Review: Captain America's Bicentennial Battles by Jack Kirby

It's become a tradition for bloggers to bring out Captain America for July 4th. I am sure the most common post showcases the 1976 Marvel Treasury Special, Captain America's Bicentennial Battles. Even though I was a rabid Marvel collector in the 70s, I never read this special until last week, the digital version Captain America by Jack Kirby: Bicentennial Battles (which also includes Captain America 201-205).

Why didn't I read it? Basically because I was holding me nose up against a lot of Kirby's new work. I was being snooty and elitist. It looked corny. Being overly patriotic wasn't a thing in the 1970s, after the debacle of Richard Nixon. But I was wrong. This Treasury tale is a superb and subversive! The artwork is grand, among the best of Kirby's mid-seventies return to Marvel. It gets crazy from page one, where Cap visits a cool cat named Mister Buda, a mystical being who has undefined powers. He is also good at transcendental meditation, which was a big 70s fad in California, where Kirby lived. I am sure he was inspired by that.

The main thrust of this story is to send Captain America bouncing around in time, visiting different eras of the past that influenced the United States. Mister Buda gives Cap this gift without his permission, the gift of knowledge of the human condition throughout time. His first stop? World War 2, where he drops directly into Nazi headquarters.

In a surprisingly moving scene, Cap is briefly reunited with Bucky in the past. It was so touching that now I regret Marvel reviving Bucky. The inkers for this oversized volume are Barry Smith, John Romita and Herb Trimpe. Smith inked the first part of the story in Nazi land, and you can definitely see his embellishment style here, with his signature touches on Cap's chainmail and the forest as they make their escape. Sadly, Cap is torn away from Bucky after a way too brief encounter.

There are lots of great splash pages in this special, as you would expect from Jack Kirby. I love this one where he shouts "We're all Americans!" before he is torn from a past encounter. The symbol on his palm is the magic imbued by Mister Buda to transport him through time. It looks a bit like an Illuminati symbol.

There is also a lot of humor in this book as well as angst. He takes a trip back in time to 1776 where he meets Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross, who take one look at Cap and start making sketches. It turns out the first USA flag was inspired by Cap's costume, which freaks him out to no end.

Another humorous scene involves a trip to the 1930s where he encounters a boy selling newspapers in Brooklyn. Some mafia gangsters try to steal a paper and Cap - who, like Kirby, hates bullies - yanks them out of the car violently. The mobsters start shooting, and Cap protects the boy and fights back. You wonder what Kirby is going for here. Is this an homage to the Newsboy Legion, the terrific series he did for DC Comics and which he recently revived in Jimmy Olsen? No. It turns out the boy selling newspapers is Kirby himself! "When I get to be a big-shot artist, I'm gonna plaster Lefty's mug all over the comic pages!"

Among the craziness and humor there is a message. This isn't about all the best patriotic moments in America. At one point, Cap gets tired of bouncing around the past and asks for it to stop. I was kind of shocked to see Mister Buda accuse Cap of being too shallow to learn about the history of the USA. It's shocking because this is a character Kirby co-created to be a patriotic symbol. He is not reluctant to shake this character up and do wild crazy things with him. I thought only the young guys like Starlin or Englehart were the subversives at Marvel in the 1970s. I was wrong. Kirby was one of them, too, perhaps an even greater one.

Cap drops in on an American Indian band of fighters led by Geronimo, on the run from a American Calvary. He tries to help them out by talking sense into the Calvary men, to no avail. This wonderful massive double page spread is the result. He doesn't stop ever tragedy from happening. All he can do is bear witness to them. He also encounters a slave trying to escape his masters and a future war on the moon.

I came away from reading this volume utterly delighted. Jack Kirby did the crazy trippy 2001 A Space Odyssey adaption earlier in another Treasury edition format. The Bicentennial Battles Treasury is Captain America's Odyssey. Nuff Said!

Review: The Eternals by Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby, the King of Comics and certainly one of the architects of the Marvel Universe! I mentioned in this earlier article "Jack Kirby's Back: FOOM 11 and Captain America 193 covers" that I wasn't necessarily a fan of his mid-seventies Marvel work. I have been trying to revisit that material lately with fresh eyes to see what I thought.  BTW, currently the first volume of The Eternals is free on Comixology Unlimited if you have that service and want to give it a try.

Here is what I remember of this time, late 1975 and into 1976. Kirby's first publications coming back to Marvel were 2001 A Space Odyssey (Marvel Treasury Special) and then Captain America. The Eternals didn't start until months later, towards late spring 1976. We were teased about it for months...and it seemed tantalizing! Those of us who loved New Gods from DC Comics had high hopes this was similar quality and scope. But when I finally got my hands on the first issue...I was a bit disappointed. It was far out, all right, but it didn't have the same punch as New Gods 1, which started off explaining the whole setup and the focusing on the main players in that conflict.

The Eternals 1 starts the story slowly. I think you could almost say The Eternals is an example of decompressed storytelling, or perhaps we could say it is Mosaic storytelling. There is a wide scope and the players / concepts are slowly unfolding, even though there is action and conflict. The guy we think is probably the star of this book, Ikaris, doesn't even get into costume until issue 3.

In order to appreciate The Eternals, you need to consider the influences at the time. There was a very popular paperback book titled Chariots of the Gods? by Erich Von Daniken which put out a theory that extra terrestrials visited ancient mankind and influenced our development. This theory included various religious myths, saying that these events had been the work of aliens and not angels or spirits. To an uninformed person, science appears to be magic. Marvel Comics had published a 1975 Marvel Preview magazine which I wrote about earlier, Neal Adams and Alex Nino on Man-Gods From Beyond the Stars. In addition, Arthur C Clarke had a popular science fiction novel, Childhood's End, which was enjoying a new wave of popularity in paperback. In this story there were Overlords who would determine Earth's fate after a 50 year waiting period. Demons in this story were humanity's misrepresentation of another species. The Deviant Kro in The Eternals is pretty much using that Clarke idea.

With The Eternals, Kirby is trying to take these science fiction concepts along with his favorite theme, that the Gods (New Gods, Asgardians from Thor, etc) are actually alien beings with superior technology. The scope of the artwork in The Eternals may be on a grander scale than anything Kirby did before. The first issue brings the Celestials back to Earth in a massive spaceship. If you are young, reading this issue and hoping to see a hero like Thor or Orion, you were disappointed. That archetype never arrived in The Eternals 1. What did arrive are these massive alien beings, The Fourth Host, and they were only alluded to within the story. We learned the Celestials experimented on Apes to Uplift them through science; the Apes evolved into three races on Earth: The Eternals, the humans, and The Deviants.



Now here is one thing that was confusing back then. Kirby called The Celestials "Gods" but they weren't just ordinary Gods, they were Mega Overlord Gods. The ones who were going to decide the fate of mankind after 50 years. What would become our main cast of Eternal characters were Gods of Myth. Sersi was Circe, Thena was Athena, Makkari was Mercury, and so on. Kro was from the Deviant race, clearly the Devil when he sprouted horns. After a number of issues we got to meet this entire cast. We saw hints that nearly every religious pantheon was influenced by a member of The Eternals. I am sure Kirby must have seen the potential for this series to go 100 issues or more.

In the second issue of The Eternals we met this guy, Ajak. I love, love, love the design of this character. He is clearly influenced by the Aztec / Inca design. He was known by the Incas as Tecumotzin, Lord of Flight. He just looks spectacular. Unfortunately he is stuck inside an Incan ruin for much of the series. Ajak's main job is to communicate with The Celestials and be their spokesperson. He does see some action later on.

There are astonishing splash pages and double page spreads in The Eternals. This is nothing new, by this time Kirby fans are used to that and expecting more. In the third issue we see this double page spread of Arishem, leader of the Fourth Host of Celestials. Again, such a wild and fantastic creation! If you though Galactus was terrific, this is Galactus to the next level and beyond.

There is a big complex story in The Eternals, which may have gotten away from Kirby a bit. Readers wanting to see a traditional good vs evil story get a bit of that in The Eternals vs The Deviants. Kirby has some interesting themes there, some commentary on the use of ovens for extreme Deviants and Nazi / Roman like behavior. But while young readers may have wanted more of that stuff, it wasn't what The Eternals was really about.

The most interesting part of The Eternals are the deployment of members of the Fourth Host around the world. They don't do much other than observe, but their very appearance causes nations to react nervously. They do interfere a little more directly with The Deviants (shown above), as they previously destroyed their ancient city Lemuria centuries ago.

There is one neat little story about how the Soviet Union military reacts to the presence of Nezzar of the Fourth Host. They launch an attack against this giant creature who deflects it with the power of his mind. It turns out the launch order for the attack was never given, but he simulated the outcome in the minds of the leaders and gave them all a stroke. That story may be cribbed from some other source but it was neat. I could not help thinking about The Celestials deployed among all different types of countries, that seemed a little bit like the recent movie, Arrival.

The Eternals themselves become even more compelling by issue 11 when we get to travel to Olympia and witness their leader, Zuras, summoning all of them to participate in the Uni-Mind. This double page spread does remind you of the glory days of New Genesis in the New Gods. It's also a far-out concept as these Eternal beings meld themselves together into one giant golden brain that flies off into outer space, to ponder the mystery of The Celestials return. I couldn't help but think of The Forever People coming together to summon The Infinity Man. In that case they were trading places with another being from The Source, but it seems like a concept Kirby was very interested in. People coming together for the common good.

As a young person, I stopped reading The Eternals by issue 12 or so. This time around I read all 19 issues plus the first and only Annual. It was a lot of fun and clearly there is a pantheon of charactes here that could be mined for other series or movies. The story itself is flawed: there is no through line, no spine of action to drive you through the story as Orion does in the New Gods. Ikaris appears to be the main protagonist, he has a cool costume, but his personality is bland. If you compare Ikaris to Thor or Orion, he just doesn't measure up to those heroes. The character we briefly see in one issue, The Forgotten One (aka Gilgamesh), seems vastly more interesting than Ikaris. There is no overall compelling villain in the mode of Darkseid to propel The Eternals forward. Sersi, with her witty and wild personality, was the breakout character who went on to join The Avengers. I don't know any of the behind the scenes drama on this series, but I am curious now how Marvel editorial staff might have interfered or caused changes to be mind.

Neil Gaiman attempted to fix many of these flaws in his 2006 mini-series The Eternals, which I plan to re-read next. Nuff Said!

Update: I did re-read The Eternals 2006 7 issue mini-series by Gaiman and John Romita Jr. I remembered liking this when it came out originally. But reading it on the heels of the Kirby work, I did not like it very much. It actually made me appreciate the genius of Jack Kirby even more, the 1970s series was much better in comparison, despite any of the flaws that I mentioned.

Jack Kirby's 97th Birthday

Today would have have been the King's 97th birthday - and Tumblr is exploding with Kirby images like crazy.

Here is one that I saw on Flickr - a reminder of how many classic Marvel characters the King created!  In addition this fellow has 170 Kirby double page spreads on his Flickr site.  And this nice cover also got me...

Marvel Collector's Item Classics 19, featuring not only the Fantastic Four vs Sub-Mariner, but with Doctor Strange trying to mediate!  Good stuff, Nuff Said!

Thing Tuesday: Clobberin Time! 77 Kirby cover

This cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott has a classic Ben Grimm pose!  Nuff Said.

Two Visions of Galactus by Kirby and Adams

Two visions of Galactus, one a classic, the other retro cool!

I believe this illustration was done for a portfolio?  I can't quite remember now, but I remember first seeing it in a Jack Kirby treasury of his larger pieces.

An Art Adams commission, done in 2009 featuring a closeup of that giant-sized head piece.  Nuff Said!

Thing Tuesday: Marvel Slurpee Cups Featuring Benjamin J Grimm

This article should be subtitled "Everything Ya Ever Wanted To Know About Ever-Lovin Thing's Slurpee Cups"!  Because there were not one but three cups produced in 1975.  That's how big a star The Thing was in the 70s!

The first cup featured this great Jack Kirby drawing of the Thing in a tense stance, ready to fight.  I cannot place the issue of the FF where this came from.  Lex Carson, who wrote a great article about the Marvel Slurpee cups in Back Issue #34 (2009) has an index that states it came from FF #67.  After looking at my copy I can't find it.  Maybe that's because I've been drinking slurpees all day.

The back of the cup shows the human Ben Grimm explaining he was a hero even before he grew into his rocky hide!

The second cup featured the Thing in a classic pose with his arms above his head, no doubt yelling It's Clobberin Time!  Obviously this cup has taken a trip through the dishwasher and the ink has smeared, something buyers need to beware when shopping on eBay.  This was also by Jack Kirby.  Which comic did it come from?

This classic image of the Thing, which we've all seen somewhere, didn't appear in any FF comic.  It was done by Kirby for merchandising in the Merry Marvel Marching Society.  If you were a kid like me, you saw this tantalizing ad for Marvel Sweat Shirts featuring both The Thing and The Hulk!  Only $3.15...too expensive for my money, I was lucky to have $5 a month to spend on comics.

Later this same drawing was used in the corner box of the Fantastic Four...they rotated characters as the primary standout so each of the FF had a spotlight.  This is probably where most of us have seen this particular illustration.

The back of this slurpee cup has the Thing proclaiming what a lucky lug of a guy he is to have been loved by Alicia Masters.  Yet somehow despite what this says, I think Alicia prefers the Thing to Ben Grimm.

The third cup I don't actually own...yet.  But it has another image of the Thing in a classic clobberin' time pose.  You can probably guess that this wasn't drawn by Kirby.

This image was taken from FF #116, the special 25 cent double size issue which featured the team (minus Reed Richards) begging Doctor Doom to join them in the fight against Over-Mind.  A good drawing by Buscema.

How about that, three cups featuring Ben Grimm as the Thing, who woulda thunk it?  Nuff Said!

The Inhumans and Jack King Kirby

Jack Kirby's birthday was last Wednesday, which I missed, but here's a little tribute to him featuring my favorite group of outcasts (second only to the X-Men), the Inhumans!  I found a few of these images while research Marvel's history of splash pages.

In 1970, right before he left to do the Fourth World series at DC Comics, Stan Lee gave Kirby the opportunity to write and draw the Inhumans.  Pretty cool, right?  Only 1 problem: it was in Amazing Adventures #1 (where the above splash page was taken from) and it was a split book, shared with the Black Widow.  Jeph Loeb often comments on how miscast these two features were -- the Widow goes with the Inhumans like Peanut Butter and anchovies.  Imagine if this had been Inhumans #1, what a collectors item this book would have been!  Instead it is a footnote to Kirby's waning days at Marvel.

Fantastic Four #83 (1969) featured this dynamic splash page of the Inhumans racing off to stop Mad Maximus once again.  Now here's one thing about this team that I love.  They are all so individually stylized and so different from one another.  It's hard to get them all in the same frame doing something as a team!  I think Kirby pulled it off well here, but the splash from AA #1 is a bit better.

This splash from FF #99 (also in 1970) features one of those royal court settings with the Inhumans -- something you see over and over when the Inhumans make appearances in modern comics but never executed as well as this splash page.  Triton with his green scaly visage makes a big impression and so does Medusa (va-va-voom) standing protectively on the right in front of her sister Crystal.  This was the issue where Johnny Storm realized he would be apart from his favorite elemental girlfriend.

I've always wondered why the Inhumans were never popular enough to survive in their own series.  Certainly their powers and costumes were even more dynamic than the X-Men.  However, probably what made the X-Men successful was the conflict and the dynamic within the team: the love triangle between Scott/Jean/Warren, the banter between Hank & Bobby, the angst of crippled Professor Xavier.  What's the conflict between the members of the Inhumans?  Except for Maximus, there is none.  Roy Thomas added a good bit to Black Bolt's history when he revealed that using his powers at an early age may have driven his brother insane.  It was interesting to read that Matt Fraction will be writing a new Inhumans comic and there will be a big event tied to that.  Nuff Said!

Thing Tuesday: Cosmic Sky-blades by Jack Kirby

Someone reminded me of this fantastic pin-up from Fantastic Four Annual #5....

The Thing on some cosmic sky-blades designed by Reed Richards.  He balances on them just as well as any rookie on skates.  Nuff Said!

Silver Surfer by Jack Kirby, Splash Page and Black Light poster from Fantastic Four #76

While perusing the latter issues of Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four run, I came across this classic splash page...

FF #76, page 6, featuring the Silver Surfer soaring in a moment of freedom.

There was a black light poster made out of this page.  I did a quick search and found that it will see on eBay for over $100 now.  Marvel fans of this era will remember the black light posters created around 1970 for stoners to enjoy while they listened to rock music.  There were three Dr. Strange black light posters which I wrote about last year.  I think I may have had one of these (although not the Surfer) next to a lava lamp.  Nuff Said!

Thor Splash Pages 1968-69 by Jack Kirby, Odin, Recorder and more!

As I mentioned before, Jack Kirby used splash pages quite often in Thor.  Nearly every issue featured a great action shot or a titanic figure making a speech with Stan Lee's dialogue.  Here are some great ones that were published during the last two years of Kirby's run on Thor.

Thor #161.  My god has a hammer!  And he loves to swing it.

Thor #159, Dr. Don Blake needs to find out the truth between his relationship with his godly alter-ego.  How does he do it?  By going to sleep and dreaming.  I just recently read this one, never knew that they fully explained the Blake/Thor dichotomy.

Thor #162, Odin makes a speech that only Stan Lee could deliver, while dressed in a costume that would make Bob Mackie envious.  Kirby didn't skimp on the details in a splash page.

Thor #170, the Recorder jets off into space after Thor and Galactus!  Loved how Thor was a blend of mythic fantasy meeting characters in the science-fictional realms.

Incredible as all these pages were, Kirby was just warming up for his work on DC's New Gods series in the 1970s.  I am currently re-reading those right now, they are still awesome decades later.  Nuff Said!

The Thing Splash Pages by Jack Kirby

How many splash pages of the Thing did Jack Kirby draw?  Quite a few, but here are some that will knock your socks off.

Fantastic Four 93, 1970.  The Thing versus Torgo, destroyer of men!



FF #73, 1968.  The Thing versus Thor!



Fantastic Four 95, 1970.  The Thing holding up a building and bantering some of Stan Lee's wittiest dialogue.



FF #80, the Thing dancing as he plans a weekend trip to Vegas. Nuff Said!

Galactus Splash Pages by Jack Kirby

Galactus was one of Jack Kirby's greatest characters...in reviewing the late 60s Marvel Comics, I found a number of splash pages with this cosmic being.

Thor 160, 1968. My favorite of this series!

Thor 167, 1968.

Fantastic Four 74, 1968.

FF 75, 1968. Praise the Glory of Galactus! Nuff Said.