MUTO Prime

MUTO Prime
Nomenclature
Nickname(s)	Jinshin-Mushi Earthquake Beetle Dragon Beetle Abomination Unclean Thing Jinshin
Biological Information
Species	Titanus Jinshin-Mushi
Forms	Final Stage Adult Stage Cocoon Larval Stage Egg
Weight	~135,000 tons
Status	Deceased
Affiliation Information
Enemies	Godzilla Dagon † Monarch
Relationships	Hokmuto † (Offspring) Femuto † (Offspring)
Production Information
First appearance	Godzilla: Aftershock
Latest appearance	Godzilla Dominion (skull)

The MUTO Prime, also dubbed Titanus Jinshin-Mushi or simply Jinshin-Mushi, was a giant parasitic Titan that appears in the 2019 graphic novel, Godzilla: Aftershock.

Name

The ancient Japanese gave her the name "Jinshin-Mushi", or the "Earthquake Beetle" due to her ability to create earthquakes and her insectile appearance. Her official designation is Titanus Jinshin-Mushi, and she belongs to the same species as the MUTOs. Monarch names her MUTO Prime due to her being larger and more powerful than the regular MUTOs.

Design

Appearance

While sharing the same hunched posture as a regular female MUTO, the MUTO Prime possesses several major traits that easily distinguishes her. The MUTO Prime is significantly larger than a regular female MUTO, has a hardened outer shell covered with razor-sharp back spires, massive clawed forelimbs covered in orange scales and spikes, as well as several smaller pairs of forelimbs protruding from her abdomen. Her forelimbs take on this orange coloration due to her lava-like blood superheating them. Prime's jaws are more defined, along with larger and sharper mandibles. Her exoskeleton is metallic-black in color, and she possesses two red visor-like eyes. Protruding from offices in her skull are four arrow-shaped ovipositors with an orange bioluminescent hue. Unlike regular female MUTOs, Prime walks on four legs instead of six, as it appears that some limbs were fused during the process of metamorphosis. The hind limbs are tridactyl, ending in three claws as opposed to the hoof-like toes of regular MUTOs. Though her exact height is never stated, MUTO Prime was much larger than Dagon. She was also 50% heavier than Godzilla.

Roar

MUTO Prime's Roar is written as "KREEAH".

Personality

MUTO Prime is classified by Monarch as having the behavior of a destroyer. Being the natural predator of his species, she appeared to have an ancient rivalry with Godzilla. Like the regular MUTOs, Prime's main goals revolved around consuming radiation to gain strength, and reproduction. MUTO Prime was only seen attacking humans to obtain sources of radiation or when provoked, and didn't seem to kill out of pure malice. When her eggs have been safely deposited inside a host, they emit a unique sonic frequency known as "the Drums of Raijin", which causes MUTO Prime to switch from fight to flight and retreat underground.

Origins

History speaks of it as the "Earthquake Beetle", or the "Dragon Beetle", but one name etched into ancient stone tablets echoes through myth and legend, and we have come to know it as Jinshin-Mushi; an ancient adversary of Godzilla with a rivalry as old as the Earth itself.

The myth of Jinshin-Mushi has been largely erased from history. Records of the encounters between the legendary titan Godzilla have been difficult to find, limited to intricate paintings on ancient Phoenician stone tablets. But the more we learn about the mysterious superspecies, our knowledge about the MUTOs we have previously encountered increases.

Jinshin-Mushi is an imposing specimen with razor-sharp back spires towering atop a hardened outer shell, making it an unstoppable mountain of a tank as it erupts from the earth. Powerful legs strike the ground like a devastating seismic salvo of cannons heard for miles with each thunderous step, digging into the earth to take a battle-hardened stance on the surface against any Titan aggressor it faces.

Mythological studies suggest that Jinshin-Mushi is genetically programmed to find a suitable host to reproduce. Ovipositors guided by glands sensitive to the scent of uranium in Titan blood pierce the hide with the deadly speed and reflex of a scorpion tail, depositing eggs inside the stomach lining of its slain opponent. Once nested within the muscle tissue, the eggs begin the incubation process. They slowly feed on the nuclear-rich hemoglobin in the Titan host's blood, making the beast unable to replenish atomic energy and eventually killing it. The embryos continue to grow within the body in a gestation period spanning centuries, before finally emerging from the cracked ribcage of a fallen giant as a male and female sub-species with a biological imperative to reproduce, creating a breeding force to consume all life on Earth. We call them MUTOs.

We theorize that seismic activity is created by Jinshin-Mushi's underground travels, staying localized mostly in Pacific regions, causing supershear earthquakes that can rip through the planet's mantel at unstoppable supersonic speeds. And the fear struck with every major earthquake comes not from what will topple to the ground, but what will raise from beneath it.

― Cryptid Profile

Jinshin-Mushis, more often referred to as MUTO Primes, are matriarchs of the MUTO superspecies, and are the final stage in a female MUTO's lifecycle as theorized by Dr. Emma Russell. The evolutionary purpose of a MUTO Prime is to infect other Titans with its parasitic eggs, which would eventually end up killing the Titan host and spawning the smaller, invasive MUTOs. Godzilla's species, in particular, was common prey for a MUTO Prime, which has driven them to the brink of extinction. Through millions of years of evolution, MUTO Primes evolved various traits to become the perfect matchup for Godzilla's species, becoming almost "custom-built" to counter attacks from the Gojira. MUTO Primes target Titanus Gojira due to them being the biggest, best hosts for their young.

In the year 1100 B.C.E, a MUTO Prime was seen by ancient humans attacking a member of Godzilla's species named Dagon and infecting him with her eggs. This same MUTO Prime resurfaced in the year 2014 shortly after the death of her offspring at the hands of Godzilla, leading to the events of Godzilla: Aftershock.

History

Godzilla: Aftershock

Around the year 1100 B.C.E., MUTO Prime encounters a member of Godzilla's species (referred to as Dagon by Monarch), and the two Titans engage in a ferocious battle. Almost immediately, she gains the upper hand, beating down Dagon, but not fully killing him. Using her ovipositors, she inserts two eggs into the stomach lining of the wounded Titan, leaving them to feed off of his nuclear-rich blood while he still lives.

In the year 2014, MUTO Prime resurfaces and attacks a naval base in Guam, attracted to the payloads of the nuclear submarines stationed there. She lifts a submarine with her mouth and crushes it in her mandibles before Godzilla rises from the ocean to stop her. The two have a brief fight before MUTO Prime retreats, burrowing deep underground. Later, Dr. Emma Russell and her associate, Tarkan, travel to Japan to investigate a massive crater that appeared near a temple. The two are lowered into the depths of the crater and barely escape with their lives after MUTO Prime burrows straight through the tunnel.

Shortly afterward, MUTO Prime attacks a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea, splitting it cleanly in half and killing the entire crew. Godzilla appears and rams her away from the sub, but she quickly retreats once again. Meanwhile, Emma Russell travels to Siberia with Tarkan and San Francisco Commission member, Miles Atherton, to investigate yet another crater, presumed to have been created by MUTO Prime. While there, they discover dozens of MUTO egg casings in the remains of a Godzilla.

MUTO Prime continues her rampage, this time attacking a nuclear power plant located in Creys-Malville, France. Godzilla arrives to fight her, and charges directly at her before she can escape. MUTO Prime fights back, swiping at Godzilla with her massive forelimbs, causing blood to be drawn. She manages to knock him down and attempts to stick him with her ovipositors, but Godzilla throws her off before she can do so. The two Titans roar at each other before MUTO Prime burrows into the Earth once more.

After gaining enough evidence from research, Emma Russell presents her findings to her team in the southern Philippines. First, she reveals that the MUTOs are a weaponized sub-species of MUTO Prime, specially evolved to destroy ecosystems and reshape them for their own needs. Emma also reveals that given enough time to grow and mature, a female MUTO can metamorphose into a MUTO Prime, if need be. Finally, she explains that MUTO Prime had killed multiple Godzillas in her lifetime, as evidenced by egg casings found in Siberia and the Philippines. The team begins to put together a plan to help Godzilla defeat MUTO Prime, and deduce that tricking Prime using sonic pulses would be the best option.

Emma and her team travel to Angra Do Heroismo, located in the Azores, to carry out their plan. Utilizing massive speakers, the team blasts sonic pulses to trick MUTO Prime into thinking her eggs have already been implanted in a Titan host. MUTO Prime arrives and realizes she is being tricked. In a rage, she smashes the speakers and causes the Monarch operatives to retreat. Emma realizes that MUTO Prime did not fall for the trick due to the sonic pulses not coming from inside the body of a Titan, as they naturally would. The plan is revised, this time with the pulses to be played from within the depths of a bunker holding nuclear material, located in the Beartooth Mountains, Montana.

MUTO Prime travels to the bunker to feed on the nuclear material stored there. As she approaches the bunker, Godzilla arrives and rams her to the ground. She quickly rises to her feet, and the two Titans proceed to violently pummel and wrestle with each other. While fighting, MUTO Prime releases a sonic roar so powerful that it shatters some of Godzilla's dorsal plates. Emma and Tarkan rush into the bunker and activate a device that blares the sonic pulses, which effectively distracts Prime. With the massive parasite distracted, Godzilla grabs and lifts her onto his back before releasing a massive nuclear pulse from his dorsal plates, sending her soaring into the air and causing limbs to break off. MUTO Prime falls from the sky and slams back onto the ground, heavily wounded. Before she can react, Godzilla crushes her head with a devastating stomp, killing her. With his ancient rival finally defeated, Godzilla makes his way back into the ocean, radiating a pure nuclear energy cloud from his back.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - The Official Movie Novelization

While walking through Monarch's Castle Bravo base in the Caribbean, Mark Russell spots the corpse of the MUTO Prime that Godzilla had killed being dissected and studied by Monarch scientists.

Godzilla Dominion

The fossilized skull of a MUTO Prime can be seen jutting out the side of an underwater cavern amongst other Titan remains as Godzilla swims towards his old lair.

Abilities

Bio-terrestrial nature

The MUTO Prime possessed tremor-inducing legs, which made her capable of producing massive earthquakes. By slamming the ground with her forelimbs, MUTO Prime could trigger shockwaves that would destabilize nearby fault lines in the Earth. As explained by Dr. Emma Russell in the graphic novel, MUTO Prime triggered these massive earthquakes to lure out members of Godzilla's species into a fight they cannot win. Prime was able to claw and tunnel through the Earth's crust with ease, with her underground travels often being mistaken as natural seismic activity. Prime's jaws are evolved for grinding and breaking rocks while digging tunnels.

Claws

MUTO Prime's titanic forelimbs were covered in super-heated spikes and both ended in three hook-like claws. Additionally, she had several pairs of forelimbs underneath her abdomen which all ended in sharp claws used for hacking and stabbing prey. As with the standard MUTO adults, these claws were capable of easily slicing through Godzilla's tough hide and drawing blood.

Lava-like blood

The blood of MUTO Prime is entirely composed of lava. This leads to the superheating of her forelimbs, causing them to reach such high temperatures that they become nearly transparent.

Durability

Unlike the MUTOs, the MUTO Prime had a hardened tank-like outer shell with sharp spires on her back. This spiked armored shell served mostly as protection, as Prime was not seen utilizing it offensively. Throughout her battles with Godzilla, she only suffered negligible damage, and had to be defeated through a powerful nuclear pulse via Godzilla's shattered dorsal plates. Like all Titans, she can survive Gravitational Inversion, a planet's worth of gravity reversed within a split second.

Reproduction

Being a parasite, the MUTO Prime reproduced by inserting her eggs into the stomach lining of a suitable Titan host through ovipositors guided by traces of uranium in the host's blood. Then, the eggs settle within the muscle tissue and incubate, slowly feeding on the nuclear-rich hemoglobin in the host's blood and eventually killing it by draining its atomic energy. After growing for sometimes up to centuries, two larval MUTOs, a male and female, will hatch and mature before beginning to breed rapidly with other MUTOs, creating a "breeding force" capable of quickly overwhelming life on Earth. It is stated by Dr. Emma Russell that any female MUTO can eventually metamorphose into a MUTO Prime if one does not exist or if circumstances demand it.

Sonic roar

MUTO Prime using sonic roar while fighting against Godzilla

The MUTO Prime was able to release a powerful sonic roar, which was so powerful that the sound waves easily shattered Godzilla's dorsal plates. MUTO Prime's eyes would glow red when she used the sonic roar, similar to how Godzilla's eyes glow blue when he uses atomic breath. The sonic roar causes seismic instability, for it evolved to specifically resonate and shatter Godzilla's dorsal plates through "harmonic resonance".

Strength and combat

The MUTO Prime's legs are notably powerful enough to cause tremors strong enough to be heard for miles with each step and destabilize fault lines with a mere punch. Throughout her life, MUTO Prime had killed several members of Titanus Gojira, no easy feat for any Titan, and successfully planted her eggs inside their bodies. Her forelimbs were able to knock Godzilla himself back in one hit, temporarily staggering him. Due to her lava-like blood, her forelimbs were covered in superheated spikes and scales from her shoulders to her wrists, adding extra power and damage to her punches. At first, weakened by several millennia of hibernation, she avoided prolonged combat with Godzilla. However, after steadily consuming more radiation, she grew more powerful with each encounter. But even at her peak, she preferred to utilize her seismic abilities as an easier and quicker way of subduing Godzilla. In her last fight with Godzilla, she used her sonic roar to bring him down and she would have infected Godzilla had she not been distracted by the ORCA device.

Swimming

MUTO Prime could swim underwater quite efficiently, using her massive forelimbs to propel herself through the water. It is assumed that she was a fast swimmer, as even the amphibious Godzilla himself could not catch her as she swam away from him.

Gallery

Jinshin-Mushi's dossier.

Jinshin-Mushi attacks the nuclear power plant.

Jinshin-Mushi emerges from underground.

Jinshin-Mushi breaks open a submarine to eat its nuclear payload.

Trivia

• The rivalry between Godzilla and MUTO Prime echoes the rivalry between Kong and the Skullcrawlers. Like the latter two, Godzilla's species has been rendered nearly extinct by the MUTO Prime, and like Kong, Godzilla was forced to fight and kill the MUTO Prime to ensure his continued survival.
• In Godzilla Dominion, an early design of MUTO Prime can be found in the Titan graveyard in the form of a deceased squid-like Titan.
• According to Arvid Nelson, the author of Godzilla: Aftershock and Skull Island: The Birth of Kong, only with Monarch's help can the current Godzilla beat MUTO Prime, indicating MUTO Prime was powerful enough to rival Godzilla without assistance.
  • When asked about how her abilities would fare with Kong, Nelson and illustrator Drew Edward Johnson provided ambivalent answers: Nelson theorized that Kong's strength could overpower MUTO Prime with blunt force trauma, while Johnson believed that Prime's screech and seismic abilities would afford an advantage against her opponent's strength. Albeit, both have acknowledged that either one's understanding of the Titans could be taken than the other.

List of appearances

Comics

• Godzilla: Aftershock (First appearance)
• Godzilla Dominion

Novels

• Godzilla: King of the Monsters - The Official Movie Novelization (Corpse)
• Godzilla vs. Kong - The Official Movie Novelization (Mentioned)