MUTO Prime

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

Origins
MUTO Prime originated and thrived in the same prehistoric ecosystem as the other Titans, but retreated into dormancy for unknown reasons. Dr. Emma Russell theorized MUTO Prime to be the final stage in a female MUTO's lifecycle, giving the Titan a sort of matriarch status among the species. The evolutionary purpose of a MUTO Prime is to infect other Titans with her parasitic eggs, which would eventually end up killing the Titan host and spawning the smaller, invasive MUTOs. Godzilla's species, in particular, was commonly preyed upon by MUTO Prime, which has driven them to the brink of extinction. Through millions of years of evolution, the MUTO Prime evolved to become "the perfect matchup" for Godzilla's species, and she became "custom-built" to counter attacks from Godzilla and his species. MUTO Prime targets Titanus Gojira due to them being "the biggest, best host" for her 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.

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 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.

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.

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 negligable 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 mature MUTOs, a male and female, will hatch and begin breeding 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
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.