Jack Kirby’s The Demon by Jack Kirby

Supernatural adventures with spectacular art

Comic book artist extraordinaire Jack Kirby is best known for co-creating many of Marvel Comics’ most famous superheroes. He was Marvel’s number-one artist (both qualitatively and quantitatively) throughout the 1960s. In 1970, however, Kirby got fed up with his treatment by Marvel and jumped over to rival DC Comics. With the new creative freedom that DC allowed him, Kirby created some bold and innovative new comics series. These titles didn’t achieve household-name status like Superman and Batman, but they are nonetheless regarded in hindsight by comics aficionados as groundbreaking and amazing work. One of Kirby’s creations from this period, The Demon, made his debut in September 1972 in his own eponymous series that ran for 16 issues, up to January of 1974. The entire run of that series has been collected in a beautiful paperback edition entitled Jack Kirby’s The Demon, first published in 2008. I’m reviewing the 2017 edition (ISBN 978-1-4012-7718-5).

The story begins in the days of King Arthur. The evil sorceress Morgaine Le Fey, after laying waste to Camelot, hunts down the wizard Merlin. As he flees into another plane of existence, Merlin summons up a powerful demon named Etrigan to battle Morgaine Le Fey’s army of evil minions. Flash forward to the 1970s, and Etrigan is still doing Merlin’s bidding by fighting the forces of supernatural evil. Jason Blood, an expert in demonology, is the human host for the Demon. He undergoes a Hulk-like transformation when Etrigan’s powers are needed. This coexistence with the Demon has granted Jason immortality. He has lived for centuries without aging.

The stories here are somewhat basic: a monster shows up, and the Demon fights him. Like Shakespeare, Kirby draws story material from folklore and public domain literature. There’s a werewolf story, a Phantom of the Opera story, and a Frankenstein story, all with original touches from Kirby. The real attraction here, however, is the fabulous art, which is some of the best Kirby work I’ve ever seen. Kirby seems to have designed this series to allow himself to draw all the things he loves to draw: monsters (reptilian, rocky, furry, metallic), medieval-looking weapons and warfare, bizarre artifacts and machinery, and ugly faces. I don’t know if Kirby ever drew Doctor Strange for Marvel, but if he did, it would have looked a lot like this. This book unfortunately demonstrates that Kirby was not so great at drawing women’s faces. They look like unbaked biscuits with receding hairlines. He was a master, however, at drawing men’s faces, the uglier and craggier the better.

The Demon was not a part of Kirby’s Fourth World saga—a sci-fi/mythological epic that ran through at least four Kirby-created titles. When the Fourth World comics didn’t sell so well, DC asked Kirby to create some new stand-alone superheroes. The Demon was among these early-1970s creations, along with OMAC and Kamandi. Jason Blood, Etrigan’s human alter-ego, resides in an apartment in Gotham City, which sets him up for crossovers with Batman and other DC heroes. Although Kirby only wrote and drew the original 16-issue run of The Demon, the character has since been revived by later DC creators. The Demon has had a handful of his own series over the past half-century and has also guest-starred in the adventures of other DC heroes. Although not an A-list hero, Etrigan the Demon continues to be active in the DC universe today.

Paperback reprints of classic comics are usually printed either in black-and-white on newsprint or in full-color and bright matte paper that makes the colors too bright and garish. This volume, however, is printed on something in between, a clean white sheet with an uncoated texture that makes the colors rich and vivid. It’s very well done. Diehard Kirby fans should own this book.

Above: Cover of The Demon #2, 1972. Below: Spread from The Demon #6, 1973. Art by Jack Kirby. © DC Comics.

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos: Marvel Epic Collection Vol. 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, et al.

Quite exciting when Kirby’s on duty

Before there was Nick Fury, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., there was Sgt. Fury, who led his Howling Commandos on impossible missions for the Allies during World War II. The surly, cigar-chomping sergeant, a creation of Marvel Comics legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, made his debut in 1963. The Marvel Epic Collection trade paperback of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, Volume 1, published in 2019, reprints the first 19 issues of the comic book of the same title. These issues originally ran from May 1963 to June 1965. Marvel’s Epic series reprints classic comics in full-color on bright white matte-coated paper, and the reproduction quality in this volume is really beautiful.

Sgt. Nick Fury, the roughest, toughest sarge in the European Theatre, leads a ragtag bunch of half a dozen military misfits in special forces operations. Based in London, their missions take them to Germany, France, Africa, and even Japan. Each member of the Howling Commandos has his own distinct look, skill set, and personality. The most notable character in the squad is the colorful Corporal Dum Dum Dugan, who would later serve as Fury’s right-hand man in S.H.I.E.L.D.

All 19 of these issues were written by “ex-sgt.” Stan Lee. About half of them were drawn by “ex-infantryman” Jack Kirby. The rest were drawn by “ex-corporal” Dick Ayers, who was also the inker of Kirby’s art. Ayers is a fine artist, but nothing spectacular. Kirby’s work, on the other hand, is really phenomenal. Even when he wasn’t drawing cosmic superheroes or mystic gods, Kirby managed to excel in every genre, even westerns and war comics. Although many panels are spent on the seven commandos just standing around chatting and insulting each other, Kirby, like the Hitchcock of comics, makes these scenes visually exciting, and of course that’s even more true of the combat action sequences. Lee’s stories are well-written as well. The plots are sometimes rather formulaic, as one would expect from adventure fiction of this era, but there is enough complexity and variety in the Howlers’ exploits to keep things interesting. It is amazing how many words of dialogue Lee packed into his 1960s comics. Fury and company have got to be the most loquacious commandos in the history of the U.S. military.

Unlike Harvey Kurtzman’s tales of the horrors of war in EC Comics’ Two-Fisted Tales, these are not the kind of stories that win awards. This is pure popcorn-munching pulp fiction. In Lee and Kirby’s hands, WWII is a stage for adventure, heroism, and patriotism. In television terms (for those who remember the 1970s), Kurtzman and company might have been making M*A*S*H, but Lee and Kirby were making Baa Baa Black Sheep. The Germans in these Sgt. Fury stories are typical evil stereotypes like one sees in war movies of the period. Racism and anti-Semitism feature in a few issues, but there’s no hint of the Holocaust. Though Fury and the Howlers do not fight any supervillains, they are still connected to the Marvel Universe. Nazi Barons Strucker and Zemo make appearances, and Captain America and Bucky guest star in one issue. Even Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four makes a pre-superhero cameo as an OSS agent.

In general, I would rather read a superhero comic or a western comic than a war comic, but Lee and Kirby kept me well-entertained with these first 19 issues of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. Although they present a sanitized version of the war, that was the norm for this time period. Subject to the comics code, Marvel had to keep things kid-friendly, and I know that my childhood friends and I, whose parents and grandparents served in WWII, would have loved these stories.
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Essential Fantastic Four, Volume 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Glory days of the Silver Age

Essential Fantastic Four, Volume 1 reprints the first twenty issues of the Fantastic Four comic book, which originally ran from November 1961 to November 1963, as well as the first Fantastic Four Annual from 1963. Marvel’s Essential series reproduces comics in black-and-white on newsprint paper. I have previously read the first ten issues of Fantastic Four in Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Volume 1, which reprints the comics in color on glossier paper. With over twice as many issues included, however, the Essential version gives one a better idea of how the characters and the series developed over time.

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s work for Marvel in the 1960s was truly groundbreaking, and perhaps no title was more innovative than Fantastic Four, which they immodestly subtitled “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Though the FF bears obvious similarities to an earlier team of heroes that Kirby created for DC, the Challengers of the Unknown, the addition of a woman to the cast and the introduction of a family dynamic among the heroes made the FF a unique reading experience for its era. While saving the world, the FF faced real-life problems and displayed the personality flaws of mere mortals. At the same time, however, this was the most sci-fi of Marvel’s Silver Age superhero titles, and the Four faced bizarre and outlandish menaces at every turn. In these first 20 issues, Lee and Kirby introduced villains that would prove eminently memorable for decades to come, most notably Dr. Doom, Marvel’s all-around top bad guy. In addition to resurrecting Bill Everett’s Golden Age character the Sub-Mariner, Lee and Kirby introduce readers to the Mole Man, the Skrulls, the Puppet Master, the Impossible Man, the Red Ghost and his Super Apes, the Mad Thinker, the Molecule Man, and Rama-Tut (later revealed to be an incarnation of the time-traveling Kang).

These landmark stories are not without their flaws, however. The first is the role of Susan Storm, the Invisible Girl. She hasn’t yet discovered her ability to create force fields, so her powers here are limited to just turning herself invisible. This gives her very little to do but play the hostage in most situations. On the other hand, the other three members protest too much when they assert that she plays a valuable role in the team by providing moral support to the men. In contrast, the powers of the Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic seem almost limitless. Like some orange version of Green Lantern, the Torch seems to be able to make all sorts of unreasonable constructions out of flame. He can even create “fire that doesn’t burn” and holographic “flame images.” He already knows he can burn hotter than a supernova, which always seemed ridiculous, but even more so in these earlier tales. Reed Richards can manage his stretching ability so well he’s able to squeeze through molecule-thin gaps, and one panel describes him as a judo expert!

Though these issues were some of the most innovative comics for their day, to the modern reader the first 20 issues do start to get a bit monotonous. Dr. Doom and the Sub-Mariner make multiple appearances, the Thing continually changes to Ben Grimm and back, and the squabbles between team members start to get repetitive. Fantastic Four Annual #1 is a great addition to this volume because the epic 37 page story gives Kirby a chance to indulge in elaborate world-building visuals for the Sub-Mariner’s Atlantis, like an undersea Asgard. In terms of plot, these first few years of the Fantastic Four have their ups and downs, but Kirby’s art is always a joy to behold, and there’s no denying that these initial stories laid a monumental foundation upon which to build many classic comic adventures to come.
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Black Panther Epic Collection, Volume 1: Panther’s Rage by Don McGregor, et al.

Overrated jungle action

The Epic Collections from Marvel Comics are a series of trade paperbacks of classic comics reprinted in full-color on matte-coated paper, making these books a step in quality above the black-and-white Marvel Essentials series. The Black Panther Epic Collection: Panther’s Rage, published in 2016, reproduces the title character’s initial 1966 appearance in issues 52 and 53 of Fantastic Four before settling into the Panther’s solo adventures in Jungle Action issues 6 to 24, running from 1973 to 1976. Panther’s Rage is Volume 1 of the Black Panther Epic Collections, which is followed by two additional paperbacks (as of 2021), Volume 2: Revenge of the Black Panther and Volume 3: Panther’s Prey.

The two issues from the Fantastic Four title are classic five-star work by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. One can see why they chose to subtitle the FF “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Kirby’s artwork has never looked better. In this adventure, it is unclear to the FF whether the Panther is friend or foe, but they eventually team up against the Panther’s archenemy Klaw.

If its possible to have two archenemies, the Black Panther’s second major nemesis would be Erik Killmonger, a Wakandan who tries to overthrow T’Challa and usurp his throne. This villain figures largely in the pages of Jungle Action, wherein runs a twelve-issue story entitled “Panther’s Rage.” This run is highly regarded as the quintessential Black Panther epic, and it influenced the writing of the 2018 motion picture. In reality, however, the comics are far less impressive than the movie based upon them. As a villain, Killmonger is little more than a big bruiser who looks, acts, and dresses like a professional wrestler. Far more interesting is his pantheon of henchman, which includes such freaky types as Baron Macabre, King Cadaver, and Salamander K’Ruel.

Writer Don McGregor is white, but he does a good job of introducing elements of African culture into the stories without being stereotypical or corny. The Panther’s girlfriend, however, seems deliberately modeled after Pam Grier’s persona in blaxploitation films. This love interest allows for many interludes of soap opera romance, but otherwise McGregor’s plots are often little more than extended brawls dressed up with ostentatious verbosity. The Panther undergoes torture in each issue, his uniform torn to shreds (what, no vibranium?) as he gets whipped, burned, and broken by his foes. It calls to mind the kind of masochism often found in Wolverine comics, though in Logan’s case his healing factor often allows for an element of humor. Here, McGregor seems hell-bent on constantly depicting the Black Panther as a Christ-like figure. “Panther’s Rage” is followed by another long story arc, “The Panther vs. The Klan.” This ends unfinished, however, because the Jungle Action title got cancelled. The plot threads were later picked up in the Black Panther limited series of 1988 (included in Black Panther Epic Collection, Volume 2).

With the exception of the two Kirby issues and the occasional guest star, the art is about evenly split between Rich Buckler and African American artist Billy Graham. Both are helped considerably by Klaus Janson’s inks. Neither is a great renderer of the human figure, but there is an admirable concerted effort made towards innovation in page layout that is clearly influenced by Will Eisner’s The Spirit. Such graphic experimentation is really the best thing these Black Panther comics have going for them. Though notable for their forward strides in racial diversity, the Jungle Action issues are by no means Marvel masterpieces, just decent, slightly above average workmanship.
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Black Panther Epic Collection, Volume 2: Revenge of the Black Panther by Jack Kirby, et al.

A less than kingly collection, except for Kirby

Among the many trade paperbacks put out by Marvel Comics are the Epic Collection series, which gathers classic stories of the past and reproduces them in full color. The Black Panther Epic Collection: Revenge of the Black Panther, was published in 2019. It reprints issues 1 to 15 of the Black Panther’s solo series (1977-1979), which continues in three issues of Marvel Premiere (#51-53, 1979-1980). Also included is a short story from Marvel Team-Up #100 (1980) featuring Black Panther and Storm, and the four-issue Black Panther miniseries from 1988. The editors also throw in a few relevant pages from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Though it’s not clearly marked on the cover, this Epic Collection is actually Black Panther, Volume 2. The character Black Panther debuted in Fantastic Four #52 (1966). His solo adventures in the pages of the Marvel title Jungle Action are generally considered to be the quintessential Black Panther adventures prior to the Modern Age of Comics (mid-1980s to the present). Those early adventures are collected in Black Panther Epic Collection, Volume 1: Panther’s Rage. The stories included in Volume 2: Revenge of the Black Panther are not at all quintessential Black Panther comic; at least I hope not, because they are not of particularly distinguished quality. The one remarkable thing about this volume, however, is that issues 1 through 12 of the 1977 Black Panther series were written and drawn by Jack Kirby, one of the most important figures in the history of not only Marvel Comics but comics in general. Kirby’s art in these issues is spectacular, and his stories are characteristically bizarre. Don’t expect to learn a lot about Wakanda or the history of the character, however, as Kirby mostly has the Panther fighting space aliens and monsters, similar to what he just got done doing with Captain America in the mid- to late ‘70s.

No doubt one of the reasons for reprinting old Black Panther comics is to capitalize on the recent motion picture. Those who only know T’Challa from the movie, however, may be surprised or disappointed from what they find here in Volume 2. Although I enjoyed Kirby’s take on the character, I can’t say I learned much about T’Challa or Wakanda from reading this book. In the movies, Wakanda is depicted as a technologically advanced society. While that’s hinted at in these comics, a lot of the Panther’s power comes from magic and mysticism. In the 1988 miniseries T’Challa inexplicably has cat’s eyes. Though his suit is laced with vibranium, it doesn’t have a lot of gadgets in it. In his early days the Black Panther was mostly just a good fighter, on a par with Captain America’s strength but with more kung fu skills.

The second half of the book, without Kirby, is not very good at all. The ten-page story from Marvel Team-Up by Chris Claremont and John Byrne is fine, but the remaining issues are handled by artists and writers whose talents are middling at best. The Panther’s archenemy is Klaw, a being made of “solid sound,” who makes for a rather silly nemesis. The 1988 miniseries has the Panther battling the Ku Klux Klan and South African apartheid, but any social realism is undermined by the extensive emphasis on the Panther’s mystical origins. As the first Black superhero, Black Panther was a groundbreaking character, but in the ‘70s and ‘80s, most of the Black superheroes were still treated as second-rate characters who got second-rate powers and story lines. That’s apparent from this collection, though one has to give credit to Kirby for the Herculean effort he puts into his issues.
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Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Volume 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

The dawn of Marvel’s Silver Age
The Marvel Masterworks series reprints classic Marvel Comics in hardcover and trade paperback editions. Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Volume 1 reprints the first ten issues of The Fantastic Four, which were originally published from November 1961 to January 1963. The FF was created by Marvel’s greatest Silver Age creative duo, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who handle the story and art for all ten issues featured here.

As early as issue number 3, Marvel began billing The Fantastic Four as “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine,” but the first two or three issues don’t quite live up to such high praise. In the debut issue, the origin story is breezed through very quickly, the FF become instant celebrities without proving themselves, and a very underdeveloped Mole Man shows up for a story not much different than many of the monster comics Lee and Kirby used to crank out in the 1950s. In the next couple issues, the Skrulls are introduced and the Sub-Mariner is resurrected from the 1940s, but the stories so simplistic they make you wonder how Marvel ever went on to build such elaborate mythologies around these characters. In these first few issues, Kirby’s art is also subpar and appears a bit rushed.

By issue number 4, however, the series is in full swing and perhaps worthy of its tagline. Kirby’s art really starts to shine, and one begins to see the complex stories one expects from this creative duo. Doctor Doom makes his debut, and right from the get-go he is one of the most interesting and formidable villains in superhero comics. The odd family dynamic between the group members blossoms, with all their unique quirks and personal grievances on display, such as the constant animosity between the Thing and the Human Torch and the uncertain romance between Reed Richards and Sue Storm. (She’s got a thing for the Sub-Mariner.) The team’s fantasticar and the Baxter Building headquarters are already established by issue 3. In fact, the FF’s mythology gets developed so quickly that by issue 10 one can already see the repetition of familiar themes. In these first ten issues, the Thing reverts back to Ben Grimm three times, and on at least two occasions some form of mind control causes one of the members to battle the others, as will happen again so many times over the next few decades.

Although Lee takes most of the credit for creating the Fantastic Four, the group bears some notable similarities to the DC series Challengers of the Unknown, which Kirby worked on as early as 1957. Though that team was composed of four non-superhero adventurers, they engaged in sci-fi adventures similar to the FF. Two of the Challengers had similar personalities to Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm and engaged in the same persistent bickering, teasing, and attempted clobbering.

One of the great things about the Marvel Universe is that each of the major titles has its own style and tone: Iron Man is the tech hero, Dr. Strange is the mystical hero, Daredevil is the urban hero, and the Fantastic Four are the sci-fi heroes. Likely no other Earth-based superheroes have encountered as many memorably bizarre alien races, lost civilizations, and alternate dimensions as the FF. Even in these first ten issues, the reader begins to see the epic scope of Lee and Kirby’s sci-fi vision. The Fantastic Four was a truly pioneering comic book, and issues one through ten are still a pleasure to read over a half century later. The series would go on to even bigger and better stories, but it would have never gotten there without the strong foundation of these first ten issues.
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Jack Kirby’s OMAC: One Man Army Corps by Jack Kirby

Some interesting ideas rather simplistically executed
Comic book artist extraordinaire Jack Kirby is best known for his pioneering creation of enduring superheroes for Marvel Comics, but later in his career he also briefly worked for DC Comics. In the 1970s, Kirby was granted a fair degree of autonomy to create new titles for DC, and it was during this period that he came up with some of his more outlandish and idiosyncratic creations. One such creation was OMAC, the One Man Army Corps, which only ran for eight issues from 1974 to 1975 (though DC would later resurrect the concept in other incarnations). Jack Kirby’s OMAC, a 2008 volume from DC Comics, reprints all eight issues of Kirby’s OMAC series in full color, along with an introduction by Kirby’s biographer and former assistant Mark Evanier.

OMAC is based on an unrealized idea Kirby had at Marvel to create a Captain America of the future. In a not-so-distant dystopian world, average joe Buddy Blank is transformed into the superhero OMAC, a soldier for the Global Peace Agency. In this new form, he is not only possessed of super strength and speed but also psychically linked to a sentient orbital satellite named Brother Eye, who endows OMAC with auxiliary powers through the transmission of molecular beams. The almost personality-less OMAC is not a particularly compelling hero, but the title allows Kirby to present his science fiction visions of the future of human society. Unfortunately, most of the ideas Kirby comes up with aren’t all that different from what you might see in science fiction movies of the ‘60s, such as android dolls created for human companionship, wealthy oligarchs with private armies, and elderly brains transplanted into beautiful young bodies. Kirby unveils his most original and ingenious idea in issue number 7, “The Ocean Stealers,” but issue 8 ends in a cliffhanger and the storyline is never resolved.

Beyond each story’s presentation of the futuristic villains’ nefarious plans, the stories presented in these eight issues are mostly just simplistic punchfests with terrible dialogue. There is little of the narrative complexity and attention to character development that marked the early Stan Lee and Kirby masterpieces. These 18- to 20-page OMAC stories feel like 7- or 8-page sci-fi tales from 1950s issues of Strange Adventures that have been stretched out to fill a larger page count. The art is not quite up to Kirby’s usual standard of excellence either. Perhaps his herculean workload caused him to cut corners, perhaps one can blame it on the inkers, or maybe the fault lies with DC. While Kirby’s layouts for Marvel were always bombastically action-packed and dynamic, his OMAC frames are much more static and simple, as is historically characteristic of DC’s artistic style, though occasionally you get one great, highly detailed splash page that calls to mind his former glories. After his ‘70s tenure at DC, Kirby would return to work for Marvel and do much better work, both writing and drawing, on their Captain America title (see the paperback volume Essential Captain America, Volume 5). OMAC, however, calls to mind Kirby’s early ‘80s work in animation for Hanna-Barbera, like the cartoon series Thundarr the Barbarian.

Kirby’s 8-issue run on OMAC inspires mixed emotions. On the one hand, you get to see a genius at work; on the other hand, this isn’t exactly a work of genius. If you are not a diehard Kirby fan, you might be better off skipping OMAC and exploring other Kirby worlds like those of the Eternals or the New Gods.
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Monsters Unleashed Prelude by Stan Lee, et al.

Old monsters gooooood! New monsters baaaaaad!
Before the incredible Hulk, the Thing, or the Man-Thing made their first appearances in the Marvel Comics universe, there were Grottu, Gorgilla, Groot, Goom, and Googam. Prior to the Silver Age superhero explosion, creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby filled the pages of titles like Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense with stories of giant monsters terrorizing humanity. In 2017, Marvel paid tribute to its monster-comics heritage with Monsters Unleashed, a crossover event in which Marvel heroes clashed with a variety of creatures, including some resurrected from those early Lee and Kirby stories. The trade paperback Monsters Unleashed Prelude was published as a companion volume to this event. The first half of the book reprints 13 of those classic Lee and Kirby monster tales of the 1950s and early ‘60s. The second half of the book reruns five issues of monster-related comics from 2015 and 2016. All art is reproduced in full color.

Since comic books like Tales to Astonish were anthology titles, the Lee and Kirby stories generally run about seven pages, or fourteen pages for a two-parter. The stories adhere to a common formula, but with enough variation to keep them interesting. Each monster is either the result of a science experiment gone wrong or an alien visitor set on conquering Earth. Some of the creatures are dumb brutes, but most are highly intelligent and have some way of communicating with English speakers either through telepathy or quick study. After each monster makes his entrance and reveals his fearsome name (e.g. Rommbu, Vandoom, Orrgo, etc.), he will then show off his destructive power for three or four pages. At this time it was prohibited, or at least highly frowned upon, to show anyone getting killed in a comic book, so you won’t find these monsters tearing up big cities like Godzilla. Instead, they are always in rural locations with few people around, and they mostly scare rather than hurt. In the end, one clever fellow, usually a scientist by trade, discovers some ingenious method of outsmarting the monster, neutralizing its power and defeating it. The stories tend to blend into one another after awhile, but the main attraction here is Kirby’s visionary art.

The comics reprinted in the second half of the book include Fearless Defenders #8 and Marvel Zombies #1, which give the reader an introduction to monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone. Next is Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1, a recent retread of an old Jack Kirby creation. Rounding out the volume is Totally Awesome Hulk issues #2 and #3, which feature another powerful lady monster hunter named Lady Hellbender. Presumably these issues were chosen because these characters would feature prominently in the Monsters Unleashed crossover. At times the flashy art is appealing, particularly Frank Cho’s work on Totally Awesome Hulk. The writing, however, barely amounts to stories, and the scripts consist of choppy dialogue that rarely includes a complete sentence. In many ways, these random issues demonstrate how far Marvel has fallen from the glory days of the Silver Age.

It was my interest in classic comics that led me to read this volume, so not surprisingly I much prefer the vintage selections to the book’s contemporary latter half. A comprehensive volume reprinting old Kirby monster comics would easily be at least a four-star read, but this volume is severely hampered by its inferior latter half.
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Essential Captain America, Volume 6 by Jack Kirby, et al.

From classic to comical
Essential Captain America, Volume 6 reprints issues 206 to 230 of Marvel Comics’ Captain America series, which were originally published from February 1977 to February of 1979. It also includes Captain America Annual #4 and an issue of The Incredible Hulk (#232) that concludes a Cap and Hulk crossover.

The previous book, Essential Captain America, Volume 5, was written and drawn almost entirely by Jack Kirby, and is a truly excellent collection, the best in this series so far. Kirby’s run continues for almost the first half of Volume 6, ending with issue 214. Again, his bizarre stories and bombastic art are truly a treat to behold. Issue 208 features the debut of one of Kirby’s most inventive creations, Arnim Zola, the half-man, half-robot Nazi scientist with his face in his chest. Zola is a master of biological engineering, which gives Kirby the opportunity to indulge in all kinds of freaky creatures to torment Cap and the Falcon. Kirby also handles Annual #4, in which Cap encounters Magneto. Whether Cap is facing sci-fi monsters from space or spies, assassins, and terrorists threatening democracy, his adventures are always exceptional in the hands of Kirby.

After Kirby’s departure from the title, Sal Buscema takes over the art and does his usual admirably decent job. Authorial duties are taken over by a succession of short-term writers, including Roy Thomas, Don Glut, and Steve Gerber. In most cases, they really don’t do justice to the character, and the stories often get rather ridiculous. Cap goes on a search for his past, because apparently he underwent memory loss when he took the super soldier serum, and doesn’t remember anything about his life as Steve Rogers. Since when? That was never mentioned before in the previous 150 issues, but the writers wanted an excuse to mess with Cap’s back story. One particularly silly plot involves a mad Nazi scientist who transfers his own consciousness into a 12-foot-tall Captain America robot, and then, not surprisingly, regrets the decision when he realizes what a freak he is. After issue 217 the Falcon disappears, meaning the writers just stop including him in the stories. Several issues goes by before Cap notices he’s gone, and then a kidnapping is drummed up to explain his absence. By that time, with issue 223, the title of the comic has already changed from Captain America and the Falcon to just plain Captain America.

The quality of the stories in this volume vary widely in quality from the superb (Kirby’s work) to the dismal. Towards the end of the volume things perk up a bit with a multi-issue arc from writer Roger McKenzie. Cap and SHIELD face a mysterious organized crime ring called the Corporation. Both sides have their share of assorted super-powered agents, which culminates in a big battle royale. Things get really exciting when the Hulk joins in for the final two-issue crossover. After some of the poorer stories, it is good to see this inconsistent volume wrapped up on a high note. Volume 6 has some pretty good issues in it, but it is clearly inferior to Volume 5. I am looking forward to Volume 7 and the coming of John Byrne.
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Essential Captain America, Volume 5 by Jack Kirby, et al.

Kirby’s back!
Though Volume 4 was a bit of a disappointment, I am happy to report that Essential Captain America, Volume 5 is a return to fine form. This black-and-white paperback from Marvel Comics reprints numbers 187 to 205 of the Captain America and the Falcon comic book series, issues that were originally published from July 1975 to January 1977. In addition, it also includes the Captain America King-Size Annual #3 from January 1976. But wait, there’s more! What really makes this volume exceptional is the inclusion of Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, a Marvel Treasury Special that was an obvious labor of love for writer and artist Jack “King” Kirby.

With the last issue in Volume 4, Steve Englehart’s tenure as writer on the series came to an end. For the first six issues of Volume 5, the writing duties are split between short runs by John Warner, Tony Isabella, and Marv Wolfman. There’s nothing really exceptional about these stories, but the quirky art by Frank Robbins at least makes them a joy to behold. Then the great Kirby returns to the character that he created and assumes both artist and writer roles for the Annual, the Bicentennial Battles special, and the series run from 193 through 205. In contrast to Englehart’s stories, which were rather mundane soap operas, Kirby brings his trademark penchant for epic and cosmic storytelling. While Englehart’s Cap would have seemed woefully out of place tackling threats from outer space, Kirby’s Cap is right at home battling an alien invasion in Annual #3.

The real gem in this collection, however, is Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, a real tour de force by Kirby. In this giant-sized issue, Cap meets a mysterious man named Mister Buda who sends him on an astral journey through time to experience the true meaning of America. Against his will, Cap is transported to Revolutionary-Era Philadelphia, World Wars I and II, the Wild West, the Great Chicago Fire, a nuclear bomb test, and many other scenes throughout America’s history. Though designed to capitalize on our nation’s 200th birthday, the story is not merely an exercise in gratuitous patriotism. Cap sees the dark side of America as well when he witnesses slavery and the persecution of Native Americans. Kirby uses the special issue to express his own personal views of the American dream, which come across as equal parts utopian optimism and liberal criticism. The reader really learns a lot about Kirby from this work. Kirby even gives himself a guest appearance, as a child, in a scene set in the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, in the Captain America and the Falcon series, Kirby delivers a story about a secret society of neo-monarchists who want to overthrow America’s democratic government and return the nation to the days of pre-Revolution aristocracy. This storyline, which takes up the better part of 1976, is exactly the sort of terrorist threat that a patriotic superhero like Cap should be facing, and in the hands of Kirby it is a rollicking good time. The volume ends with a few stories of interdimensional invaders and other sci-fi monsters that one expects from Kirby’s audaciously bizarre, out-there imagination. Needless to say, throughout the volume his art is absolutely superb. If you are a Kirby fan, this is some of his best Marvel work. After having recently read through the first five volumes of Essential Captain America, I can confidently say that if I were to buy just one of these books, Volume 5 would be the one to get.
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Essential Captain America, Volume 2 by Stan Lee, et al.

More 1960s fun with Cap (and introducing the Falcon!)

This second volume of classic Captain America comics from the Marvel Essentials series picks up where Volume 1 left off. Essential Captain America, Volume 2 reprints issues 103 to 126, which were originally published from 1968 to 1970. All the stories were written by Stan Lee, and initially the art is provided by Jack “King” Kirby, but he departs after the first several issues included here. The middle of the book features brief stints by artists John Romita, John Buscema, and Jim Steranko. The latter was highly regarded back in the day for his innovative page layouts and psychedelic imagery, but in hindsight his art seems overrated and takes too many liberties with the human figure. With issue #116, Gene Colan settles in for an extended stay as artist, and his work is superb. This unsung master’s artistic style, combining the thunderous bombast of Kirby’s work with the anatomical fidelity of Neal Adams, is the perfect graphic complement to Stan Lee’s rollicking adventure stories.

Speaking of which, Lee’s storytelling has improved since the last volume, but it’s still pretty bizarre. The Red Skull continues to make frequent appearances, but thankfully he’s not as ubiquitous as before. MODOK and AIM show up more often, Batroc makes a couple reappearances, Dr. Faustus is introduced, and bad guys from other Marvel titles, like the Trapster and the Scorpion, each stop by for an issue. These villains usually have no plan or objective beyond the assassination of Captain America. Rick Jones (the Hulk’s best friend) decides he wants to be Cap’s sidekick and dons the old costume previously worn by Bucky Barnes. The ease with which he falls into the role defies belief, and his presence is usually more of a burden than a help. In Volume 1, Cap’s secret identity was revealed, and the whole world came to know him as Steve Rogers. In this volume, Lee comes up with a cockamamie plot to fake Steve Rogers’s death, thus negating the identity reveal, but then Cap goes back to being Steve Rogers anyway, as if nothing ever happened. The biggest development within these issues, however, is the debut of the Falcon, one of Marvel’s pioneering black superheroes. He won’t become Cap’s official partner until Volume 3, but he appears in four or five of the issues included here. Although his origin story is a little weird, towards the end of Volume 2 the Captain America title starts to display inklings of an increase in urban realism that would characterize the Falcon’s tenure as co-headliner. 

The tone and subject matter of these issues vacillates between scenes of artfully violent hand-to-hand combat and more pensive moments in which Cap broods over thoughts of loneliness and love. He is still chasing Sharon Carter, but their relationship is not working out because he wants her to give up her career as a SHIELD superspy. (Cap may be a liberal, but he’s not yet a feminist). These moments of heartache and tribulation often seem lifted from a sappy romance comic, but when drawn by Kirby or Colan they at least have the appearance of film noir.

In summation, there’s nothing here that will really go down in history as a Marvel masterpiece, but for the most part it’s just good solid storytelling and art. At times the plot points come across as kitschy or ridiculous, but that’s part of the nostalgic fun. Like it’s predecessor, Volume 2 is an enjoyable trip down memory lane, and I am looking forward to reading the further exploits of Captain America and the Falcon in Volume 3.
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The Best of Simon and Kirby by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

Golden Age masters of multiple genres
In the Golden Age of Comic Books, from the late 1930s through the 1940s, few comics creators achieved the renown of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The two were among the first writers and artists ever to sign their names to a comic book, and the phrase “by Simon and Kirby” was a badge of quality sought after by readers of that era. The duo operated their own independent studio, and produced comics for a variety of publishers. Their innovative style broke new ground in comic storytelling and exerted an enduring influence on the development of the art form. Published in 2009, The Best of Simon and Kirby publishes an impressive collection of this creative duo’s work, interspersed with brief informative essays by comics historian Mark Evanier.

Though Simon and Kirby are probably best known for the superheroes they created, the superhero stories included here are surprisingly disappointing. A Captain America story is included, as is the Fighting American, Simon and Kirby’s own self-knockoff of Captain America for another publisher. The Vision, the Fly, the Sandman, and Blue Bolt all make rather lackluster appearances. This version of the Sandman bears no resemblance to later characters with that name, and doesn’t appear to have any superpowers at all, just a silly generic purple and yellow costume. The short-lived character Stuntman shows some promise, but in general these 1940s superhero tales come across as somewhat amateurish, both in storytelling and art, especially when compared to Kirby’s later Silver Age glories in the genre. Likewise, the stories in the section on science fiction are nothing to write home about either.  

Though organized thematically, not chronologically, the comics definitely get better as the book goes along. Once past the superheroes and sci-fi, the quality of the stories improves considerably, both narratively and visually. The stories representing the romance, crime, western, and horror genres are excellent; so good, in fact, that they really make you wonder how superhero fiction became the dominant genre in comics at the expense of those other pulp fiction categories. Simon and Kirby’s stories were the result of collaboration both in story and in art, but in the second half of this book one can see the development of Kirby’s mature style, and it is a vast improvement over the stories earlier in the book. My favorite section of the book is the western chapter, largely because the art is just incredible. Nobody could draw western comics with such vivid detail and thrilling action as Kirby. Regrettably, the book ends on a low note with a final chapter entitled Sick Humor. Simon and Kirby produced a comic magazine called Sick to compete with MAD magazine, but the humor is neither very sick nor very funny, just stupid and juvenile.

There’s no denying that Simon and Kirby were groundbreaking creators who changed the course of comics history. Their prolific output and the staggering variety of projects they tackled is truly admirable, and the fun they had producing these comics is contagious. They didn’t hit it out of the park every time, however, and with daring experimentation sometimes comes failure. A lot of the comics in this book feel antiquated and clumsy, particularly when compared to the works of Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman, two individual writer/artists from this era whose works still come across as timeless and innovative when viewed today. Still, this book is a great nostalgia trip back to comics’ Golden Age and at least half of its pages are packed with some really great comics. For anyone interested in comics history, particularly fans of Kirby, this is a must-read.
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Essential Captain America, Volume 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Cap’s freshly thawed adventures of the 1960s
When I was growing up and reading comics in the 1970s and ‘80s, Captain America was my favorite character. He was never as powerful as most of the other heroes in the Marvel Universe, but he triumphed through sheer bravery, tenacity, and nobility of spirit. Captain America was created in 1941 by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Timely Comics. In 1964, after Timely became Marvel, the character was revived by Kirby and Stan Lee. When Lee and Kirby created the Avengers, Captain America was found frozen in a block of ice and brought back to life to fight evil anew. Shortly thereafter, Cap received his own adventures in the pages of Tales of Suspense, beginning with issue number 59. At issue number 100, Marvel changed the title from Tales of Suspense to Captain America. Essential Captain America, Volume 1 reprints these adventures of the resurrected hero through issue number 102.

Tales of Suspense was a series shared between Captain America and Iron Man, therefore each character only got 10 pages in each issue. Even so, it’s pretty amazing what Lee and Kirby could do with Cap in just 10 pages, especially when you consider most of those 10 pages were devoted to fight scenes, with the creative duo constantly finding new ways to write and draw hand-to-hand combat. Even though Cap was an active member of the 1960s Avengers, a large portion of the stories here take place during World War II. That’s a bit disappointing, because the war stories get somewhat monotonous, and the only villain who’s in any way remarkable is the Red Skull. These WWII adventures of Cap and Bucky are not nearly as interesting as those created for the Invaders series that Marvel would publish beginning in 1975. 

The latter half of the book more satisfyingly focuses on Cap’s present-day (1960s) adventures, but still the Red Skull dominates almost every story. Although he may be Cap’s arch-enemy, he is not one of Marvel’s more creatively evil supervillains, just a sort of Lex Luthor-type mastermind who once served Hitler. He comes up with master plans, but somehow never manages to kill Cap when he has the chance. The number of times the Red Skull is presumed dead is just ridiculous. Some welcome variety is provided by the first appearances of Batroc the Leaper, MODOK, and the Super-Adaptoid. The scientific mafia A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) is also featured in several of the later issues. There aren’t many guest stars in these stories but for the occasional Avengers cameo, until issues 98 to 100, in which Cap teams up with the Black Panther. 

Cap has a love interest who makes several appearances in this volume, but although he just about proposes marriage to her at one point, issue after issue goes by without him ever asking her name. Known only as Agent 13, she will eventually be revealed as Sharon Carter, though that doesn’t happen in this book. Cap also remembers a love he lost in World War II, which likely will eventually turn out to be Peggy Carter.

Even when the stories get tiresome, Kirby’s art is phenomenal. In the glory days of the Silver Age, no other artist could touch him. He only draws about two-thirds of this book, with various other artists filling in here and there. Personally, I think the Captain America stories of the ‘70s, when he teamed up with the Falcon, were better than these rather simplistic ‘60s tales. Still, it’s a lot of fun to read these newly-thawed adventures of my favorite childhood hero and to marvel at Kirby’s spectacular art.
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Showcase Presents: Challengers of the Unknown, Volume 1 by DC Comics

The prototypical fantastic four

Showcase is the name of a long-running anthology series from DC Comics that often introduced new characters on a trial basis before they were considered worthy of their own series. Showcase Presents is the title of the series of trade paperbacks in which DC now reprints their classic comics in black and white collections. This volume, published in 2006, collects the first adventures of the hero team The Challengers of the Unknown, starting with their appearances in Showcase issues 6, 7, 11, and 12, which ran from 1957 to early 1958. After that, they were granted their own series, the first 17 issues of which are also reprinted here, running through January of 1961.

The Challengers arrived a little too early to be part of the Silver Age superhero renaissance led by Marvel Comics in the early 1960s, but they could be considered precursors to it. The team was created by superhero artist extraordinaire Jack Kirby, possibly in collaboration with writer Dave Wood. The Challengers are four tough guys who, after having survived a plane crash, consider themselves living on “borrowed time” and decide to devote their lives to facing danger, solving bizarre mysteries, and combatting unusual menaces. The roster includes pilot Ace Morgan, champion wrestler Rocky Davis, underwater explorer Prof Haley, and circus acrobat (later described as mountain climber) Red Ryan. Though not endowed with superpowers, the team bears a nascent resemblance to the Fantastic Four, not only in quantity and matching suits but also in the brand of science fiction dangers they face.

The main attraction of the early Challengers adventures is Kirby’s art. His visual storytelling is superb, his panels action-packed, and he populates each page with a wondrously visionary array of awesome extraterrestrial beasts and stunning futuristic technology. The stories, on the other hand, are nothing to write home about. In a typical issue, the four encounter an evil scientist who digs up some ancient relics that grant him superpowers or allow him to conjure up giant monsters. Another common plot device is an alien who comes to Earth to enlist the Challengers’ help in fighting an evil mad scientist on his own planet. Though utterly predictable, what makes these stories enjoyable is the audacious imagination and hyperbolic rhetoric with which each peril is drawn and described. The most disappointing thing about the early Challengers stories is that, despite their various areas of expertise, there’s little to distinguish one team member from another, and they never disagree on anything. The key method of identifying each Challenger seems to have been hair color, which of course doesn’t help those reading these comics in black and white.

Kirby left the Challengers series after issue #8 (June/July 1959), which is about halfway through this volume. From that point on, the creative duties were taken over by artist Bob Brown and a writer unknown. Brown is a more than competent comics artist for the era, but needless to say he doesn’t measure up to King Kirby. The stories also get noticeably less exciting in the second half of the book. Surprisingly, however, once Kirby leaves, the Challengers begin to behave more like the Fantastic Four! Red Ryan assumes the mischievous personality of the FF’s Johnny Storm, while Rocky Davis becomes the spitting image of Ben Grimm. The prankster picks on the big lug, while the latter promises to clobber the former. This starts around 1959, two years before Kirby would cocreate the Fantastic Four. The Challengers comics don’t quite measure up to Kirby’s later greatness, but they are an interesting episode in comics history, particularly for those who enjoy DC’s science fiction comics of the ‘50s and ‘60s. The Kirby material merits a rating of four stars, while the post-Kirby stories are only good for about three.

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Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe

From excelsior to excess
At first I was a little skeptical about the subtitle of Sean Howe’s 2012 book Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and have read other books on the company’s history. After finishing Howe’s version, however, I’m happy to report that his investigative journalism into Marvel’s past is quite impressive, and the book makes for a truly fascinating read.

For the first couple chapters, I wasn’t so sure. In Chapter 1 Howe covers the entire history of Marvel, formerly known as Timely Comics, up through the 1950s. That’s the entire Golden Age in less than 30 pages! Howe isn’t really concerned, however, with the myriad genres that Timely used to publish—western, horror, romance, funny animals, and so on. This is really a history of what Marvel is most famous for—the superheroes, beginning with the Silver Age pantheon created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and in some cases, Steve Ditko. Chapter 2 covers the birth of the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, the Avengers, X-Men, and Spider-Man. Howe’s recaps of origin stories and mythologies get a little long-winded, leaving one to wonder when the “untold story” is going to begin.

From that point on, however, the book really hits its stride and becomes incredibly addictive, with vivid details and surprising revelations on every page. This isn’t a literary history of Marvel’s creative glories, but rather a true business history, replete with mergers, acquisitions, and struggles for administrative power. I’ll confess some of the financial and legal details were over my head, and at times, I could have used a little less detail. Over the course of superhero comics history, writers and artists continually defected from Marvel to DC and back again, and Howe keeps you apprised of each and every arrival and departure. Nevertheless, it’s better to commit sins of excess than omission, and Howe’s thorough, behind-the-scenes exposé of life inside the Marvel bullpen is probably the next-best thing to working there.

Though written in the third person, the book has the feel of an oral history, likely because Howe interviewed about 150 former Marvel employees. Howe lets all sides get their two cents in without passing judgment. The long-fought battle between Lee and Kirby over creative ownership of certain characters, for example, is handled in a fairly balanced manner. Howe diligently follows the trail of rancor, and neither party comes out smelling like a rose. Stan the Man comes across as somewhat pathetically clueless, while King Kirby is depicted as taking his justifiable grievances to delusional excess. In general, Howe subtly favors individual creators over big business, but he always presents both sides of an argument.

Though Howe celebrates the company’s creative triumphs, his overall picture of the Marvel empire is rather unflattering. As he charts the trajectory of the publisher through boom and bust periods, he makes it pretty clear that over time the company has sacrificed creative quality in favor of commercialism, diluting the integrity of its treasured characters for a quick buck. As one of the many fans Marvel lost in the ‘90s, I have a tendency to agree with him, which is perhaps why I enjoyed the book so much. There are other good books on Marvel history out there, like the self-congratulatory Marvel Chronicle: A Year by Year History or Mark Evanier’s excellent biography Kirby: King of Comics, but if you’re looking for one book that’s going to give you the clearest, most complete picture of the Marvel story, this is it.
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Marvel Westerns by Stan Lee, et al.

Old stuff: great! New stuff: meh.
Marvel Comics has a long history of producing comics in the western genre, going back as far as the 1940s, before the company was even called Marvel. Some of their most popular gunfighters, like the Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, and Kid Colt, even hung on well after the superhero explosion of the 1960s, but it’s been a long time since Marvel put any effort into its western universe. In 2006, they attempted to at least harken back to their cowboy glory days by publishing a four-issue series called Marvel Westerns, which combined classic 1960s stories by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with 21st-century interpretations of Marvel’s classic western heroes. This hardcover volume contains the four issues of that series, along with some supplemental material.

In addition to the three aforementioned Kids, the contemporary writers and artists involved with this book have dug up a lot of lesser-known characters from the past, including the doctor turned vigilante Black Rider, the avenging Indian Red Wolf, and the superhumanly fast gunfighter Hurricane. Some of the stories include supernatural monsters or cameo appearances from Marvel Universe superheroes, which is perfectly fine. There’s a long tradition in pulp fiction of the “weird western” genre, which incorporates sci-fi and horror elements. Yet despite such creative twists, these new stories feel uninspired. Probably the most famous writer involved here is Joe R. Lansdale, but his story is illustrated in such a murky and expressionistic style that’s it’s difficult to even tell who wins the final gunfight. A few of the artists do turn in very attractive work, but despite all the flashy figures and vivid computer color, these new offerings don’t hold a candle to the visual storytelling of the ‘60s stories written by Lee and drawn by Kirby, Don Heck, and Dick Ayers. Given the subject matter, the fact that these stories are a half century behind the times only adds to their appeal. They have the quality of good old-fashioned campfire yarns, and are drawn in a classic style that doesn’t require gimmicks or city slicker razzle-dazzle. These old masters even manage to build an engaging story around the questionable premise of a living totem pole. Unfortunately, the only classic character represented in these older tales is the Rawhide Kid. The rest of Marvel’s western pantheon is left to the new kids on the block.

The book closes with a collection of fictional newspaper articles, letters, interviews, and other ephemera that act as a sort of unofficial handbook of the Marvel Western Universe. Each piece summarizes a plotline from some old Marvel tale. While it’s interesting to learn about all the different characters, there’s just too much of it, and in the end it feels like you just read 50 Wikipedia entries. This section does succeed in illustrating the wide breadth of Marvel’s rich western heritage. It’s obvious there’s a great deal of potential in all these characters and storylines; potential that’s not realized in this volume. It’s too bad Marvel can’t maintain a western series to utilize all this material. If today’s artists and writers can’t come up with a decent western comic, Marvel should at least reprint more of the old stuff. They have published two volumes of the Rawhide Kid in their Masterworks series, but those are now out of print. They should really round up an assortment of their classic western characters and compile a volume or two for the Marvel Essentials series. This collection proves that there’s still life left in these old western tales.
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