Kaiju Summers

by Logan Noble

Lead the Defenders of EARTH PRIME against the KAIJU HORDES – 14 cards per pack, one RARE and one HALO-FOIL HERO guaranteed!

Copy on booster pack of Defenders v. Kaiju (base set)

Whenever we had a spare $3 to our name, my brother Rog and I would buy a booster pack of Defenders v. Kaiju. The nearest place that sold them—at the time, this being rural Michigan, this being the early 2000s—was the Wal-Mart two towns over. Allowance, birthday money, the mythically rare $20 bill that our Uncle Frank would bequeath to us; all money flowed into the card game we’d obsessed over for the last year or two.

To come across a pack of DvK (the name of the game is a bit of a mouthful) was to experience a world of action and devastation. In the future, portals to another dimension open up across Earth and monsters from other dimensions arrive. The Defenders—each piloting Defender Fighting bots—are the final defense.

Rog loved the Defender themed cards. They were good at keeping your life total high and slowing everything down. The leader of the Defenders had a card. Ace Cannon, Bot Captain, who both drew cards and killed Kaiju like it was going out of style. I hated Ace because I loved playing the Kaiju cards. There was Swordhead, the Thunderous, the most powerful of them all. I traded a Game Boy game for a holofoil one (Rog seethed over that for weeks).

So many others. Slasher King, the Gorlurkers, even Megaprimatus the Kind (who helped out Defender cards for some reason). They all went into my deck with the express mission of eliminating Rog’s life total as quickly as possible. Though he’s my older brother, he wasn’t any good at the game. Lacked the focus.

The neighbor kids (Levi and Big Josh) introduced us to the game. They were in high school and had boxes and boxes of loose cards. They had sleeves to protect them and every new starter deck that came out. We watched them play and open packs after school, Dragonball Z roaring from the TV in Levi’s room. We asked questions and were sideline pilots as their games came to a resounding close.

I think we started to annoy them because they eventually gave us two starter decks that they’d grown tired of. The first was called Defender HQ and had Zeppelin Prime (a Defender ship that made Footsolider cards). Rog took that one, his lips moving as he read its abilities. I played the other deck which was headlined by The Cosmos Kaiju Ryu, King of the Beyond.

Big Josh got his driver’s license and ended up giving us a box of cards. We never looked back.

Horrifying KAIJU have arrived on an ICE-COLD ASTEROID. Will the Defenders of EARTH PRIME survive these TERRORS FROM BEYOND!? – 14 cards per pack, one RARE and one HALO-FOIL HERO guaranteed!

Copy on booster pack of Defenders v. Kaiju: Terrors from Beyond (the third expansion)

When we visited Dad for the summer, he’d always take us to a comic book shop in Grand Rapids. He’d collected comic books as a kid, but he never really understood DvK. He’d lecture us on how expensive the cards were, how much worse they were in comparison to baseball cards. Even with his complaints, he took us to buy a pack every time we went to the comic book store. Looking back, I see this ritual as an almighty gesture. My Dad worked odd jobs. He could barely afford rent. Spending his last couple dollars on his two idiot sons and their silly hobby fills me with a hindsight-heavy guilt. Those packs made us happy and I hope that made him happy.

When Dad got remarried, things broke up a little. He had two new sons and they were moving across the country. Rog didn’t want to go back to live with Mom and intended to Dad out west. When Dad bought him a car, the future was sealed. I thought of Big Josh and the dusty boxes of cards we’d inherited. I thought of Rog headed out the door, the sunlight flaring around his head.

The DEAD have arisen! LORD DRACULA OMEGA has led the forces of EVIL upon the populace of EARTH PRIME! Will the Defenders be able to put down the blood-thirsty HORDES OF DRACULA OMEGA!? – 14 cards per pack, one rare and one HALO-FOIL MONSTER guaranteed!

Copy on booster pack of Defenders v. Kaiju: Hordes of Dracula Omega (the eighth expansion)

I see Rog a lot more now. He’s moved back home with his wife Ira and they have two kids about the same age as my youngest. Like the lore of the games, time circles. My nephew Michael loves DvK. And he’s good. He learned from the digital game on his phone and he’s pulled his Dad back in as a sparring partner. My kids are obsessed with video games (why not just play both?) so it’s just my brother, Michael, and me. I still have a pretty good collection, though I sold the really rare stuff to pay for my motorcycle around the thirtieth.

At Christmas, I beat Michael with a deck that I used to take to tournaments in Columbus. Rog is next. He scratches as his beard, the salt-and-pepper growing more pronounced every time I see him.

“Will the Defenders of Earth be able to stand up to the Kaiju hordes?” Rog says, shuffling up.

I pull my first couple of cards off the top of my deck and smile. I’ve got a Swordhead and enough resources to get him out early.

“I guess we’ll see,” I say, knowing that this game won’t last long.