hen it comes to the baddest monster of sci-fi, people just don't think big enough. They usually get about as far as Alien or Predator, and then start arguing about which one would win in a match. But the truth of the matter is, as nasty as Alien, Predator, or a handful of other beings of hideous evil are, they're small potatoes compared to the baddest movie monster of all time.

Sure, the Predator hunts people down and skins them alive like they were Bambi's mother, but he's invisible. How tough would he be if you could see him? And the Alien is a ruthless, pitiless butcher, but it always gets killed in the end (and by a girl no less!).

No, if you're looking for a creature that combines awesome destructive power with a complete and utter disregard for everything we humans hold dear, you need look no farther than Ghidrah, the Three-Headed monster. King Ghidrah, Monster Zero, call him what you will. Ever since his arrival from Planet X (a planet which, according to the movie, is "beyond Jupiter") Ghidrah's ability to wreak devastation and death is unparalleled in sci-fi movie monsterdom. Consider the evidence.

First of all, he's huge. If there was ever an alien menace that deserved to utter the line "puny Earthlings," it's Ghidrah. But even if Ghidrah could talk, he wouldn't bother calling us anything. We're too small. In his heads, we just don't count, and neither do the creatures that inspire such fear in humans. It's all the same to him. Frankenstein? A lumbering thug who wets his pants at the sight of a cigarette lighter. Dracula? Euro-trash who picks on girls while they're sleeping. They're both laughable. Alien? Predator? He wouldn't notice. HAL from 2001? King Ghidrah's got your Y2K Bug right here.

So that leaves the other biggies, the other mega-monsters in the Toho studios pantheon. Here again, King Ghidrah earns his crown. Like Rodan, Ghidrah can cause terrific windstorms by flapping his massive wings; unlike Rodan, Ghidrah looks cool. When Ghidrah descends on Tokyo to wreak havoc, no one looks up to the sky and says "Is that a giant turkey?" Ghidrah holds absolute supremacy in the air. Sure, there's Mothra, but since when was a giant moth (a giant moth, for Pete's sake! Come on!) ever a match for a three-headed dragon that can shoot lightning out of his mouths?

Oh, yeah, I forgot Gameron. A giant, rocket-propelled turtle. Oooh, there's a challenge. I'll give a namecheck to that ankylosaurus thing (I think his name is Baragon), but really, I think we can move on. We all know who's next. Godzilla is King Ghidrah's only true peer. In fact, in a different world, they might be allies.