades later, in 1981, Serizawa told his son Ishiro about his experiences and belief that Godzilla was still alive somewhere. After Ishiro's father died, he was approached by Shaw, a representative of Monarch, who offered him the opportunity to join and continue his father's work. Ishiro Serizawa readily agreed and became a member of Monarch.

Mission: Skull
In 1973, Monarch and Landsat conducted an expedition to an island in the South Pacific called Skull Island, with William Randa, Houston Brooks, and San Lin representing the organization. At this time, the organization was nearly bankrupt.

After returning from Skull Island, Brooks and Lin debriefed survivors, James Conrad and Mason Weaver, before presenting them with a slideshow, showing four ominous cave paintings, with each depicting a giant creature.

Awakening in 2014
In 1999, Ishiro Serizawa and his assistant Vivienne Graham were sent by Monarch to the Philippines to investigate the cave-in of a mine. There, they discovered the skeleton of another member of Godzilla's species that died long ago and two parasitic spores, one of which had hatched.

The creature that hatched from the spore arrived at the nuclear power plant in Janjira, where it attached itself to the reactor to feed. Monarch quickly quarantined the city of Janjira in order to study the creature, codenamed MUTO. In 2014, the MUTO burst free from its cocoon and destroyed Monarch's facilities and flew away. Serizawa and Graham then assisted the U.S. military in tracking and studying the MUTO and Godzilla once he emerged to hunt it.

Timeline
Beginning on June 21, 2017, social media pages for Skull Island began to post weekly videos detailing Monarch's timeline of events from the years 1915 to 2016. While certain timeline events have been named, the full descriptions of said events have not been revealed as of yet.

1915 - Splitting the Atom
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity ultimately leads to the splitting of the atom and the dawn of the Atomic Age. This epoch-defining stage in human evolution will act as a beacon that awakens ancient superspecies sustained by nuclear energy.

1946 - Monarch Founded
In the aftermath and cover-up of the U.S.S. Lawton Incident, President Truman unofficially establishes "Monarch Unit", a small, off-book research team established to engage in the systematic study of "massive unidentified terrestrial organisms". Privately, many of Truman's allies question the validity of the group's theories and work to keep their existence a secret.

1952 - The Great Smog of London
Baffling meteorologists and defying atmospheric physicists, this unexplained phenomenon saw London's streets overwhelmed by huge clouds of air-polluting smoke. Monarch theorizes that the beating wings of a giant creature could have created an anticyclone that unleashed airborne pollutants across the city.

1959 - Siberian Mystery
At the height of the Cold War, aerial photography taken from a Russian spy plane reveals a huge containment facility established around an ice cap in Siberia. The Monarch symbol can be seen emblazoned across the canopy of the structure.

1973 - Mission: Skull
Monarch surreptitiously partners with Landsat and the 1st aviation brigade, 3rd assault helicopter company to mount an expedition to the mythical "Skull Island" in an uncharted corner of the South Pacific. Encountering the god-like superspecies known as Kong, they soon discover that mankind does not belong here.

1991 - Isla de Mona
A covert Monarch team establishes a quarantine zone around the island's dormant volcano, under the guise of "environmental research". Over the coming years, what began as a small scientific outpost will expand to become a full containment facility around the mouth of the volcano.

Notable members

 * Ishiro Serizawa
 * Vivienne Graham
 * William Randa
 * Houston Brooks
 * San Lin
 * Ishiro Serizawa's father
 * Shaw
 * General Douglas MacArthur
 * Doctor Zamalek
 * Singh
 * Aaron Brooks
 * Evgenji Medov
 * Evelyn Matemavi
 * Helen Karsten
 * Walter R. Riccio

Trivia

 * According to Godzilla: Awakening, Monarch was the first mixed Japanese-American government unit created since World War II.

Films

 * Godzilla
 * Kong: Skull Island
 * Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Comics

 * Godzilla: Awakening
 * ​Skull Island: The Birth of Kong